All right, let's turn to Psalm 25 now, and as we sing that little chorus, you see how that the Psalms are added, the music are added to those, and they are turned into Psalms. And again, remember, sometimes they were written as Psalms to help them be remembered. This particular psalm has a literary device that is used. And this is an acrostic psalm. Now what an acrostic psalm means is that each verse of the psalm begins with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It begins with the letter Aleph. So if you were reading this in Hebrew, Verse 1 would begin with the letter Aleph. Now a pure acrostic psalm, the second letter would be Beit. In this particular psalm, the second letter is Aleph, or the second verse begins with the letter Aleph. Of all the verses of the 22 verses, the letter Aleph is repeated and the letter Rice is repeated. Now, I don't speak Hebrew and that's not the proper pronunciation. That's the hillbilly vernacular Hebrew alphabet. But anyway, that acrostic is what was used to help remember this psalm. And we'll get to that in just a little bit as we get into the meat of the message. But Psalm 25. Think about this and think about your life as a Christian. And you realize that there's going to be times as a Christian when you face difficult circumstances in your life. What do we do when we face difficult circumstances? Then, what do we do if we realize that the difficult circumstances we're facing are because of a sin that we've committed? That happens occasionally. And we recognize that this is happening to me because of this sin that I had committed in my past. That's at the root of Psalm 25. David is later on in his life in this psalm because he asked the Lord in his prayer to remember not the sins of his youth. And so David is again looking back and reflecting, and maybe he's looking at his current circumstances And he's looking back at the sins that he committed as a youth, and he's asking God not to remember that, for God to forgive him of that. David was able to recognize that where he was at in his life at that point was because of sin. David found himself in this position maybe often because of his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. You can think about that. David knew that he had committed a horrible sin when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and because he had her husband murdered. And so quite possibly, any time that David faced a difficult circumstance in his life, the first thing that would come to his mind, uh-oh, this is because of that sin. You know, I myself, I can look back at my life, and there's been a few times in my life when I can make that statement. When I knew and I recognized that some of the things that I was going through in my life came because of a sin that I had committed. Some of them was before that I was saved. Some of them were sins that I knew better, and I made a conscious decision to commit a sin, and because of that, I faced some difficult circumstances. Sometimes, because I knew that I had committed sin, sometimes I questioned that. That was the first thing that came to my mind. Is this happening because of a sin that I have committed? So David knows this. David knows that rebellion is going to come from his home, inside his home, because of his sin with Bathsheba. Some authors think that David penned the 25th Psalm about the time of the rebellion of Absalom. Is this the reason that David found himself in this difficulty? We don't know. But we do know this, no matter why we face difficulty, whether it's because we have committed sin and it's the chastening hand of God, or if it's what God has allowed to come into our lives just to make us stronger, here's what we know. We can turn to God in either circumstance, in either situation. We can turn to God and we can trust Him and we can make our prayer unto God. during that time. And that's what we see in the heart of David here in Psalm 25. Moby, I'm going to let you come up here. Or I'm just going to give you the microphone and let you read Psalm 25 for us. Just read the entire Psalm. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness, for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. According to thy mercy, remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will he teach sinners in the way. The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. For thy namesake, O LORD, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease, and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. and He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged, O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider mine enemies, for they are many, and they hate me with cruel hatred. O keep my soul, and deliver me. Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in Thee. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait on Thee. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. So in this psalm you can see David's heart. You can see what's on his heart and how he is asking God, how he is turning to God. Again, just to mention the poetic components before we go any farther. Again, it is an acrostic psalm, and there's a relationship between this 25th psalm and I believe it is the 34th psalm. The connection is that Psalm 25 is David's prayer to God, and Psalm 34 is God's response to David. This acrostic psalm, though, is written to help us remember that. Again, remember, David wrote the hymns, David wrote the psalms to help the people of God, his people, to remember the things of God. It would be like us repeating, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us for our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And what David did, though, instead of just giving like a scripture, you actually see that in his life. You see him living out the scripture. You see David promoting this repentance because of the sin that was in his life. So in verse 1, it's David talking to God. And unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. My God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me. So that's the first two verses, and they begin with the Hebrew letter aleph. And then verses 18 and 19 are when rash is repeated and that is look upon mine affliction and my pain and forgive all of my sins Consider my enemies for they are many and they hate me with cruel hatred. And so those are David David's response from God is that God is going to look upon his affliction and his pain and forgive all these sins consider his enemies and So it's really God's looking down on David. Also, again, studying these Psalms, how much information do you think, how many commentaries do you think are out in the world on the Psalms? One of the most read books of any of the Bible. You get on the internet and you go back and look up commentary on Psalm 25. I mean, Wilkipedia even has an entry for all of the Psalms. So the information is great. I mean, you can acquire all kinds of information. Condensing all that information into a message that is cohesive is sometimes a little difficult. But there's lots of great things to study as you study these Psalms. One of them is, also, why would God allow an acrostic to be used in Psalms? Because remember, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. So we know that all Scripture is God breathed. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So why would the Holy Spirit move in acrostic form? And the reason is, according to some of the commentators, is that the Holy Spirit is using the literary devices of men to help men in their understanding of the Scripture. So when holy men of old spake by the Holy Spirit, remember, they used their own style. The Holy Spirit inspired their style. So, I mean, Paul spoke like a Pharisee. And the apostles that were fishermen, I mean, they spoke like fishermen. And the minor prophets, they spoke after whatever their character was. So it allows us to see that the Holy Spirit used men as they were. Have you ever seen somebody try to act smart and use words They don't know how to pronounce, and they don't know how to spell, and they don't really know what they mean, but they're trying to let you see how smart they are, so they're using these 50-cent words. How foolish does it come across? Often it comes across very foolish, doesn't it? So, when the Holy Spirit inspired men to speak, He spoke in their language. That's the great thing about the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit didn't force. God's language upon men, the Holy Spirit gave men and used men's language and gave men the words they were to say so that they could speak in a vernacular or a way of speaking that they understood and others could understand. And so that's a great thing. You see that when you study this psalm and you see the way the psalms were written. So in this, and as I was thinking about this psalm, as we have gone through these psalms, I've noticed that many times we've mentioned David's sin with Bathsheba and the rebellion of Absalom when we have talked about why did David write this psalm. In other words, that was a major event in the life of David. It had such an impact in his life. It affected his writing. It affected his need for writing the Psalms. Again, remember this. The deepest, darkest times of your life sometimes are the times that you're the closest to the Lord. And so that one singular event David sinned with Bathsheba. The judgment of God pronounced upon that sin. And then the rebelling of Absalom. It had a huge impact in his life. Spiritually and physically. Let me say this about your life. If you don't already know this, you will soon come to know this. That the significant events of your life will affect you. And they will affect your spiritual development. The significant events of your life, the huge trial that you have, many times are God developing your spiritual character. Sometimes when you're in your darkest valley, that's when you cling to the Lord the most. That's when you see God showing up on your behalf in a great way. And you learn how to trust God in the deepest, darkest valleys. Persevering through trials and afflictions develops your spiritual character. And I think that's what we see about David. How David's spiritual character was developed during this time. So let me ask you this. What events have developed your spiritual character? I know there are some. They cause you to mature. And so we have that same expectation for David. And let me say this. One of the things that I learned in my spiritual walk is when I began to learn that nothing happens by chance, that everything happens either because God decreed it or God allowed it to happen. And what began to happen in my life is I began to look at events in my life and I began to question, Why is this happening? Lord, what do You want me to learn from this? How can I apply this to my spiritual life? And how can I grow from it? I think that's very important because it is true. God is developing your spiritual character even today. I don't know what's going on. Maybe you're having the greatest time of your life. You're enjoying the greatest blessings that you've ever had. Do you know that it's in the time of the greatest blessings that sometimes people have the greatest falls because they let down their guard? It's because they don't protect their hearts against sin. And sometimes they commit their greatest sins when their life is going the best. So just because you're going good doesn't mean that God's not developing your spiritual character. Remember, Paul said this, I know how to be abased. I know how to have nothing. And I know how to abound. It is more difficult to stay close to God in the times of abundance than it is to stay close in the times when you have nothing. Because when you have nothing, you're always turning to the Lord and you're always depending upon Him. But when you have abundance, you seem to forget the Lord. So sometimes God is developing your character and He's saying, how will you handle this blessing? Will you handle this blessing and keep your heart humble before Me? Will you handle this blessing and still be dependent upon Me? Can I give you this blessing and allow you to prosper? The significant events of your life develop your spiritual character, and I think that's what we see in the life of David here in Psalm 25. So again, as we listen to Moby read that psalm and we recognize, and you can see and hear the heart of David as he is talking to God about his current circumstances, his current situation. And you can see him pouring out his heart to God. A significant verse is verse number 7. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. God, I'm in this condition. Lord, I'm in this place in my life. I know that I have sins of my youth. God, please, don't reward me according to those Don't remember them. Look upon Me with your mercy and remember Me for Thy name's sake." In other words, God, people know that I'm Your man in Your place, in Your time. And God, if I go by the wayside, people will think this is what happens to a man who is after God's own heart. So God, for the sake of Your name, remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. The mercy of God definitely affected David. In this psalm, we see the very heart of David, a man after God's own heart. In this psalm, we see his holy trust in God. We see his many conflicts. We see his great transgressions. We see his bitter repentance and his deep distresses. All of those are here in this psalm as David truly pours out his heart to God and depends upon Him. This psalm, again, can be divided many ways. And in the first few verses, we see David's plea in verses 1-3. Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in Thee. Let me not be ashamed." Think about that for just a minute. That word ashamed is in there in this psalm more than once. David does not want to be ashamed. He doesn't want others to think that he is shameful as he trusts in the Lord. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth and teach me. For thou art the God of my salvation, on thee do I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness, for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. According to thy tender mercy, remember thou me for thy good namesake, O Lord." In that we see, first of all, David asking the Lord to protect him. Keep me, Lord. Let me not be ashamed. And not only don't allow me to be ashamed, but let none of them that trust you be ashamed. Then you see that David is asking the Lord to pilot him or to lead him. Verses 4, look, "...show me thy ways." David wanted to be led by the Lord. You know, that's so important in our lives, is the desire to be led by the Lord. One of the things that you find out is you find out a lot about a person by their submissiveness to leadership. And their submissiveness especially to the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God. Do you really want to be led by the Holy Spirit of God? Do you really want the Holy Spirit of God, the Scripture, to speak to you and for you to be led by the Holy Spirit? What happens to you when you read in the Scripture and the Scripture contradicts your lifestyle? What do you do? You need to learn to be led. If you want to be a man or a woman after God's own heart, you need to have the desire to be led. Wanting to be led, David is. And then, notice, his willingness to be led. Verse 5, Lead me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day long. His willingness to be led is this, God, I'm not going to move until you tell me to move. Boy, I've been there. I've been there when I'm wanting to move, when I'm wanting to make a decision, when I'm wanting to do something, but you don't find the peace, you don't find the comfort, and so you have to wait. Willing to be led. You see that in the heart of David. And then waiting to be led. I'm going to wait on you, Lord. And so David's plea was for the Lord to work in his life. And then after that, you see David's confidence as a believer. You see him in verses 8 and 9 that he is going to trust in the Lord. He's saved by the grace of God. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will He teach sinners in the way." Here's what he knew. He knew he was a sinner. He knew he had been saved. And he knew that the Lord was going to direct him. And where was the Lord going to direct him? Good and upright. The Lord was going to lead him in a good way. The Lord was going to lead him in an upright way. And I see this all the time. You give someone a principle from the Word of God. And they don't want to follow that principle. Because they're afraid, well, you know, that's just not the way the world works today. Or you just can't do that in our world today. Wait a minute. Is that the principle of God's Word or not? If it worked in the days of David because it was the Word of God, it'll work today. You hear people talk about, you know, they hear scriptures not to trust in the chariots of Pharaoh. and to trust in the Lord and not depend upon the world. And then you hear a situation come up and somebody says, but what if people start doing this? And what if people start doing that? If you believe God's Word, it won't matter what people do. If God said it in His Word, you have to follow that, no matter what people might do, and not depend on the world for substance. and being taken care of. I'm chasing a little bit of rabbit, so I'll get off that. David, you see him in his dependence of the Lord. All of the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep His covenant and His testimony. Again, you hear here the heart of David. You keep His covenant. You keep His testimony. You follow His Word. When I follow His Word, I'm going to find mercy and truth. all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. Unto such as keep His covenant and His testimony. For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great." And so here we get to the point to where we see David's repentance. If you are going to mature spiritually, there has to come a time of confession. There has to come a time that you recognize in your life where you're at. Now you have departed from the things of God. You have departed from the principles of God. You cannot get away from repentance. Every one of us, you know this week, I just thought myself this week about some things, not truly sinful things, not really conscious acts of sin, but just looking at my heart. And I just began to think, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Those were the words of Paul, the greatest apostle. And he just recognized his sinfulness and how that sometimes your heart can be turned away from God. Sometimes the things of the world can creep in. Not cause you to do sinful things, but you just allow the things of the world to have a greater place in your life than what they should. Sometimes we do that. What do you do if that happens? You confess that before the Lord. And you come on your face before the Lord and ask the Lord to forgive you. And you begin to seek His face. You begin to seek Him first. And you ask the God to pardon your iniquity. Because it is great. Some people say they're going to sin a little bit more or less every day. They don't understand the magnitude of their iniquity. But David recognized the magnitude of his iniquity, and so should we all. Now, the treasury of David divides this psalm up differently. It's divided up in verses 1-7 as a prayer, verses 8-10 as a meditation, verse 11 as a prayer, verses 12-15 as a meditation, and then verses 16-22 as a prayer. I'm going to pick up right here and go from verses 12-15 and think again about David. You know, often we've said, as we've studied these Psalms, that you can see David sitting on the hillside overlooking the sheep that he is tending to, and you can see him contemplating God, and you can contemplate His condition, and you can think about David thinking about God's direction in his life and making the parallel between God's protection over David and David's protection over the flock. But here you have David contemplating the circumstances of his life. Maybe it's when he began to hear that Absalom is about to rebel. You know, when Absalom rebelled against David, it was not a surprise to David. David knew it was coming. That's why David was able to leave the city before Absalom got there, if you go back and remember the story. So you can see David as the words begin to trickle in, as some of his spies begin to tell him, or some of his men that's out in the city or out in the country, as they begin to tell him about what Absalom's doing. And he begins to contemplate that. And then David beginning to contemplate his life. And he begins to think about the sin and maybe even the places where his heart was not right with God. And he begins to think about that. You have David meditating. Verse number 12, What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease, and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the net. David meditating on the things of God. On who he is as a child of God. On who he is as God's man, the King. And these are the contemplations of his heart. He asks, what man is he that feareth the Lord? So he's asking himself this question. What man is he that feareth the Lord? And then he says, the answer, he is the one that God will teach in the way that he shall choose. God, I fear you and I know. that you will teach me in the way that you would have me to go." So as David is contemplating, what am I going to do? What should I do? Absalom's going to come. He's going to commit insurrection against me. He's going to try to take my throne. God, what shall I do? Again, we don't know that this is when David penned this psalm, but we can contemplate it and think about it that quite possibly it was. What shall I do? Here's what I know. If I fear the Lord, the Lord will show me. He will teach me the way. He will teach me the way that I am to go and the way that I am to choose. He will show me what to do in the midst of this circumstance. And there's no greater truth than knowing that. No matter what circumstance you face in life, no matter what trial you might face, and when you come to those times in your life when you say, I just don't know what to do, having the knowledge that if you fear the Lord and you trust Him, that He will direct you in the right way. That's comforting. It's comforting to know. And you see David expressing that here. What will happen when he's taught the way? His soul shall dwell at ease. Have you ever been in that middle of that difficult circumstance? And even though the circumstance is great, and even though there's a lot going on, your soul is at ease. You see, your soul being at ease doesn't mean that you're not having difficulties. It doesn't mean that you're not having trials, that there's not a lot of anxiety around. It just means your soul is at ease. Here's what David knows. Even though there may be a lot of afflictions, even though there may be a lot of troubles, I'm following God's way. My soul is at ease. And His seed will inherit the earth. The promises of God will be true in my life. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. You ever shared that secret with someone? No. How do you stand up underneath all of these trials? How do you handle this the way that you are? That's the secret of the Lord. The secret of the Lord. That will give Him perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. You have that perfect peace when you're walking with the Lord. That's the secret. that the Lord gives to those that trust in Him that the world doesn't know and the world doesn't understand. The world doesn't understand how we can be at ease as we look at what's going on in this world today. The world's getting all upset. The world's getting all flustered. What's going to happen next? We, because our mind has stayed on the Lord and we're looking at the events of this world with a proper perspective, We're at peace. That's the secret that the world doesn't understand. Because we fear the Lord. We respect Him. We honor Him. Again, you see David thinking about this. Him acting in peace. He's not acting rash. He makes good, wise decisions to prepare for Absalom to come and take his throne. Verse 15, my eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. What's that mean, He shall pluck my feet out of the net? David always looked to the Lord. The net there is the snare. You know what a snare is, right? The trap. The snare that the trapper catches the animal in. That's the net. Someone has set a trap for David. They're throwing a pitfall in his way. They've set him up for the fall. And David, I'm going to look to the Lord and He shall pluck my feet out of the net. He shall protect me from the snare that the other has devised for me." Again, perfectly applicable to the time when Absalom tried to usurp his throne. You can see the meditation of David as he's thinking about what he should do. You can see him thinking over in his heart and in his head how he's going to respond and how he's reminding himself of the promises of God and how to continue to trust in Him. Then you see the prayer of David, verses 16-22. Turn unto me and have mercy. Turn and have mercy. He's asked God. to bring him out of distress in verse 17. He asked him to look upon his affliction and to forgive him of all of his sins. He asked him to consider his enemies and them that hate him. He asked the Lord to keep him because He is trusting him. Then, let integrity and uprightness preserve me. for I wait on Thee." Integrity and uprightness, doing things the right way. The Lord will use that to preserve him. And David will do that as he waits on the Lord. And then of course, redeem Israel, O God, out of all of his troubles. Redeem him out of all of his troubles. You see David trusting God and depending upon God and turning to God as he faced difficult circumstances. What did he do as he faced difficult circumstances? First of all, he came to the recognition that these difficult circumstances came because I sinned. Then he came to the place of confession. Lord, I'm trusting in You wholly. He was willing to be led by the Holy Spirit of God. He was willing to follow the ways of God. He was willing to contemplate and think about how God would have him to respond. And then he was willing to pray. And God led him through that. Those things are important for us every day of our lives. It's how that we should respond to the circumstances of our lives, whether they're good or whether they're difficult. But David shares with us here how do we respond to difficult circumstances of life. They're real. There are going to be many. How are you going to respond? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank You for this day and we thank You for Your Word. We thank You, God, for the example that David gives us. I pray that You'll help us as we learn from Your Word to respond to life in a way that is honoring to You and a way that will bless You so that others may see what a blessing it is to be Your child And Lord, that we will not be ashamed because we are trusting You. Bless Your people this week, I pray. In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. Let me tell you one thing before we close. I mean, we're already closed, but let me tell you.