Psalm 25 and we're going to just take a general look at this Psalm as a whole but I want us particularly to view it through the lens of verse 14. And David says, the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him and he will show them his covenant. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him and he will show them his covenant. Now this 25th psalm is a truly remarkable psalm of David. It's certainly remarkable in the way in which it has been composed because this psalm is an acrostic poem. You'll notice the psalm consists of 22 verses and each one of those verses follows the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet for example verse 1 in the Hebrew text begins with the Hebrew letter Aleph verse 2 begins with the Hebrew letter Beth and so on it is the golden alphabet and this of course is not the only acrostic and alphabet psalm to be found in the Psalter In fact, there are no less than nine of them. And the question that we need to, I think, ask right at the very outset this evening is why? Why did the psalmist write in such an elaborate fashion? And a number of suggestions have been put forward down through the centuries. Some would tell us tonight that it is purely just a literary device which adds beauty to the text. And it's certainly true, it does do that. But then there are others who suggest that the psalmist used this particular method because they wanted to speak comprehensively on a subject from A to Z, as we would say. And this is certainly true of Psalm 119, isn't it? Another alphabet psalm where the central theme is the word of God. And in each of those 22 sections the psalmist explores the nature of God's law exhaustively. But I believe that the main reason why the psalmist wrote in such a way under the inspiration of the Spirit of God was to aid the memory. You see, these Psalms were designed to be committed to memory by the Lord's people in order that they might be shared with their children and with their children's children and future generations of the people of Israel. And I think there is abundant evidence for this in the Old Testament. And friends, what a blessing it can be when we memorise portions of the Word of God, when we store up God's precepts in our hearts and minds so that the Word of Christ dwells in us richly in all wisdom. You see, these Psalms were not merely given to entertain us. so that we might sit back in our seats tonight and think to ourselves, well, what beautiful words, what wonderful structure and symmetry. No, no, these Psalms were designed to instruct us, to teach us, and to lead us in God's ways. They are Psalms of instruction. And this is something that we can find right the way through Psalm 25. Notice, for example, how David prays early on in verse 4. Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths, lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. And then look at verse 8. Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he teaches sinners in the way the humble he guides in justice and the humble he teaches his way and then finally later on in verse 12 he says who is the man that fears the lord him shall he teach in the way he chooses you see the psalm from beginning to end is all about teaching, learning and instruction. David, as it were, wants to bring us tonight into God's schoolhouse so that we might sit at his feet and learn of him. And I trust that we have come into this house of prayer tonight with that same teachable spirit and with that eagerness to listen and to learn all that God would instruct us. from his words. Well so much for the structure of the psalm. What exactly is the content of the psalm? What exactly is Psalm 25 designed to teach us? What does God want us to take home from it this evening? Well you'll notice that the psalm begins on a note of shame. There is a note of personal shame. throughout the psalm. You see the psalm has been described as the second of the penitential psalms, the psalms of confession. And you'll notice that David is obviously writing this particular psalm as an older man. He is perhaps writing, as many believe, right at the very end of his life. Because as he looks back upon his former days, he remembers acutely the sins of his youth. And he feels deeply anxious, troubled, and ashamed. And that's why we find him praying here in verse 7. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. According to your mercy, remember me for your goodness sake, O Lord. You see, David feels utterly plagued by his past. His former sins rise up before him and he feels deeply distressed and ashamed. And isn't this often the experience of the Lord's people in this world? And especially those who are reaching or have reached the evening of life. And of course the devil takes full advantage of this. You see the devil trades in guilt. And he delights in nothing more than raking up the past. He brings our former sins before us. He rubs our noses in them. And he says and he whispers in your ear, what a terrible person you have been. Just look at all those terrible sins that you've committed in the past. What a poor specimen of a Christian you are. Do you really imagine that you're going to be there with the Lord on that last day? Do you really imagine that you're going to hear those words of the Saviour, well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord? Why it's doubtful whether you'll ever get in there at all. And it is indeed a fact that the closer we get to God, the more acutely we will feel the sins of our youth. They seem so black, don't they? They seem so ugly, and we feel so utterly ashamed that we ever committed them. Dr. Harry Ironside, an American pastor in the early 20th century, tells the story of an elderly Christian man who came to see him one day, deeply troubled by the sins of his youth. He said to Dr. Ironside, everything seems to be so dark. Whatever do you mean? exclaimed Ironside. You've known the Lord now for over 70 years. You've been a faithful church member. You've helped others in the Church of Jesus Christ come to a living faith. You've walked with God most of your life. What do you mean everything is dark? oh the man explained in my illness since I have been lying here so very weak my memory keeps bringing up the sins of my youth and I just can't get them out of my mind they keep crowding in upon me and I can't help thinking upon them they make me feel so miserable and so utterly wretched and depressed well Ironside turned to this particular psalm and then read to him the words of verse 7. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions, according to your mercy. Remember me for your goodness sake, O Lord. And after he read those words to him, he said, now tell me, he said, do you remember what happened 70 years ago when you came to Christ? when you confessed your sins to him and put your trust in him as your Lord and Savior. Do you remember what happened next? Well, the old man couldn't remember. Well, said Ironside, don't you remember that when you confessed your sins to God that he said to you, your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more? If God has forgotten them, then why should you think upon them? Well, the old man relaxed and eventually a big smile came across his face. His frown lifted. And he said, oh, what an old fool I have been, remembering what God has forgotten. And the man found peace and reassurance because he had been instructed in the nature of God and his gracious ways. Who is a pardoning God like thee? Or who has grace so rich and free? And friends, isn't this the glory of the gospel? Isn't this the wonder of the Christian message and position this evening? You see He has dealt with our sins completely, finally, once and for all. He has punished them in the body of His Son upon that cross on Calvary's hill. He has cast them behind his back. He's put them into the very depths of the sea. He's removed them from us as far as the east. It's from the west. And he says to his people, your sins and iniquities I will remember no more. Yes friends, we may remember them. Others may remember them. The devil may remind us of them. but God has made an end of all our sins and he will never hold them against us ever again. Hallelujah. We can say with the hymn writer, my sin, all the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to his cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh my soul. Or in the words of Paul, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. It was the words of this 25th Psalm that were very much on the lips of the young Margaret Wilson, one of the two Margarets who were martyred for their faith in 17th century Scotland. and you remember how they were made a spectacle of and how the soldiers took them and tied them to wooden stakes in the middle of the Solway Firth as the tide was out and then they waited for the tide to turn to sweep them away and as the tide turned and the waves were coming in and the crowds gathered The soldiers tried to get young Margaret Wilson, just a teenager, to recant and to repent of her crimes. What was her crime? She wanted to worship according to the Bible and not according to the king. She could say with Luther, my conscience is captive to the word of God. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. And as the waters came up to her chest, she began to sing sweetly aloud the words of this 25th Psalm. My sins and faults of youth do thou, O Lord, forget. After thy mercies think on me, and for thy goodness great. Thus young Margaret Wilson died, in full assurance of faith and hope and joy because she knew that all was well with her soul. But this psalm is not only about the shame of former sins. No, no, it's all about communion. Sweet communion with our God. And that brings us to the words of our text here in verse 14. where David goes on to say the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him and he will show them his covenant now this word secret that is used here in our version is a very interesting word a very rich word the Hebrew on which it's based is very expressive the word was originally used of a couch or a cushion It was the seat on which a circle of intimate friends would congregate on hot, sultry evenings in the East for sweet fellowship and private consultation. And thus we could literally translate the Hebrew word, as it is in many modern versions today, such as the ESV, as friendship. The friendship of the Lord. Well the intimacy of the Lord is with those who fear him and he will show them his covenant. And this again is the marvel of Christianity isn't it? This is the wonder of the gospel tonight. Because Christianity is not simply about going to church, reading the Bible, saying prayers. No, no, it is essentially about a personal relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the living God condescending to us in his mercy and grace to make us his friends. Do you remember how the prophet Jeremiah put it in the Old Testament? He said, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, let not the mighty man glory in his might, but that him who glories, glory in this, that he understands and knows, may the knowledge of God. And we can know God tonight personally and intimately. Why? Because God, the God of the Bible, has been pleased to reveal himself to us. He brings us into fellowship with himself and he discloses to us his most intimate secrets. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him and he will show them his covenant. many many years ago now I was between jobs and I was just looking for some temporary work to do and I noticed in the paper down in Hove that they were advertising for postmen and women so I thought well that's a job I can do for a while and so I went along and about 50 others went along for it and we all had to do an exam and well I passed and got the job And my first day as a postman in Hove, I had to go into the office and I had to sign a personal declaration that I would not on any account disclose the Royal Mail's secrets. Well, I have to say that during my short time as a postman in Hove, I wasn't privy to many great secrets. And when I left the job shortly after, and I was called to another position, I had to sign again a form that I would forget any secrets that I'd learnt, and it was ridiculous. But you know, when I became a Christian, and when you became a Christian, God revealed to us his most amazing secrets. Do you remember that wonderful occasion in the upper room in Jerusalem, when the Lord Jesus gathered his disciples to him on the eve of his crucifixion? He said this to them, no longer do I call you servants, for a servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. Isn't that glorious? And what do friends do? Well, they share secrets. I love Abraham in the Old Testament, one of my favourite characters. Abraham, you'll remember, was known pre-eminently as the friend of God. I don't know about you, but I find that absolutely glorious. That Abraham was God's friend, his personal friend. You remember how the God of glory appeared to him in Mesopotamia. He was a pagan, a worshipper of idols. And yet the God of all grace set him apart for himself, revealed his glory to him, and then showed him his works and ways. And you remember that wonderful day came when they were walking together towards Sodom. And the Lord said to the angels who were with him, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm doing? Shall I keep it back from him? And of course the Lord didn't, but disclosed to Abraham his most intimate secrets, because Abraham was his friend. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenants. And isn't this, friends, precisely what happens at the moment of Christian conversion? You may have attended church for years. You may have sat in a service just like this on a Sunday evening, and you heard the preaching of the gospel, and yet it meant absolutely nothing to you whatsoever. And yet there came that glorious day that was different, when God was pleased to open your eyes and to open your heart to his word. God revealed his son to you and you became a new person, a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old was gone and the new had come. The Bible became a brand new book. You had eyes to understand and to see things you had never seen before. God revealed to you his covenant. And what is that covenant? Well, it's God's committed love to his people, isn't it? The heart and the essence of that covenant bond is where God promises to be our God. and we to be his people. He binds himself to us with those bonds of covenant love and fidelity and he will never give us up and he will never ever let us go. Is it any wonder the hymn writer wrote, is there on earth a closer bond than this that my beloved's mine and I am his. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him and he will show them his covenant. But this is not only something that happens just once in the Christian life, at the moment of our conversion, but I believe it is also the ongoing experience of the believer in Christ. God continues to disclose secrets to us. Do you remember that marvellous occasion in the Gospels recorded in Matthew chapter 13 where Matthew tells us that Jesus began to teach the multitudes by means of parables? And the question we need to ask is why? Why did Jesus begin to teach them by means of parables? And Jesus of course tells us the reason, doesn't he, in that chapter. He says that it was both to conceal and also to reveal the truth. Jesus said to his disciples, to you, to you, it has been given to know the mysteries, the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. But to those outside, Everything comes to them in parables, so that seeing they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear, and not understand. But, he says, blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. And then right at the end of the chapter it says all these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables and without a parable he did not speak to them. that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world. Isn't that incredible? God sovereignly disclosing the secrets of the kingdom of God to his disciples. Now you may be thinking to yourselves tonight, well that's all well and good but these are the original twelve. These are those who were to lay the foundation of the Christian church by their apostolic ministry and teaching. You say there are no apostles today. And of course in that sense you're absolutely right. They are not. But I still believe that in a certain sense God continues to reveal secrets to his children. Now before you charge me with heresy and stone me and run away with the idea that this is some kind of unhealthy mysticism I'm teaching here tonight, let me say straight away that God does it to his people today by a combination of his word and spirit. and never the one without the other. You see, it's not God coming to us, revealing new truth and new revelation to us. No, no, that would be a denial of the authority and the sufficiency of the Bible. But rather it is God, by His Spirit, speaking to us from His Word. And isn't that the new covenant role of the Spirit's ministry? Do you remember how Jesus explained it in John 16? Jesus said, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has are mine, therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. You see the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit is the author of Holy Scripture and the Holy Spirit is always consistent with Himself and therefore whatever He says in our hearts will correspond and echo with what He has said in the Bible. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. And he has come, Jesus said, to lead you and to guide you into all truth. But the question is how? How does the Holy Spirit fulfil this role today? Well of course he does so by means of illumination. The Holy Spirit enlightens our minds, opens our understanding so that we might understand the Scriptures. And illumination is absolutely vital and essential because the Christian is still very much partially sighted with regard to the things of God. Oh yes, it's true that as Christians we've been brought out of darkness into God's marvellous light. Yet we still do not possess 20-20 vision, do we? We see, says Paul, but we still see only through a mirror, dimly. And that is why we are constantly dependent upon the ministry of the Spirit to enlighten our minds, to open our understanding in order to guide and to lead us into God's truth. That's why we need that prayer of the psalmist. We need to pray it daily. Open my eyes. Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things from your law. Do you remember that incredible discovery that was made back in 1922? One of the greatest archaeological discoveries the world has ever known by the British archaeologist Howard Carter. He was searching in the Valley of the Kings for an intact royal tomb that hadn't been robbed by grave robbers. And he knew that there was one there. He felt it in his bones. He spent his lifetime searching for it. Money was running out. He was sponsored by Lord Carnarvon. This was his final term of searching and he was desperate. And then that glorious day came when he came across a set of steps that were in the sand and as he dug out these steps he found that they led to a chamber and that chamber was sealed. Could this be it? And Lord Carnarvon came across from the UK and stood beside him and the world's press were there and everybody was waiting with bated breath. What was behind that wall? Howard Carter punched a hole through the wall and then he called for a light to be given to him. He put the light through the hole and as his eyes grew accustomed to the light conditions, suddenly he began to see things kept secret for thousands of years. And Lord Carnarvon said to him, tell us Howard, what is it you see? What do you see? Howard Carter uttered those immortal words, I see wonderful things. Wonderful things. His eyes were opened. You see, without that light, without the illumination, he could see nothing, just pitch blackness. But with the aid of that light, his eyes were opened to see the golden glories of ancient Egypt. Wonderful things. Many of us have been to exhibitions and seen those wonderful things for ourselves. But oh my friends, isn't this the experience of the Christian believer? There are times when we read our Bibles prayerfully upon our knees and the Holy Spirit comes in an unusual way and opens our understanding and enlighten us and the passage comes alive and the truth of God grips our heart and makes us want to shout and to sing. The Holy Spirit is the illuminator of the sacred page. And then there are occasions in the Christian life when we may have been going through a time of great challenge and a great suffering and great struggle and darkness and we've been engaged in prayerful fellowship with the Lord, calling upon Him, pouring out our hearts to Him and all of a sudden God has sent a word into our hearts and it's come with such force, with such sweetness, with such consolation, that we know that it has been God communicating with our soul. And then there are other occasions in the history of the church, exceptional occasions, especially in times of spiritual awakening and revival. And God has been pleased to give intimations to his servants about future events. And these things have literally come to pass. These are historical facts, friends, and we just cannot deny them. We cannot rule them out completely because our God is a sovereign God. But let me say that these are exceptions to the rule. And we don't make a rule out of exceptions, do we? We say that the exception proves the rule, and that is that God speaks to us by His Spirit, through His words. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenants. But there is one final question that we just need to consider before we close tonight. And I think it's perhaps the most important question of them all. And that is, does God confide in this way with all his people? With all his children? And I think the answer must be an emphatic no. Because you'll notice that there is a condition attached. Notice what David says here in this 14th verse. He tells us that this is a promise that is exclusive to those who fear the Lord. He says, the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him and with those alone. In other words, it would be the height of presumption for any person who lives a worldly, careless life to imagine that God will confide in them. No, no, this is a fellowship. This is sweet counsel that is reserved for those who fear his name. And when the Bible talks about walking in the fear of the Lord, It's not of course talking about that fear of dread, the fear of a slave to a harsh master, but it's talking about the fear, the respect of a child to a loving father. It is that fear of reverential awe and adoration. It is that love for God that is so great that we would be afraid of doing anything that might grieve or displace his holy name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of understanding. Oh, how I fear thee, living God, with deepest, tenderest fear, and worship thee with trembling hope and penitential tears. Serve the Lord with fear, David says, and rejoice with trembling. There's that marvellous balance, isn't there, in the Word of God. Fear on the one hand, trembling joy on the other. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him and he will show them his covenant. Oh may God grant that each one of us here in this service tonight may long for that closer walk with God, that we might walk with him more intimately in the light of his word, that we might experience more of his friendship, more of that disclosure, more of that revelation of his covenant love.