# 23 2016 Dev. Ps.25:4-5 The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Psalm 25:4-5
“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.
5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.”
The Psalter is a book of prayer and praise consisting of 150 psalms divided into five books. They were and are used as a liturgical resource in temple and synagogue worship and used extensively in churches today. Psalm 25 is part of a larger section, Ps. 25-33 highlighting prayer and praise. The Psalm is an acrostic poem that represents a prayer of David.
We know very little of the back story of David’s prayer. We don’t know the time of writing nor what precipitated this prayer but is was a time of loss and strong opposition to David and to Israel as well. The prayer is personal and intimate switching back and forth from the first person to the second person and ends with a plea for the whole nation of Israel.
The verses we have for this week are particularly intimate and are balanced with verses six and seven. Verse 4-5 are a plea for God’s instruction: “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.” We live in a world where we are bombarded with every conceivable alternate way of living that are apposed to the way of the Lord. Christians and churches are not recognizing these alternatives as unscriptural. The whole issue of gender conflict in people that is front and center right now is an example of what followers of Jesus are faced with. God’s ways are clear in Scripture but now it appears that everything is open to interpretation. Therefore, the second part of this verse (prayer) is essential: “teach me your paths.” Teach us Lord how to walk in today’s world!
David doubles down on this request in verse 5: “Guide me in your truth and teach me.” We tend to think we can do this: walking and living in todays world on our own, we can’t! Lord send us your Spirit to revive us, to guide us, to teach us again as in the past. “Open the eyes of our hearts Lord” so that we see. Remove the scales of self will, of arrogance, of today’s culture pressure and our misguided desire to fit into it, from our spiritual eyes in our hearts. “For you are God my (our) Savior,” … When does our arrogance and our current cultural interpretation of Scripture become a matter of salvation? Is our hope in God all day long?
David balances his request for instruction with praising God’s mercy, asking God not to remember his sins but to remember his loving kindness to him and acknowledges that “God is good (v. 6-7). May we all pray this prayer David prays in v. 4-7 in these troubling times. “My hope is in you all day long”, O God!
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