David's in Trouble

One of my favorite things about the Bible in general and the Psalms specifically is the absolute honesty and earthiness of the writers. What I mean is—they don’t hold back or try to paint everything as perfect and easy—the Bible speaks of real situations and real people as they live before a real God. Let’s look at Psalm 25 this week and I’ll try to show you what I mean.

In verses 1-3 we find David in Trouble.

“To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exalt over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.”

When you take these verses and then look at the rest of the Psalm you find David in dire straits.

We can sum up his trouble in four words—first, fear. We see it in verse 2, he is concerned with shame and with his enemies, he describes them in verses 3 as wantonly treacherous. We see it again in verse 19, “Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me.”

Second, loneliness. Look at verse 16, “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.” David feels alone. There are many who believe David is writing this at the end of his life because of the number of times he mentions his guilt and sin—possibly after his sin with Bathsheba. He feels alone and we all know that loneliness can haunt a person.

Third, guilt. Look at the number of verses that deal with David’s guilt, verse 7, “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions,” verse 11,“For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great,” and verses 17-18, “The troubles of my heart are enlarged, bring me out of my distress. Consider my affliction and my trouble and forgive all my sins.” Guilt is ravaging him and when you consider the loneliness and the enemies who would like nothing more than for him to be destroyed you see how troubled he is.

The last word that sums it up is shame. We see it in verse 2, we see it in verse 3, and verse 20. We often think of shame as something that embarrasses us or makes us feel foolish, but the idea here is deeper—it is the fear or feeling of being let down, of being disappointed from trusting in something or someone who fails you. David has sinned, he is guilty, he is lonely, and he is afraid, but most of all he desperately wants God to deliver him and to not let him down. He is in trouble.

What can we do when we need direction, but we are bombarded by the regrets of our sin? One verse I will share with you is verse 8, “Good and upright is the LORD, therefore He instructs sinners in the way.” If He didn’t instruct sinners—we would have no hope. If He only instructed perfect people—no one would qualify. But David, with all his sin shows us the way.

We will pick up here tomorrow!