June-30-0457-God guides the godly
457_God guides the godly Psalm 25:1-15 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. Have you ever tried navigating a dense forest without a map, compass, or guide? A group of hikers tried it once in the Appalachian Mountains. Confident in their GPS and a general sense of direction, they ignored the marked trail. A few hours in, their signal dropped. Every direction looked the same. It became dark. Panic set in. A fun weekend adventure became a desperate search for the way home. The turning point came when they decided to stay put, keep warm, and wait for help. Rangers found them the next morning, exhausted and humbled, but safe. They were easy to find because of their posture - of stillness, dependence, and expectation. In many ways, Psalm 25 is the cry of a soul that has decided to stop wandering and wait for divine help. David is not charging ahead in self-confidence. Instead, he pauses to think and to wait. He calls for guidance to the only one who knows the way. This psalm is an acrostic, each verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. While this is perhaps a poetic technique to aid memorization, it also captures the A-to-Z of what it means to be guided by God. The psalm opens in a cry: “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust.” This is all we can say once we learn that the only safety is in God. David declares his trust in God, as