Embrace the Word for Monday, February 16, 2026
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Psalm 25 starts with the simple superscription, “Of David.” The next three Psalms, 26,27, and 28, also start this way, suggesting a connection or grouping with these Psalms. Psalms 35 and 37 also share this superscription. Psalm 25 is a nearly complete acrostic Psalm, meaning that the first word of each new verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Psalm 34 is nearly identical to Psalm 25 as it too is a nearly complete acrostic. The similarities between Psalm 25 and Psalm 34 indicate a structural relationship between the two Psalms, which is best explained as they each are the first of their respective subunits to Book 1 of the Psalter. As far as the structure of Psalm 25 itself, there seems to be a pattern to the Psalm that alternates back and forth between a second-person address to the LORD with third-person meditation about the LORD: prayer (25:1-7), meditation (25:8-10), prayer (25:11), meditation (25:12-15), prayer (25:16-21), and a concluding prayer for Israel (25:22).
Psalm 25 opens with an affirmation of trust in the LORD: “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust” (25:1). In Psalm 24, David stated that one of the requirements for entering God’s presence is that one, “does not lift up his soul to what is false” (See Psalm 24:4b). Instead of trusting in and worshiping an idol, David confesses his worship of and trust in the LORD. David immediately expresses his need for help: “let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me” (25:2). David’s opening prayer consists of two complementary parts. First, David asks that he not experience shame. Second, David asks that his enemies be kept from exulting over him. Combining the two parts together, David is asking that he not face the humiliation of his enemies being victorious over him. A defeat would bring disgrace upon David.
With a resolve to trust in the LORD, David is confident that his enemies would not get the last laugh: “Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous” (25:3). Knowing that the best way to avoid shame is to live faithfully to the LORD, David prays for the LORD’s help for obedience: “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long” (25:4-5). David acknowledges that waiting for the LORD, which he states as his resolve in verse 3 and 5, is not a passive resignation. Waiting for the LORD entails seeking the LORD by asking the LORD to instruct him in the way he should live, coupled with asking the LORD to cause him to actually live that way. Waiting on the LORD involves an active, engaged trust in the LORD that results in an obedience to the LORD.
Knowing that shame, at the hands of his enemies, is averted by living in faithful obedience to the LORD, quickened a conviction of sin in David: “Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!” (25:6-7). This is the first explicit mention in the Psalter concerning the confession of sin. David is admitting that in this particular situation, the threatening disgrace of defeat at the hands of his enemies is due to his own sin. David’s fear of shame, in at least this instance, is rooted in his sin. The theme of remember is key to what David expresses. The remembering that David seeks, is for the LORD to act in accordance with His revealed character. David is confessing that God’s mercy and steadfast love, “have been from of old,” that is, these qualities of the LORD go way back. The LORD is everlastingly a God of mercy and steadfast love. David’s wording reflects his acknowledgment of the LORD manifesting Himself to Moses: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (See Exodus 34:6-7). David is appealing to nothing within himself, but solely to the character of the LORD as the basis for his sins no longer being remembered.
David shifts from praying to the LORD to meditating upon the LORD. David’s reflection about the LORD is an important expansion concerning what is included in the steadfast love and faithfulness of the LORD: “Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies” (25:8-10). The covenant mercies and love and faithfulness of the LORD involves seeking Him for pardon; but the same covenant mercies and love and faithfulness also involves responding to His commands and instructions. David’s appeal is not merely to experience forgiveness, but to be directed by the LORD so as to live in a manner of life that he would not need forgiveness. The humility that drove David to confess his sins, is the humility that drove David to yearn for obedience to the Lord. Such a humble meditation prompted David to acknowledge his sin afresh: “For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great” (25:11).
David returns to his mediation before the LORD: “Who is the man who fears the LORD? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land” (25:12-13). The humility that prompted David to ask the LORD to instruct him in the way he should go, is now interchanged with a proper fear of the LORD. To fear God is to respect him, to know that He must not be presumed upon, to realize that spurning His holiness leads to a host of dreaded consequences. Instead, fearing God involves an arrangement of the heart that is teachable by the LORD. Such a fear-oriented perspective is far from soul-crushing; it is actually the heart posture that receives enjoyment from God’s goodness leading to an inheritance of blessings from the LORD. Fearing God rightly even results in the experience of the special counsel shared among the closest of friends: “The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for he will pluck my feet out of the net” (25:14-15). Such blessed opportunities arouse David to focus on the LORD, for such focus averts trouble.
David’s determination to focus on the LORD induced him back to prayer: “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins” (25:16-18). David knows that his resolve to stay focused on the LORD requires that the LORD turn and focus on him. David’s prayer returns back to his original situation that opened this Psalm. David once again acknowledges his sins as a factor behind his troubles and afflictions. David desires to be delivered from his lonely affliction and troubled heart; but David ultimately located the cause of his distress not simply in the situation he is in, but in the sin that was situated in him. David’s situation is not good: “Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me” (25:19). But David’s prayer pinpoints the real need in his soul: “Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you” (25:20-21). David reveals that his real concern is whether or not his soul would wait and take refuge in the LORD, or if it would opt for a different solution. At the moment that David is praying, he realizes that the only way to avert the shame that is pending is to trust in the LORD, waiting for Him to act. Thus in praying, he knows he needs the LORD to preserve that heart posture.
David has, for the first twenty-one verses spoken of his own experience and concerns in the first-person singular. Yet David completes his prayer with a burden for the nation that he led: “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles” (25:22). As king, David sees himself and his situation as having correlation to Israel’s fortunes and destiny. David is the representative before the LORD, for the entire nation. The status and condition of the king would greatly affect the standing and shape of the nation. Thus, if God answers David’s prayer for himself, then that answer will be applied to the nation. Therefore, the king’s heart is toward his people.
As we reflect on Psalm 25, we can consider how this Psalm applies to Jesus. Did Jesus pray this Psalm? I think He did. The easy part to that answer is to connect how David’s troubles and enemies preview Jesus’ troubles and enemies. The same could be said of David’s trust in the LORD expressed through praying to the LORD, as well as David’s desire to faithfully walk in God’s ways; all point to the life of Jesus. But what about this Psalm’s introduction of the confession having relationship to Jesus? How would we connect David’s confession of sin to Jesus? The Bible is clear that Jesus had no sin: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (See Hebrews 4:15). Jesus had no sin of His own: “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (See 1 John 3:5). But Jesus did come to take away sins; and it is in this regard that He identifies with His people to such an extent that He identifies with His people in their sin: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (See 2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus bears the burden of the sins of his people before the Father in such a deep way that perhaps He can even pray for the forgiveness of His peoples sins—in their place—which He took upon Himself at the Cross. So as Christ identifies with His people in their sin, His people now identify with Him in His righteousness.
That’s all for Embrace the Word for Monday, February 16, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Wednesday, February 18, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 26.