WEDNESDAY 3rd
Psalm 25
NIV (v4) – ‘Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths.’
ESV (v4) – ‘Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.’
I wonder how many can recall the song that became popular back in the 1970’s / 1980’s based on the words of this psalm? ‘Unto you O Lord, do I lift up my soul . . . Yea that none that wait on you be ashamed . . . Show me your ways, you ways O Lord . . . Remember not the sins of my youth . . . O my God I trust in thee, let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.’ My earliest recollection of it comes from a time when I spent a week at a youth camp in St Athans, South Wales in the 1970’s and it had a lasting impression on me, I was in my late teens, I had already made a commitment of my life to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I wanted to live for him.
In this psalm, it seems that David is making a recommitment of his life to the LORD God, he declares his trust in the LORD God, he wants to know the ways of the LORD so that he can walk in them, and he wants that God will not remember the sins of his youth. In the statement ‘let me not be ashamed’ it is as if he is aware of things in his past that if brought up would shame him, even disgrace him, and he wants that this will not happen, he is wanting a new and a fresh start. He acknowledges his guilt and asks that the LORD will pardon him and forget his sin.
We all have a past, in fact the Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God but thank God we can all know the wonderful Saviour and his name is Jesus. He came into this world to save sinners, he came into this world to bring redemption which includes forgiveness or pardon and a brand-new start, and thus we too can make the prayer of David our prayer.
To change the order around, we can acknowledge our guilt before the LORD God and ask him to pardon us (v11), we can ask that the sins of our youth be remembered no more, (v7) in fact we can have confidence that once it is forgiven God will not remember it any more, (Isaiah 43:25) and then we can ask that the LORD God will make known his ways to us and teach us and lead us on his paths,(vv4, 7, 8, 9, 10) which we have discovered before are paths of righteousness, this takes on a further meaning in that within this is the pathway of his will for our lives. For choosing Jesus also demands that we give him our wholehearted allegiance and follow his will, we learn to trust him explicitly, in all areas of our life. (v2)
Thinking back to the youth camp, having already committed my life to the Lord Jesus, a few years earlier, at that time I was at a critical stage (I was 18) in deciding where I wanted to be and what I wanted to be doing, and I can remember that deep in my heart I wanted nothing else other than to be doing what God wanted me to do. There is a verse of Scripture that says, ‘In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths’ (Proverbs 3:6 KJV) this links in to the psalm today and the words of the song that came out from the psalm, ‘show me thy ways, your ways O Lord’. It is perhaps in the words of Jesus we discover one of the secrets of finding his ways, found firstly in the beginning of his sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:6 and secondly in the middle of his sermon in Matthew 6:33 and then finally as he concluded the sermon in Matthew 7:24-27. To find his ways and to walk in his ways, we have to have a desire to seek the kingdom of God, that is to allow his rule and reign in our hearts, we need to seek after righteousness, for his path is a path of righteousness, this speaks of living lives of holiness and purity and Christlikeness and we need to be ensuring we have a good foundation.
Today’s devotion is one of those in which I feel I need to leave a challenge, to the younger generation in particular, in seeking to plan for your future, don’t exclude God from the decision making, make the words from this psalm and song your prayer, ‘Show me your way, your way O Lord’, seek his will, seek his pathway, in all your ways, which includes your decision making processes, acknowledge HIM and he WILL direct your path.
‘Lord, I pray today for the young people in our fellowship, as they are at the point of needing to make critical decisions for the future that you will bring them help, light and direction, that you will lead them on the pathway of your choice, which will be the pathway of blessing. Thank you for each one of them and protect them I pray. in Jesus Name.’