“Track 25: In You I Trust (Psalm 25)” | 7/6/25
Psalm 25 | 7/6/25 | Will DuVal
This morning we’re continuing in the Psalms - Psalm 25 to be precise - with a message entitled “In You I Trust”. That’s the theme of this morning and this psalm, the driving question with which we are confronted: “In WHOM, or in WHAT, do you TRUST?”
-Some trust in the ECONOMY. But where do you turn when the next recession hits?
-Some trust in the UNCLE SAM. Where do you turn when YOUR candidate is defeated?
-Some trust in “THE SCIENCE”... except when it comes to Covid and abortion… EVOLUTION and the origins of the UNIVERSE - the stuff science CANNOT adequately explain (or the science that just doesn’t JIVE with your worldview).
-Some trust in THE CHURCH. Until the next scandal: more pedophile priests, more profligate pastors.
Trust in the MEDIA, trust in higher EDUCATION, trust in DEMOCRACY and the CRIMINAL JUSTICE system - across the board: ALL DOWN in recent years (https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx ).
So where do we TURN?
The PSALMS offer us a suggestion: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, [their STRENGTH, their MIGHT…] but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Ps 20:7)
King DAVID, who had plenty of chariots and horses of his OWN that he COULD have trusted in, but King David will put it THIS way here in Psalm 25: “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust” (vv1-2).
This psalm fits perfectly with our recent series through the book of Numbers - “Life in the Wilderness” - because as Warren Wiersbe explains: “This psalm pictures life as a JOURNEY - a difficult journey that we cannot successfully make by ourselves. The word ‘way’ is used here four times (vv4,8,9,12) and ‘paths’ one time (v10), and we find the psalmist crying out to God for wisdom as he makes decisions (vv4-5).” We’re kicking off that new Sunday class this morning on “Godly Decision-Making”: where do we TURN - who do we TRUST - for GUIDANCE and WISDOM through the wilderness? David invites us to pray along with him this morning: “O my God, in YOU I trust”.
In its original Hebrew, Psalm 25 is an acrostic poem, where every stanza, each VERSE in our Bibles, begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, in ORDER: alef, bet, gimel, dalet… 22 Hebrew letters; 22 verses here. But speaking of language and wording, the even more crucial grammatical feature to NOTE here is the alternation in the verbal MOODS employed throughout the text. As we’re READING it here in a moment, pay attention to how the verbs David uses here ALTERNATE between what - in the Hebrew - is called the COHORTATIVE and the HIPHIL IMPERFECT; in ENGLISH: between “LET ME” and “SHALL BE”; in SIMPLEST terms: between a PRAYER and a PROMISE:
V2: “Let me not be put to shame” – that’s a PRAYER
V3: “Indeed, none who wait for you SHALL BE put to shame” – that is a PROMISE.
V7: “Remember NOT my sins” – PRAYER
V8: “God INSTRUCTS sinners” – PROMISE
And here’s the reason it matters, the UPSHOT of that literary dance:
“God’s past faithfulness is the ground of our present trust in God’s future promises.”
Let me repeat that again, cuz you probably want to write it down; this is kinda the main point of the whole passage this morning:
“God’s past faithfulness is the ground (the FOUNDATION, the BASIS) of our present trust in God’s future promises.”
-
And David’s going to PETITION God here to make GOOD on FOUR of His divine promises in particular. Again, they are both PETITIONS (“God, LET me…”) but they’re ALSO PROMISES (“they shall be…”). Think of it THIS way:
We trust God BECAUSE of these 4 truths (He’s proven faithful in the past, in these four massively important ways)… AND we trust God WITH these 4 truths (that He’ll prove faithful again in the future, in these 4 ways).
Hopefully it’ll make more sense once we dive in.
Let’s do that now: (SCRIPTURE:) I invite you to STAND with me… [Read aloud TOGETHER…]
“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.2 O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
6 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!
8 Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
11 For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.12 Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.13 His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land.14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.18 Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
19 Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me.20 Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.”
This is the word of God… Seated…
We trust in the Lord for MANY reasons, but David lists four of the BIGGEST ones here in Psalm 25.
#1- For starters, we trust God because He saves us from SHAME. (1-3, 13-15)
V3: “None who wait for you shall be put to shame”. Friends, that is SUCH good news; can we declare that promise again together? Say it with me:
“None who wait for you shall be put to shame”. One more time:
“None who wait for you shall be put to shame”.
Shame here doesn’t just mean “embarrassment”. James Boice (Psalms, 223) explains: “The biblical idea is that of being let down or disappointed or of having trusted in something that in the end proves unworthy of our trust.”
We could almost substitute in the word “REGRET”.
How many people, do you think, in the END, lying on their deathbed, feel a deep sense of REGRET? Are “put to SHAME” by the things in which they’ve placed their TRUST…
-Their POSSESSIONS. You can’t take ‘em WITH you! You think anyone has ever laid there on their deathbed thinking, “MAN, I really wish I’d had time to accumulate more STUFF!”
-Or their WORK. Anyone lying there thinking, “What I’d give for just one more DAY back at the OFFICE…” Those who look to their OCCUPATION to give them their IDENTITY, their WORTH, their MEANING and purpose and HOPE… will be put to SHAME.
-But how about THIS one now: your LOVED ones? Because many people would say the ONLY way to live a life without regrets is to SURROUND yourself… to invest it ALL - I mean, you gotta pay the BILLS; but as much as feasibly POSSIBLE, you better invest - in OTHERS, in RELATIONSHIPS. And to be sure, when I’m lying there on MY deathbed, I do HOPE I will be surrounded by those who I loved MOST in this life. But ask yourselves THIS, friends: “The greatest family and friends in the WORLD: will they prove WORTHY of your ULTIMATE trust and HOPE, in the end, when the lights go out?”
You can’t take THEM with you EITHER, can you? They will not JOIN you in DEATH, and they cannot PREPARE you for what lies on the other SIDE of it.
There is only ONE who can save us from ETERNAL shame, ETERNAL regret: “To YOU, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I TRUST.”
Only HE can make good on the promise: “None who wait for [me] shall be put to shame.” Isaiah 49:23, same: “those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” Romans 5:5 “ “hope [in Christ] does not put us to shame”.
That’s His PROMISE. But it’s ALSO our PRAYER. V2: “let me not be put to shame”. “I TRUST you, God; that you won’t let me down. So GOD… please don’t let me down!” “Jesus, I BELIEVE; HELP my UNBELIEF!”
True or False: there are a lot of people out there who think you and I are STUPID for putting our TRUST in God. “In someone you can’t even SEE? You can’t even prove He EXISTS?! And you’re gonna bet - gonna WASTE - your whole LIFE on Him? On a God who supposedly has ALL-power, and yet allows 20 young girls in Texas to just be swept away in their sleep by a flooding river - some of them, 9 and 10 years old, already confirmed DEAD - and this was a CHRISTIAN summer camp! It wasn’t the “Future Atheists Camp”; God let this happen to families, parents, who TRUSTED in Him - a LOT of people looking at that would conclude: “That’s just ASININE! What is WRONG with you people, you Christians?”
Maybe there’s no one in your life BOLD enough to put it that bluntly; maybe you have a hard time relating to David in v2 when he prays, “ let not my enemies exult over me”. Bona fide ENEMIES are hard to COME by these days, aren’t they? Everyone at least PRETENDS to be “tolerant” and “respectful”. Even the DISNEY villains aren’t what they once were; kids are too fragile for a Cruella da Vil, or the Evil Queen from Snow White… CHERNABOG, from FANTASIA?! An 80-ft tall embodiment of Satan himself, who released demons into the mortal world - what was WRONG with you parents in the 1940s?! The “Greatest generation…”?! Greatest TRAUMATIZERS of children. But HEY - they did have the greatest VILLAINS, too.
But speaking of “Satan incarnate” - that’s where I was going with it: no matter HOW likable you are, and how TOLERANT you’re non-Christian neighbors and co-workers may be, friends: we ALL have an “enemy” who wants to “exult OVER” us. One who DOES openly mock and taunt us for putting our TRUST in the LORD - I bet you know his voice all-too-WELL: “You seriously trust a God like THAT?!” He wants more than ANYTHING to CONVINCE us that it is utterly FOOLISH and SHAME-ful to trust God. And he’s not a cartoon character; he’s just as REAL as you and me. And he’s a whole lot SCARIER and even more POWERFUL than Chernabog. How do you fight an enemy like THAT?
You DON’T. You ask GOD to. “O Lord, let me NOT be put to SHAME!” “God - I don’t think I have the FAITH to keep holding on to YOU through THIS trial, through THIS storm - if it depends on MY strength, I’m gonna be WASHED away in the FLOOD of doubt. God, I need YOU to hold on to ME. “Let me NOT be put to shame”.
We PRAY our PETITIONS. And then we PROCLAIM his PROMISES: “Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame”!
And that’s only HALF the promise of v3: AND… “they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.” I’ll be honest; I had to look it up; David is NOT in fact warning us against betrayal by means of Chinese dumplings; that’s “WON-tons”. “WAN-tonly treacherous” means you are MALICIOUSLY, WILL-fully faithless, untrustworthy. Satan GLADLY deceives, and opposes faith in God.
And sadly, there are some around us who have SO hardened their hearts against the Lord, that they CONSCIOUSLY and OBSTINATELY REBEL against God, and INSIST on their OWN way, in direct opposition to God - and they DO so to their OWN SHAME; “ they shall be ashamed”.
But I just wanna ENCOURAGE you and REASSURE you: that is very different from experiencing occasional, unwelcomed and, frankly, somewhat LEGITIMATE DOUBTS from time to time. If twenty 9-year olds getting swept away in a flood doesn’t cause you to PAUSE for at least a MINUTE and ask, “God, what… WHY?” - I don’t think I WANT YOUR kind of “faith”. Cuz you just shut your brain and your HEART off. And God never ASKED us to do THAT; this would be a much shorter PSALM if DAVID had done that. David’s got some REAL TROUBLES, some real WORRIES to bring before the LORD here. And some of US do TOO this morning. And that’s OKAY. God can HANDLE them; he actually WELCOMES our fears and doubts and worries: “cast all your anxieties on [ME],” God invites us, “because [I] care for you.”
Cast your cares… proclaim His promises… and then REMEMBER the REASON for your hope: the GROUND of our trust is God’s past faithfulness. We can trust His promise NOT to put us to shame, because God has ALREADY saved us from the greatest shame of ALL: the shame of our SIN; all of the REGRET and the GUILT that comes with SIN, was NAILED to the CROSS, when Jesus Christ died in our place, to REDEEM us. If you want PROOF that you can TRUST God, friends, you need LOOK no further than the CROSS. Where God proved that He can take the very WORST of the TRAGEDY that this world throws at us - that the ENEMY throws at us… that God Himself ORDAINS for us!; the cross didn’t catch GOD by SURPRISE; Acts 2:23 says “Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and the foreknowledge of GOD”; God the Father ORDAINED it - and yet, He USED it, to accomplish the salvation of every sinner who would simply turn to Jesus in faith; he removes ALL of our SHAME. And if God can redeem THAT - turn the evil of the CROSS into something so GOOD and so GLORIOUS as our eternal SALVATION, then what CAN’T God redeem? We can TRUST Him.
Now, does God promise to do it TODAY? Or TOMORROW? On OUR preferred timetable?
No. v3 reminds us we’ve gotta “WAIT” for God. And we struggle so much with patience, with “WAITING” on God, that David repeats it two additional times here to make sure we don’t MISS it: v21- “I WAIT for you”; v5- “for you I wait ALL the day long”.
And some of you have been waiting a whole long longer than THAT, haven’t you?
-For God to heal your marriage - “God, I keep holding out hope that you can - that you WILL - redeem our marriage; let me not be put to SHAME; I’m TRUSTING you to DO it…” - but for YEARS God has said, “WAIT”.
-For God to save your prodigal children; “God, I know they KNOW the truth; I RAISED them in church. But now they’ve walked away from the faith… “Let me not be put to shame; I’m TRUSTING you to bring them BACK…” - yet God KEEPS saying, “WAIT”.
-For God to REMOVE the “thorn” of ADDICTION from your side…
-For God to bring you the SPOUSE that for so long now you’ve prayed for; that BABY y’all have prayed for…
-For God to heal that RIFT in your family, and change the hearts of your parents, your siblings…
-For God to provide not just a job, but a vocation; you feel like you’re just DRIFTING through life, and you want your work here to MATTER…
But for some REASON, God keeps saying, “WAIT”!
What IS the reason? Why does God so often make us wait?
I can think of at least FOUR reasons God outlines for us in His word. Big picture: God wants to GROW us. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says God’s WILL is our SANCTIFICATION. God desires not so much to make us HAPPY, as to make us HOLY. And He GROWS us in HOLINESS by making us WAIT.
First, He grows our HUMILITY, by reminding us that we’re not in charge; HE is.
Second, God grows our dependency on Him, as we wait for HIM to do what only HE can do. All I can do is PRAY all the more desperately, and maybe that’s the exact POINT; the REASON He’s got me waiting. Maybe if you’re honest, your prayer life is pretty anemic as it is; just imagine if you didn’t have to keep BEGGING God to redeem that area of brokenness you keep WAITING on.
And AS we wait, THIRD, God grows our CHARACTER. “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (Rom 5:5).
And fourth, and most foundationally, waiting on God grows our FAITH, our trust in Him. If we never had to WAIT, we wouldn’t NEED any faith; the Bible says, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1) If you can SEE it, if you’ve already RECEIVED it, there’s no room for FAITH. But when you’ve got to WAIT, and HOPE, and ASK, and TRUST… God is growing you.
Someone put it this way: “When the outlook is bleak, try the UPlook.” Look UP to the LORD, in humble faith.
And what does He PROMISE to those who DO? Who trust in Him, and “FEAR” Him, v12?
Vv13-15: “His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.
The friendship[b] of the Lord is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
[So David prays] My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.”
God promises “well-being”, an inheritance, FRIENDSHIP with Him, INTIMACY, covenant RELATIONSHIP, and ultimately - maybe not TODAY or TOMORROW - but we CAN trust Him in HIS timing, to DELIVER us: “he WILL pluck my feet out”; God will SAVE us from SHAME.
#2- Second reason we trust God now: Because God trains us in TRUTH. (4-5, 8-9, 12) He TRAINS us in TRUTH.
And once again, it’s both a PRAYER and a PROMISE.
V4: “Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths. [that’s David’s PRAYER…]
Lead me in your truth and teach me”
But it’s ALSO God’s PROMISE; vv8 & 9: “the Lord… instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way”.
V12: “Who is the man who fears the Lord?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.”
SPEAKING of repetition: WHO does God “lead”, “teach”, “guide”, “instruct”? David repeated it FOUR times there, for emphasis: “He leads THE HUMBLE… teaches THE HUMBLE… instructs THE ONE WHO FEARS Him…”
“Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs WHO in the way”? The RIGHTEOUS?
No; the RIGHTEOUS don’t NEED instruction. They think they’ve got it all figured OUT. But according to THE LORD, there is “NONE who is righteous; no not one” (Ps 53:1-3). We are ALL sinners, in desperate need of HELP, DIRECTION. And God is SO “good”, he doesn’t just abandon us to our sin, our LOSTNESS; God “instructs” us - He shows us - the WAY.
Jesus said, ““I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). God didn’t just SHOW us the way, friends; He MADE a way, through the life, death and resurrection of His Son JESUS, for sinners like you and me to be reconciled to Him… to be in right RELATIONSHIP with Him… which means walking in God’s WAYS. “You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live” (Dt 5:33).
Psalm 128, v1: “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!”
But before we can OBEY God’s word, first we’ve got to be TAUGHT it; we’ve gotta be TRAINED in the truth. That’s why David prays: “Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me”.
What a beautiful prayer. Can I ask: How often do YOU pray that one? “God: LEAD me in your truth… TEACH me… GUIDE me…” I’ll be honest, and just speak for myself here, but I don’t pray that NEARLY enough. I don’t ever think this CONSCIOUSLY, but when you’ve read the Bible through cover to cover enough times, and you’ve been given the gifts of discernment and wisdom, and you’re pretty good at reading people and situations, and you’ve pastored LONG enough now to kinda know what’s what… I’ll be honest, Church: there are whole DAYS that go by, when I NEVER stop to actually ASK God: “Would you LEAD me today, Lord, in your truth? Because I am utterly LOST without you! And I need MORE than just your word and a good HEAD on my shoulders…” - I studied New Testament at Vanderbilt under one of the world’s foremost secular “Jesus Seminar” scholars - she was an atheist orthodox Jew, and she had more Bible verses memorized than ANY of us in this room, and I’m BETTING she had a higher I.Q. too… and she was LOST as a blind calf in a snowstorm.
Having a BIBLE and a BRAIN doesn’t guarantee that we’ll get it RIGHT, Church, that doesn’t PREVENT us from walking in utter DARKNESS; what else is that equation MISSING?
We need God’s SPIRIT! The Holy Spirit ILLUMINATING God’s word to us. Jesus promised his disciples, just before he died, that “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (Jn 16:13) - we need a GUIDE.
And even more than that, we need a POWER source. Because we can KNOW the truth, and even UNDERSTAND the truth, without necessarily WALKING in the truth. That’s why David prays, “LEAD me”; I don’t JUST need you to “instruct” me, to “teach” me; “God, I need you to LEAD me”.
And God DOES. He promises to give us not only the KNOWLEDGE of the truth, but the ABILITY to actually OBEY it; v9: “He leads the humble in what is right”.
So LONG as we are WHAT? – HUMBLE.
You ever try LEADING someone who is NOT humble? I coached a kid at Culver - 7 ft. 1, could jump out the gym, and shoot from the outside… NBA-level talent, no question. But he played ONE year at Northwestern and then got CUT, because he was UN-coachable. And we had WARNED them of it, “I mean, maybe he’ll listen to Y’ALL, at the COLLEGIATE level…” But he DIDN’T.
And Church, if we can’t be LED - if we won’t HUMBLE ourselves, and ALLOW ourselves to be led by God’s word and God’s SPIRIT, we will never be USED by God to do great things in His name - or even GOOD things - we’ll never “walk in the good works” for which God “CREATED” us, according to Ephesians 2:10. God PUT us here to be “light and salt” - to push back the kingdom of darkness with God’s light, and to STEM the moral decay of this world with the SALT of God’s TRUTH. But we cannot be light and salt unless we are FILLED with God’s Spirit, LED by His Spirit; and we can’t be LED unless we HUMBLE ourselves, and FEAR the Lord, v12. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Pr 9:10). Wisdom is competence in right living. Life was DESIGNED by God, to be LIVED a certain WAY. There’s a RIGHT way to live, and many WRONG ways. Now, of ALL the things you wanna be GOOD at - you wanna be a good PARENT, a good EMPLOYEE, a good CHURCH MEMBER; but of ALL the things - don’t you wanna be good at LIFE?! Heaven FORBID, you make it to the end, and it has to be HONESTLY said of you, at your funeral, “You know, she was really good at knitting… he was good at fixing cars… Just never really that good at LIFE.”
Listen: there’s a right and wrong way to LIVE, and God wrote the MANUAL. But friends, it STARTS with the FEAR of the Lord; “God, not MY will but YOURS be done; because it’s not MY life but YOURS that I live. I want to HONOR you with it. So God: TEACH me how, INSTRUCT me, LEAD me. And I will HUMBLE myself, to follow and obey.”
#3- We can trust God to forgive us with FAITHFULNESS. (6-7, 10-11)
David PLEADS with the Lord in vv6 & 7: “Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love… Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions” – how many of us have done some things in the past, said some things, thought and felt some things… that you really WISHED God would just selectively FORGET? We can ALL RESONATE with David here, in praying this prayer, can’t we? “God, please DON’T remember my SINS; remember INSTEAD your OWN mercy and LOVE.”
That’s a GOOD prayer, a very IMPORTANT prayer. But what makes it a GREAT prayer is the SECOND half of v7, and WHY David PRAYS it: “Remember your mercy and love… for MY sake? So that I can be forgiven and get into Heaven?”
No - “for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!”. David says, “God, I know, I TRUST that you are GOOD. And I want more than ANYTHING - even more than my own personal well-being and salvation, God, I want YOU to be glorified, to be SHOWN as and to be KNOWN as the GOOD and FAITHFUL God that I know you are. Well… here’s another CHANCE, God! Guess what: I messed up - I’ve SINNED again. But God, I’m ASKING you, v11, to “pardon my guilt, for it is great”, and to DO it, “for YOUR name’s sake, O Yahweh”, my covenant-keeping God. The One who remains FAITHFUL to His word, to FORGIVE, and call me BACK to relationship with Him, even when I have proven faith-LESS, gone BACK on MY word, and disobeyed you.”
Verses 6,7, and 11 are all the PRAYER: “REMEMBER your mercy… DON’T remember my sins… PARDON my guilt…” But what about God’s PROMISE? That comes in v10: “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for” WHO? “For those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”
Now WAIT a minute: that sounds like God is only loving and faithful to those who are loving and faithful to HIM - who “keep his covenant” and OBEY Him… how is THAT good news for SINNERS like you and me and King DAVID, whose “GUILT is GREAT”, who’ve got some sin in our past - “SINS of our youth” - that we really need FORGIVEN precisely because we DIDN’T “keep his covenant and testimonies”??
Let me ask you THIS: what’s the covenant you’re TRYING to keep? The OLD one? The LAW? Listen: God’s Law is good and true and PERFECT, and we obey it to our BENEFIT and we disobey it to our DETRIMENT, but if you’re trying to EARN God’s love and faithfulness by flawlessly keeping all 1,663 “do”s and “don’t”s of Scripture, you are DOOMED!
What is God’s COVENANT?
When Jesus shared his final meal with his disciples, he gave them bread and wine, that he said represented his BODY and his BLOOD, and then he said something absolutely ASTOUNDING to 1st c. Jewish ears: “This is the NEW covenant in my BLOOD”. For 1,500 years, God’s people had lived under a COVENANT; a covenant is like the “Terms & Conditions” of a RELATIONSHIP. In the case of God with His people? Just before God GAVE Israel His Law, he promised them THIS in Exodus 19:5 - “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples”. But then just AFTER God gave them the 10 Commandments, the very NEXT thing out of His mouth were a bunch of “laws concerning SACRIFICES”; why? Because from the START, God KNEW that we would FAIL to “obey His voice and keep his covenant”. And “the wages of sin is DEATH” (Rom 6:23); “I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls… by blood” (Lev 17:11), by SACRIFICE.
But when Jesus declared, “This is the NEW covenant in MY blood”, he was saying, “I have KEPT the covenant that you BROKE; I’ve rendered to God the OBEDIENCE that he deserves from and DEMANDS OF you, and yet you all FAILED to give Him. And NOW, I am about to climb a cross and pour out my BLOOD - my LIFE - for you, as your once-for-all-time SACRIFICE for sin, going forward. There’s a NEW covenant in town, because there’s a new SAVIOR: JESUS CHRIST, Son of God, Messiah.”
We are now no LONGER under the LAW; we are under GRACE (Rom 6:14).
And that’s actually where David ENDS the psalm, in vv16-22:
We trust God to guard us by His GRACE. (16-22)
“Turn to me and be gracious to me”, he prays. Even DAVID, living under the LAW, knew that the ONLY way that a SINNER like him could be v18- “FORGIVEN of all my sins”, was by GRACE: the free, undeserved GIFT of a loving and faithful GOD.
But God’s grace doesn’t stop THERE, does it? God’s got attendant grace for our LONELINESS and our AFFLICTION (v16); calming grace for our WORRIES and our FEARS (v17); sustaining grace through OPPOSITION and PERSECUTION (v19); and preserving grace by means of the integrity and uprightness in which he CLOTHES us now in CHRIST (v21).
But MOST important of all is God’s SAVING grace to “forgive all our sins”, v18. Isn’t it INTERESTING now in CLOSING, consider the back-and-forth DANCE we’ve been tracing all throughout the psalm - “Prayer and Promise; Prayer and Promise”; but notice here in vv16-22: it’s ALL prayer! I count ELEVEN imperative verbs here: “TURN to me… be GRACIOUS to me… BRING me out… FORGIVE”!!
And the psalm ENDS with David praying that God would “REDEEM ISRAEL”. And most commentators point out the significance of David BROADENING his scope now, it’s no longer just a PERSONAL petition; as KING, David was charged with interceding on behalf of ALL God’s people.
But friends, all DAVID could do was PRAY. And ASK… WAIT… look FORWARD to… TRUST in God’s promise of a FUTURE King - the SON of David and Son of GOD - who would FULFILL God’s promise to REDEEM and RESCUE His people out of ALL of our troubles, even DEATH ITSELF. And praise God: our King has come! And in Jesus Christ, EVERY promise of God finds its “Yes” and “Amen!”.
And to all who trust in HIM, who “lift up their souls”, and declare along with David: “In YOU, O Lord Jesus, I trust”, he promises forgiveness, redemption, and ETERNAL life.
Trust in Jesus today, and be saved.