If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn with me to Psalm 25.
If you're here this morning, that means you have survived.
You survived the sickness that is going around,
and you survived not breaking your neck in the parking lot this morning.
So I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad to be with you.
And I'm glad that you are joining with us in worship.
If you have been with us for any amount of time,
you'll know that we are taking a little bit of a break from Romans.
We saw that last week with, or two weeks ago,
with Jonathan Clark coming to us and talking about what it's like to walk with Christ.
And then last week with Luke as well.
Over the next couple weeks, we'll be in the Psalms.
So we're taking a break from Romans. We're in the Psalms.
And we are delighted that you are with us.
With that, let's turn our attention to God's Word.
Psalm 25.
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
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.
They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
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.
And for you I wait all the day long.
Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love.
For they have been from of old.
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.
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.
All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness.
For those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, 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.
The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
My eyes are ever towards the Lord, 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.
Bring me out of my distress.
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.
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, for I wait for you.
Redeem, O Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for your word.
We ask that you might use it to show us your glory,
that we would see Christ more clearly.
And Father, that we might know your love more intimately.
And we ask this in Christ's name.
Amen.
Like I said, I'm thankful to be with you this morning.
Last week, we had Luke fill in because I was sick.
If you're here, you've made it.
You're not sick, or not yet.
It's funny, though, when you're sick, it has a reorienting principle.
I like to think of myself as somewhat of a tough guy, right?
Like I've been in the Army, that stands for something.
You know, I'm a dad, I get beat up on a lot.
But something about being sick kind of reorients you and makes you realize,
man, I'm not as tough as I thought.
I think there's a word for this.
It's called the man flu.
You know, when things are really bad, I am really good.
But if I'm a little bit sick, and in this case, I was kind of a lot sick.
I don't think I suffered from the man flu, despite the accusations in my home.
I think that when you're sick a little bit, just a little bit, it gives us room to complain.
It gives us room in the space, because you're not that ill, to think about, woe is me, how hard life is.
And so as I was preparing for this sermon a couple weeks ago, I was thinking about, man, this is just so hard.
And life is just so hard.
I am in the midst of difficulty, not even thinking about all those times that I've done things that are really, really hard,
or the people that are actually really, really suffering.
Instead, you kind of go into your own little pain cave, and I reside in that cave, and let no one in.
And don't take encouragement from anyone else or correction.
I think that's what the man flu is.
But if you've been with us for these last couple weeks, Jonathan started off our new year by talking about how difficult it was to walk the Christian life.
And what are you going to do in those times of trouble?
Are you going to fold?
Are you going to fold to the man flu?
Are you going to fold to your emotions?
Or are we going to trust in the Lord?
Here in this text this morning, we have a very clear explanation of emotions, of our emotional state and frame,
and what to do in the Christian life with it.
And that kind of creates a difficult situation for many of us,
because we don't know how to reconcile these great truths of the gospel,
the truth of God's word,
and how we feel.
And by me even saying that, some of us here are going,
I don't even have a category for that.
I'm an engineer, or I'm a construction person,
or I love math, right?
But God's word speaks to us,
whether we're an artist,
or whether we use only one side of our brain exclusively.
He meets us in the midst of all of that.
And Jonathan did a great job of challenging us
a couple weeks ago and saying,
when those times come, what are you going to do?
Now, one of those times is here,
we can see in David's life.
What does David do?
He doesn't shut any of those emotions out.
In fact, he embraces them.
And as we'll see in a few minutes,
he redirects them towards the Lord.
You see, oftentimes in our Christian experience,
we've been tricked,
or maybe we trick ourselves into thinking,
if I feel a certain way,
then I might not be a Christian.
If I doubt God's goodness,
or bad things are happening to me,
maybe a little worse than the man flu,
right, actual sickness, actual hurt,
then where do I turn?
How do I respond?
Well, we've tricked ourselves into thinking
that feelings have no place at all in the Christian life.
I must be happy and joyful all the time.
Every time.
And when we come to a text of scripture like this,
we don't know what to do,
because that doesn't seem so happy and joyful, does it?
What do we do when we face those challenges?
Is something wrong with me?
Am I off?
When you feel as if,
if I just had one more thing,
if I had to bear one more trial,
it would all fall apart.
Maybe stress is mounting at work,
at home,
there's relationships that need to be fixed.
When we look at our checkbooks,
or our online banking account,
we think,
I don't even know how I'm going to make it.
When we really want to restore that relationship
with a parent,
a friend,
a neighbor,
and we don't know how it's going to happen.
Or,
you feel the anger rising in you
because you've been slighted once again.
Maybe it's by your own children,
or maybe it's the infamous,
per my last email at work.
Right?
That one always gets me.
And it makes my blood boil.
But when I respond with anger,
is that right?
Maybe it's not anger,
but sadness.
You can't wait for the Christmas season to be over
because it's not one of joy,
but of sadness.
And you can't wait to go back to what is normal.
Or you look out and you see the joy
in so many others,
and you think,
it doesn't reside in here,
and why not?
The problem is not that these feelings exist,
and we've all felt some version of them
at some point.
But we need to know
what to do with them.
Or as one has put it,
we
expect the world
to not have much time for weakness.
Especially the weakness of the psalmist's cries.
That makes sense.
But even in the church,
we have drunk so deeply
at the well of modern,
Western materialism
that we simply don't know
what to do
with such cries.
And we regard them
as little more than embarrassing.
Here we have in Scripture
David crying out to God.
And we don't know what to do with it.
Because it's not going swimmingly,
it's not happy,
it's not well.
But because of God,
we'll see this.
We'll see that we can cry out to Him
for deliverance.
We can cry out to Him
for instruction.
We can cry out to Him
for forgiveness.
forgiveness
because of God.
Whether we have the man flu
or whether we're facing
death itself,
that we can cry out to God.
This morning,
as I mentioned,
we're starting
a little kind of mini-series
in the Psalms.
We'll have a number of Psalms
that we go through
in the next month,
and we'll see
that the full spectrum
of emotion
is on display.
It ain't always happy.
And we're forced
to confront this idea
that in Scripture
we have this thing
called lament.
It's more than just being sad.
Because if it was just being sad,
you'd be stuck there
with the man flu
or whatever else
is going on.
But it redirects us
back to God.
And that's what we have
before us.
David's lament
not over things
that were in the hands
of his enemies.
He's got those,
and we'll see those
in successive weeks.
He's got real enemies
who really want
to kill him,
to really put him
in the grave.
But David here
seems to be crying out
over something else,
even though he calls it
his enemies.
It's kind of his own sin.
And David
and Israel
that followed after him
used this in worship.
They used it
as a means
by which to cry out
to God and say,
we need your help.
Now,
as we may well know,
there's strong emotions
in life.
There's strong emotions
in the Christian life.
And those feelings
oftentimes
can overtake
what we see
as clarity
or logic
or progression
of thought.
But it doesn't mean
that they're not there.
It just means
that the emotions
are what's driving it,
not an orderliness.
Think about
what we've just come from
in Romans, right?
Paul is systematically
explaining
the outworkings
of the gospel.
And here,
we can feel
David is doing
something very different.
That doesn't mean,
though,
that there's not
a structure
or an orderliness
to it.
And we can sense that
because it seems like
he's returning
again and again
to some themes.
But what are those themes
and how do we
appropriate that?
Like,
how do we figure out
what exactly
is going on?
Now,
I'll tell you this.
Logic is present,
but the experience
of David's life
is what's driving
and organizing this.
Now,
in a psalm like Psalm 25,
there is a structure,
but it's not apparent
to us
because we're reading
in English,
to be quite frank.
Now,
and there's some psalms
that have a structure
to it
where they take
something like
who remembers
dare
from your younger years
if you're,
or,
maybe your older years.
We have a word,
right?
I think it's
drug abuse resistance education.
I think that's right.
And that word
also stands
for every part
of that organization.
Now,
in a psalm
like Psalm 25,
it's not dare,
but it takes
the alphabet,
the Hebrew alphabet,
and it organizes things
based on that first letter
of every line
in order.
So,
it'd be like
A, B, C, D, E, F,
right?
All the way down to Z.
So,
there's an organization
to it.
It's just not emanating
from us.
But then,
the author,
so David is kind of
organizing all of this
to follow in sequence
with that alphabet.
But it's not apparent
to us,
but we can feel.
There's some organization
behind it,
but I can't put my finger
on it.
So,
that's what David's
doing here.
Now,
as we'll see,
they're in a kind of pattern,
not just from start
to beginning,
but it moves
towards something
in the middle.
Okay?
And so,
imagine the letter X
where at opposite ends,
you have something
that couldn't be further
from each other.
And then,
as you move
towards the middle,
they do what?
They get closer.
They get closer
until you get
to that inflection point
when that central theme
is everything around
which it spins.
Okay?
And that's what
we have here today.
So,
as it starts
at the beginning
and the end,
those two match.
And then,
as they go closer
or up,
those two match.
And then,
those match.
And then,
they go to one central theme.
And that central theme
this morning
is God,
quite frankly.
And we'll see that
in a minute.
So,
we're marching
on this way
to this idea
that God
is at the center
of even these emotions.
And so,
David's experience
will unpack
and drive
towards God,
David's experience
towards God.
But first,
he pleads for what?
He pleads for deliverance
from his enemies.
That's a normal thing
in the Psalms,
right?
Look back with me
at verse one.
To you,
O Lord,
I lift up my soul.
And then he continues
in verse two.
O God,
in you I trust.
Let me not be put to shame.
Let not my enemies
exult over me.
We see in this
first part of the Psalm,
there's a reference point.
It's a reference point.
I already gave the answer
to the test
that it's all driving
towards God.
But even in the midst
of this battle
with his enemies,
God is the reference point
by which he interprets
everything that's going on.
He starts there
and then we're going
to end there as well.
Now,
think about how often
we hear about emotions,
especially anger.
We're told what?
That maybe
if you're a teenage boy
that you should just go
and let those emotions out,
right?
Just yell it out.
There is some goodness
to that sometimes.
But what happens
at the end of that?
You're going to come back
and do it again.
And it's kind of like a muscle.
Maybe one week
you're lifting
the five pound anger weight
and then the next week
you're lifting
the 50 pound anger weight
because it doesn't have
an effect anymore.
It's a muscle
that keeps working.
But that's not
what David does here,
is it?
In the midst
of his enemies,
in the midst
of his emotions,
he isn't submitting
himself to nothing.
There's a reference
point of God.
He's the focal point.
But he's not the recipient
of that anger.
But in the midst
of that,
that is his more.
That is the thing
he is tied to
and returns to.
Think of a lighthouse
and a storm.
That's the thing
that gives him hope.
It's an affirmation
of who God is
and then it's a plea
based on that relationship
which we'll see
in a minute.
There's a very real sense
in which David
is under some type
of oppression.
I mentioned this before.
We don't know
exactly what it is.
It could very well
be physical danger.
David has a lot of that.
Think of some
of the Psalms
that we know
when he's on the run
from people
that want to kill him.
Psalm 34
is very much
in that vein.
He doesn't tell us
exactly though
who these enemies are
or what they're trying
to do.
We just know
that they are after him.
But he is going back
to that source,
to that reference point
for a plea
for deliverance.
He's begging
for deliverance.
And for us
as the reader,
this seems natural
to go to the Lord.
After all,
what else do you have?
But this reason
is not based
just because
we're great theologians,
but it's based
on the witness
of Scripture.
Think about what comes
before Psalm 25.
Yes, Psalm 24.
I know that part.
And Psalm 23.
But what's in those
that makes David
in this work
go straight back
to the Lord?
We have these laments
where we cry out to God,
but why is he so quick
to go back to the Lord
when our experience
is anything but?
Well, he goes back to him
because he knows
that is true.
What comes before
is, yes,
Psalm 24
and Psalm 23.
That one's familiar
to us, right?
This declaration
of who God is
in the midst of darkness.
Even though I walk
through the valley
of the shadow of death,
what?
I fear no evil
because God's presence
is there.
God leads them.
God delivers them.
But he's also
the king in Psalm 24.
This king of glory.
Everything on the earth
belongs to him.
Everything.
This is the same God
who in Psalm 23
is referenced
as leading his people
because what?
In the Exodus,
God is the one
who delivers them
and leads his people
out of it.
He's the shepherd
not caring for the little
fluffy cute sheep,
right?
that simply
bah
and mine
their master.
But he's the shepherd
steering wayward children
that are mindless
and complaining
and murmuring
and doing all those
bad and nasty things
and saying,
why can't we go back
to Egypt?
That same shepherd idea
is the one
who in Psalm 23
is doing those things
and he's doing that
because he did it
in the Exodus as well.
He's a warrior
that fights
on behalf of his people
when what?
When Pharaoh's army
rises up,
God is the one
who leads them.
God is the one
who delivers them.
And that's why
David can say
with confidence,
to you,
oh God,
I lift up my soul.
In you I trust.
In the midst of
disaster
and war,
David returns again
to God,
the God
who had delivered
his people again.
Let's go back
to those enemies.
Who are those enemies?
We don't know
who they are.
But whatever it is,
it's causing David
to cry out
and say,
he's on the run again
but from this time
we don't know
what it is.
It's very generic though.
But we know
that these enemies
pop up again.
Remember what I told you
about that picture
of the X.
They come back again
at the end
of Psalm 25.
Look at verse 19
with me.
Consider how many
are my foes
and with what
violent hatred
they hate me.
Oh guard my soul
and deliver me.
Let me not be put
to shame.
They come back again.
David is pleading
and is asking
with God,
pleading
for deliverance.
He's saying,
listen,
Lord,
I need your help.
They want to destroy me.
And God answers
him.
Be gracious,
look upon my affliction
and deliver me again.
Now if you'll note,
there's a lot of action verbs
in here.
Right?
Think about this.
Turn to me.
Be gracious.
Look upon my affliction.
Take away my sin.
Guard my life.
Rescue me.
Let me not be put
to shame.
They almost come
with those graphics
and cartoons,
right?
With the bubbles
and the like,
pow and bam.
But it ain't David
who's doing that.
It's God
who's doing it.
God
and not David
is at work.
God is at work
even in the presence
of his enemies,
both yours
and David's.
But we get
a small glimpse
at who this enemy is.
it's not one
that does battle
simply with swords
and chariots
and military might.
The one
that David
battles against,
he fights
with uprightness,
integrity,
and hope.
And for that battle,
David
has nowhere else
to turn
but back
to the deliverer.
For he is the only one
that can release
from the snare of sin,
that can free
from anguish,
that can cure
loneliness
and affliction.
My eyes
are ever
on the Lord
for only
he will release
my feet.
Turn
and be gracious
to me.
David's cry
for deliverance
is back
towards the Lord
from the hands
of his enemies.
That's the only thing
he can ask for.
Now as we move
from those outside parts,
we're moving
a little closer.
What's the next thing
that David asks for?
He asks for guidance
or instruction.
Really,
he doesn't ask for it.
He begs for it.
Sometimes when we think
guidance,
we think of
like a scene
from Andy Griffith,
right?
Where the little boy,
Opie,
he asks his dad,
oh man,
I have this like
situation at school,
this minor moral dilemma,
if it's even a moral dilemma.
And oftentimes
they're fishing.
I love Andy Griffith
and I love fishing.
That's not a commentary
on it.
But then Andy
will say,
well,
you remember something
like this.
And there's a sense
of nostalgia
for something like that.
Where it's a bestowal
of wisdom
that we already
kind of knew
but we needed
a father figure
to turn us back
to that.
That's not what's
going on here.
That is not the picture
that David has
of asking for guidance
in the midst
of trouble.
It's not like an,
oh shucks,
Andy,
I knew that anyway.
This is a crying out
in the midst
of darkness
and chaos.
I don't know
what to do.
Lord,
help me.
We see that again
in the Gospels too.
Lord,
help me
in the midst
of my unbelief.
He's begging
for help.
Look at verses
four through six.
Make known
to me your ways,
oh Lord.
Teach me your past.
Lead me in your truth
and teach me
for you are the God
of my salvation
for I will wait
all the day long.
Remember your mercy,
oh Lord,
and your steadfast love
for they have been
of old.
We don't see that
very often.
We're told often
in our day and age
and even sometimes
we function like this.
If we need wisdom,
we just need
to silence ourselves.
Silence all the distractions
and all the noises
and if I get alone
by myself,
I can think clearly.
I know what to do.
That says
that the answer
arises from within us.
In David's experience,
I'm not against silence
and I'm not against
being by myself.
I'm a little bit
on the introvert scale.
But David is saying,
hey,
this instruction,
this guidance,
this clarity
is not coming inside
of me,
from inside of me.
It's coming
from the Lord.
That the Lord
is giving him
guidance.
The Lord
is the one
that's working
in his life.
Our innermost being
is not the thing
that's going to guide us,
but God speaking
to us.
Again,
he's the one
that's active.
He is the one
that's teaching.
He is the one
that's showing.
He is the one
that's delivering us.
It's a street fight
for truth
in our own hearts
and minds.
And the Lord
is the one
doing battle.
But David,
in doing this,
is submitting
to the will
of his Father
and asking
to be led,
to be shown.
It's kind of like
when we have a house
and we decorate it
and organize it
in such a way.
We're asking
the Lord
to come in
and rearrange
the furniture
and throw things
in the dumpster
and to reorient
everything.
That's what David
is doing.
We're not asking
him just to clean
up the dust bunnies.
We're asking him
to reorganize
and reorient
our lives
according to
his principles.
Imagine
in the midst
of difficulty
and trial,
not wallowing
in grief,
kind of like pigs.
Pigs love mud.
They roll back
and forth
and they wallow
in mud.
We do that
sometimes
in our emotional state
when things are hard.
We don't go
to the Lord.
We just roll
around in it.
We think about
anxiety
and sadness
and fear
and they're our
companions
and we act
like Israel
in the Exodus.
We complain
and murmur
about it
with things
that are
maybe bigger
than the man flu.
But David's
example is showing
us to go
back to the Lord
and to ask him
in the midst
of that
for guidance.
Show us the way
O Lord.
But we also
have that promise
that God
is going to do
something,
that he is going
to be at work.
Look at verse 12.
Who is the man
who fears the Lord?
He will instruct him
or him
will he instruct
in the way
that he should choose.
There's a pleading
and then there's a promise.
But that promise,
we don't know
the timing
of the answer
but we know
that he answers,
that he will instruct him,
he will answer him.
But that guidance
is formed
by relationship.
The answer
that's been given
to David
flows out
of this relationship
with this covenant
keeping God.
Remember,
this is the same God
that promised
that he would be
their God
and they would be
his people.
That's the ground
of assurance
that David has.
That he knows
it will come to pass.
He knows
that he will have
an answer
because he has
fellowship with God.
And that relationship
is good.
Look at verse 13.
His soul
shall abide
in well-being.
His offering
shall inherit
the land.
14.
The friendship
of the Lord
is for those
who fear him
and makes known
his covenant.
Guidance
and instruction
is the outworking
of our relationship
with God.
When we plead
for him
to answer,
it's because
he is near to us.
It flows out
of this relationship
that we had
with the Lord.
And we get
a small glimpse
of that here
in Psalm 25.
Now we know
David has pled
for what?
He's pled
for all these things
up until this point.
He's pled
for deliverance
from enemies.
He's asked
for guidance
because of this
relationship.
But what else
does he ask for?
Again,
we're moving
closer and closer
to that inflection point.
He's asking
for forgiveness.
We saw
a hint of that
in verse 6.
Remember your mercy,
O Lord,
and your steadfast love,
for they have
been from old.
He continues on.
Remember not
the sins
of my youth
or my transgressions
according to
your steadfast love.
Remember me
for the sake
of your goodness.
It's not simply
a statement
of God's mercy.
It is that,
but it's saying
remember how
you've worked
in the past.
God,
you've done
these things
in the past.
Do them again.
May it continue.
It's an outworking
of that covenant
promise to God's people.
It's taking Israel's
history and saying,
hey, remember
how you've dealt
with Abraham.
He sinned,
but you were so
gracious to him.
Remember not just
Abraham,
but remember Isaac.
Remember Jacob.
Remember your people,
Israel,
how you've dealt
with them.
Remember me
according to
that same love.
David is pleading
with the Lord
to do the same.
If we see the pattern
here,
he pleads for these
things and then
he answers these
things in the same
way.
But most of all,
he asked,
remember not my sin.
David is keenly
aware of his sin
in this moment.
I think that's
who the enemy is.
The fact that
he's dealing
with a struggle
against his own
flesh and the devil.
And we've circled
around to the fact
that David is back
in this bad spot.
He needs guidance,
yes,
he needs deliverance
from that,
but he is really
aware that he's a
sinner.
He knows that he
needs a redeemer.
And in that moment,
he knows that he
needs God.
He's looking back
over his youth
and saying,
don't deal with me
according to all
those things.
And he has these
very acute points,
if you know the
life of David,
where he's aware
that he is a
sinner,
the gravity of
what he's done.
And he knows
that he needs
a deliverer.
He knows he needs
a redeemer.
But he's asking
the Lord not to
look on that,
but look back
on love.
Remember what you
have done to your
people.
As a pastor,
I'm often privileged
to see this picture.
Remember your promise
to love.
And I see it most
often in marriages,
but not on the
wedding day.
But when things
are really dark
and things are
really bad,
and there seems
like there's no
hope,
and oftentimes
what is said,
even with people
that don't confess
Christ,
I remember,
remember that you
promised to love me.
I've heard that on
more than one occasion,
and I'm always
struck by that
because that
is the picture
that we are
claiming of God,
except for
he has never
stopped loving us.
in spite of our sin.
And David is
pleading that promise
on his own behalf.
But we have
that assurance,
again,
the pleading for it,
but the assurance
of forgiveness.
Look at verse 11.
For your name's sake,
O Lord,
pardon my guilt,
for it is great.
There's a sense
of expectation
that David has
because he's dealing
with his people.
He says,
because of the covenant,
because of the promise,
do these things.
Not because of
anything in myself,
but because of
what you have done.
The same is true
in the gospel.
That we are not
claiming eternal life
on anything
that we have done.
This message
that we have
in the good news
of Jesus
is because of
your love,
O Lord,
because of who you are,
because of your promise
that we should love.
Please love us
because of that.
There's a comfort
and that forgiveness
when we know
that we are in Christ,
that God
is faithful
to his promise
because of his covenant.
So David can call
for deliverance.
He can call
for guidance.
He can even call
for forgiveness.
But that center point,
that inflection
of this whole psalm
is God himself.
Look with me
at verses 8 and 10.
Good and upright
is the Lord,
therefore he instructs
the sinners in the way.
He leads the humble
in what is right.
He teaches the humble
his way.
And all the paths
of the Lord
are steadfast love
and faithfulness
for those who keep
his covenant
and his testimonies.
We can feel that
because it's not
to you, O Lord.
We see that it's kind of
like in third person now.
It's about God himself.
He is the center point
of all of what's going on.
He's the center point
of David's life,
even in the midst
of not knowing
how to feel
or what to do,
but he's also
the center point
of this text.
It's a shift,
not pleading,
but statements
about God,
who he is.
The difficulty though,
we know this
from our experiences,
we can gloss over
that really quickly.
We can be consumed
by how we feel
in the moment,
but David is encouraging us
to go back
to that reference point,
to God himself.
himself,
who's at the center
because he's not silent,
he is not absent.
In fact,
he is the one delivering,
giving guidance,
and even forgiving sin.
And that's the beauty
of the Savior.
That's the beauty
of Jesus,
the fact that we have
Christ who intercedes
even now,
that God has sent
his son
to be the focal point
of our lives.
I've kind of made
a big deal
throughout this sermon
about the structure
of Psalm 25.
Now,
not every Psalm
is structured like this,
but the ones that are,
it's very telling
when it doesn't follow
that model.
There's one part
that doesn't follow
this whole model,
and it's the last verse.
Redeem Israel,
O God,
out of his troubles.
It's a misstep
in this flow.
But in that misstep,
we see that it's not
just David's experience.
It's the experience
of God's people.
This calling back
for God
to be the center point
of our lives.
So that we might cry
in the midst of storm
for deliverance,
ask for instruction,
but most of all,
we are crying
and asking the Lord
to be the focus
of our lives.
May we do that this day.
Let's pray.
Lord,
we are thankful
for the reminder
from your word
of your promises
in Scripture.
We ask that you might
remind us,
even now,
that you are to be
the focal point
of our lives,
that we are offered
forgiveness in the gospel.
May we plead for it,
and Father,
may we be assured of it.
In our times of trouble
and distress,
may you give us instruction.
May we plead for it.
May you grant us it.
And Father,
even in the presence
of our enemies,
just like your servant David,
may we plead for deliverance,
and may we be assured of it
in all these things
because of what Christ has done.
We ask this in Christ's name.
Amen.