Psalm 25
Dear RTB’ers,
Psalm 25. Today I noticed that Psalm 25 has 22 verses. We will see 22 verses again with Psalm 33 and Psalm 34 a couple of months down the road, then with Psalm 119 much later. Psalm 119 actually has 176 verses, which is 8 sections with 22 verses each. When we see a Psalm with 22 verses, it is typically the case that each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which contains 22 letters. These Psalms are known as “alphabetic acrostics”; sometimes the verses begin alphabetically in order while other times the letters are scrambled, but each is used. So today is our first alphabetic acrostic.
The word “shame” popped out to me today – early in verses 2 and 3, then later in verse 20. So if David begins and ends this Psalm with shame, it must be the case that the entire Psalm somehow reflects shame. The beginning has three actors reflecting and not reflecting shame – David, himself, let me not be put to shame (v. 2b); those who seek the Lord, none who wait for You shall be put to shame (v. 3a); and the “wantonly treacherous, they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous (v. 3b). His concluding shame verse brings it back to himself.
David speaks to himself in verses 4 and 5, Make me to know Your ways, O LORD; then to the Lord in verses 6 and 7, Remember your mercy, O LORD, and Your steadfast love…; then to all his readers in verses 8-10 and 12-15, Good and upright is the LORD… The one interruption is this last group of verses, I think, is what is causing David shame: For Your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great. (v. 11) David is feeling guilty before the Lord and is ashamed of who he is or what he has done. He is simply acknowledging that before the Lord. It has left him lonely and afflicted (v. 16) and he is seeking forgiveness (v. 18).
What’s interesting to me is that David is not being publicly shamed – not yet! It is his own internal feelings that trouble him, that he is somehow wrong with the Lord. And I sense that he is afraid that his inner turmoil will show itself to those around him, to his enemies (vv. 2b, 19-20). He does not want to be put to shame (vv. 2, 20) before those enemies, and only by cleansing his soul and seeking forgiveness will he be put right before God. Confession, forgiveness, restoration. End of shame.
Blessings!