Psalms 25

Lift up the soul—direct desire and prayer to the LORD alone. The psalm opens with personal address: To you, O LORD.

Soul-lifting is free trust, not theatrical gesture. Grace enables the lift; the hearer must still refuse divided hopes and bring the soul to God.

Calvin: David is not driven hither and thither after the ungodly’s manner, but directs all desires and prayers to God alone. Nothing is more inconsistent with sincere prayer than to waver and gaze about for worldly help while forsaking God.

The psalmist lifts his whole soul to the LORD. Hope fixed in God, not ensnared by the world’s allurements.

Wesley: Ashamed—disappointed of my hope. Trust names the wing by which the soul rises; shame would be hope’s collapse before exulting enemies.

Trust and the plea not to be put to shame belong together. Enemies must not write the last word on the one who trusts. Keep trusting; ask that hope not be disappointed.

Calvin: by trust he confirms the lifting of the soul; faith and hope are the wings by which souls rise above this world to God. He asks not to be put to shame from the ordinary doctrine of Scripture—they who trust in God shall never be ashamed. Enemies are scourges God may restrain.

Trust that will not end in shame. Deliverance also checks the pride of enemies who mock God by their prosperity.

Wesley: Cause—without any provocation of mine (on the treacherous who should be ashamed). None who wait for the LORD shall be put to shame.

Waiting is persevering trust the hearer must continue. Shame falls on wanton treachery, not on those who wait. The promise is pastoral fuel for patient hope—keep waiting; do not switch to treacherous shortcuts.

Calvin: none of those that wait on thee shall be ashamed; the fruit of deliverance extends as an example that revives the children of God and casts down the arrogance of the wicked. Waiting is the property of faith that looks to God and patiently expects the aid he has promised.

Waiting is faith’s fixed gaze, secured by promise—not a gamble the soul invents. Shame belongs to those who deal falsely without cause.

Wesley: Teach—teach me my duty, and cause me to keep close to it, notwithstanding all temptations.

Ask to know his ways and be taught his paths. Grace teaches; the hearer must still receive duty and cling to it when temptation pulls aside. Teachability is prayed for, then practiced.

Calvin: make me to know thy ways—keep thy servant in the firm persuasion of thy promises; do not suffer him to turn aside. Adversities are like mists; even a prophet needs divine instruction lest he take sinful devices and forbidden paths.

God must teach the paths. Teaching steadies the heart under promise so impatience and revenge do not seize the wheel.

Lead in truth and teach—because he is the God of my salvation. I wait for you all day long. Waiting and teaching belong in one breath.

Salvation’s God teaches; the hearer waits all day, not for a moment. Teachability and waiting are lived diligence grace enables and the soul must keep.

Calvin: lead me in thy truth and teach me; by calling God the God of his salvation he strengthens hope from benefits already received. All the day—fixed and untiring constancy depending upon God alone. It is the property of faith always to look to God and patiently wait for the aid he has promised.

Truth-led teaching under the God of salvation. Waiting all day is faith’s constancy, fed by remembered salvation, not bare grit.

Remember mercy and steadfast love—from of old. The plea is not that God invent kindness, but that he act from mercies already his character.

Mercy older than this crisis. Ask him to remember what he has always been toward his people. Hope rests on steadfast love, not on the psalmist’s recent performance.

Calvin: remember thy tender mercies—David had so lost the sense of mercy that he asks God to remember as if God had forgotten. Yet God cannot deny himself; he has been merciful from the beginning. Though goodness seem buried, it can never be extinguished.

He appeals to mercies God has shown from of old. When God hides his face, fight to present this prayer: he returns to his former manner because mercy is natural to him.

Remember not youth’s sins or transgressions; according to steadfast love remember me, for goodness’ sake. Pardon is pleaded before deliverance is presumed.

Free remembrance according to love, not according to the ledger of youth. The hearer must ask this blotting-out; goodness’ sake, not merit, is the ground.

Calvin: sins are a wall between us and God; the right order of prayer begins with forgiveness. He traces sins to childhood—not to claim only light faults, but to bow under the accumulated load. According to thy compassion remember me—two opposite rememberings: wrath’s visit, or fatherly regard when sins are cast into oblivion.

Blot out sin for goodness’ sake. Without free pardon there is no hope of favor; affliction drives the godly to seek reconciliation, not merely relief.

Wesley: Upright—holy and true, in all his declarations and offers of mercy to sinners. Therefore—he will not be wanting to such poor sinners as I am, but will guide them into the way of life and peace.

The LORD’s goodness means serious offers of mercy and instruction for sinners who will be guided. Grace is held out; poor sinners may come and be taught the way of life.

Calvin: as God is good and upright, he stretches forth his hand to sinners to bring them back. To limit uprightness to the worthy is cold and of little advantage to sinners. Preventing grace: if God do not prevent men by his grace, they shall all utterly perish—calling at first by regenerating the corrupt nature, or bringing back those who have gone astray.

Instruction of sinners is God’s initiating mercy that makes the rebellious docile—not a general offer waiting on prior worthiness.

Wesley: The meek—such as meekly submit themselves to God, and are desirous to be directed and governed by him. Judgment—in the paths of judgment, in the right way.

The humble are led and taught. Meekness is a submitted desire to be governed; grace forms it, and the hearer must still yield to direction.

Calvin: he guides the poor—those first humbled, then kindly led. Docility is not found until the naturally proud heart is subdued. God moulds by the cross to humility, then shows himself a wise father guiding through life.

Humble taught his way. The order is God’s: first humble, then lead—not self-made meekness climbing into the classroom.

Wesley: Paths—all the dealings of God with them, yea even those that are afflictive, are done in kindness and faithfulness to them.

Steadfast love and faithfulness mark the LORD’s paths for covenant-keepers. Affliction is not abandonedness; keep covenant and testimonies, and read even hard dealings as kindness.

Calvin: all the ways of Jehovah are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant—not a description of the law’s sweetness in general, but God’s paternal conduct toward his people. Covenant and testimony comprehend the doctrine by which God enters into covenant with his chosen.

Mercy and truth on the paths of those who keep covenant. Experience of that mercy is a treasure of the godly who persevere in his covenant, not of those who flee his presence in prosperity or rage in adversity.

Wesley: For—or, though it be great. Possibly he speaks of his sin against Uriah and Bathsheba. Great—or, much or manifold.

Great guilt is not a reason to stop asking—though it be great, pardon for your name’s sake. The penitent brings manifold sin into the open and pleads the name, not self-excuse.

Calvin: for thy name’s sake—God pardons from no other cause than his own good pleasure. Mine iniquity is great or manifold: the burden might deprive of hope, but the infinite glory of thy name will not suffer thee to cast me off. Without free remission we have no reason to expect any reward of our works.

Pardon for the name’s sake is free remission grounded in God alone. Great guilt drives to that plea, not to works that reopen the door.

Wesley: Chuse—which God appointeth. The one who fears the LORD is instructed in the way God chooses.

Fear of the LORD marks the teachable. Instruction is for the God-fearer; the way chosen is the way God appoints, not private invention.

Calvin: who is the man that fears Jehovah?—few are in earnest. Provided they submit with pious docility, God will direct them by the Spirit to choose the right way. This grace is not earned by prior efforts that insinuate into favor; God first teaches transgressors, then still guides the meek.

The fear of God and his instruction go together. The rare fear of God is itself under grace; teaching continues for those already subdued to learn.

Wesley: At ease—Heb. in Good; possession and enjoyment of the true good. The land—Canaan; earnest of the whole Covenant of Grace and all its promises.

Well-being and inheritance tied to fearing the LORD. Canaan points beyond itself to covenant promise; offspring share the blessing of the God-fearer’s way.

Calvin: his soul shall dwell in good—godliness has promise of this life and the life to come. The godly may be tried, yet in comparison with despisers they are blessed, assured God is present. Seed inheriting the land shows favor continued beyond the servant’s death.

Well-being under God’s care and posterity in the land. Blessing is historical now insofar as expedient, and death does not erase the God who blesses even others for his servants’ sake.

Wesley: The secret—his love and favour, known to none but him that enjoyeth it. Will shew—he will make them clearly to understand it, both its duties and its blessings; neither of which ungodly men rightly understand.

Friendship and covenant knowledge belong to those who fear him. Grace opens the secret; the God-fearer must still receive and walk in duties and blessings the ungodly misread.

Calvin: the counsel of Jehovah toward them that fear him—that he may make known his covenant. The covenant is a secret surpassing human comprehension; yet those who serve with upright desire are brought by the Spirit to that wisdom. Indirect rebuke of those who boast interest in the covenant while resting in the letter without saving fear.

Covenant disclosure is God’s gift to those who fear him—not a prize for those who claim the covenant’s label without piety.

Wesley: Pluck—he will deliver me out of all my troubles. Eyes ever toward the LORD—fixed attention that expects rescue from the net.

Keep looking to the LORD. Deliverance from the net is trusted outcome of that gaze; the hearer must not stare at the trap alone.

Calvin: mine eyes are continually toward Jehovah—persevering faith that encourages prayer. He is emphatic: content with God alone, not gazing around for various methods of escape. Hope associated with desire: he will bring my feet out of the net.

Continual eyes on the LORD. Confidence that he alone plucks from the net, not a portfolio of backups.

Turn to me, and have mercy—lonely and afflicted. The plea assumes God may seem turned away; grace is asked as face and favor restored.

Desolation is spoken honestly. Ask him to turn; loneliness does not annul the right to plead for grace.

Calvin: have respect unto me and pity me—as if God had neglected him before. Alone and poor allude to promises that God is present with the afflicted. Regard from God’s good pleasure opens the hand of help.

Turn and be gracious to the solitary poor. God’s promised nearness to the oppressed is the ground of the cry.

Troubles of the heart enlarged—inner anguish, not only outer foes. Bring me out of my distresses.

Name the flooded heart and ask for exit. Grace does not mock enlarged trouble; pray for rescue from distresses within.

Calvin: weight and number of trials filled the whole heart like a flood. When David’s heart was wholly filled with anguish, we need not wonder if temptation overwhelm us—ask that even at the point of despair God would succor.

Enlarged heart-trouble under God’s help. The Spirit sets this complaint so minds may not fail under multitude or weight of afflictions.

Consider affliction and trouble, and forgive all my sins. Outer pain and inner guilt are brought in one petition.

He asks for forgiveness along with relief. Do not ask only for eased circumstances; seek pardon for all sins while affliction is considered.

Calvin: to find remedy, David again prays that sins may be pardoned—he cannot expect divine favor unless first reconciled by free pardon. Those who want only bodily deliverance and bury sins are insensible. As often as God afflicts, examine the heart and seek reconciliation.

Consider trouble and forgive sins together. So long as sins remain unpardoned, God has just ground of displeasure; relief without pardon is unskilled medicine.

See how many my enemies are; they hate me with cruel hatred. The psalm does not minimize opposition.

Count the foes before God. Violent hatred is laid open so the lonely afflicted are not gaslit into silence.

Calvin: number and cruelty of enemies—the more the people of God are oppressed, the more God is inclined to aid. Hatred of violence means cruel, sanguinary hatred; nothing short of death would satisfy them.

His enemies are many, and their hatred is violent. Magnitude of danger is itself argument in prayer for the guardian God.

Wesley: Soul—my life. Guard my soul and deliver me; don’t let me be disappointed, for I take refuge in you. Refuge and the shame-plea return from v. 2.

Refuge is personal trust. Ask for guarded life and unbroken hope; keep taking refuge rather than switching patrons.

Calvin: preserve my soul and deliver me—extreme danger. That I may not be ashamed: prayer tied to trust in God. Nothing better imparts holy ardor to prayer than sincere testimony that we confide in God; ask him to increase hope when small, awaken it when dormant, confirm when wavering.

Guard and deliver the refuge-taker. Shame refused because trust is genuine; God himself must uphold that hope.

Integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. Waiting again—now joined to a plea that character hold under pressure.

Wait, and ask that integrity not collapse. Grace sustains uprightness; the waiter must still refuse revenge and deceit while hoping in God.

Calvin: integrity and uprightness preserve me—rectitude among men so persecution is unmerited; yet he has thrice confessed just affliction for sin. Saints come humbly for forgiveness and still set forth a good cause. Waiting on God with meek spirit suffers rather than contend unrighteously. Trust in God is essential—justice on our side without depending on his protection is not enough.

Integrity with waiting. Upright conduct plus confidence in God’s promised defense—not integrity as self-salvation, nor waiting as excuse for guile.

Wesley: Israel—if thou wilt not help me, yet spare thy people who suffer for my sake, and in my sufferings.

Personal lament widens to the people’s redemption. Ask God to redeem Israel out of all his troubles; private pain is not the only horizon.

Calvin: redeem Israel from all his troubles—domestic oppressors; the Church under hard bondage. He respects not merely his own benefit but the state of the whole realm. Mutual communion requires that every individual unite with others in lamentation before God; afflictions are common to the body of the faithful.

Both traditions see: Redeem Israel. Private miseries are prayed inside the Church’s public trouble; faith is confirmed when the sufferer knows the wrongs are common to God’s people.