Psalm 25
22 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 86×2Psalms 41×2Psalms 37×2Psalms 143×2Isaiah 43×2Psalms 32×2
Summary
Chapter summary
An acrostic prayer. 'Unto thee, O Jehovah, do I lift up my soul.' Show me thy ways; teach me thy paths; remember not the sins of my youth: 'according to thy lovingkindness remember thou me.' Good and upright is Jehovah: he will instruct sinners in the way, and the meek he will guide in justice. 'The friendship of Jehovah is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.' The psalm ends beyond one man: 'Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 25The history
This psalm runs through the Hebrew alphabet, one letter beginning each verse, with a couple of irregularities that copyists and commentators have long noticed. The device did two jobs: it made the prayer memorable in a society where most people owned no scrolls, and it signaled completeness — the matter covered from the first letter to the last.
"Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths" uses road language in a country of tracks, not highways. A traveler in the hill country followed footpaths along ridges and wadi beds, and getting on the wrong one could cost a day or a life. Guides were hired for exactly this reason.
"Remember not the sins of my youth" fits how Israel thought about record. Debts, offenses, and obligations were remembered by the community; God's remembering or not remembering was covenant language, not memory failure. To not remember a sin is to not act on it.
"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him" uses a word for a confidential circle — the small group of counselors a king sat with behind closed doors. The promise is not that God will explain everything to the faithful, but that he treats them like people in the room.
What it meant to them
The prayer refuses to sort its troubles. Enemies, loneliness, affliction, and personal guilt all get named in the same breath, because that is how they came.
Its last line steps outside the singer entirely: "Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles." A private prayer that ends by praying for the nation.
Sources cited
- Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 25
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 25. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.