Psalm 25 Continued…
Psalm 25:1-3 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.
“To you, O LORD!”—Lift up your soul, so that its darkness can be penetrated by His light, its disorders healed by His saving health.
In verses 1-3, the psalmist appeals to Yahweh and to Elohim—to the God of covenant and to the God of creation. He wants to make sure that the God of promise and of power is on his side. This reminds me of Martin Luther’s clash with the Roman church. While on his way to the city of Worms where the great debate was to take place, his friends feared for his life because all the power of the holy Roman emperor was arrayed against him. He was condemned already, if he entered the city he would never leave it alive. “I trust in God Almighty!” was the bold warrior’s reply. Thus David prayed: “I want you to protect me! Never let me or any of your friends be ashamed.”
This is a psalm that reveals David’s great dependence upon God. Finding yourself in a place where you have nowhere else to turn but to God is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a wonderful thing to be only in God’s hands.
When David said, “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul,” he is getting right down to business. This is not just his voice talking, it is his soul speaking. The soul is, of course, the whole personality, body, soul and spirit. He continues, “O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.” Have you ever been in a place where it seemed that everything was failure and there was nothing and no one to whom you could turn for help? You didn’t want to go down in crushing defeat, either in your personal life, or your business life, or your home or church life. “Do not let my enemies triumph over me.” What a prayer! Do you pray like that?
David pleads with God, “Do not let me be put to shame,” because the idea of his enemies triumphing over him is so terrible that he turns rather to pray for others beside himself:
a) “No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame”—that is, let nobody’s prayer go unanswered.
b) “they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse”—that is, let them who are “wantonly treacherous (RSV)” come to their senses and admit their wickedness in shame. We believe that today we are living in an age of unusual violence. We hear constantly of violence, muggings, hi-jackings, kidnappings, arson, and terrorism. What should our Christian response be to those things? Our psalmist does here what Jesus too has told us to do—pray for our enemies.
PRAY
Father God help me to understand how important it is to continue to speak to you daily about my trials and problems. Help me to have a heart that will genuinely and earnestly pray for those who stand against me.