A Faith-Full Prayer

[0:00] Psalm 25 of David. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.! O my God, in you I trust.

[0:11] Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame. They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

[0:24] Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day long.

[0:39] Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love. For they have been from old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your steadfast love, remember me.

[0:52] For the sake of your goodness, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way.

[1:08] All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. For your namesake, O Lord, pardon my guilt.

[1:20] For it is great. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being and his offspring shall inherit the land.

[1:36] The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him. And he makes known to them his covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord.

[1:47] For he will pluck my feet out of the net. Turn to me and be gracious to me. For I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged.

[1:58] Bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble. And forgive all my sins. Consider how many are my foes. And with what violent hatred they hate me.

[2:12] O guard my soul and deliver me. Let me not be put to shame. For I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me.

[2:23] For I wait for you. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. Amen. If you've ever gone to someone seeking advice on financial investments, you've probably been told at some point that the wisest choice to make is to diversify those investments.

[2:47] Right? And the rationale behind that is basic and clear. If you put all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak, you risk losing everything if that investment goes bad.

[3:00] But if you spread out your wealth, if you spread out those investments to multiple places, you can safely maintain and build wealth, even if some of them don't work out.

[3:16] Diversification of finances, at least, it keeps you from having to put too much faith in one person, too much faith in one organization, or too much faith in one particular investment.

[3:29] And there's some people that treat their spiritual lives that way. They try to diversify, diversify their beliefs so that they don't have to wholly commit to any particular faith, but that they might gain some kind of benefit and return just from all of their various worldviews and various kinds of thought.

[3:53] David was not one of those people, as we understand in this psalm, and as we understand his life. He never hedged his bets when it came to trusting the Lord.

[4:05] Even in the most troubling and uncertain of circumstances and distressing seasons of his life, he never wavered on that. He always trusted entirely and wholly in the Lord, his God.

[4:18] Because he knew that when it comes to spiritual things, when it comes to eternal salvation, God's call to trust in him is an all or nothing proposition.

[4:32] There is no room for hedging your bets with God. He doesn't allow it. You're either in or you're out. You either believe or you don't believe. You either follow him or you don't.

[4:43] When we get to Psalm 25, David leads us in a prayer that really reflects a true heart that trusts the Lord.

[4:55] It's quite literally a faithful prayer. It's full of faith. And the backdrop of the prayer reveals three key challenges to David's faith. I think what was probably three key challenges to our faith as well.

[5:09] First is, and this is most significantly, is David's own sin, which he calls great in verse 11. Pardon my guilt, O Lord, for it is great, he says.

[5:23] We see this as a backdrop of the prayer. The prayer is saturated in confession of sin. It's saturated in pleas for God's mercy and for God to look on him with forgiveness and steadfast love and mercy.

[5:40] And this is the first challenge to the faith, we might say. David has to ask the question at some point along the way, is God actually merciful?

[5:51] Is he truly merciful? Can I trust that there is forgiveness with him? There's a second backdrop, I think, to the faith of the prayer that David prays here and it's David's distresses.

[6:06] So on one hand, you have his sin and he understands the reality of that sin and the presence of the sin and he has to trust that God actually is merciful, that he will forgive his sin.

[6:16] But then he's got this dynamic of distress. Often in the psalm, he speaks of enemies. At the end, he speaks of these enemies, these foes who aim to do him violence.

[6:30] It's not just that they hate him, it's that their hatred, in their hatred, they want to kill him, they want to hurt him, want to bring him down. He is distressed in heart.

[6:44] There's an element of depression at work in the psalm. He's worried, distressed. He knows that if he doesn't get some help, particularly as it relates to those enemies, he's toast.

[6:59] And so what does he do? He prays for God's help. And therein lies a second challenge to trusting the Lord.

[7:11] The question is, is God faithful? Is God faithful? Will God deliver his soul or should he seek refuge in some other place or in some other person or in some other thing?

[7:26] And what we find David doing here, he's full of faith in the Lord. So in his distress, he goes to no one else. He trusts wholly that God is actually faithful. And then there's a third backdrop to the prayer.

[7:39] It's just the ongoing pressures of life, I think, that are at work here. David needs wisdom. He needs truth to live a life that is prosperous.

[7:51] He needs wisdom and truth to live a life that leads the nation as king to prosper. And so what does he do?

[8:02] He prays for God's guidance. Teach me your ways. Help me understand your instruction. And this is a third challenge, isn't it? Is God good?

[8:15] And are his ways right? Can you actually trust when you come to his word, what he has given us in the Bible? Can you actually trust that it is the right advice, that it is the right counsel?

[8:28] Can you trust him? No matter where you look in this psalm, the bottom line is, will you trust the Lord? And what we find in David is this amazing faith and wholehearted trust in all of these challenges.

[8:48] And these three circumstances, these three challenges, they're as much ours as they were David's. So David doesn't only pray the prayer, he writes it, and he writes it in such a way, as I said before, as to help people remember and to understand so that they might also sing the song and pray the prayer because these challenges are our challenges.

[9:09] And the call to trust the Lord for David is the call to trust the Lord for each and every one of us. And so he includes it here in his collection of psalms. He intended for it to be rehearsed and remembered so that we might trust God's faithfulness even in the most troubling and uncertain of circumstances.

[9:30] The bottom line here is that God is merciful and that he is faithful and he is good and no one who trusts in him will be put to shame.

[9:45] Now I mentioned some of the structure just a little bit ago. The one that we're going to go with to try to help work through the psalm is this idea of prayers and meditations. There's three prayers in the psalm.

[9:57] They're broken up by two separate meditations on the Lord. And then of course the whole thing terminates in this prayer for God's people at the very end and in the last verse.

[10:11] And it's there that we see clues as to why David can trust the Lord and why this will be so significant for us. Let's just work through it together.

[10:23] Let's notice the very first prayer in the first seven verses. It's comprehensive in that it touches on all three of the challenges that I mentioned.

[10:34] But each challenge here in this opening prayer is met by David's confidence. His confidence in God's faithfulness. And the trajectory of the prayer, the trajectory of this faith is set from the very first line.

[10:48] David's trust is in God alone. We might break it down into three sections. Look first at the first three verses. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

[11:01] O my God, in you I trust. Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.

[11:15] They shall be ashamed who are instead wantonly treacherous. To you I lift up my soul, he says. We've seen this before, haven't we?

[11:26] We saw it just last Sunday in Psalm 24. Just set your eyes on that. Psalm 24 in verse 4. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false.

[11:40] What is this about? We see it again here. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. What does he mean? To lift up one's soul, it means to give one's whole person consciously in faith to the Lord God.

[11:55] In Psalm 24, it's used negatively. It's used of lifting up one's soul in faith in a false deity. It's representative of false worship and of sin.

[12:07] But here, David, in contrast to that, opens the psalm by saying, to you, I give my whole person. I lift up my soul to the Lord God. All my trust and faith is in him.

[12:23] He uses it to express his complete and comprehensive trust in the Lord. Because he knows God to be faithful, David is confident then that he will not be put to shame.

[12:35] And notice that language in the prayer. Oh my God, in you I trust. And then there's a request. He says, let me not be put to shame. What does he mean by that? Well, that's the line that just follows it.

[12:47] It helps us to understand, doesn't it? He continues on. Let not my enemies exult over me. Now, here's what I think he means by shame, at least in this instance. Here, David has told the Lord that all of his trust is in him.

[13:00] He's putting all of his eggs in Yahweh's basket. Nowhere else. And all of his enemies are looking at him. They're preparing for him to fall. They think it's foolish that he has put his faith in the Lord God and not their God or in some other thing.

[13:17] And now he turns and he says, I've put all my trust in you, Lord. Don't let me be put to shame. Don't let me in the end be ashamed because I put my trust in something that isn't right.

[13:29] Something that's faulty. Don't let my enemies then have the last laugh. Don't let them exult over me. But then notice the confidence that he follows it up with in verse three. Indeed, he says it's emphatic.

[13:42] Indeed, no one who trusts in you, no one who waits for you, will be put to shame. Is David in a moment of distress?

[13:54] Yes. Is his trust holy in the Lord? Yes. Is he praying that God would act in accordance with his faithfulness so that he is not put to shame? Yes. Is he confident that that will happen?

[14:07] Absolutely. Absolutely. His prayer for God's faithfulness is not a doubt of God's faithfulness. It's actually the strength of his faith that's coming through there.

[14:18] Oh, don't let me be put to shame. Don't give my enemies a reason to exult over me. In other words, he knows that God will come through. Indeed, he declares none who trust in God will be put to shame.

[14:35] Instead, those who will be put to shame in the end, those who will be embarrassed, are those who are wantonly treacherous. In relationship to God, I think, would be the context here.

[14:46] That in contrast to David, who has put all of his trust in the Lord, are those who are disloyal to the Lord God, represented here by his enemies. Lord, I trust in your faithfulness, he says.

[15:01] Please be faithful. Now let's look at verses four and five. We come to the next part of this opening prayer. It changes just a little bit. Now he prays to the Lord.

[15:12] He says, make me to know your ways, oh Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation.

[15:24] For you I wait all the day long. Here we see David is confident that the Lord is good and that he is right. He knows that his own wisdom is weak.

[15:38] It's tainted by his own sin. But he also knows that God's ways are good. That they're always right. That his judgments never fail. That everything he says is true.

[15:52] So David asked that the God of his salvation would make known his ways. That he would teach him his paths. That he would lead him in his truth. This is why David is so committed in other Psalms to delighting in the word of God.

[16:08] We see that all the way back in Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who delights in the Torah of God. In the law of God. And in his law he meditates day and night.

[16:18] Why is that man blessed? Because he's trusting in the Lord and in the Lord's ways. And the Lord's ways are always good. And they're always right. And here again in this prayer, David is full of faith in the Lord his God.

[16:32] And he says, Lord just teach me your ways. Help me to understand what's good and what's right. And I will follow you because you are the God of my salvation. I will wait and hear from you.

[16:43] He says, amazing. Faith. He trusted God's word. So should you. Look now at verses 6 and 7. It takes another turn here.

[16:54] He cries out to the Lord. Notice the repetition of this word remember. Remember your mercy, O Lord. And your steadfast love. For they have been from old.

[17:07] Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. But according to your steadfast love remember me. For the sake of your goodness, O Lord.

[17:21] Here's the first of three prayers of confession in Psalm 25. This is the largest one for sure. And the repeated plea for God to remember.

[17:31] Remember, we need to understand. David is not supposing that God has forgotten something. What he's doing is he's crying out for the Lord to act according to his revealed character.

[17:47] Do you remember in Exodus 34 as you've read through your Bible. Remember Moses wanted to see God. And he has this amazing moment where God passes before him.

[17:57] And as he passes before him, he reveals himself. He says, I am the Lord, Yahweh, who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

[18:11] Who keeps steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. When David says and pleads for God to remember his steadfast love, he's thinking about God's own self-revelation.

[18:27] God has promised that he's a merciful God. That he's full of steadfast love. And now he turns and he says, oh Lord, in my life, please act according to that mercy. Because I desperately need your mercy.

[18:40] Remember your steadfast love, oh Lord. Remember not my sins. But according to your steadfast love, remember me. According to your goodness and righteousness, your good name, oh Lord.

[18:55] Remember me and grant me mercy. Mercy. It's a prayer of confession. It's pregnant with covenant language, isn't it? He rests all of his hope for forgiveness.

[19:10] Not on anything good in himself. He rests all of it entirely on the character of God.

[19:22] Trusting that God indeed is merciful. Now, this is true faith in confession.

[19:34] This is true faith. Our confession typically follows a different kind of pattern. Whether it's a confession of sin to God or maybe we're trying to make right things that we have done against others.

[19:48] Almost always our apologies and our confessions of sin are coupled with some kind of excuse or some issue of blame. Or if you just understood what I was feeling at the time, maybe you would understand a little better.

[20:03] Why I said what I said or why I did what I did. There's none of that here in David. He doesn't trust in anything good in himself that God might look at and say, you know what?

[20:16] Because you did this well, David, I'll forgive this over here that you didn't do well. There's none of that. He knows it doesn't work like that. And yet he's still confident that God will give him mercy.

[20:27] But what does he rest that mercy on? Not on himself. Holy on the fact that God is merciful. God, you've said you're merciful, that you have steadfast love.

[20:38] I'm trusting you. Please remember that and forgive my sin. It is a faith that is focused entirely on God's character. It's true faith.

[20:51] Now I want you to make a note of how David addresses his sin in verse 7. Just two things that I think are worth meditating on. First, he acknowledges that his sin is real.

[21:02] That it is an offense against God. That it is worthy of judgment. He's acknowledging that in the fact that he's confessing the sin the way that it is. And he knows that any forgiveness from God is unmerited.

[21:17] Which is what makes his confession of sin genuine. He offers no excuses. He doesn't assign any blame. He simply owns his sin and pleads for God's mercy.

[21:31] That's a pattern we ought to be prepared to follow. But notice secondly, that David speaks of his sin comprehensively. He speaks of the sins of his youth.

[21:46] A time in his life that probably looks back on with some embarrassment like most of us would do. But our tendency, right? We look at the sins of our youth and say, well, you know, I was young.

[21:58] And you do stupid things when you're young, right? David says, no, I want forgiveness for that too, Lord. There's no excuse for that, Lord. Forgive the sins of my youth.

[22:10] And then he contrasts that with pardon my transgressions. I think he's making a distinction here. On one hand, there's these sins that maybe you might excuse or maybe that he doesn't even realize or didn't realize at the time was sinful behavior.

[22:24] But then there's this transgression, this idea of known sin. I did it. I knew it was sin when I did it. And I did it anyways. And he says, Lord, please forgive me. He wants comprehensive forgiveness here.

[22:36] Not just for the things that he thinks is big. But for all of it. He knows it's all an offense against God. It's similar to Psalm 19. Remember, in Psalm 19, he spoke of hidden faults and then presumptuous sins.

[22:49] And I think he's making a similar distinction. The bottom line is he wants total and full forgiveness. Because he knows that God will provide total and full forgiveness.

[23:03] And how does he know? Because God has promised that he will. That he forgives iniquity and he pardons sins. That his steadfast love endures forever.

[23:15] That he's merciful and gracious to a thousand generations. That's who God says that he is. And David says, I believe you. Please forgive my sin.

[23:27] Not just this one, but all of them. Cleanse me. So these first seven verses, they are a passionate prayer to God. But David only prays it because he fully trusts that God will answer.

[23:41] And we need to be careful not to think of these as demands. That's not what he's doing. Demands are based on what a person believes that they are owed. That's not what David is doing here.

[23:54] Rather, he's focusing on the promises of God. And he's praying in accord with what God has said. And I think a good question for us is, do we pray this way?

[24:07] How often are our prayers matched, mirrored, here in a psalm like this one? Well, that leads us to the next part of the psalm, which moves away from a direct prayer.

[24:19] And it moves to a meditation. A shift happens here. And we need to note it. In one to seven, David's words are directed explicitly to the Lord. But in eight to ten, his words are about the Lord rather than explicitly to the Lord.

[24:36] And the reason for that is because he has moved from petition to meditation. Which is consistent for all who pray to the Lord in faith.

[24:48] Our petitions, our prayers to God are grounded in our meditations on God and his word. Let's just read the three verses together. Now, why does David pray as he prayed in verses one to seven?

[25:22] Because he knows and trusts that the Lord is good and upright. That he leads and instructs and teaches sinners in his ways. That all of his paths are marked by his steadfast love and faithfulness.

[25:37] Can you see how David's earlier prayer flows out of this meditation? And I want you to think about it for just a moment. This concept of meditation. Not new age transcendental meditation.

[25:50] But just the discipline of thinking deeply on something for a prolonged period of time. It's lost on many of us and lost really culturally on many of us.

[26:03] And what we find here is that David's prayer is really born out of his meditation. As he thinks about the Lord, it gives birth to this passionate, faithful prayer.

[26:20] You may be at a place in your life where your prayer life is just weak. Or perhaps your faith is weak and lacking. It's probably because you don't take time to meditate on the Lord and on his word.

[26:37] When's the last time you set aside a prolonged time just to think deeply about what the Lord has said in the Bible? David's meditation led him to recall that God is more than willing to instruct sinners who are humbled towards him.

[26:56] That his mercy is applied to all who keep covenant with him by faith. Just read it backwards. Notice what he's saying. Those who keep covenant in verse 10.

[27:08] Those who keep covenant find that all of God's ways are faithful. Those who humbly submit to the Lord and trust in the Lord, they find that he leads them in what is right and that his way is good.

[27:27] Those who are willing to humble themselves before the Lord find in that humility that he is good and upright. That he instructs them in the way that they should go.

[27:38] Therefore, David trusts the Lord and he keeps covenant with him and he is not disappointed. Which brings us to the second prayer in verse 11. It's a short one.

[27:51] For your namesake, O Lord, pardon my guilt for it is great. Now I think this one is really at the heart of the whole psalm.

[28:02] We talk about that chiastic structure. I think it's revolving around this thought right here that's right at the center of it. On the one hand, you have the glory of God. Your namesake, O Lord.

[28:13] Your reputation. He desires. Steadfast love and goodness and uprightness. And then on the other hand, and in light of that, he says, pardon me. Give me guilt.

[28:24] I think the whole song is really kind of working around this in some way. Of course, it's another prayer of confession, which isn't surprising given how much David is meditating on God's character here.

[28:37] But what's helpful here is that David grounds it in this opening phrase. For your namesake, O Lord. We saw that also in Psalm 23.

[28:49] He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. What does he mean? For God's glory. For his own reputation.

[29:00] Lord, for your own reputation to be known as good and merciful and full of steadfast love. Pardon my guilt. And then he adds this thing. For it is great.

[29:13] David has a strong sense of his own sinfulness. The greatness of his guilt. The greatness of his guilt only serves to glorify God's mercy and steadfast love even more.

[29:24] He is faithful even toward the greatest of sinners. In other words, for the glory of your name. Pardon my guilt. And that gets us into just another meditation.

[29:38] That begins the second half of the Psalm in verse 12. And what we find is that the second half of the Psalm mirrors the first half. In the first half, we begin with prayer that moves to meditation.

[29:51] In the second half, it's mirrored. We begin with meditation that moves to prayer. The meditations are similar to one another. And then the prayers are similar to one another.

[30:02] And this meditation comes in verses 12 to 15. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.

[30:12] His soul shall abide in well-being. And his offspring shall inherit the land. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him. And he makes known to them his covenant.

[30:26] And my eyes are ever toward the Lord. For he will pluck my feet out of the net. Amen. Who is the man who fears the Lord?

[30:38] What does he mean? What does it mean to fear the Lord? In Psalm 25, to fear the Lord is to keep his covenant and his testimonies. It is, as is earlier stated, to fear the Lord is to humble yourself before God rather than to lift yourself up in pride against him.

[30:59] It is to confess your sin and cling to the steadfast love and mercy of God. It is to desire his ways and his instruction and his paths. It is to put all of your trust and all of your hope wholly in the Lord God.

[31:16] That's what it means to fear God in this psalm. And what is it that David has found in his meditation happens with those who fear the Lord? Well, the Lord blesses them.

[31:29] Look at all the blessings that he begins to enumerate. Those who fear the Lord, those who trust wholly in him, he instructs in the way that they should go. He tells them how to live life that is pleasing to him.

[31:44] How to do what's right and how to live in a way that is abundant and prosperous. Verse 13, his soul shall abide in well-being. Even in hard times and difficulties, he'll have joy, wellness of soul.

[32:03] His offspring shall inherit the land. This is the picture of the covenant now. God fulfills his covenant for those who fear him. Then there's the friendship of the Lord in verse 14, which in this sense is counsel.

[32:16] That the Lord comes alongside in counsel as a friend. Shows us not only the way that we should go, but makes known to us his covenant, his promise, his goodness.

[32:30] And then David declares in verse 15, I will always focus on him. Why? Because he'll save me. He is the God of my deliverance. He'll pluck my feet out of the net because that's what God does for those who fear him.

[32:45] For those who trust in him. It is blessing after blessing after blessing because he is full of steadfast love. And when we trust in him, what we receive from him is steadfast love and kindness and everything good from his hand.

[33:03] Well, that leads us to the final prayer in verses 16 to 21. Turn to me and be gracious to me. For I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged.

[33:16] Bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble. Forgive all my sins. Consider how many are my foes and with what violent hatred they hate me.

[33:29] Oh, guard my soul and deliver me. Let me not be put to shame. For I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me. For I wait for you.

[33:43] Here we get a deeper sense of David's distress. Notice how he describes his condition. He is lonely and afflicted.

[33:54] Now, he is also the king. Loneliness here does not mean he is absent from the presence of people. There are people all around him and yet he is lonely. You ever had that feeling before? You feel all alone in the midst of a lot of people.

[34:07] David says, that is why I feel. I feel lonely. I feel afflicted. His heart is heavy with troubles. There is a sense of emotional turmoil and distress.

[34:20] His foes are many. They are full of violent hatred. And on top of all of that, he still has his sin to deal with. Which he probably understands is the cause of much of his distresses.

[34:31] And what can he do in such distress? What can anyone do in such distress? Well, because he meditated earlier on how God blesses those who fear him, David determines in his distress to trust the Lord and to cry out to him.

[34:55] That's what he does. He asks for God to be gracious to him, knowing that for those who trust in the Lord, he is gracious. He asks for God to deliver him from his sorrow.

[35:06] He asks God to forgive his sin that has caused his sorrow. He asks for God to deliver him from all of his enemies. And then, just as at the beginning, he declares his trust in the Lord, knowing that no matter how hard things get, God is faithful.

[35:23] And he will never be put to shame. He'll never be embarrassed for trusting in the Lord God. Now, a good question at this point is to ask how our prayers compare to Psalm 25.

[35:40] But perhaps before we can even ask that question, maybe a good question is, do you pray? Do you pray at all? And when you do, is it a prayer that's full of faith like this one?

[35:55] Is it holy trusting on the faithfulness of God and the goodness of God and the mercy of God? Do you confess your sin to him knowing that he is merciful? Do you seek truly his ways and his instruction?

[36:09] Or do you just hope that he gives a little affirmation to what you already want to do? Are your prayers grounded in God's character?

[36:21] Do they show that you actually believe him? Now, there's a verse that we haven't got to, and we need to go there here as we close. A question that we might ask at this point is, okay, David has this confidence because he's read the word.

[36:38] And he believes that what God has said is true, that it really is full of steadfast love. And perhaps he's seen examples of that, not only in his life, but in the lives of others as he's reading about the patriarchs in his own Bible, in the Torah.

[36:51] But at some point, we have to get to this question of, well, if God is this merciful, and if there is this steadfast love that's connected to his covenant, how is that mercy and that steadfast love ultimately fulfilled?

[37:05] And I think we get a hint of it in verse 22. Notice the change here. What has been up to this point, a very personal and passionate prayer from the king, now becomes a prayer for the king's people.

[37:24] Redeem Israel, O God, all your people, out of all his troubles. Part of this is, I think, David is letting us know that what he prays here, this psalm is for all who trust in the Lord, not only for him, but it comes to us through the king, just not David.

[37:48] And it's this word, redeem, that I think is worth our attention. Why does he change it suddenly? He hasn't used this word up to this point. Redeem Israel.

[37:59] Redeem all your people. Rescue all your people. O Lord, what does he mean? Well, we know what it means to redeem something. On one hand, to redeem something is to exchange, right?

[38:10] You get your Sunday paper, and I don't know if they still do this, but you get your Sunday paper and you clip out all the coupons, right? And you redeem the coupons at Harris Teeter this week, right? And in exchange for the coupon, they give you a discount.

[38:24] And you redeem the coupon. It's an exchange. There's another sense in which we use the word, and it is a word for atonement, right? Like when someone is said to have redeemed themselves.

[38:37] What we mean by that is that through some extraordinary act of goodness or morality, they have made up for some previous wrong action or former disappointment.

[38:49] Now, when David speaks of Israel's redemption here, he's not asking for God to empower them to redeem themselves. He's not asking God to help them come up and be strengthened with some type of moral payment that they could exchange for God, some kind of religious action they could exchange for his forgiveness.

[39:12] That's not what he's asking for. Neither of those things is possible if God's glory is to stand. Instead, what David is actually asking is for God himself to do the work of redemption, for God himself to do the rescuing work, to rescue Israel from all his troubles.

[39:33] David knows that for God's people to be saved, God would have to make an exchange. God would have to perform an extraordinary act to cover our guilt and deliver us from trouble.

[39:46] God himself would have to be the redeemer. And that's what all of God's covenants were really about. When David speaks of the steadfast love of the Lord, he's invoking God's covenant.

[40:01] And God's covenants were all about a redeemer. His covenant with Adam in Genesis 3. His covenant with Noah a little bit later. His covenant with Abraham.

[40:13] Some of you are studying on Wednesday nights. His covenant with David. They're all focused on a future redeemer. God's steadfast love will be revealed in a redeemer.

[40:28] David knows that. He knows he can only pray this prayer for forgiveness and mercy in light of the promise of God's redeemer.

[40:40] It's the only way for his prayer to be answered. And he prays it confidently in anticipation that God will do what he promised he would do.

[40:52] To send a Messiah, a Savior, who will do the atoning work necessary to cover our guilt and deliver us from all of our enemies. Now David prays this prayer in anticipation.

[41:05] We pray the prayer in reflection. Because God answered the prayer when he sent his son to make the exchange.

[41:20] And to provide the atonement necessary for our rescue. The promise was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. God made flesh.

[41:31] Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law. And then he laid down his life in the place of all who trust in him.

[41:43] On the cross is the great exchange. He bears our sin so that we can be counted righteous. And then God raised him from the dead to show that his sacrifice was sufficient for our sins.

[42:04] That he really is the all-sufficient Savior. You see, when Jesus sang Psalm 25, perhaps in synagogue or at the temple growing up.

[42:16] He did not sing this as a sinner. He sang it as the sin bearer. He did not sing it as the one who needed it to be fulfilled.

[42:32] He sang it as the one who came to fulfill it. Identifying with David and with us in our sin.

[42:42] Now all of this is why the emphasis of this psalm and of the whole Bible is on trusting the Lord to fulfill his promises. And with that understanding, we can go back through Psalm 25.

[42:58] And we can say, okay, well, what does David really mean? What does this mean to trust in the Lord in this way? It means to wholly trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to put all our eggs in Jesus' basket.

[43:13] And it is to do so with confidence that none who trust in him will be put to shame. No one who repents and follows Jesus Christ will in the end be ashamed that they did.

[43:30] Because he has come through and he will come through. He truly is the good and sufficient Savior. And because of him and in him alone, you can pray Psalm 25 with all the confidence of David.

[43:44] But only if you will come to Jesus and lift up your soul wholly to him.