Psalm 25

⁰⁴          Your ways, O Lord: make them known to me.

 teach me Your paths.

⁰⁵         Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

You are the God of my salvation;

 I hope in You all day long.

 

⁰⁶         Remember Your mercy and steadfast love, O Lord,

for they are as old as [time].                          

⁰⁷         The sins and transgressions of my youth:

do not remember them;

[But] remember me according to Your steadfast love,

for the sake of Your goodness, O Lord!

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Teach Me!

For the Lord’s Day:  the 13^th of February  2005

Introduction:  A few weeks ago, I drove with a student who always pushed the edge of the highway, the speed limits and the laws of gravity.  But, of course everything he did was well within the law.  So at the end of the lesson I explained to him that while I had no cause to down grade him according to any ordinary standards, still I was of the opinion that fifty-five was not a minimum speed and that a continuous pushing of the edge in every respect could in time lead to trouble.

 

I also explained how his last minute breaking could cost him financially.  You see if you learn to use the forces of gravity to slow your speed and use your breaks judicially you do not have to have them worked on every eighteen months.  I know of one family where two high mileage vehicles have completely different repair histories.  One of the vehicles had its breaks worked on once in a hundred thousand miles, while the other must have been to the repair shop half a dozen times.  The next lesson was completely different – he had taken my view to heart at least for the hours he spent in the school vehicle.

 

You know, there is something in this example that could us a lot about how we regard the better and higher laws of God.  Especially in the way we teach that respect to our children.  Do we always hammer away at every apparent rebellious attitude and action?  Or do we encourage and demonstrate a way of life that becomes almost second nature to our loved ones?

 

Years ago, I picked up one of my sons after school.  I hadn’t noticed when I left, but some busy bodies had gone through the whole parking lot and tied red ribbons on every radio antenna.  Evidently the same had been discussed at my son’s school as well.  The red ribbon was a reminder that we shouldn’t drink and drive.  One my youngest got into the car, suddenly there was a tear in his eye and he seemed disappointed.  I asked what the trouble was and he explained that he thought I would be the last person on earth who needed a worldly reminder not to drink and drive.  In our family, we had never ever discussed the subject because those products were never around.  Do you sense what I am getting at?

 

Turn with me to verse four and let’s parse it out:  “Your ways, O Lord: make them known to me, teach me Your paths.”  In the first line let us think of all the yellow warning and the white regulatory signs along the highway.  The state is very careful to make certain we know the rules and are reminded wherever there is a perceptible danger.  In the second line, I was very tempted to translate it as a request for the Lord to walk with me.  This is sort of like my job in “extreme education” where I observe and comment on every little thing that may have some importance.  In addition, I take my charges around to my top ten or even a dozen interesting places around the county, so that they can learn from a guided tour experience.

 

In a way, this is really all that is going on here in this verse.  First, David prays that the Lord will reveal his way and then second, he asks that the Lord will assist him daily through the pathways of life – wherever the Lord might lead and send him.

 

Development:  Verse five echoes the same refrain, but with subtle nuances in the text.  “Lead me in Your truth and teach me, You are the God of my salvation; I hope in You all day long.”  Teaching is still a very important factor in the text, but the opening thought stresses the importance of God’s truth and the ongoing leading day by day that the Holy Spirit is assigned to accomplish in us.  Just as I guide my charges to and through interesting and even potentially dangerous situations, so may we understand the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit.  Our daily lives are not always fraught with danger and sometimes not all that exciting.  Part of the reason for that is our life experience – we have learned to avoid certain neighborhoods, specific businesses and hopefully those areas of the city that are spiritual no-man’s land.

 

There is one whole class of people whose life-expectancy is shorter by twenty-five per cent just because of where they were born, live and the company they keep.  I remember a former student who lost eight close friends to alcoholic binges and accidents.  One night, he walked up to the door of his favorite bar and could not open it.  Some other people came along, and walked right in.  He tried again and it wouldn’t open any way at all.  So he left went home and has never had a drink since.  When he talked to me, he asked me what had happened and I simply noted that it was probably the work of God telling him directly that it was time to change his life.  He had of course and he said he thought it might be something like that, but just wanted to confirm his suspicions.  By the way, he had been converted soon after the guardian of the door shooed him away for good.

 

This fifth verse teaches us that all along, God is leading his elect saints towards the second birth.  “You are the God of my salvation,” David announces and because God has done this in his life, he can continue to know the blessed leading and guiding of the third person of the Trinity.

 

Now, in the next verse – the sixth:  David notes something unusual for the ordinary mind of man.  You see, the natural man is always inclined to focus all of life on the self and only occasionally realize the importance of other things and events.  Yet, here is David well schooled in a life lived before the Creator of heaven and earth.  “Remember Your mercy and steadfast love, O Lord, for they are as old as [time].”

 

There is nothing of the self so far in the earnest alphabetic pleas of this section in Psalm Twenty-five!  “Remember Your mercy.” “Remember Your steadfast love,” David prays.  Wherein is the source of salvation for any one: ompletely and finally in the hands of God.  And in His eternal hands there is security and hope that we cannot find anywhere else.  “His mercy, His steadfast love … is as old as [time]” itself.  God has existed continually day by day completely in absolute holiness and as He has determined, so shall the life of men and women be directed day by day.

 

Yes, He does lay hold of us almost violently from time to time.  We are suddenly laid low with an unexplained problem and other times he is patient to the point of allowing us to walk with wolves or even swim with sharks.  I don’t know how many of you follow “the great wide shark” in the cartoon strip Sherman’s Lagoon, but in a recent edition the main character was playing Lucifer to a wandering lamb, who was reluctant to enter the water.  Everyone swims with sharks the hungry fish intoned!   So now, the cartoon strip is exploring the ongoing dangers that mere sheep may run across in the wide, wide world.  The dwindling flock in the cartoon is learning what life is like without a Shepherd to look out for them and lead them away from danger.

 

Application:  Without a heavenly shepherd, David knows that we cannot hope of succeeding on our own-some!  This fact is well stated in the opening line of verse seven:  “The sins and transgressions of my youth: do not remember them.”  This must ever be our daily plea, that the heavenly Father will forget out worst moments day by day – all because of the sacrificial work of His own Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  David was absolutely correct in pleading that the Lord would remember His covenantal plan in Christ, which was determined before the foundation of the world.  Don’t consider my sorry case, David admits – please, please forget my attitudes, my fallen character and all of my shortcomings, sins and lack of understanding.  “Remember Your mercy and Your steadfast love from before time began,” we can write in the modern idiom and still grasp the essential meaning straight from the heart of David.

 

Our last line this morning brings us full circle and points to the final blessed hope that is ours in Christ. “[But] remember me according to Your steadfast love, for the sake of Your goodness, O Lord!”  God is love the modern world teaches, hopes and counts upon.  They are not far wrong in declaring the mere words of that thought, but where they miss the mark is in their misunderstanding of God’s absolute and awesome holiness.  Because of who He is – He cannot tolerate sin and it is only as David hints here:  it is only in His goodness and love that we have any hope of heaven.  David reminds us that in order to justify us, our sins must be forgiven and forgotten so that they cannot be held against us.  Centuries before his own greater Son came in the fullness of time, David realizes the source of blessedness: in the love and goodness of the Creator God.

 

As we are able to comprehend this, let us believe it and like David count upon it in our hopes, in spite of our fears – but most of all in our worship and prayer.  Amen.

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