Psalms 25:4

_SHEW ME THY WAYS, O LORD; TEACH ME THY PATHS._ Show me thy ways - namely, the ways of "salvation" from all dangers and temptations. David has in mind the prayer of Moses (Exodus 33:13). TEACH ME - by thy Spirit. [he (h)]...

4._O Jehovah! make me to know thy ways. _By _the ways of the Lord, _David sometimes means, as we have seen in another place, the happy and prosperous issue of affairs, but more frequently he uses this expression to denote the rule of a holy and righteous life. As the term _truth _occurs in the immediately following verse, the prayer which he offers up in this place is, in my opinion, to this effect: Lord, keep thy servant in the firm persuasion of thy promises, and do not suffer him to turn aside to the right hand or to the left. When our minds are thus composed to patience, we undertake nothing rashly or by improper means, but depend wholly upon the providence of God. Accordingly, in this place David desires not merely to be directed by the Spirit of God, lest he should err from the right way, but also that God would clearly manifest to him his truth and faithfulness in the promises of...

1-7 In worshipping God, we must lift up our souls to him. It is certain that none who, by a believing attendance, wait on God, and, by a believing hope, wait for him, shall be ashamed of it. The most advanced believer both needs and desires to be taught of God. If we sincerely desire to know our duty, with resolution to do it, we may be sure that God will direct us in it. The psalmist is earnest for the pardon of his sins. When God pardons sin, he is said to remember it no more, which denotes full remission. It is God's goodness, and not ours, his mercy, and not our merit, that must be our plea for the pardon of sin, and all the good we need. This plea we must rely upon, feeling our own unworthiness, and satisfied of the riches of God's mercy and grace. How boundless is that mercy which covers for ever the sins and follies of a youth spent without God and without hope! Blessed be the Lor...

Verse Psalms 25:4. _SHOW ME THY WAYS_] The psalmist wishes to _know_ God's _way_, to be taught his _path_, and to be led into his _truth_. He cannot discern this _way_ unless God _show_ it; he cannot _learn_ the _path_ unless God _teach_ it; and he cannot _walk_ in God's _truth_ unless God _lead_ him: and even then, unless God _continue_ to _teach_, he shall never _fully_ learn the lessons of his salvation; therefore he adds, "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me;" Psalms 25:5. That he may get this _showing, teaching_, and _leading_, he comes to God, as the "God of his salvation;" and that he may not lose his labour, he "waits on him all the day." Many lose the benefit of their earnest prayers, because they d

SHOW ME THY WAYS, O LORD - The “ways” of God are His methods of administering the affairs of the world; His dispensations; the rules which He has prescribed for Himself in the execution of His plans; the great laws by which He governs the universe. Deuteronomy 32:4, “all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” The prayer of the psalmist is, that he may be able to understand the methods of the divine government; the principles upon which God bestows happiness and salvation; the rules which He has been pleased to prescribe for human conduct; the arrangements by which He confers favors upon mankind; the scheme by which He saves people. The idea evidently is that he might understand so much of this as to regulate his own conduct aright; that he might not lean upon his own understanding, or trust to His own guidance, b

EXPOSITION THIS is the second of the "alphabetic psalms." It is not so irregular as Psalms 9:1; but still is defective in some respects, the letters _beth _and _vav _being omitted in their proper place, _resh _being substituted for _koph_, and a second _he _being addled at the end. Some of these variations may be accidental, but others would seem to have been intentional, being found also in Psalms 34:1. The psalm consists of a number of prayers, reflections, and pious ejaculations, not drawn up in any systematic order, and not very clearly connected by any single line of thought. The separate portions have, however, in many cases much beauty; and it is observed that "some of the most precious spiritual treasures of the Church have been drawn

SHOW ME THY WAYS, O LORD,.... Either those which the Lord himself took and walked in; as those of creation and providence, in which he has displayed his power, wisdom, and goodness; and which are desirable to be known by his people, and require divine instruction and direction; and particularly his ways of grace, mercy, and truth, and the methods he has taken for the salvation of his people, both in eternity and in time; or those ways which he orders and directs his people to walk in; namely, the paths of duty, the ways of his worship and ordinances; a greater knowledge of which good men desire to have, as well as more grace to enable them to walk more closely and constantly in them; TEACH ME THY PATHS; a petition the same with the other, in different words....

Psalms 25:1. _Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul._ It is down; and I would fain lift it up; yet I am powerless to do so if I am left to myself. When the soul cleaves to the earth, who but God can lift it up? Yet it must be our desire and object to seek to lift up our soul unto God. Psalms 25:2. _O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me._ Whatever happens to me, I trust in thee. Down goes the anchor; that ship will never drift far out to sea. «O my God, I trust in thee.» Can you say that, dear friends? Then, if you are in the dark, you are as safe as if you were in the light, for still this anchor holds: «O my God, I trust in thee.» «Let not mine enemies triumph over me.» They will do so, if they can get me back into the w

PSALM 25-39 The fifteen Psalms which follow give the deep soul exercise of the godly. All fifteen, except the thirty-third, are marked as Psalms of David. Much of it expresses undoubtedly his own individual experience during the days of his suffering and at other occasions. Prophetically these Psalms give again the experience of the godly remnant of Israel in the time of trouble, preceding the coming of the King. We also can trace in these experiences much which concerns our Lord in His earthly life, when as the Holy One He lived that perfect life of obedience and trust, suffering too among the ungodly. But great caution is needed in the application of these Psalms to our Lord. Here we find expressions which could never be true of Him, who knew no sin. For instance some have applied Psalms 38:7: “for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh” to t...

XXV. An acrostic poem composed of religious maxims and prayers which have little or no connexion with each other. The text is imperfect, for in Psalms 25:18 f. the letter Q is omitted and R is repeated twice. PSALMS 25:9. In post-exilic times the pious Jews were usually poor. Hence the favourite virtue of the good Jews was submission to God, gentleness, resignation; such are the persons here called meek. See Psalms 62 for the estimate of riches in later times. Psalms 25:11. for it is great: and so too hard for me. Psalms 25:14. The secret of Yahweh is His purpose of exalting the meek....