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Sunday, March 01, 2009

1st Sunday in Lent 3/01/09 Text: Psalm 25:1-10

1st Sunday in Lent
3/01/09
Text: Psalm 25:1-10
This morning, I want to share with you some thoughts on our Psalm for today, Psalm 25. It is an appropriate Psalm for the season of Lent, because it is a Psalm of repentant prayer, by a great man of God.
King David like many of us learned the lessons of life at the school of hard knocks. As king of a country that everyone wanted to overthrow he spent most of his time in battle. But his problems did not stop there, for not only did he have the problems that come with ruling a mighty nation, he had his personal demons to wrestle with, plus the problems in his family. King David was a mighty man of God, but he was also a sinful human being and we can learn much from studying his prayers which we call Psalms.
We have all, at one time or another have been through the school of hard knocks. We have not listened to those God has put over us for our good. We have turned our back on the Word of God. And for some of us we have watched helplessly as some of our children have trotted off, all to eagerly, to that same school, despite our telling them that they will regret their decision.
The Psalm starts with David lifting up his soul to the Lord. This is not a momentary lifting up for the Hebrew means to continually lift up. David is putting his whole being in the hands of the Lord. And why shouldn’t he, for he states that he trusts in God. In the English translation it comes across as begging God to not let him down, but the thought of verse 2 is that he knows God will not let him down, as we see in verse 3 where David states, “Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.” David knows that God will do what is right, whatever it is that God wants to do for him.
That brings us to verse 4 where we read. “Make me to know your ways O Lord; teach me your paths.” What did David mean? Did he mean that he wanted God to give intellectual knowledge, such as you would get if you were in school? The mighty King David would have already known most of the Torah, the five books of Moses. He most certainly knew the Ten Commandments. More than likely he had learned them at an early age. I am sure that he could have recited much of the Torah, and expounded on what the scribes and Rabbis of the day had to say about each of the Commandments, plus how each was to be applied in his and his subjects’ daily life. He knew God’s will as it was written down in the Torah.
Maybe King David was seeking God’s will for a specific situation in his life, but I don’t think that he was doing that either, at least in this Psalm, for there are other Psalms of David that express David’s desire for God to help him out of a particular mess.
David is not praying for what I would call head knowledge, or to get himself out of a particular mess. In this Psalm David is praying that he be made teachable. You see that in the words he uses in verse 4, “Make me 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 day long.”
What he is praying in this Psalm is that he be made teachable, so that he could internalize God’s Word in such a way that Word could become the guiding force in his life. In other words, he was asking that he learn on a gut level the things God wanted him to know. King David wanted God to be such an integral part of his life, because in all honesty, he did not want to keep attending the school of hard knocks. He had been there, done that, and it was not fun.
King David knew that he had to internalize God’s Word. He knew he had to move from just believing God’s Word, to having faith in God’s Word, for believing and having faith are two different things. You can believe in God and his love toward you, as it is shown through Jesus life. You can believe that God will care for you. You can believe that God is king of kings and Lord of Lords, and not have faith, for faith is an action word. Faith is acting on God’s Word and his promises. Faith is throwing aside what those of the world teach and relying on God.
That is what King David is praying for in this Psalm. He wants to go the next step, the step toward an active faith. King David’s prayer, especially verse 4, “Make me to know your ways O Lord; teach me your paths,” is a prayer that every Christian should pray and pray frequently.
Most of us know some of the Bible, some of us know a lot about the Bible and God’s will for Christ’s followers. We have no problem telling the difference between right and wrong, especially the wrong in others. I believe that Christians, as a rule, have head knowledge of God’s Word, but I wonder, as I see how so many Christians live their lives, unforgiving, hating those not like them, speaking wrongly about those God has put over them, the list could go on and on, that they have not internalized what we call faith.
I say that because we only have to look at Galatians 5:19-26 to see the difference between those who walk the ways of the world and those who walk the way of God. “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
To walk in the Spirit is to walk in faith. This is not say that we do not have faith when we fall into any of the sins mentioned, for we are a sinful people, but it does mean that we should not stay in those sins, and that we should repent and try to repair any damage they might have caused to a fellow Christian. If there is no striking of the conscience, no desire to repent then there is only head knowledge; no faith, no Spirit.
Having faith is critical for one’s salvation, for even the demons have knowledge of God. If you are having a hard time internalizing the Word of God I would say that just like mighty King David verse 4 of this Psalm is for you. “Make me to know your ways O Lord; teach me your paths.”
How then do we make ourselves more teachable, so that the Word of God can strengthen our faith, so that we can live better lives giving God honor and glory in all we do? Let’s see. First we humble ourselves before God, so that, as verse 9 tells us, “He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble is way.” We have to realize that we are still unworthy of God’s love and forgiveness even as we worship our God today, that without the work of the Holy Spirit we cannot come or stay in the saving faith.
Second, we can learn from verse one that we need to be continually open to the teaching of God. We need to learn that we don’t know it all and that he has some things he can teach us to the day we die.
Third, we learn from verse 7, that we are to be in repentance. We are too call on the God of mercy, for mercy, always remembering like King David, when he wrote asking for God’s forgiveness, “for the sake of your goodness, O, Lord.” King David knew that God’s goodness is perfect. David rested in that promise. We should too. There is no sin too great that God cannot forgive. He has already paid the price on your behalf.
Last, but not least, we learn in this prayer the reason for our wanting to be spiritually instructed by our loving God. King David writes, “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.” We, like mighty King David, need to be instructed by God, so that our lives are better.
So today in the ten verses of Psalm 25 that we looked at today we learned that we need to be humble before God admitting our inability to learn on our own. We learned that we need to always be accessible to his teachings. We learned that we are to repent of whatever it is that keeps us from being taught the spiritual truths that God wants to teach us. Last, but not least, we learned that when we are taught by God our paths of this life will be filled with his steadfast love and faithfulness.
The question that each of us has to answer for our self this morning is, “Am I ready to move from head knowledge? Am I ready to set aside my pride, be taught by God the spiritual things of God, so that I can better keep his covenant and his testimonies?” I pray so, for that is how you move from intellectual belief to an active faith living your life in the promises of God. Amen.