Psalm 25:1-22
… 16 Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart have enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses!
18 Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins.
19 Consider my enemies, for they are many; And they hate me with cruel hatred.
20 Keep my soul, and deliver me; Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.
21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You.
22 Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all their troubles!
“Hi, Doc. Yup, time for the annual physical again. Are there any special things I want to ask you about? Well, there’s this mole on my back that my wife says looks kind of funny. And I’ve been having this pain in my leg; it’s not a constant thing, it kind of comes and goes. Could it be the start of PAD? And I get these headaches. And when I swallow, my throat makes this funny noise; I was wondering if you could check that out too. Oh, and there’s this pain in my neck, and I was looking it up on Google and I’m a little concerned it might be the early stages of spinal meningitis. ”
Have you ever had it when you go for that annual checkup that it feels like you’re bringing in a laundry list of things for the doctor to deal with? And if your doctor’s a patient person, they’ll listen to all your complaints and give you a diagnosis and a set of protocols to treat what’s ailing you.
It’s funny how life can be like that though—not just with complaints to our doctor, but when it comes to just the stuff that’s happening in your life, the stack of stuff that you bring to God in prayer. When we come to the cross of Christ to cling to it in faith—it’s not as though our lives are empty of everything else. We have issues! We have real problems that we’re dealing with! And we have no way of solving them ourselves! We are beggars who have nothing—yet have every affliction! We have every outward affliction in life, and every inward affliction of the soul.
I. Every outward affliction.
And that’s where we meet King David in Psalm 25. In these four stanzas David’s coming to God for His own many afflictions. And bookending the psalm in the first and fourth stanzas are all of David’s various outward afflictions. He has enemies that he’s contending with—enemies who don’t just dislike him, but hate him with cruel hatred (v. 2, 19). He feels like he’s alone and desolate (v. 16). He’s troubled by various “distresses” (v. 17). He’s dealing with affliction and pain (v. 18). And he caps it all off with a prayer not just for himself but for all of Israel: “Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all their troubles!” (v. 22).
Like David, we also come before God as beggars with every outward affliction. We bring our “laundry list” of complaints to God, all these things that are bothering us and troubling us, all these things that we ourselves have no control over whatsoever. There’s the neighbor that doesn’t like us. There’s the aching back that twinges every time you bend over. There’s the anger and crabbiness that’s worked its way into your marriage. And don’t even get started on the behavior of your grown up children! And then there are the things that haven’t happened yet, but you’re still nervous about them: the family coming over next week, the doctor’s visit coming up on Monday.
We bring all these things to the Lord in the hope that, like David, our trust in the Lord will not be put to shame. Yet, I think we can all learn a lesson from David when it comes to what exactly He wants God to do about His problems. He drops His troubles at the Lord’s doorstep—but He also lets God be God. He doesn’t try to tell God how to solve his issues. He simply says, “Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.” Lord, teach me; equip me; show me Your ways; lead me through this. He doesn’t demand that God solve his problem in a certain way; David just says, “Bring me out of my distresses. Look on my affliction and my pain… Consider my enemies… Keep my soul, and deliver me.” And when it comes to the timing of that deliverance, David doesn’t demand that it come right now! He says, “On You I wait all the day.” Lord, no matter how long it takes, I’ll wait on your answer; I’m not going to jump the gun and take matters into my own hands. I’ll put my trust in You.
When it comes to our earthly problems and afflictions, isn’t that a wonderful attitude to have? To not panic. To not demand that God deal with my problems a certain way. Simply to lay them before Him and trust that He will deal with them. You don’t tell the doctor how to diagnose and treat your illness; in the same way you don’t tell God how to deal with your stack of problems—because we’re beggars before the LORD. We have no right, no standing to come before Him in and of ourselves. And so any help He gives us is help we can appreciate.
II. Every inward affliction.
That kind of an attitude is possible because, not only are we beggars with every outward affliction, but we also recognize that we’re beggars with every inward affliction. When you get down to the heart of this psalm, the thing that’s eating at David the most isn’t the stuff going on in his life as much as the turmoil going on in his heart. What’s eating at David is the one thing that he thinks might possibly get in the way of God’s help. He pleads with God, “Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions… For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great” (v. 7, 11). David was still haunted by “the sins of his youth”, the sins that young people commit because, well, they’re young. Rebelling against mom and dad, giving into things like rage and lust, not considering all the ramifications of their actions, following what you want right now instead of listening to those who are a little bit older and wiser.
How about you? In the predawn hours as you’re mulling over a cup of coffee and a bowl of Cheerios, do some of the things you said and did as a teenager and a young adult come back to haunt you, to send a chill up your spine? Before you go to sleep some nights, do you find yourself cringing at some of the things that you said to your parents? Some of the things that you did with your friends? These were no small things, were they? With David we bring these things before the Lord and confess that our iniquity is great, praying that He would not remember what we did.
Why do we come to the LORD in the first place? Isn’t it because we know that He already has the answer? Even the answer to our sin? David says, “The LORD’s secret is with those who fear Him.” What’s the secret? The secret is the answer to sin. The mystery behind His great mercy and love in which He not only forgives—and forgets—all of our sins, even the terrible things we did in our youth, but also hears and answers all of our prayers. It’s the secret of a God who hid His glory under human flesh, allowing Himself to be born so He could walk among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It’s the secret of a God who loved us so much that He willingly put Himself under His own Law in order to save us from sin and death. Whose perfect life covers over the crimson stains of our sins, whose innocent death paid the punishment for our disobedience, who walked out of His own grave alive to declare God’s forgiveness to each and every one of us. This is the “secret of the LORD” that comes to those who fear Him—who believe in Him, the secret of the gospel.
And it’s the power of that “secret”—which really isn’t all that secret—that makes us want to come to God with every affliction. It’s that secret that makes us beggars for the Lord’s help! Knowing that He will forgive us, and that in the midst of our troubles He will preserve us in uprightness and integrity, that He will teach us His ways—His ways of faith and trust. Knowing that He will comfort us with His Word. And knowing with the firmest confidence that He will keep His promise and deliver us! “Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity, And his descendants shall inherit the earth.” (v. 12-13). “Be faithful to the point of death,” Jesus says, “and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).
With that kind of confidence, we can bring the Lord all our problems and lay them at His feet, before His cross. And beyond that, with those kinds of promises, we can wait on the Lord all day long—and all night—knowing that He will do exactly as He said! Because He is the God of our salvation! Amen.