Psalms 25

Section 2. (Psalms 25:1-22; Psalms 26:1-12; Psalms 27:1-14; Psalms 28:1-9; Psalms 29:1-11; Psalms 30:1-12; Psalms 31:1-24; Psalms 32:1-11; Psalms 33:1-22; Psalms 34:1-22; Psalms 35:1-28; Psalms 36:1-12; Psalms 37:1-40; Psalms 38:1-22; Psalms 39:1-13.) The Testimony of Faith in this Salvation. There follows in the second section once more a series of remnant psalms, in which their experiences and exercises are told out as before, but into which now the apprehension of divine grace enters in a manner before unknown. This shows again in how orderly a manner the psalms are grouped; and the number of them here bears striking witness to it. For as we have had in each of the two preceding subdivisions five such psalms, testifying by their number to their character as giving the exercises of the heart under divine government, this number is here found multiplied by that number three, which, intensified by self-multiplication, characterises the Messianic psalms preceding as manifesting God. There are now fifteen instead of five; and these are actually divided into 3 x 5: the first five giving the ground of the soul’s confidence in God; the second five, the salvation itself, in its detail of various blessing; while the third maintains the holiness of God, both in His judgment of the wicked and in His grace to the saint. Thus the section as a whole gives, the witness of faith to the salvation already announced: there seen objectively, it is now subjectively experienced. Series 1. (Psalms 25:1-22; Psalms 26:1-12; Psalms 27:1-14; Psalms 28:1-9; Psalms 29:1-11.)The grounds of confidence. The grounds of the soul’s confidence are first of all put before us. First of these, we have necessarily the righteousness of God in grace, which atonement has established as the principle of His ways with those who turn to Him. All is surely in place here. Yet we must not look for the same apprehension of the gospel as is found under the full revelation of it now. Principles may be accepted without the knowledge of their complete application; and the blessedness of a place in Christ remained in Old Testament times a mystery still unrevealed (Ephesians 3:5-6). The foundation has been laid upon which the whole superstructure of blessing shall in due time be built: the building upon it we must not expect to find as yet in an advanced state. We are here in the midst of a remnant of Israel, not a company of Christians, dowered with the witnessing “Spirit of adoption.” But this difference we shall be better able to appreciate as we go through these psalms.

Psalms 25:1-22

Righteousness in grace. [A psalm] of David. God’s grace apprehended by the soul brings it the light which manifests it to itself, and opens the heart for its reception. So “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). And so in the thirty-second psalm we find the one “to whom the Lord will not impute sin” is (as a consequence) one “in whose spirit there is no guile.” This is simple enough to understand: we cannot refuse confidence, where love like this invites it. And thus it is that in this psalm first we find the full and unreserved confession of sin. God, it is seen, acts “for His name’s sake,” to declare what He is: and it can thus be pleaded, “Pardon mine iniquity: for it is great.” The greatness of the iniquity will only magnify the grace that puts it away. He to whom much is forgiven, the same will love much. Thus fullest grace is what does -and alone does -the work of holiness: the heart set free is bound forever to God by the deliverance. The psalm is alphabetic, two letters being omitted, however, -vau and koph, answering numerically to 6 and 100*; in place of which resh (200) has two verses, and one verse with pe is added at the end; or else tau, the final letter, is to be taken as a two-versed section. But we shall be better able probably to inquire as to the significance of these changes, as we go through the psalm. Meanwhile the imperfect alphabet may remind us of the imperfection cleaving to all human apprehension of divine grace, and which is manifest in the psalm itself, while a defective life will be the sure accompaniment of this defective apprehension. All human failure -all the blots and disfigurements of a Christian life -are traceable to this: as surely as it is written, Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14). Most important it is to realize this.
A common thought is that at least the unbalanced apprehension of grace tends to license; and in proof they would quote Jude’s comment upon those who “turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness.” But Jude’s word is better translated “changing the grace of God;” and he is speaking, not of erring saints, but of “ungodly men.” The common conception is that it is grace itself which, by an unguarded use of it, -a want of putting it under due conditions, -becomes thus capable of injuring the soul that too frankly and unreservedly commits itself to it. This is a great error, and one that leads to most mischievous results. One might as well think that too much holiness leads to wickedness, or too entire love to God to the casting off of holy fear of Him. When the apostle speaks of the dominion of sin being taken away from the soul under grace, he is clearly speaking of this very apprehension of grace. He goes on to show us the contrary effect of law, and plainly to one apprehending himself under it. The effect is the discovery of a law of sin to which he is in bondage: thus sin has dominion for the man under law. Grace is the opposite of law, and the effect is therefore the exact opposite. It is the antidote to the law of sin, the setting free from bondage to it: it is power for holiness, inasmuch as it establishes the sovereignty of God over us: God who is “love,” and whose kingdom in the heart can only be realized as the heart is laid hold of for Him -is bound to Him by every faculty of its being. This is what faith produces -the response of the heart to the grace that seeks us, -the grace that in Christ has revealed God in His glory to us, so that He should be God: the light in which we see light evermore. “Grace reigns” -is sovereign, absolute, to the children of God. Not to the setting aside of government, of holy government, but the very contrary. Grace, declared to us in Christ: in the awful, glorious atonement through the cross, secures to us even the needed discipline of a Father’s hand, by which He shows Himself as such: for “what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?” This too is grace, divine favor, taking account of all that it sees in us that is contrary to God; not to bring it against us, but to separate us from it, and work in us conformity to His nature and will. Nothing else would be grace but this sweet, holy, divine action of a Love, for us, just while against the evil in us, wise beyond all our apprehensions of it, strong, so as never to be defeated in its purpose, which is perfect unending blessing. How could any one imagine ill to come, or unholiness to be the fruit, of entire self-committal to such a grace as this? Ungodly men they are, and must be, that change this into licentiousness. Grace needs no balancing with conditions, no modification with another principle, to make it holy: it is that in its essential nature.

1. The psalm is throughout a prayer, except in the third section, which is almost entirely statement, a declaration of what Jehovah is, in those dealings with men which make known the glory of His name. Jehovah is, as that, the God of redemption and of covenant, the living, unchanging God whom man in his feebleness and inconstancy needs so to be with him. All the way through this first book of the Psalms, this Name therefore is pre-eminent. Faith anchors itself in this fastness, and the great mountains of God’s faithfulness rise all around its shelter. He so far above, to Him the soul lifts up itself, with felt distance enough to make it yearn, and yet while and because it knows Him after whom it yearns.

Enemies too are in view, but faith says and sings that it shall not be ashamed; yea, that none that wait on Jehovah shall be ashamed, while it sees in God’s holiness the doom of transgressors. For itself it can only say, (and it is enough to say,) that it “trusts” and “waits.” 2. The second section is still prayer; and in the nature of this it reveals that difference between the old dispensation and the new which is so often facing us. The consciousness of sin and need, however, is met by the assurance of God’s mercy, which in the third section is expanded into a much fuller and more satisfying statement. In the first verse here the spirit of obedience is expressed, the necessary effect of divine grace, and of any true and living faith in the soul. Even when, in darkness yet as to the gospel, it makes its vows and resolutions of service to the Lord, with all the deplorable self-righteousness that is in this, yet, if truly seeking after God, this spirit will be found. The legality in it will be purged out; but the spirit of obedience will grow and develop just in proportion as God Himself is known and the freed heart rests and delights itself in Him. “Make me to know Thy ways, Jehovah! teach me Thy paths!” These are not simply ways in which He would have us walk, but ways which are in principle His own ways. We are called and privileged to “be imitators of God, as dear children” (Ephesians 5:1, Gk.). And even the obedience," which is for us an essential element in this, the Son of God has “learned,” and learned in suffering, too, down here among us (Hebrews 5:8). What an incentive and encouragement for us! And this God, whose ways we are called to know, is the “God of salvation.” This is the spring of worship, as the Lord showed at the well of Sychar (John 4:22); and the spirit of worship is of necessity the spirit of obedience also. This needs no demonstration. Nay, the salvation itself is, of course, a salvation from sin, or it were none at all. How suitable then is the argument, “Direct me in Thy faithfulness, and teach me; for Thou art the God of my salvation”! Faithful He must be to this purpose of His heart; and the glad soul may without weariness “wait upon Him all the day long.” Thus it gathers strength, for waiting on Him is itself rest: His patience is that of Almighty power, to which nothing can be ever lacking. The next verse breathes of the freedom of soul resulting from such knowledge. The psalmist can venture to put God in mind of those unchanging loving-kindnesses which are but the display therefore of His own nature. And thus it may seem but childishness to be putting Him in mind at all. Will the Unchangeable change? Can the Eternal forget? The very prayer avows itself to be mere human weakness, which, however, itself so strongly appeals to these “tender compassions” of God.

Nor are we to make His perfections a restraint upon our prayers, but the contrary, -our encouragement to them. Otherwise all prayer would cease at once: for think of influencing the Unchangeable, or even of telling anything to the Omniscient! And yet He must be both of these, or the wings on which we rise would be crippled at once. How truly we may be thankful then for these prayers, taught of that Spirit who “maketh intercession for the saints according to God!” He then “maketh intercession”! and perhaps in the feebleness even of a “groaning which cannot be uttered” -to us, of course, unintelligible (Romans 8:26). We are not competent to argue in this way from infinity; and for us what a loss it would be to stifle the utterance which presses so to be uttered, and which, if it be the “fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous, availeth much” (James 5:16). So the word of God itself assures us. Let then our prayers bear witness of our feebleness, yet may we, with crippled Jacob, have “power with God and prevail.” It were the destruction of freedom to restrain with His perfection the pouring out of our hearts before Him to which we are invited. He knows all that is in ours, who yet invites us. But how good to have the requests to make of Him, which, if He but remember His own perfections, He will surely grant! And in all the matter of salvation, which is the matter here, this is assuredly the case. Salvation is the issue of His own counsels, the outflow of His love, the very display of His own righteousness and holiness. Thus all that He is, pledges itself at once to the lost one who puts himself as such into His hands for the fulfillment to him of this glorious purpose. This we shall find directly more fully expressed. And now comes the confession. There are “sins and revoltings” not to be remembered: and we know the provision which divine mercy, in the new covenant, has made for this. In Israel, year by year, the scapegoat carried away the sins of the people into a place cut off; and the new covenant, in the mouth of Jeremiah, explicitly declares, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” No specifications here, -no exceptions: how blessed the wide sweep of a statement like this! the universality from which nothing is excluded. Thus well may the soul say, “According to thy mercy remember me, for thy goodness’ sake, Jehovah!” The thief on the cross could say as much; and the Lord more than answers that bold, confiding prayer: “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” When ever did the answer come from God: “You have counted on Me too much: you have imagined in Me a mercy that I have not”? 3. Now therefore the soul can confess something more than its “sins.” It can speak of the “virtues of Him who hath called it out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). God in the salvation He has provided manifests Himself; for He has indeed acted for Himself, to satisfy Himself, to give way to His love; and this is the power of the gospel to reconcile -strange words as to the relation between a creature and its God! -to reconcile the heart to Him. The work of the Cross itself is not to present a motive to save, but to enable Him to do it consistently with His own righteousness. God acts for His own Name: to display Himself, which is just the supreme blessing of His creatures, that we should know Him. To “know Him, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent” (John 17:3) is the true pulse-wave in our souls of eternal life. Thus the psalmist now begins: “Good and upright is Jehovah: therefore will He guide sinners in the way.” If there be but the least real desire after that which is good, it is impossible for Him to be indifferent to it. The need of atonement is not spoken of here, nor indeed, as we shall see, in the whole psalm, but the provision of atonement only shows how thoroughly God is for the soul that turns to him. But there is none the less a condition required upon man’s part: “the humble will He guide in judgment; the humble He will teach His way.” This is as right as the other, and it accounts for our being such poor learners at the best. Humility is the necessary condition of learning in every department of knowledge. To know that we know not marks and makes the true inquirer. And above all must we come to God, not as critics or philosophers, but as babes and weaklings: and this is the plainest judgment of reason itself.

Yet this does not mean that He disregards or confounds the faculties He has given. He is light; and He leads in the light. Even so, we have to remember, not our littleness only, but our sinfulness, which tends largely to pervert reason itself. But God does not on this account set aside these enfeebled powers; He does not in this sense “lead the blind by a way they know not” -which is true of providential guidance only: here, on the other hand, He “opens the blind eyes”, purges and rectifies the vision of those that wait on Him; and even the depths that transcend our knowledge are seen not as if filled with a fog that shuts out vision, but as the infiniteness between the stars, where the sight itself -welcomed while it lasts -fails through feebleness, because of the greatness of what it surveys. For “the humble will He guide in judgment” -discernment, that is, of difference. The understanding is opened; as it was said to the disciples, “then opened He their understandings, that they might understand the Scriptures.” Ignorance is not for us the “mother of devotion”; no, nor the child either: it is true that for superstition it is mother and child both; but sanctification is through the truth, and therefore by what is known as truth. Ah, in this way, we may easily indeed dishonor our faculties, and dishonor God in them; yea, dishonor Him of whom it has been said, “He shall lead you into all truth” (John 16:13). So then as Christians to doubt our capacity for this, is to doubt the promise of Christ, and the power of the Holy “Spirit of truth.” The moral character of such guidance distinguishes it from the mere working of the natural intellect. “The knowledge of the holy” it is that “is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). And so here: “all the paths of Jehovah are mercy and truth toward those who observe His covenant and His testimonies.” Here indeed was a serious difficulty for the Israelite -the nature of that “covenant” under which he was with God. The law, as the apostle declares (2 Corinthians 3:1-18) and the experience of every honest-hearted man confirms, was but the “ministration of death” and “condemnation.” None could face its requirements without the cry which we find in the Psalms themselves, “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.” (Psalms 143:2.) If then the law as thus confessed could justify no one, plainly faith, to find courage or comfort at all, must draw this from the foresight of Him whose image was in the sacrifices which the law itself ordained. The believers of those days were, as we are told, “kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed” (Galatians 3:23), with a certain knowledge surely, though variable and fluctuating, of the grace that was to come. This we shall be able to estimate better in the future. Meanwhile the “covenant” -whatever supplement might by and bye be made to it -remained the expression of relationship to Jehovah, their heart able even to delight in the law as holy, just, and good, spite of the certainty that by it they could not stand before God. The condition was an anomalous one; but the practical state of many a child of God today is not less anomalous, and depends too upon the same thing, the mingling together of contradictory elements, which will not really mingle, -a law by which God" can by no means clear the guilty," and a grace in which He “justifieth the ungodly.” For us, however, the perplexity is gone, for the old covenant is gone; and for Israel, when once more they become the people of God, it will be under that new covenant which is grace absolute and unclouded. The remnant, however, for whom these psalms make specific provision will inherit the perplexities of preceding generations, and here they will find how mercy has anticipated their need, and furnished them with the “steps” needed by which they will be able to pass the “slough of despond,” and reach the firmer ground beyond. They will find here expressions of confidence in God on the part of those owning themselves sinners in the fullest way, and who could speak, as in this case, at the same time of the “covenant.” They will have also -as David had not -Jeremiah’s announcement of a future “new covenant.” Whatever the darkness, the faith that clings to God makes no mistake, nor can He be wanting to it. And so this verse itself declares. “Mercy” is pledged to, as it is needed by, those who in their hearts “observe Jehovah’s covenant and His testimonies.” Holiness is thoroughly maintained, while grace is manifested. “Mercy” leads to and introduces “truth”; and “all the paths of Jehovah” declare these things unitedly. “Mercy and truth” thus “met together”, “righteousness and peace” will “kiss each other.” The eighty-fifth psalm shows this accomplished. It is in confidence then that the prayer is uttered: “for Thy name’s sake, Jehovah, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” Great sin is great need; great sin pardoned is great grace; consciousness of great sin pardoned makes the heart love much. All this the Lord has Himself shown out in the case of the sinful woman in the Pharisee’s house. The fullest gospel we thus find to be the holiest gospel. Grace we see to be the effectual conqueror of sin. Thus, even, the Lord makes known and glorifies His Name in its forgiveness. We must not expect the Psalms to go beyond this. Justification and the place in Christ were as yet unknown: even in the New Testament we have to wait for the apostle Paul and his gospel to find these developed; but the consideration of what is involved in all this will more naturally come before us when we reach the nearest point of view from which to contemplate it: and that will be found in the thirty-second psalm. The fear of Jehovah is the next thing dwelt upon, and is that to which the knowledge of His grace, where real, will surely lead. “There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.” We might imagine, perhaps, that it would be rather said “loved;” but we may be assured that there is no mistake. The intimacy to which grace leads -the knowledge of God thus acquired by one brought to Him -dispels, of course, not produces, slavish fear. And so it is written: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment: he that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18): he is like a scholar with an ill-learned lesson, not perfect in that which God in the gospel has been teaching us earnestly. On the other hand, the light and flippant carelessness by which some would show us their intimacy with God, their knowledge of His grace, proves to absolute demonstration their ignorance of what they profess. He who has seen the Alps but at a distance, may think but little of their majestic height. The nearer we approach, the more they put on grandeur; at their very foot, they tower up in masses which scale the heavens, and make us realize our utter insignificance. How much more, then, will the awful majesty of God be felt by one who has stood in His presence! The little reverence shown today, even by Christians, the freedom of their bold speculations, their critical proficiency in sacred things, the prominence assigned to the “human element” everywhere, reveal plainly enough the citizen of the world’s cities, rather than the one who in the stillness of the desert or the mountain top has drawn near, with unshod feet, to God. And thus the man who professedly has the fear of the Lord, cares little to be guided “in the way HE chooseth.” He must walk, as he recognizes, in ways morally right; nay, what is this must be estimated from a general Christian stand-point, which means perhaps even something somewhat higher than the average conscience of the special Christian community to which he is attached; but “the way HE chooseth,” -how little is this anywhere regarded! how little is even the lack of it known! Take the Word as guiding: how generally -almost universally -is it too accepted just as interpreted by the people among whom we are (I may say) thrown; how few venture to differ from the fashion in which it is read by these! And the personal guidance day by day as to the details of life, how little, it is to be feared, is this found by “watching daily at the gates” of infinite Wisdom, “waiting at the posts of her doors” (Proverbs 8:34)! Yet of such is it said that the man is “blessed.” For each of us there is individual guidance: God loving to have us thus apart for Himself; to each one of us the Lord says, “Follow thou Me!” Real communion with the Lord involves this necessarily. The connection of the next verse with this seems to be what stamps it with its number 6, which must here speak of mastery. For Israel the possession of the land was originally to be won from the Canaanites, and much of it slipped shortly out of their hands after being thus won. Philistines and Amorites pushed back Dan into the mountains; Hazor became after Joshua’s time the seat of the kingdom of another Jabin; Reuben lost his cities to Moab. After David and Solomon, the broken kingdom began gradually to yield piecemeal to its foes, until first Assyria and then Babylon carried the whole people captive. After the return, but a fragment of the land was repossessed. The Assyrian captives did not return at all.

Samaria was schismatic and hostile. Galilee remained characteristically “Galilee of the Gentiles.” Then at last came One who would have gathered them, and they would not, and they bought Aceldama with the price of their Lord’s betrayal. Again they were scattered, and the whole world has been to them since, according to the terms of their dread purchase, “a burial-ground for strangers.” Thus the possession of the land has been for Israel more plainly than for any other people, a question of mastery, but in which the fear of Jehovah was ever the real condition. Did they fear Him, their fear was upon their enemies. When finally their heart turns to the Lord, and the veil upon it is removed, then the word will be fulfilled, “I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor” -of self-judgment -“for a door of hope” (Hosea 2:15). All this has an application for us also, and a present application, just as Ephesians, interpreting the book of Joshua, has shown us a present possession of our land which is to be made good by faith, and against the might of banded enemies. Israel’s history has here its solemn instruction for us. Never yet has the full extent of the divine gift been realized by them, and for the most part they came sadly short. Have Christians done better as to their spiritual inheritance? Yet not for discouragement, but for encouragement, would one urge this. “There remaineth very much land to be possessed”; and the promise here is strictly individual: what may not faith, in any one of us, even now attain to? what mines of treasure unworked, what fields ready to be harvested, await the man earnest enough to press on after them, whole-hearted enough to take possession! And again the word pursues us here: “The secret of Jehovah is with them that fear Him; and His covenant, to show it to them.” Think of being, as it were, the bosom friends of God, to whom He can speak freely of what is hidden from the rest of men! Here is surely complete blessing. Herein is communion perfected. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secrets unto His servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7.) Is it of Him if we should have to say, “We see not our signs; there is not a prophet any more”? (Psalms 74:9.) Is there no connection with this when the apostle exhorts us all to “covet to prophesy”? (1 Corinthians 14:39.) 4. And now we are to face the way of trial. The world is unfailingly that, and Satan himself the sifter of God’s wheat. Here we find it, and find it, spite of all that has been said, a very real thing. Indeed it must be felt; for trial that is not felt is not trial; and God has a work to be wrought in us by this, “tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope” (Romans 5:3-4). And James urges, Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience; but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." (James 1:2-4.) “Sweet,” then indeed, “are the uses of adversity,” if they can accomplish for us anything like this. And we see clearly what the great use is. “Patience” -the subjection of our wills, “man’s weakness waiting upon God,” is the unfailing argument to bring Him in. Only to learn this, this is to be perfect and entire! How easy, one would think, if this be all, just to abide in the place of nothingness, and let God care and minister and show His wisdom and His power and love! Blessed it is, and should be easy; but here it is we prove the will that works in us, the lack of faith which allows will to work. Faith is, in all of us, the great worker of all good: it is no wonder if God try it, call for it, ordain the path to be such as shall require it constantly; while yet He encourages, sustains, answers it with a love which more and more makes the experience of the way an experience that works hope. “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.” The pathway of the remnant of Judah in that day towards which prophecy so often turns is one of peculiar trial. “It is the time of Jacob’s trouble,” revealed thus as special discipline: a time of trouble “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). We can understand therefore the character of what follows here, even while the first words declare the blessing it is working for them: “Mine eyes are constantly toward Jehovah; for He shall bring my feet out of the net.” This constant look upwards: how much blessing does it import, whatever the stress of circumstance that produces it! The net is at the feet, and yet the eyes are not there, but constantly above. A brighter object is before them than the earth can furnish, and the heart is steadied and brightened by it. The feet also are better kept than by any possible human wisdom: “He shall bring” rings cheerily out from a man not ignorant of his danger, but who has learned how much more positive he may be in the third person than in the first. Yet the evil presses hard, and matters seem as if God were looking away: “Turn thee unto me, and be gracious to me: for I am solitary and afflicted.” Sorrow individualizes us all, and that is part of the good of it: for thus grace and God become individualized also. The evil presses for attention. God suffers it to be felt, and even to increase: enlarged distresses -when working under the good hand of God -purify and enlarge the heart. This is by no means their necessary effect, however: apart from Him, they may harden and narrow it. But then apart from Him, prosperity will do the same: nothing is good, save as He works in it and through it for good. In result, man is sifted and known: oneself, in whom affliction and travail connect themselves ever more closely with the sins of which the soul is ever more conscious. The enemies also are there, multiplied and violent. Jehovah is besought to regard it all, and not to make ashamed the faith which can find refuge only in Himself. 5. Two verses express finally the principle upon which the blessing comes. Integrity, uprightness, faith on the soul’s part; the redemption from His hand who alone can effect it. In the last verse the speaker links the redemption of Israel with his own.