Overcoming distress by confessing sin and living a life of integrity.

Psalm 25:6–11, 18-21 (NKJV)

⁶Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, For they are from of old.

⁷Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.

⁸Good and upright is the Lord; Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.

⁹The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way.

¹⁰All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.

¹¹For Your name’s sake, O Lord, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. ¹⁸Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins.

¹⁹Consider my enemies, for they are many; And they hate me with cruel hatred.

²⁰Keep my soul, and deliver me; Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.

²¹Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You.

Psalm 25 shows us David in the midst of distress and then what he was doing to keep that distress from becoming despair.

-    David avoids having his despair by putting his confidence in the Lord, being committed to the Lord, by choosing to have integrity by confessing sin, and he chose to know the fear of the Lord.

In this edition we will look at how David chose to have “integrity by confessing  the Lord”.

 David never claims innocence.  And none of us can claim it. We are all guilty.  He does say that their actions were unprovoked or without cause.  vs. 3– There is a difference.

In verse seven he says, “Do not remember the sins of my youth” In sinning he had gone against a standard.  He had missed the mark of God’s holiness.

He also did not want God to remember his transgressions in verse seven.  We transgress the law of God when we rise up in rebellion against God’s authority.

In verse eleven David pleads, “Pardon my iniquity for it is great”.  The idea of pardon is to forgive, to release or to remove the guilt associated with his moral wrongdoing.

His use here of the term iniquity reveals his focus on this liability or guilt for what he had done.  He finishes this statement by saying they are great or numerous.  His sin was not little but there were a relatively large quantity of sin.

His desire in verse twenty-one was to “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me”.  He wanted to be blameless in life with a focus of not having guilt of sin laid to his charge.  He wanted to be upright in that he wanted to follow God’s standards.

What I would like people to realize is that repentance is described here.  Repentance is the confessing sin and making a commitment to living by God’s standard forsaking the way that one has lived in the past.  It is through this repentance and trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ that we can have salvation.

Let me encourage each one who takes the time to read this to confess your sin and make a commitment to live a life of integrity and uprightness before God.

Committed to the Lord Psalm 25

Psalm 25:4–5 (ESV) ⁴Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. ⁵Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

Psalm 25 shows us David in the midst of distress and then what he was doing to keep that distress from becoming despair.  We are learning in this Psalm that David avoids having his distress become despair by putting his confidence in the Lord, by being committed to the Lord, by choosing to have integrity by confessing sin, and he chose to know the fear of the Lord.

In this short article we will only look at how David chose to be “committed to the Lord”.

Just at David chose to be”Committed to the Lord” we to can Choose to Make our “Commitment to the Lord”

In Verse four David Said “Show Me Your Ways” … “Teach me your Paths”.  David wanted to have an informed mind.  He wanted to know what God’s desire for his life was.  Romans 12:2  “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  Becoming conformed to the image of Christ as our mind is transformed is not guaranteed to be easy.  In fact, it may take much work, yet if we are to be committed to the Lord we must have an informed mind.  We need to know how God would have us to live.

David continued in verse five saying, “Lead me in Your Truth and teach me”. Not only did David want an informed mind but he wanted a conformed life.  He wanted a life that was committed to following the way that God would lay before him.

Our commitment to the Lord will be shown through the Scripture we are willing to obey.  Do we seek Godly counsel?  Can we support our choice of behavior or response with Scripture?  Or are our decisions driven by emotion?

Psalm 119:9–11 (NKJV) ⁹How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. ¹⁰With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! ¹¹Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.

I hope today that each one who reads this will be committed enough to God to desire an informed mind and be willing to live a conformed life.

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleton  FW #18

Confidence in the Lord Psalm 25

Psalm 25:1–3 (ESV)

¹To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

²O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.

³Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Psalm 25 shows us David in the midst of distress and then what he was doing to keep that distress from becoming despair.

-      David avoids having his distress become despair by putting his confidence in the Lord, Being committed to the Lord, By choosing to have integrity by confessing sin, and he chose to know the fear of the Lord.

In verse one David says, “To You O Lord I lift my soul” vs. 1  He is showing direct confidence and reliance on God.  He continues, “ O my God, I trust in You.”   This word trust is defined as “ to rely on , put confidence in , to believe in a person or object to the point of reliance upon.”^[1]

David then says, “Let me not be ashamed”  He was not concerned with simply David’s shame  but shame for trusting in the Lord – God’s name was at stake.  If God did not rescue him His Name would not receive glory.

In verse five David is putting his life on the line with God as he says, “You are the God of my salvation” vs. 5   He was trusting God for salvation.

“My eyes are ever toward the Lord”, was David’s statement in verse 15.  He would not let them wander he was to anything else it was the Lord that had his confidence.

This theme is continued in verse 20 where he says, “Keep My Soul and Deliver me for … I trust in you.”  And in verse 21 where he states, “I Wait for You.” 

I have met and listened to many people who will not put their confidence in the Lord.. they continue to speak of their problem looking to hear the answers they want to hear.  If they look long enough they will find the people to say what they want to hear and thereby miss the truth of God’s Word and miss having confidence in the Lord.

I hope today that as you face distress that you will place your confidence in the Lord.

 

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleton  .

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^[1] James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

David's Distress Psalm 25

Psalm 25 shows us David in the midst of distress and then what he was doing to keep that distress from becoming despair.

Today we only have time to look at what David’s Condition was.  Now I want you to remember David was not a wimp and whiner.  This is the man who had killed a bear and lion, he was the one who was seasoned in battle from killing Goliath, and Ten thousands of other Philistines.

So as we look at this language we can see that things were pretty bad to get him to talk like this:

A. In verse two he says, “Let not my enemies triumph over me”  - He is under duress of the enemies.

B. The following verse David pleads, they deal treacherously without cause vs. 3 – deceitful, untrustworthy,  offend

C. As we move down to verse 15 we see that he felt trapped for he says, “pluck my feet out of the net”

D. These situations left him desolate and afflicted vs. 16

1.         Desolate – only one , lonely

2.         Afflicted - affliction, misery. It refers to a state of oppression or extreme discomfort, physically, mentally, or spiritually:^[1]

3.         He says, “the troubles of my heart have enlarged.”vs. 17  This word trouble is revealing he is in great distress or anguish.  He is going through a time of extreme discomfort. ^[2]

a)                He further illustrates this by saying they have enlarged- grown wide – their expanding.

E. His final plea in verse 17 is “Bring me out of my distresses.”  He needed escape from this state of trouble, affliction, suffering.^[3]

F.  In verse 18 he continues asking God to “look on my affliction”.  He needed God’s help through this misery, suffering, state of hardship and trouble.

G.                Because his “enemies hated him with a cruel hatred.” Vs. 19

David was distress but as we will see in the coming installments He did not allow this distress to become despair.  Come back in the following days and we will see how David.

1.         Chose to put his confidence in the Lord

2.         Chose to make a commitment to the Lord

3.         Chose to have integrity by confessing to the Lord

4.         Chose to know and fear the Lord

H. My hope is that as you join us during these lessons you find relief and comfort through your distress and that it never becomes despair.

The video format of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflittleton   FW # 16

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^[1] Warren Baker, The Complete Word Study Dictionary : Old Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2003), 853.

^[2] Ibid,  968.

^[3] James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).