Sermon Transcript
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; 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 toward 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 distresses.
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, refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.
Thanks.
We are continuing our series in the Psalms looking at when and how to pray. So far in this series, we’ve talked about the importance of adoration in our prayers. That’s praising God, celebrating what he has done. And we do that, we adore him, not because he’s an egomaniac that needs lots of affirmation, but we do so, we Um, because appreciation, encouragement, cheering for one another, all those are essential in any good healthy relationship. That was week 1.
Then last week we talked about trust and how to increase our trust in God, because again, as with any other relationship, we must have trust in order to have anything else. If a relationship doesn’t have trust, it’s not really a relationship. So of course we need that in our relationship with God. That was last week. Today, uh, what we’re studying is again part of really any relationship, but, but it seems to be something that we seek out more from God than we do from anyone else.
In fact, it might be the most commonly asked question that pastors receive, which is, what decision does God want me to make? Which way is the way that God wants me to go with my life? What does God want me to do in this circumstance? So, you know, high school students ask, which college should I pick? Or around here, middle school students ask, which high school should I pick?
Um, probably somewhere when we were a teenager, a little bit later, we began to wonder, what is God’s will for this relationship? Should I end it? Should we continue it? Should we go further? You get a little older, it’s who should I marry?
And professionally, we wonder, what opportunity should we take? Should we move? Should we not move? How do we help our kids because they seem off track? Like, what do we do?
When to retire? What treatment option medically is the best? We have all kinds of questions. Throughout our entire life, and we want guidance. So we look up to the heavens for the help to make those decisions.
We want to know from God, we specifically want to hear from him what we’re supposed to do. What does God want? What is his will? Those types of questions account for many of our prayers. And I can attest, people, when people ask me to pray for them, often it is they are looking for wisdom and guidance.
They want God to show them the way, for Him to make His path for their life obvious, to show them what they’re supposed to do.
So, how do we ask for that guidance in our prayers when we want to know which way to go? How should we pray? How does the Bible model for us to pray in those moments? Well, one such place is Psalm 25, and in Psalm 25 it’s David praying. He, for most of his life, life.
If you’re not familiar with him, most of his life he’s king of Israel, a little few interruptions in there. But David, in this psalm, he prays for God’s direction. He wants to follow wherever God may lead him, but he doesn’t know where that is, which is exactly what many of us want to know. Which way do I go, God? Now, in David’s case, we don’t know very much about the specific situation he was facing at the time that he prayed this prayer.
Was it before he was king? Was it after he became king? Beginning of his life? End of his life? We don’t have that context.
And that is actually true for most of the Psalms. We do not know the specific context in which the prayer was prayed. Some of the Psalms we do, if there’s a little footnote in the text, but the majority of these prayers that were written down, we don’t know what was happening in the life of the person who was praying specifically. And the good thing about that is that the prayers we see in the Psalms are universal in scope. It means we can pray them anytime, kind of regardless of the situation we’re in.
They still apply for our lives. From Psalm 25, about all that we can gather of what’s happening in David’s life comes from clues in verse 2 and 19, which is David has enemies and they are closing in on him. So verse 19, for instance, says, how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me. Okay, so somebody’s coming at him, right? He’s being chased by somebody, we can assume.
But if you are familiar with the Old Testament and stories of David, that kind of thing happened to David all the time, starting when he was a little kid. He fought Goliath, then Saul was after him, then the Philistines were always after him, and then his own son was after him at one point. He was always in a battle. Battle. He commanded soldiers, so he’s often at war.
He always had enemies. He was always in danger. That kind of thing was just a Tuesday for David. It was normal life. And in each of those situations, David had decisions to make— crucial decisions, life-and-death level decisions.
Do I, do I stay and fight or do I run? If I fight, what’s the battle strategy? If I run, which way do I go? Who should I bring with me? Who do I leave behind, maybe as a spy?
I mean, those decisions on every Tuesday of David’s life were he’s got to get them right decisions. Got to get them right. If he gets them wrong, he may not see next Tuesday. And what we know from the Old Testament, the narratives of David’s life recorded in other books of the Bible, we know that when David faced these decisions, often, all the time, over and over again, he usually sought the Lord’s counsel. He frequently asked God, what should I do here?
Which way should I go? And Psalm 25 is apparently one of those times. Which one of those times? No idea. Just one of the many, many times that it happened.
Enemies were closing in. He needs some direction, like we often need direction. So, as we study this Psalm, we will see his requests, why he believes his requests will be granted, and then why God will grant his requests. His request, why David believes his request will be granted, and then why God will grant those requests. So first, his requests are for rescue and direction.
Rescue and direction. We’ll talk about rescue first, even though most of his prayer is about direction.
Which way should he go? He also prays for a specific outcome that he wants. He doesn’t want to die. So he pleads for his life. Verse 20, guard my soul and deliver me.
He pleads for victory. Verse 2, let not my enemies exult over me. Like, don’t let these guys win. And then he pleads for his country at large. Verse 22, redeem Israel out of our troubles.
He petitions for all that. It’s bold, it’s clear, says precisely what he wants to God in this situation. In other words, he does not do this thing which sometimes Christians do where we feel like we can’t or we shouldn’t ask for what we want in a situation, as if it may be less spiritual if we made our own desires known. You know, for some of us, we may feel like the only acceptable kind of prayer is to pray, well, whatever you want to do, God, just do that. That’s all I want.
It’s whatever you want. Which, praying for God’s will is great, and we’ll talk about that shortly, but don’t skip over making your own desires very clear if you have them. You know, more than once, I’ve been in some kind of group where people are praying for each other. Fantastic. But maybe one guy in the group is really sick, maybe even terminally ill.
So he comes to this group, he asks the group to pray for his healing. Of course, right? I mean, he’s desperate, doctors can’t do anything, so he wants the Lord to intervene, right? So then he comes to this group and he asks for them to pray. Great!
Then someone starts praying and says something like, God, we don’t know what you want to happen in this situation with our sick brother. Maybe, Lord, your will is for him to be healed; maybe it’s not. Maybe he’s finished his race and it’s time for you to bring him home. But whatever your will is, Lord, healing or homecoming, we pray whatever it is that you want would happen.
And I’m listening to that prayer, and I’m like, how does the sick guy feel?
Right? I mean, he asked for prayers for healing. So, is he getting the message that he wasn’t supposed to ask for that? Is he getting the message he’s a lesser kind of Christian for wanting his health restored?
Right? And I’m like, mental note, never ask that guy to pray for me.
Jesus never treated people that way who asked for healing. He never scolded them for asking for healing. He never corrected them for wanting a specific outcome. He never said you should only pray for God’s will. So, if you want to be healed, pray for healing.
You want a job? Pray for the job. David prayed for rescue. He prayed for victory over his enemies. He was clear.
He was open. He was honest about what he wanted. Now, he also prayed for God’s direction, whatever that would be, which is important too. Submit our will to God’s. We’ll get there soon, but don’t skip over asking for whatever is in your heart that you are wanting to happen.
If you’re at the fork of a road, in a road of a decision that you need to make, you’re trying to choose between 2 options right now, and you have one that you would prefer, but maybe you don’t know if it’s the right one. If that’s the one you prefer, just pray for that outcome. Pray, pray for that future. Pray clearly, boldly. If God doesn’t want you to have it, good news, he won’t let you have it.
He’s still in charge. It’s not like you’re going to twist his arm into giving you something that’s bad for you, right? I mean, Jesus said, if you’re— even you, you people, even though you’re evil, You know how to give good gifts to your kids, right? How much more will your Father in Heaven give you what you ask if it’s actually good for you, right? So, you can ask.
Nothing wrong with that. David asked. He asked for rescue. He asked for victory. And then he also asked for direction.
It’s verse 4, make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths, verse 5. Lead me in your truth. He’s saying, God, I want to follow you wherever you want me to go. Your truth, God, your path distinct from mine.
Do you hear that? Your path, that’s what I want you to lead me. Now David’s like, my path where I want to go is victory. But alongside that, he’s praying for God to lead him wherever God is going. His prayer is kind of a longer version of what Jesus prays Garden of Gethsemane, may remember night before Jesus goes to the cross, he’s about to get arrested.
And Jesus prays. I mean, first, it’s like David. First, Jesus very clearly prays, get me out of this, Lord. You know, let this cup pass from me. As it’s very clear, this is what I want.
I want rescue boldly, clearly, no doubt about what he wants. But then Jesus adds, not my will, yours be done. Father, which is basically what David has prayed here. He says, I want out. I want to be rescued.
Shame my enemies, don’t shame me. But also, show me your way because I will follow you wherever you take me, Lord. The implication is that David would follow God even if that path did not lead to victory. And that’s not a hypothetical guess or empty words on David’s, uh, prayer, because there were times David followed God not toward victory. There was one instance, for example, David had an opportunity to kill Saul, his enemy.
1 Samuel 24. You know, Saul had been chasing David for years, trying to kill David, and now we’re in 1 Samuel 24 David was in this position and he could take Saul out. The tables were turned. Saul’s defenseless. David could end this whole chase, this whole war right here.
That would be victory. But David doesn’t think killing Saul in cold blood is the right thing to do. He doesn’t think it’s what God wants him to do, so he doesn’t do it. He doesn’t go that way, even though that way would be certain victory. So he follows God’s truth in the opposite direction from victory because he thought it’s where God was going.
Some of us need to hear that. Some of us need to add that kind of thing to our prayers. Earlier we said some of us need to hear that it’s okay and good and right to pray for exactly what we want. I mean, some of us need to be bold and assertive in our prayers. Some percentage of us, but a different percentage of us need to hear that in addition to telling God our desires, we also must submit our plans to his.
Psalm 25 here, David does not pray a name it and claim it kind of prayer. He does not say, I want that, so God will give it to me. I claimed it. It’s mine in the name of Jesus. It doesn’t say that.
He instead, you know, after he makes his desires known, he says, God, show me your way. I will follow you there. So, for those of us looking for direction right now, if we’re trying to make a decision, right, and we want to hear from God about it, and we’re— and we keep praying, that’s great. Keep praying. But if we’re unwilling to hear, if we just close ourselves off to the possibility that God will lead us somewhere uncomfortable, right, if we’ve plugged our ears to those kind of words from God, well then of course we may not hear them.
We may not hear His voice or His direction. Because if that’s the way He’s going and we’re like, nope, you’re not going that way. Well, then of course we can’t hear Him. If we ask for guidance, we’ve got to be willing to hear whatever the guidance is, even if it is leading us somewhere unpleasant. There’s this instance, it’s Acts 21.
Paul had been traveling around the Mediterranean planting churches everywhere, and as he planted churches, he kept escaping from persecution. You know, people kept trying to kill him or arrest him, but so far he keeps being able to get away from it. He’s been rescued a number of times by others, but then after, you know, the long time of doing all that, Paul feels very strongly God is leading him to Jerusalem. Let’s go to Jerusalem, talk about Jesus there. So God’s plan, God’s path, God’s direction, God’s guidance, all of that very clear for Paul.
Go to Jerusalem. He’s got it. But then people start warning Paul. They say, if you go to Jerusalem, you’re going to get arrested and probably worse. You will not escape if you go there.
You— it’s not going to be rescued this time. We don’t think you should go. So what does Paul do? God says go, people say no because it’s going to lead to harm. So what does he do?
He says, Acts 21:13, I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus, which shows that he knows following God in this instance isn’t going to be comfortable. But he says, if that’s where God wants me to go, that’s where I’m going, even if it costs me something, even if it’s painful, still I will follow him. Your will, God, wherever it leads. Some of us need to add that kind of thing to our prayers, because God may be leading us into difficulty for a purpose. It’ll be for a purpose, but some things are hard and worth it.
And in those cases, we say, not my will, yours be done. Lead me in your truth, not my truth. That’s what David prays. He prays for rescue and then direction. Now second, why he believes his request will be granted is God’s mercy, goodness, and forgiveness.
You know, why does David think— why does David assume God’s going to answer this prayer? Why does he think God’s going to rescue him? It’s not— it is not as we might assume, because David thinks he has earned some kind of favor with God or will earn it in the future. It’s not that. He makes no bargains with God.
He does not say, like we might, if you get me out of this, I will honor you with sacrifices. I’ll be in church. I’ll drop that bad habit if you help me out here. He doesn’t wheel and deal with God. Neither does he say, God, hey, maybe you’ve forgotten, uh, I’ve been a pretty good king.
I’m a pretty good person. I always try to do the right thing. Remember, God? Remember that time I volunteered at that place? Remember that time I left a note on the parked car after I hit it and I I could have just left.
Remember all that? Remember all the good karma I put in the world, Lord? Well, here we are. I need to cash it in. Like, you owe me.
Get me out of this jam. He doesn’t do any of that. He makes no bargains. He makes no promises about what he will do in the future if God rescues him. He does not try to stand on his own goodness at all.
He never hints that God owes him anything. There is no whiff of, I’ve been faithful to you, so now it’s your turn to be faithful to me. Doesn’t say that. In fact, he does the opposite. He reminds God how unfaithful he is.
Verse 11, he says, my guilt is great. So instead of coming to God claiming that he has some kind of karma credit that he can cash in for God to answer his request, Instead of that, he says, actually, I’m coming to you with a large debt already.
My guilt is great. I owe more than I can pay, but now I need my credit line extended even further. And on top of that, just so you know, God, I’m not making any promises to pay you back ever, ’cause I can’t, but I need you to come through for me. That’s how David approaches asking for guidance and deliverance.
It’s so counterintuitive. It’s totally different than what we might expect. If we’ve borrowed from someone in the past and now we need to borrow more, probably we’re going to try to make a case for ourselves. We would say something like, I know I’ve asked for you a lot before and you came through, and now here I am. I know it’s terrible asking you again, but look, Look, I promise, for real, seriously, I will.
Someday I’ll make it right with you. I’ll even up the score somehow. I’ll make it worth your while if you come through for me this time.
We would expect something like that. David doesn’t do any of that. He makes no appeal to his own effort, to his goodness, to his future potential to earn. None of that. He appeals to nothing in himself as a reason that God should answer him, but he does appeal to something.
He contends that God will answer his prayer for guidance and deliverance because of something, not on the basis of his own goodness and worth because he doesn’t have that, but on the basis of God’s mercy, goodness, and forgiveness. He says, remember your mercy, O Lord, verse 6. According to your steadfast love, think of me, Lord, verse 7. For the sake of your goodness, verse 7, that’s why you should pay attention to me. Yeah, not my goodness.
Don’t, don’t look at me because I’m good, because I’m not. Like, my guilt is great, remember? So don’t answer me because I’m good. Answer me because you’re good, God. Answer me because you are merciful and I need mercy.
Forgive my guilt, forget about my sins, verse 7. He expects God to answer him because God is good, merciful, forgiving. Not because he earned it, not because he will earn it, just because of who God is, which is a much more stable place to root our confidence than in ourselves.
I mean, if you think God will answer you because you’ve performed well enough, or God will answer you because you promise to do better in the future, that’s going to rise and fall. That’s going to come and go. Our performance is not stable. We’re up and down. Some days we’re great.
Some days we’re a mess. It’s not stable. So David placed no trust in his own goodness for God to answer his prayer, but he placed total trust in the goodness of God for why his prayer would be answered. That’s why David believed God would guide and deliver him. God’s goodness, mercy, forgiveness.
Now what about on God’s end? Did God receive his prayer? And if so, why?
Which brings us to our next point, why God will grant his request is his humility. It’s because David comes empty. It’s because David says he’s not worthy. It’s because of his humility that he has access to God. Verse 9, God leads the humble in what is right.
He teaches the humble his way. Verse 12, God instructs those who fear him in the way he should go. Verse 14, God’s friend is those who fear him. So God doesn’t just guide anyone. There’s a very specific requirement for us to come to him, for him to lead us.
It’s those of us who, like David, don’t try to stand on our own merit. It’s those who, like David, understand we have no merit to stand on. It’s those of us who understand we bring nothing to the King. We have no chips to bargain with. We have nothing to offer God in which to make a deal.
It’s only mercy. That’s who God leads. That’s who God accepts. It’s the humble. We talk about this semi-often, but in order to get to God, You must bring nothing.
There’s only one thing you need to be a Christian, and there’s only one thing you need according to these verses for God to lead you, and it’s nothing. All you need is nothing, but you must bring that and only that. Bring zero merit, bring zero bargaining chips, bring zero promises, bring Nothing. Throw yourself on the mercy of the court. Receive what Jesus has provided.
Those are the people God accepts and leads.
If you are not hearing God’s direction, this might be what you’re missing.
You might think you have some merit to stand on.
You might think you have some credits you could use to wheel and deal with him?
If so, that is the very thing that will prevent you from moving forward with him.
If that doesn’t make any sense to you, think about it this way. It’s a little like the— unfortunately, to make most of us in this room feel old, it’s a pretty old movie now— Sabrina. Not the recent horror film, okay? I’m referring to the older movie Sabrina, remade a number of times. Most recent time— this is what will make you feel old— 1995.
It was 30 years ago. Harrison Ford was lead actor, movie Sabrina. Harrison Ford plays one of 2 brothers. Together these 2 brothers own this multinational billion-dollar corporation. Then in the course of the movie these 2 brothers become involved in a love triangle.
Because there’s this woman who seems interested in Harrison Ford’s brother, right, the character. But Harrison Ford’s character thinks, if this woman gets involved with my brother, it’s going to jeopardize the business deal. So Harrison Ford’s character wants to keep her away from his brother so the deal goes through, they make lots of money. Harrison Ford’s character pretends to be interested in this woman himself in order to distract her from the brother, which happens. She loses interest in the brother.
Mission accomplished. But in the process, Harrison Ford’s character then falls in love with the woman himself. So now we have a problem, you know, because Ford’s character has pursued her under false pretenses, but now he really likes her and she likes him. So what does he do? Well, the whole thing, the whole twisted scheme eventually comes out to everyone.
The woman runs away, as she should. Now what? He’s lost the one he loves, even though he had been terrible to her, and he wants her back. So he doesn’t know where she is though, she just ran away. So he goes to her dad to talk to him to see if he can find out where she’s gone.
But when he goes to her dad, what do you think he says?
How do you think he explains himself? Does he try to stand on his own merit? Does he say, listen, lady’s father, don’t you know who I am? I’m a billionaire. Your daughter would be lucky to have me.
Sure, I’ve messed up a little bit. Who hasn’t? But I’m the best she’s ever gonna get.
Is that what he said? Of course not. That would have been the end of the movie, not a very good one. We would have all been terribly disappointed. Her dad would have kicked him out.
So he doesn’t say that. What does he say? He says, I don’t deserve your daughter. He confesses his sins. He says, I’m unworthy.
My guilt is great. There’s no reason She should want to be with me. I’ve been awful to her. I have no excuse. It’s all totally my fault.
There’s no reason you should tell me where she is, but I want to be with her, so I’m just asking, you know, with no merit of my own to stand on whatsoever, with no worth of my own, can you tell me where she is? That’s his plea.
Now, how’s the dad respond to that? He says, okay, she flew over there. You have my blessing to pursue her. You’ve qualified yourself by saying you’re not qualified.
If you tried to make a case for why you deserved her, you wouldn’t deserve her. It’s because you brought nothing. It’s because you stood here on nothing before me and you admit you have nothing to stand on, it’s because of that I’ll tell you where she is. Then of course it’s up to her what she wants to do with you, but I’ll at least tell you where she is. It’s counterintuitive, but saying we’re unqualified is what makes us qualified.
Admitting that we deserve nothing is what opens the door to everything for us. God accepts the humble. He guides the humble. Why does God listen to David? It’s because he didn’t try to stand on his own merit whatsoever.
It’s because David essentially said, my guilt is great, but your mercy is greater. That’s how we get anywhere with God. We come empty and he fills us. We come broken and he restores us. Stop trying to bargain with God.
It might be why you’ve never heard from him. It might be why you can’t sense his direction. The only bargain God ever needed, he already made. He already paid everything that we could ever owe. Our entry ticket to the favor of God has already been punched, not because we’re worthy or ever will be, but because Christ was worthy on our behalf.
Christ paid everything needed for God to accept us, to answer us, to receive us, to guide us. He paid for it all on the cross. Our role is to come empty, admit we bring nothing and always will only be able to bring nothing, and simply receive what Jesus earned on our behalf.
There’s this picture of eternity in Isaiah 55 which I think about often. Which says, come everyone who thirsts to the waters. He who has no money, he who has nothing, come buy and eat. Buy with nothing. Buy milk and wine with no money and without price.
It’s come empty. And be filled forever. That’s how it works, but we’ve got to come empty, come with nothing to receive everything through Christ’s work on our behalf. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you that all it takes to get to you is nothing.
That you are merciful and good and forgiving, and that’s why we can have confidence that you’ll answer us. I pray we do come with no pretense, with no credits, with no merit to stand on, Lord. May we come and taste and see that you are good without cost, with nothing to pay for it with, but to find ourselves totally filled. We pray those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
