Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

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PSALM 25

PSALM 25:5

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COMMENT

For me, at least as I read David’s words, I see a clear and distinct chain of command being announced:

Lead me in thy truth,– David declares that God is the leader or source of truth

and teach me: David declares that he desires to learn the truth that only God can provide

for thou art the God of my salvation; David confirms why he believes this

on thee do I wait all the day. David declares he is willing to wait upon the Lord for these truths.

It has been my observation that far too often in evangelical circles today, people want instant gratification. Many years ago, I wrote an article entitled “Burger King Theology,” which made the connection that people wanted God, but only on their own terms. How sad that millions have been fooled into believing the lies of easy believism and a myriad of other false teachings.

If God is truly the God of your Salvation, he is also the sovereign God of all truth, the sovereign God of all creation, the sovereign God of the universe, and the list goes on. Only when we acknowledge David as such can we unlock the power of the triune God within us.

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CONTEXT/STUDY

TITLE. A Psalm of David. David is pictured in this Psalm as in a faithful miniature. His holy trust, his many conflicts, his great transgression, his bitter repentance, and his deep distresses are all here; so that we see the very heart of “the man after God’s own heart.” It is evidently a composition of David’s later days, for he mentions the sins of his youth, and from its painful references to the craft and cruelty of his many foes, it will not be too speculative a theory to refer it to the period when Absalom was heading the great rebellion against him. This has been styled the second of the seven Penitential Psalms. It is the mark of a true saint that his sorrows remind him of his sins, and his sorrow for sin drives him to his God.

SUBJECT AND DIVISION. The twenty-two verses of this Psalm begin in the original with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in their proper order. It is the first instance we have of an inspired acrostic or alphabetical song. This method may have been adopted by the writer to assist the memory; and the Holy Spirit may have employed it to show us that the graces of style and the arts of poetry may lawfully be used in his service. Why should not all the wit and ingenuity of man be sanctified to noblest ends by being laid upon the altar of God? From the singularity of the structure of the Psalm, it is not easy to discover any marked divisions; there are great changes of thought, but there is no variation of subject; the moods of the writer’s mind are twofold—prayer and meditation; and as these appear in turns, we should thus divide the verses. Prayer from Ps 25:1-7; meditation, Ps 25:8-10; prayer, Ps 25:11; meditation, Ps 25:12-15; prayer, Ps 25:16-22. https://archive.spurgeon.org/treasury/ps025.php

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Verse 5. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me. The same request as in the last verse. The little child having begun to walk, asks to be still led onward by its parent’s helping hand, and to be further instructed in the alphabet of truth. Experimental teaching is the burden of this prayer. Lead me according to thy truth, and prove thyself faithful; lead me into truth that I may know its preciousness, lead me by the way of truth that I may manifest its spirit. David knew much, but he felt his ignorance and desired to be still in the Lord’s school; four times over in these two verses he applies for a scholarship in the college of grace. It were well for many professors if instead of following their own devices, and cutting out new paths of thought for themselves, they would enquire for the good old ways of God’s own truth, and beseech the Holy Ghost to give them sanctified understandings and teachable spirits. For thou art the God of my salvation. The Three One Jehovah is the Author and Perfector of salvation to his people. Reader, is he the God of your salvation? Do you find in the Father’s election, in the Son’s atonement, and in the Spirit’s quickening all the grounds of your eternal hopes? If so, you may use this as an argument for obtaining further blessings; if the Lord has ordained to save you, surely he will not refuse to instruct you in his ways. It is a happy thing when we can address the Lord with the confidence which David here manifests, it gives us great power in prayer, and comfort in trial. On thee do I wait all the day. Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain. It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust all the days of our life. Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding. We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously he once waited for us.

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v. 4–5. There is a beautiful order in these expressions; first to be shewn, then to be taught, and then to be led, in the path of grace. How blessed it is to have the Spirit to teach, the Spirit to lead, and Jesus himself to be the way. And all this because God in Christ is every poor sinner’s salvation that trusteth in him.

Robert Hawker, Poor Man’s Old Testament Commentary: Job–Psalms, vol. 4 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2013), 242.

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Ver. 5. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, &c.] Meaning the word of God, the Scriptures of truth; and the Gospel, which is the word of truth, and truth itself, John 17:17 and the sense is, either that God would lead him by his spirit more and more into all truth, as contained in his word; or that he would lead him by it and according to it, that he might form his principles and his conduct more agreeably to it, which is the standard and rule of faith and practice: which leading is by teaching; and reasons urged for granting all the above petitions follow, for thou art the God of my salvation; who, in infinite wisdom, contrived the scheme and method of it in his Son, and by him effected it, and by his Spirit had made application of it to him: and since the Lord had done such great things for him, he hoped the requests he had made would be granted: he adds, on thee do I wait all the day; or continually, in public and in private, attending to all the duties of religion, yet not trusting in them, but in the Lord; and therefore he entreated he might not be ashamed of his hope and expectation for deliverance and salvation.

John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, vol. 3, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1810), 633.

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Lead me in thy truth, and teach me. The Chaldee: Lead me in thy righteousness and teach me; Arabic: Direct me to thy justice; and teach me; Syriac: Rule me in thy truth and teach me; Septuagint, Ethiopic, Vulgate and Doway: Direct me in thy truth, and teach me. Some think the sense is, Lead me to see thy veracity, cause me to experience thy faithfulness. Others think it is, Lead me to understand and embrace thy truth. No state of mind is more friendly to the success of our tempters than that of mental confusion, in which we see not distinctly the boundaries between truth and error, right and wrong. It is therefore a great matter to be preserved in God’s truth, and to receive instruction from heaven. Our necessities urge us to cry for divine guidance; and our relation to God and his covenant engagements with us authorize us so to plead. Accordingly David gives this reason for his prayer: For thou art the God of my salvation. As God alone is the author of salvation, to whom should we go for any effectual aid but unto him? And as he undertakes the case of all the poor and needy who look to him, so we may plead his promise with the strongest confidence. This is specially true when we find that we do not habitually or allowedly depart from him, but can say: On thee do I wait all the day. The original is in the preterite. This is followed by the Septuagint, Ethiopic, Syriac, Arabic, Vulgate, Doway, church of England, Calvin, Venema and Alexander. But Amesius, Ainsworth, Edwards, Jebb and Hengstenberg agree with the common version. In each case the doctrine is the same. If we use the past tense, it denotes a habit well established; if the present, it shows the existing state of mind resulting from previous devout exercises. These things seem fairly implied in waiting; expectation of good, confidence in the divine character, and a readiness to obey the divine will. The more prominent idea is that of indulging strong hope in God. The verb is of the same root as the word wait in v. 3. All the day means continually. The Arabic read, I have served thee all my days.

William S. Plumer, Studies in the Book of Psalms: Being a Critical and Expository Commentary, with Doctrinal and Practical Remarks on the Entire Psalter (Philadelphia; Edinburgh: J. B. Lippincott Company; A & C Black, 1872), 331–332.

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What Is Experiential Preaching?

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DEVOTION