March 8, 2022 Noonday Prayer

March 8, 2022

1. Starting point: 7:12

“Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.”

1. Praying from: PSALM 25

Meaning

This prayer is a model for those who suffer, particularly at the hands of others, to call on God to help them. It expresses a fundamental trust that God will indeed answer the prayer, in spite of the supplicant’s acknowledgment of sin. It speaks of an eagerness to learn more from God and to grow in relationship with him, based on the covenant.

The psalmist’s call to God to remember him in spite of his sin on the basis of God’s mercy and love resonates with Christians, who know that they are sinners, but that Jesus Christ has taken their sins on himself and died to suffer the consequences on their behalf.

Context

In the final analysis, Psalm 25 is a lament of an individual, although the complaint is expressed in the context of such strong statements of trust in God that one is tempted to consider it a psalm of confidence. In some psalms (Ps. 77), the composer attempts to prod God into action by accusing him of not following through on his covenantal promises. In Psalm 25, the supplicant challenges God to live up to the psalmist’s feeling of trust, to follow through and save him from his enemies. The psalmist recognizes that he is a sinner but counts on God to treat him with grace (mercy and love, v. 6a). As the exposition of the content will point out, the psalm also has wisdom elements, most notably in his request for God to instruct him in his paths/ways (v. 4). The psalm is an acrostic, in which the poetic units begin with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, from aleph to taw (two lines begin with resh, vv. 18 and 19).

Text

     “Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.

2     O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

3     Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

4     Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.

5     Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

6     Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

7     Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.

8     Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

9     The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

10     All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

11     For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

12     What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

13     His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.

14     The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

15     Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

16     Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.

17     The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.

18     Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

19     Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.

20     O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

21     Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

22     Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.”

1. Praying Time:

Comment

25:1–3. I trust you

The psalmist does not begin with a plea for help, but rather utters a statement of his trust in God. The first verse is a simple statement of the psalmist’s confidence in God. The niv’s I put my trust is more literally rendered ‘I lift up my soul’ (nrsv), giving the idea that the psalmist feels comfortable turning his life over to God (‘I give my life to you’, nlt), as troubled as it is, as we will soon learn. Verse 2 then uses the verb more typically translated as ‘trust’ (bṭh). All this comes before his first petition to God to keep him from shame, presumably from his enemies who would triumph over him if they succeeded. Biblical Israel was an honour and shame society, in which ‘honor refers to the experience of being esteemed by one’s group or other social entities on the basis of embodying that which is deemed desirable, virtuous and socially productive. Shame refers, generally, to the opposite experience of being devalued and belittled on the basis of failing to measure up to or transgressing the same’ (deSilva 2008: 287). To be shamed publicly has negative connotations. According to Pemberton, ‘to be “put to shame” means the loss of social position which negatively affects every familial relationship and business interaction. For an enemy to take honor (status) at the psalmist’s expense is no small matter in a society with foundations built on the bedrock of honor and shame’ (Pemberton 2012: 81). Since the psalms are intentionally non-specific, we don’t know precisely how his enemies are trying to devalue him, but we do know the standard by which he would judge his worth, namely righteous living (Ps. 15). Psalm 24 may give us a shorthand answer: ‘The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god’ (v. 4). Such an attitude and behaviour would win the praise of the community of the faithful. The psalmist’s present situation is problematic, however, because his enemies, who are treacherous (v. 3d), are trying to shame him, although he is one who hopes in God. He calls on God to assert proper order by having shame come on those who are trying to shame him (v. 3c–d).

25:4–7. Teach me your ways

The second stanza contains four further requests directed to God. The first is couched in language familiar to us from wisdom literature, particularly the book of Proverbs. Proverbs talks about two ways: the first of the ways (or paths) is the righteous, godly, wise path, and the second is the path of the wicked, ungodly, foolish person (Longman 2006: 59–60). The psalmist wants to be on God’s path, which Proverbs teaches leads to life and not death. He wants to grow in his knowledge of God and his truth, because that is his hope in life. He knows that those who walk on God’s path will be blessed, while those who do not will be punished (see Ps. 1).

The psalmist desires that God remember him not based on his previous sins, but rather through the prism of his mercy (reḥem) and love (ḥesed), qualities attributed to God in Exodus 34:6–7. Remembrance is more than a cognitive act; it implies an action. He appeals to God to remember him according to his (God’s) goodness (you … are good [ṭôb]). Here the psalmist acknowledges his failure, but as something of the past. His appeal to God implies that he has turned from those sins, and his desire to know God’s path indicates an intention to sin no more. Although he has not yet explicitly mentioned the covenant (v. 10), mercy and love are divine qualities closely connected to the covenant, in which God promises to be in relationship with his people, to grant them his mercy and love and to be good to them.

25:8–11. God is good

The third stanza begins by expanding upon the attribution of goodness to God at the end of the previous stanza (v. 7d). Motivated by his goodness and virtue (upright), God teaches sinners, among whom the psalmist counts himself (v. 11b), his ways. God’s instruction is directed towards the humble. Here we have another concern of the book of Proverbs. Pride stands in the way of instruction; humility makes a person open to listening to God. Those who think they know it all will not listen to correction, but the humble will allow themselves to be guided (Prov. 3:3, 5, 7; 15:33; 21:24; 29:23). In verse 10, we have the first explicit mention of the covenant, here specifically the demands of the covenant. The word ‘covenant’ (bĕrît) rarely occurs in the book of Psalms, although the book as a whole can be described as covenantal (see Introduction: Theology, p. 47). Most covenants come with demands, but the Mosaic covenant and its laws are probably in view here. God’s ways are loving (ḥesed) and faithful (’ĕmet) to those who keep the law. The stanza closes with an appeal to God to forgive the sins of the psalmist (reading the perfect of slḥ as precative). The appeal is not based on anything in the psalmist, but rather on God’s reputation (name).

25:12–15. God blesses the righteous

In the fourth stanza, the poet uses yet another concept well known from wisdom literature and particularly Proverbs: the fear of the Lord. Most notable is the phrase in the prologue to the book: ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’ (1:7). To fear God is to recognize that one is not the centre of the universe. The fear of God engenders proper humility in a person that makes them teachable. This fear is not an emotion that makes one run away, but rather to persist in God’s awesome presence and to listen to his instructions. He instructs them because they are willing to learn. For that reason, God confides in them and makes his covenant known to them, and the result is that they will be rewarded. Interestingly, the psalmist specifies the reward as the inheritance of the land. A similar thought is found at the end of Proverbs 2:

Thus you will walk in the ways of the good

and keep to the paths of the righteous.

For the upright will live in the land,

and the blameless will remain in it;

but the wicked will be cut off from the land,

and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

(vv. 20–22)

Only by listening to God and obeying him (my eyes are ever on the Lord) will he avoid the pitfalls of life (the snare).

25:16–21. Help me, Lord

The final stanza consists of a series of petitions that presume the psalmist’s present troubled condition, but also expose the hope that God will resolve his problems. He wants to experience God’s gracious presence, since he feels lonely and in pain (v. 18). He asks God to rid him of his anxiety (troubles of my heart/my anguish, v. 17). He once again asks to be forgiven for his sins (v. 18; see also vv. 7, 11), and here he appeals to God to do so because of his suffering (v. 18a) and the persecution of his enemies (v. 19). He asks for protection and again an avoidance of shame (see vv. 2–3), based on the fact that he has sought protection from God. He puts his hope in God for his protection (v. 21). The integrity and uprightness that will protect him must be God’s and not his own. After all, he has proclaimed God upright earlier (v. 8a) and has confessed his sins rather than professed his own innocence.

25:22. Deliver Israel

Interestingly, the final appeal is not in the first-person singular, but rather for all of Israel. Perhaps this is a later addition to the psalm to make it a corporate lament, a view supported by the fact that this verse is an addition to a complete acrostic found in verses 1–21 (see Context). If so, the justification could be that it is known as a psalm of David (see title), who, as king, would be representative of the whole nation.

1. THE A-MEN OF ROMANS 16:20, 24, 27

16:20   “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. A-men.”