Psalm 25 - The Goodness of God
1 To You, O Yahweh, I lift up my soul. 2 O my God, in You I trust, Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies exult over me. 3 Indeed, let none who hope in You be ashamed; Let those who deal treacherously without cause be ashamed.
4 Make me know Your ways, O Yahweh; Teach me Your paths. 5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; In You I hope all the day. 6 Remember, O Yahweh, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses, For they have been from of old. 7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; According to Your lovingkindness remember me, For the sake of Your goodness, O Yahweh. 8 Good and upright is Yahweh; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. 9 May He lead the humble in justice, And may He teach the humble His way. 10 All the paths of Yahweh are lovingkindness and truth To those who guard His covenant and His testimonies. 11 For Your name’s sake, O Yahweh, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
12 Who is the man who fears Yahweh? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. 13 His soul will abide in goodness, And his seed will inherit the land. 14 The secret of Yahweh is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant. 15 My eyes are continually toward Yahweh, For He will bring my feet out of the net.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am alone and afflicted. 17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses. 18 See my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins. 19 See my enemies, for they are many, And they hate me with violent hatred. 20 Keep my soul and deliver me; Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You. 21 Let integrity and uprightness guard me, For I hope in You. 22 Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all his troubles.
Introduction
This is going to be a study through Psalm 25, with particular emphasis on the goodness of God.
The first question that might come to mind when we consider the "goodness of God" is, what exactly do we mean by "goodness"? In this case, it it his moral character. It is that attribute of his that is upstream from his righteousness, his compassion and his holiness.
In truth, we can't really separate out the "goodness" of God from his other attributes, such as his benevolence, mercy, grace, and justice. The various studies I read through on the topic of the goodness of God focused in on his moral character. Is God a "good" God?
Psalm 25 reflects on God's character by considering his actions toward his creation. Truly, the infinite glories of the Lord cannot be directly discerned by us, so we may only really understand his character by considering the outworking of it.
We should also remember that when we are confronted with aspects of God that appear to be in conflict that the conflict is in our own understanding and not in his character. As AA Hodge put it:
Goodness and justice are the several aspects of one unchangeable, infinitely wise, and sovereign moral perfection. God is not sometimes merciful and sometimes just, nor so far merciful and so far just, but he is eternally infinitely merciful and just. Relatively to the creature this infinite perfection of nature presents different aspects, as is determined by the judgment which infinite wisdom delivers in each individual case.
Thus, when God acts toward us in a particular manner that appears to highlight one of his attributes over the others, this in no way lessens the reality of his eternal, infinite and unchanging character.
An Appeal
With that, let us jump into our Psalm:
1 To You, O Yahweh, I lift up my soul. 2 O my God, in You I trust, Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies exult over me. 3 Indeed, let none who hope in You be ashamed; Let those who deal treacherously without cause be ashamed.
This is a Psalm of David, and is written as an acrostic. In Hebrew, the lines begin with the ascending letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This is actually a fairly common device in the Bible, designed to make it easier for people to remember.
Here David, as is often the case, is appealing to the Lord for his temporal salvation. This sets the stage for the various reflections on who God is that he is going to be making throughout the Psalm. It is note-worthy that, in the Biblical usage, salvation is both a temporal and a spiritual affair. This is one of the reasons why we should never understand salvation as exclusively about "going to heaven".
He is calling on God to protect not just him, but to generally be faithful to his people. David calls on God to save and protect those who trust in him, while simultaneously calling upon God to bring justice to those who deal treacherously.
As is frequently the case, especially in the Psalms, there is a fundamental divide between those who are aligned with God and those who reject him. This is in fact the fundamental distinction that Scripture makes between men. The reality is that God is truly the King and creator of the universe and we are under a moral obligation to give him our faith, our trust and our allegiance. The fact that we have rebelled against him ought to prompt our speedy repentance.
Those who do not acknowledge the reality and authority of God, and especially of Christ, now that all authority on heaven and earth has been given to him are just not acknowledging the reality of the situation. This is what we have been called to in the Great Commission. The Good News is that the world, for all its brokenness and sin and misery, is now being redeemed under the authority of the One True King, Jesus Christ. While we all have rebelled against him, he is merciful and patient toward us, giving us yet another day to repent and turn to him, giving our hearts to him in faith. Those who run to his mercy will never be ashamed, as David recognizes in verse 3. Those who remain in treacherous rebellion will find that all of their efforts to throw off his authority come to nothing.
4 Make me know Your ways, O Yahweh; Teach me Your paths. 5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; In You I hope all the day.
David knows that he has much to learn about what it means to be a loyal servant of God Most High, so he asks God for the guidance he needs. We are broken by nature, born into a state of sin and misery such that our moral sensitivity is far askew. It is due to God's common grace that people are not as bad as they could be. Despite the wickedness that you can look at strewn across the pages of history or the newspaper, God never entirely takes away an awareness of his truth and real morality.
That said, our intuitions about "good" are not a reliable guide. That is one reason God has given us his word, so that we can adjust our intuitions away from what we learned in school and towards what God thinks. Since "goodness" itself has its source in the character of God, it is his paths that we ought to seek. The Spirit of God speaks to each one of us and promises that he who seeks shall find.
Therefore David asks for the Lord's paths and to be led in his truth. The God who saves, who redeems his people is our only hope for such knowledge of what it is to serve a truly good God. We ask him to teach us the paths, through the reflection on his truth, ie: his word.
The goodness of God is reflected in the morality on demonstration in his word, in his kindness toward us by sharing his truth with us, and by the fact that he is the God who saves.
Forgiveness
6 Remember, O Yahweh, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses, For they have been from of old. 7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; According to Your lovingkindness remember me, For the sake of Your goodness, O Yahweh.
A man who has the presence of mind and wisdom to seek out the paths of God, to be instructed in the ways of the Lord will also have the awareness that he himself has not been a loyal servant as he ought.
He looks to the character of God again, that he is a compassionate and graceful God. This is a God who forgives, who is not vindictive against someone who is repentant. His statement, these characteristic have been "of old" is a reference to the eternal character of his goodness.
Thus, based on this he appeals for God to forgive his sins. As an aside, it is good practice to confess your wrongdoing to God and seek his forgiveness, even knowing that, in a sense, if you are a Christian, you are already forgiven. There is an experiential quality to the confession and assurance of God's forgiveness that is valuable.
Note that it is based on Yahweh's "goodness" that David appeals. When we ask God for something, we ought to keep in mind his character and his values. The goodness of God leads him to be willing to forgive, to give us grace. Thus we know that when we approach him on that basis, that he will respond in the fashion we expect.
8 Good and upright is Yahweh; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. 9 May He lead the humble in justice, And may He teach the humble His way. 10 All the paths of Yahweh are lovingkindness and truth To those who guard His covenant and His testimonies. 11 For Your name’s sake, O Yahweh, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
Furthermore, because of his infinite goodness, God condescends to teach his truth even to those who rebelled against him. He gives wisdom to those who are willing to humble themselves before him.
Humility is multi-faceted, but the most essential definition of what it means to be humble before God is to see appropriately his authority and superiority. A humble man sees no concern about kneeling before his rightful God. This posture of submission toward God is the prerequisite to learn his way.
And what is God's way? God's way is the way of grace and of truth, both for the person who is practicing it and toward the person who keeps God's covenant and his word.
Without going into too much detail, the person who guards "His covenant and His testimonies" is a person who is faithful to God and genuinely follows him and his word. But of course, we do not always do as we should, and thus the request to forgive iniquity. It is a feature of God's word from the earliest days that much of it is concerned with how to be forgiven for our failure to truly follow God.
But a repentant man is truly following God. It is a great sign of God's goodness and grace that a third of his Law had to do with what you should do when you break it. Thus we should recall that the distinction is not between someone who "does good" and someone who "sins" naively considered, but between someone who desires to place himself under God's forgiving and loving hand and one who desires to rebel against that loving care.
Perfection is never in view in the Scripture for fallen man, and we won't see it this side of heaven. But God does promise us freedom from sin through the Spirit, by which we put to death our rebellion. This is the same process David is explaining here, that God teaches us his paths and leads us in his truth, pardoning our iniquity for his name's sake.
Once again, David is calling upon God to forgive, not because David deserves it, but because God is good and merciful and it is consistent with his character to forgive. This is what it means when he says "for your name's sake".
Practical Humility
12 Who is the man who fears Yahweh? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. 13 His soul will abide in goodness, And his seed will inherit the land. 14 The secret of Yahweh is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant. 15 My eyes are continually toward Yahweh, For He will bring my feet out of the net.
I have been saying that the posture of a man must be submissive toward God's authority and goodness for us to truly learn what it means to serve him. Here David makes that point more explicitly. The man who fears Yahweh is a man who has his head on straight. It's an interesting paradox in Scripture that in some ways we ought not to fear God, because he is kind and good and merciful toward sinners, and in another sense, we'd be fools if we did not fear him.
A good and righteous God before whom all evil melts ought to give our souls pause when we consider rebelling against his word. A person who recognizes God's power and authority and his hatred of evil should be deeply concerned about offending him. This is a man that fears the Lord and will therefore get the fruits of wisdom, being instructed in the way God wishes him to go.
And it is not simply that this is God's desire, but that this way is the right way to go. It is the right thing to do and the way of lasting peace and joy. God does not promise us entire release from pain and suffering in this life, but he does tell us that any other way is the way of fools and the way of judgment and pain.
The person who follows the instruction of God abides in goodness, meaning in this case, the personal experience of God's goodness trained specifically on you and your life, and your seed will inherit the land.
It is a common teaching in the Bible that the righteous inherit that which the wicked lay up. The term usually associated with this is the plundering of the nations. The person who is true and faithful to God can know that his children will be those that inherit, not the children of the slave woman who are cast out. Your line will not be cut off. It is a great curse in the Bible for your line to be cut off. God promises to be faithful to a thousand generations to those who love him and keep his commandments. It is nothing new to know that the righteous man's children's children will establish a great legacy and displace the wicked.
For it is the man who respects God's authority and seeks to avoid offending his goodness that understands the mind of God. His secrets and his mysteries are open to the person who submits themselves to his word, letting your heart and thinking be transformed by what the word says, instead of trying to make it say what you think it should. That is the person to whom the blessings of the covenant will flow. Thus, David always orients himself to God, knowing that whatever temporal afflictions will come to him, God is a God who rescues, because he is good.
A Final Cry
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am alone and afflicted. 17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses. 18 See my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins. 19 See my enemies, for they are many, And they hate me with violent hatred. 20 Keep my soul and deliver me; Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You. 21 Let integrity and uprightness guard me, For I hope in You. 22 Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all his troubles.
But for all of David's assertions about the goodness, righteousness and faithfulness of God, he is also not experiencing that salvation in this moment. While God is good and merciful, he does not always regard our timeframe in the way we might desire or expect. David is hurting, lonely and beaten down. But he knows that if he is to be relieved of his distress, that it must be God who does so.
He also recognizes in verse 18 that much of his affliction and trouble are due to his own sin. He requires forgiveness above all things. His first and primary concern is to make his heart be in alignment with God and thus he repents, calling on God to cleanse him from his sin.
Because although the judicial cleansing that we call justification is often the thing we keep in view when we consider forgiveness, as the point was made above, experiential cleansing is just as much in view with "salvation" in the Scriptures. A penitent man does not wish merely to be saved from sin after death, but to be relieved of its burden here in life, so while forgiveness is, in a way, accomplished, it is also a present need in our lives.
David repeats his call that those who trust in God should not be ashamed, but this time he personalizes it. It is not simply the people of God, but he himself that is claiming the promise of God in this respect. It is good practice for us to claim the promises of God for our own. We can know that because we are placing ourselves in his hands, that we can request that we not be ashamed, that we will be delivered.
He further asks for God's sanctifying Spirit to work in his heart, that he would be a man of integrity and uprightness, through faith. If we wish to be people of integrity and we wish to be upright, the path is not through our weak flesh but through trust and continual submission to God's authority and kindness.
He lastly sounds a Messianic note, that some day God would not just deliver the individual, not simply relieve personal sufferings, but to bring his people to salvation as a people. Israel was weak, broken by its own sin, under constant judgment by God for its wickedness and was in desperate need for redemption. They needed a true king to lead God's people in victory, not merely temporary victory, but world-conquering victory.
Those that did not read the Scriptures with wisdom thought perhaps that this conquest would be militaristic, but Christ slays with the sword of his word. The gospel's power, the authority of Christ, is how the conquest happens, how the redemption of Israel, God's chosen people, will be accomplished.
Concluding Thoughts
Therefore we see God's goodness in various aspects through this Psalm:
He is a God who protects his people
He is a God who does not let His enemies triumph
He is a God who teaches us his truth
He is a God who saves, and is merciful
He is a God who gives grace and compassion to the undeserving
He is a God who gives grace to a thousand generations
He is a God who rescues the distressed
He is a God who forgives
He is a God who gives victory to His people.
It is true that, as his creations, even if God were not a good God, we would owe him our allegiance and our submission to his authority. We are his creations and he is our rightful king, whether he is good or not. How much more should we rejoice that our king and Lord is a good and merciful and kind one.