The Only Thing Worth Wanting - Psalm 25 Series

Of David. To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; 2 in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. 3 No one who waits for you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.

4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; 5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and I wait for you all day long.

6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.

8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. 9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. 10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant. 11 For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

12 Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him. 13 He will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land. 14 The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.

15 My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare. 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. 17 The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish. 18 Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. 19 See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me! 20 Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. 20 May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you. 22 Redeem Israel, O God, from all their troubles!

Review: Desiring, trusting, and waiting on God as a refuge

David wrote this psalm in a time when seemingly every part of his life was unraveling, and he was under attack from every direction. And the model God gave us in the psalm shows us that when that kind of thing happens in your life – troubles on top of troubles, the thing to do is to fix your gaze upon the attributes of God. Focus on what God is like, and then respond with the same three-fold response David’s heart had to God’s attributes. He lifted his soul to God (making God the only object of his desire). He latched on to the great and precious promises that are implied by the attributes, and trusted in those. He waited on God – eagerly anticipating the grace that was coming, and refusing to accept any substitute or alternative.

And we found last time that in this psalm David zeros in on three categories of attributes. Last time we focused on the first one – God as a refuge. We found that it is wrong to look to anything in this world as a refuge. God is the only refuge there is. It is fine to delight in the temporal means God uses to provide His refuge, but we have to realize that the protection and relief that comes from those things (like your parents or spouse or insurance or house or storm shelter or paycheck or doctor or vacation or video game), whatever protection and relief you get comes from God and not from that earthly tool God is using. If you utilize those things as means of fellowship with God, that is good. But if you start preferring those things over fellowship with God as your refuge, that is idolatry and unfaithfulness to God.

Enjoying God as your only refuge is a delightful way to live, because God is always the solution to all your problems. And no one on earth has the power to block your access to God’s presence; and all the effort you put into the solution to your problems will be nothing but the pursuit of grace from God. And that is the best thing you could possibly be doing with your time and energy.

Mercy

The second category of God’s attributes in this psalm is God’s mercy. I have really lumped a lot of things together under the huge category of “mercy.” So it might take us a couple weeks to get through them. We will start in verse 16.

Gracious Looking

Presence & Favor

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.