A God Who is Near

If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn with me to Psalm 25.

If you're here this morning, that means you have survived.

You survived the sickness that is going around,

and you survived not breaking your neck in the parking lot this morning.

So I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad to be with you.

And I'm glad that you are joining with us in worship.

If you have been with us for any amount of time,

you'll know that we are taking a little bit of a break from Romans.

We saw that last week with, or two weeks ago,

with Jonathan Clark coming to us and talking about what it's like to walk with Christ.

And then last week with Luke as well.

Over the next couple weeks, we'll be in the Psalms.

So we're taking a break from Romans. We're in the Psalms.

And we are delighted that you are with us.

With that, let's turn our attention to God's Word.

Psalm 25.

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 exult over me.

Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.

They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

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.

And for you I wait all the day long.

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.

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.

For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.

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.

The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,

and he makes known to them his covenant.

My eyes are ever towards the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

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 distress.

Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.

Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me.

O 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.

Redeem, O Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

We ask that you might use it to show us your glory,

that we would see Christ more clearly.

And Father, that we might know your love more intimately.

And we ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Like I said, I'm thankful to be with you this morning.

Last week, we had Luke fill in because I was sick.

If you're here, you've made it.

You're not sick, or not yet.

It's funny, though, when you're sick, it has a reorienting principle.

I like to think of myself as somewhat of a tough guy, right?

Like I've been in the Army, that stands for something.

You know, I'm a dad, I get beat up on a lot.

But something about being sick kind of reorients you and makes you realize,

man, I'm not as tough as I thought.

I think there's a word for this.

It's called the man flu.

You know, when things are really bad, I am really good.

But if I'm a little bit sick, and in this case, I was kind of a lot sick.

I don't think I suffered from the man flu, despite the accusations in my home.

I think that when you're sick a little bit, just a little bit, it gives us room to complain.

It gives us room in the space, because you're not that ill, to think about, woe is me, how hard life is.

And so as I was preparing for this sermon a couple weeks ago, I was thinking about, man, this is just so hard.

And life is just so hard.

I am in the midst of difficulty, not even thinking about all those times that I've done things that are really, really hard,

or the people that are actually really, really suffering.

Instead, you kind of go into your own little pain cave, and I reside in that cave, and let no one in.

And don't take encouragement from anyone else or correction.

I think that's what the man flu is.

But if you've been with us for these last couple weeks, Jonathan started off our new year by talking about how difficult it was to walk the Christian life.

And what are you going to do in those times of trouble?

Are you going to fold?

Are you going to fold to the man flu?

Are you going to fold to your emotions?

Or are we going to trust in the Lord?

Here in this text this morning, we have a very clear explanation of emotions, of our emotional state and frame,

and what to do in the Christian life with it.

And that kind of creates a difficult situation for many of us,

because we don't know how to reconcile these great truths of the gospel,

the truth of God's word,

and how we feel.

And by me even saying that, some of us here are going,

I don't even have a category for that.

I'm an engineer, or I'm a construction person,

or I love math, right?

But God's word speaks to us,

whether we're an artist,

or whether we use only one side of our brain exclusively.

He meets us in the midst of all of that.

And Jonathan did a great job of challenging us

a couple weeks ago and saying,

when those times come, what are you going to do?

Now, one of those times is here,

we can see in David's life.

What does David do?

He doesn't shut any of those emotions out.

In fact, he embraces them.

And as we'll see in a few minutes,

he redirects them towards the Lord.

You see, oftentimes in our Christian experience,

we've been tricked,

or maybe we trick ourselves into thinking,

if I feel a certain way,

then I might not be a Christian.

If I doubt God's goodness,

or bad things are happening to me,

maybe a little worse than the man flu,

right, actual sickness, actual hurt,

then where do I turn?

How do I respond?

Well, we've tricked ourselves into thinking

that feelings have no place at all in the Christian life.

I must be happy and joyful all the time.

Every time.

And when we come to a text of scripture like this,

we don't know what to do,

because that doesn't seem so happy and joyful, does it?

What do we do when we face those challenges?

Is something wrong with me?

Am I off?

When you feel as if,

if I just had one more thing,

if I had to bear one more trial,

it would all fall apart.

Maybe stress is mounting at work,

at home,

there's relationships that need to be fixed.

When we look at our checkbooks,

or our online banking account,

we think,

I don't even know how I'm going to make it.

When we really want to restore that relationship

with a parent,

a friend,

a neighbor,

and we don't know how it's going to happen.

Or,

you feel the anger rising in you

because you've been slighted once again.

Maybe it's by your own children,

or maybe it's the infamous,

per my last email at work.

Right?

That one always gets me.

And it makes my blood boil.

But when I respond with anger,

is that right?

Maybe it's not anger,

but sadness.

You can't wait for the Christmas season to be over

because it's not one of joy,

but of sadness.

And you can't wait to go back to what is normal.

Or you look out and you see the joy

in so many others,

and you think,

it doesn't reside in here,

and why not?

The problem is not that these feelings exist,

and we've all felt some version of them

at some point.

But we need to know

what to do with them.

Or as one has put it,

we

expect the world

to not have much time for weakness.

Especially the weakness of the psalmist's cries.

That makes sense.

But even in the church,

we have drunk so deeply

at the well of modern,

Western materialism

that we simply don't know

what to do

with such cries.

And we regard them

as little more than embarrassing.

Here we have in Scripture

David crying out to God.

And we don't know what to do with it.

Because it's not going swimmingly,

it's not happy,

it's not well.

But because of God,

we'll see this.

We'll see that we can cry out to Him

for deliverance.

We can cry out to Him

for instruction.

We can cry out to Him

for forgiveness.

forgiveness

because of God.

Whether we have the man flu

or whether we're facing

death itself,

that we can cry out to God.

This morning,

as I mentioned,

we're starting

a little kind of mini-series

in the Psalms.

We'll have a number of Psalms

that we go through

in the next month,

and we'll see

that the full spectrum

of emotion

is on display.

It ain't always happy.

And we're forced

to confront this idea

that in Scripture

we have this thing

called lament.

It's more than just being sad.

Because if it was just being sad,

you'd be stuck there

with the man flu

or whatever else

is going on.

But it redirects us

back to God.

And that's what we have

before us.

David's lament

not over things

that were in the hands

of his enemies.

He's got those,

and we'll see those

in successive weeks.

He's got real enemies

who really want

to kill him,

to really put him

in the grave.

But David here

seems to be crying out

over something else,

even though he calls it

his enemies.

It's kind of his own sin.

And David

and Israel

that followed after him

used this in worship.

They used it

as a means

by which to cry out

to God and say,

we need your help.

Now,

as we may well know,

there's strong emotions

in life.

There's strong emotions

in the Christian life.

And those feelings

oftentimes

can overtake

what we see

as clarity

or logic

or progression

of thought.

But it doesn't mean

that they're not there.

It just means

that the emotions

are what's driving it,

not an orderliness.

Think about

what we've just come from

in Romans, right?

Paul is systematically

explaining

the outworkings

of the gospel.

And here,

we can feel

David is doing

something very different.

That doesn't mean,

though,

that there's not

a structure

or an orderliness

to it.

And we can sense that

because it seems like

he's returning

again and again

to some themes.

But what are those themes

and how do we

appropriate that?

Like,

how do we figure out

what exactly

is going on?

Now,

I'll tell you this.

Logic is present,

but the experience

of David's life

is what's driving

and organizing this.

Now,

in a psalm like Psalm 25,

there is a structure,

but it's not apparent

to us

because we're reading

in English,

to be quite frank.

Now,

and there's some psalms

that have a structure

to it

where they take

something like

who remembers

dare

from your younger years

if you're,

or,

maybe your older years.

We have a word,

right?

I think it's

drug abuse resistance education.

I think that's right.

And that word

also stands

for every part

of that organization.

Now,

in a psalm

like Psalm 25,

it's not dare,

but it takes

the alphabet,

the Hebrew alphabet,

and it organizes things

based on that first letter

of every line

in order.

So,

it'd be like

A, B, C, D, E, F,

right?

All the way down to Z.

So,

there's an organization

to it.

It's just not emanating

from us.

But then,

the author,

so David is kind of

organizing all of this

to follow in sequence

with that alphabet.

But it's not apparent

to us,

but we can feel.

There's some organization

behind it,

but I can't put my finger

on it.

So,

that's what David's

doing here.

Now,

as we'll see,

they're in a kind of pattern,

not just from start

to beginning,

but it moves

towards something

in the middle.

Okay?

And so,

imagine the letter X

where at opposite ends,

you have something

that couldn't be further

from each other.

And then,

as you move

towards the middle,

they do what?

They get closer.

They get closer

until you get

to that inflection point

when that central theme

is everything around

which it spins.

Okay?

And that's what

we have here today.

So,

as it starts

at the beginning

and the end,

those two match.

And then,

as they go closer

or up,

those two match.

And then,

those match.

And then,

they go to one central theme.

And that central theme

this morning

is God,

quite frankly.

And we'll see that

in a minute.

So,

we're marching

on this way

to this idea

that God

is at the center

of even these emotions.

And so,

David's experience

will unpack

and drive

towards God,

David's experience

towards God.

But first,

he pleads for what?

He pleads for deliverance

from his enemies.

That's a normal thing

in the Psalms,

right?

Look back with me

at verse one.

To you,

O Lord,

I lift up my soul.

And then he continues

in verse two.

O God,

in you I trust.

Let me not be put to shame.

Let not my enemies

exult over me.

We see in this

first part of the Psalm,

there's a reference point.

It's a reference point.

I already gave the answer

to the test

that it's all driving

towards God.

But even in the midst

of this battle

with his enemies,

God is the reference point

by which he interprets

everything that's going on.

He starts there

and then we're going

to end there as well.

Now,

think about how often

we hear about emotions,

especially anger.

We're told what?

That maybe

if you're a teenage boy

that you should just go

and let those emotions out,

right?

Just yell it out.

There is some goodness

to that sometimes.

But what happens

at the end of that?

You're going to come back

and do it again.

And it's kind of like a muscle.

Maybe one week

you're lifting

the five pound anger weight

and then the next week

you're lifting

the 50 pound anger weight

because it doesn't have

an effect anymore.

It's a muscle

that keeps working.

But that's not

what David does here,

is it?

In the midst

of his enemies,

in the midst

of his emotions,

he isn't submitting

himself to nothing.

There's a reference

point of God.

He's the focal point.

But he's not the recipient

of that anger.

But in the midst

of that,

that is his more.

That is the thing

he is tied to

and returns to.

Think of a lighthouse

and a storm.

That's the thing

that gives him hope.

It's an affirmation

of who God is

and then it's a plea

based on that relationship

which we'll see

in a minute.

There's a very real sense

in which David

is under some type

of oppression.

I mentioned this before.

We don't know

exactly what it is.

It could very well

be physical danger.

David has a lot of that.

Think of some

of the Psalms

that we know

when he's on the run

from people

that want to kill him.

Psalm 34

is very much

in that vein.

He doesn't tell us

exactly though

who these enemies are

or what they're trying

to do.

We just know

that they are after him.

But he is going back

to that source,

to that reference point

for a plea

for deliverance.

He's begging

for deliverance.

And for us

as the reader,

this seems natural

to go to the Lord.

After all,

what else do you have?

But this reason

is not based

just because

we're great theologians,

but it's based

on the witness

of Scripture.

Think about what comes

before Psalm 25.

Yes, Psalm 24.

I know that part.

And Psalm 23.

But what's in those

that makes David

in this work

go straight back

to the Lord?

We have these laments

where we cry out to God,

but why is he so quick

to go back to the Lord

when our experience

is anything but?

Well, he goes back to him

because he knows

that is true.

What comes before

is, yes,

Psalm 24

and Psalm 23.

That one's familiar

to us, right?

This declaration

of who God is

in the midst of darkness.

Even though I walk

through the valley

of the shadow of death,

what?

I fear no evil

because God's presence

is there.

God leads them.

God delivers them.

But he's also

the king in Psalm 24.

This king of glory.

Everything on the earth

belongs to him.

Everything.

This is the same God

who in Psalm 23

is referenced

as leading his people

because what?

In the Exodus,

God is the one

who delivers them

and leads his people

out of it.

He's the shepherd

not caring for the little

fluffy cute sheep,

right?

that simply

bah

and mine

their master.

But he's the shepherd

steering wayward children

that are mindless

and complaining

and murmuring

and doing all those

bad and nasty things

and saying,

why can't we go back

to Egypt?

That same shepherd idea

is the one

who in Psalm 23

is doing those things

and he's doing that

because he did it

in the Exodus as well.

He's a warrior

that fights

on behalf of his people

when what?

When Pharaoh's army

rises up,

God is the one

who leads them.

God is the one

who delivers them.

And that's why

David can say

with confidence,

to you,

oh God,

I lift up my soul.

In you I trust.

In the midst of

disaster

and war,

David returns again

to God,

the God

who had delivered

his people again.

Let's go back

to those enemies.

Who are those enemies?

We don't know

who they are.

But whatever it is,

it's causing David

to cry out

and say,

he's on the run again

but from this time

we don't know

what it is.

It's very generic though.

But we know

that these enemies

pop up again.

Remember what I told you

about that picture

of the X.

They come back again

at the end

of Psalm 25.

Look at verse 19

with me.

Consider how many

are my foes

and with what

violent hatred

they hate me.

Oh guard my soul

and deliver me.

Let me not be put

to shame.

They come back again.

David is pleading

and is asking

with God,

pleading

for deliverance.

He's saying,

listen,

Lord,

I need your help.

They want to destroy me.

And God answers

him.

Be gracious,

look upon my affliction

and deliver me again.

Now if you'll note,

there's a lot of action verbs

in here.

Right?

Think about this.

Turn to me.

Be gracious.

Look upon my affliction.

Take away my sin.

Guard my life.

Rescue me.

Let me not be put

to shame.

They almost come

with those graphics

and cartoons,

right?

With the bubbles

and the like,

pow and bam.

But it ain't David

who's doing that.

It's God

who's doing it.

God

and not David

is at work.

God is at work

even in the presence

of his enemies,

both yours

and David's.

But we get

a small glimpse

at who this enemy is.

it's not one

that does battle

simply with swords

and chariots

and military might.

The one

that David

battles against,

he fights

with uprightness,

integrity,

and hope.

And for that battle,

David

has nowhere else

to turn

but back

to the deliverer.

For he is the only one

that can release

from the snare of sin,

that can free

from anguish,

that can cure

loneliness

and affliction.

My eyes

are ever

on the Lord

for only

he will release

my feet.

Turn

and be gracious

to me.

David's cry

for deliverance

is back

towards the Lord

from the hands

of his enemies.

That's the only thing

he can ask for.

Now as we move

from those outside parts,

we're moving

a little closer.

What's the next thing

that David asks for?

He asks for guidance

or instruction.

Really,

he doesn't ask for it.

He begs for it.

Sometimes when we think

guidance,

we think of

like a scene

from Andy Griffith,

right?

Where the little boy,

Opie,

he asks his dad,

oh man,

I have this like

situation at school,

this minor moral dilemma,

if it's even a moral dilemma.

And oftentimes

they're fishing.

I love Andy Griffith

and I love fishing.

That's not a commentary

on it.

But then Andy

will say,

well,

you remember something

like this.

And there's a sense

of nostalgia

for something like that.

Where it's a bestowal

of wisdom

that we already

kind of knew

but we needed

a father figure

to turn us back

to that.

That's not what's

going on here.

That is not the picture

that David has

of asking for guidance

in the midst

of trouble.

It's not like an,

oh shucks,

Andy,

I knew that anyway.

This is a crying out

in the midst

of darkness

and chaos.

I don't know

what to do.

Lord,

help me.

We see that again

in the Gospels too.

Lord,

help me

in the midst

of my unbelief.

He's begging

for help.

Look at verses

four through six.

Make known

to me your ways,

oh Lord.

Teach me your past.

Lead me in your truth

and teach me

for you are the God

of my salvation

for I will wait

all the day long.

Remember your mercy,

oh Lord,

and your steadfast love

for they have been

of old.

We don't see that

very often.

We're told often

in our day and age

and even sometimes

we function like this.

If we need wisdom,

we just need

to silence ourselves.

Silence all the distractions

and all the noises

and if I get alone

by myself,

I can think clearly.

I know what to do.

That says

that the answer

arises from within us.

In David's experience,

I'm not against silence

and I'm not against

being by myself.

I'm a little bit

on the introvert scale.

But David is saying,

hey,

this instruction,

this guidance,

this clarity

is not coming inside

of me,

from inside of me.

It's coming

from the Lord.

That the Lord

is giving him

guidance.

The Lord

is the one

that's working

in his life.

Our innermost being

is not the thing

that's going to guide us,

but God speaking

to us.

Again,

he's the one

that's active.

He is the one

that's teaching.

He is the one

that's showing.

He is the one

that's delivering us.

It's a street fight

for truth

in our own hearts

and minds.

And the Lord

is the one

doing battle.

But David,

in doing this,

is submitting

to the will

of his Father

and asking

to be led,

to be shown.

It's kind of like

when we have a house

and we decorate it

and organize it

in such a way.

We're asking

the Lord

to come in

and rearrange

the furniture

and throw things

in the dumpster

and to reorient

everything.

That's what David

is doing.

We're not asking

him just to clean

up the dust bunnies.

We're asking him

to reorganize

and reorient

our lives

according to

his principles.

Imagine

in the midst

of difficulty

and trial,

not wallowing

in grief,

kind of like pigs.

Pigs love mud.

They roll back

and forth

and they wallow

in mud.

We do that

sometimes

in our emotional state

when things are hard.

We don't go

to the Lord.

We just roll

around in it.

We think about

anxiety

and sadness

and fear

and they're our

companions

and we act

like Israel

in the Exodus.

We complain

and murmur

about it

with things

that are

maybe bigger

than the man flu.

But David's

example is showing

us to go

back to the Lord

and to ask him

in the midst

of that

for guidance.

Show us the way

O Lord.

But we also

have that promise

that God

is going to do

something,

that he is going

to be at work.

Look at verse 12.

Who is the man

who fears the Lord?

He will instruct him

or him

will he instruct

in the way

that he should choose.

There's a pleading

and then there's a promise.

But that promise,

we don't know

the timing

of the answer

but we know

that he answers,

that he will instruct him,

he will answer him.

But that guidance

is formed

by relationship.

The answer

that's been given

to David

flows out

of this relationship

with this covenant

keeping God.

Remember,

this is the same God

that promised

that he would be

their God

and they would be

his people.

That's the ground

of assurance

that David has.

That he knows

it will come to pass.

He knows

that he will have

an answer

because he has

fellowship with God.

And that relationship

is good.

Look at verse 13.

His soul

shall abide

in well-being.

His offering

shall inherit

the land.

14.

The friendship

of the Lord

is for those

who fear him

and makes known

his covenant.

Guidance

and instruction

is the outworking

of our relationship

with God.

When we plead

for him

to answer,

it's because

he is near to us.

It flows out

of this relationship

that we had

with the Lord.

And we get

a small glimpse

of that here

in Psalm 25.

Now we know

David has pled

for what?

He's pled

for all these things

up until this point.

He's pled

for deliverance

from enemies.

He's asked

for guidance

because of this

relationship.

But what else

does he ask for?

Again,

we're moving

closer and closer

to that inflection point.

He's asking

for forgiveness.

We saw

a hint of that

in verse 6.

Remember your mercy,

O Lord,

and your steadfast love,

for they have

been from old.

He continues on.

Remember not

the sins

of my youth

or my transgressions

according to

your steadfast love.

Remember me

for the sake

of your goodness.

It's not simply

a statement

of God's mercy.

It is that,

but it's saying

remember how

you've worked

in the past.

God,

you've done

these things

in the past.

Do them again.

May it continue.

It's an outworking

of that covenant

promise to God's people.

It's taking Israel's

history and saying,

hey, remember

how you've dealt

with Abraham.

He sinned,

but you were so

gracious to him.

Remember not just

Abraham,

but remember Isaac.

Remember Jacob.

Remember your people,

Israel,

how you've dealt

with them.

Remember me

according to

that same love.

David is pleading

with the Lord

to do the same.

If we see the pattern

here,

he pleads for these

things and then

he answers these

things in the same

way.

But most of all,

he asked,

remember not my sin.

David is keenly

aware of his sin

in this moment.

I think that's

who the enemy is.

The fact that

he's dealing

with a struggle

against his own

flesh and the devil.

And we've circled

around to the fact

that David is back

in this bad spot.

He needs guidance,

yes,

he needs deliverance

from that,

but he is really

aware that he's a

sinner.

He knows that he

needs a redeemer.

And in that moment,

he knows that he

needs God.

He's looking back

over his youth

and saying,

don't deal with me

according to all

those things.

And he has these

very acute points,

if you know the

life of David,

where he's aware

that he is a

sinner,

the gravity of

what he's done.

And he knows

that he needs

a deliverer.

He knows he needs

a redeemer.

But he's asking

the Lord not to

look on that,

but look back

on love.

Remember what you

have done to your

people.

As a pastor,

I'm often privileged

to see this picture.

Remember your promise

to love.

And I see it most

often in marriages,

but not on the

wedding day.

But when things

are really dark

and things are

really bad,

and there seems

like there's no

hope,

and oftentimes

what is said,

even with people

that don't confess

Christ,

I remember,

remember that you

promised to love me.

I've heard that on

more than one occasion,

and I'm always

struck by that

because that

is the picture

that we are

claiming of God,

except for

he has never

stopped loving us.

in spite of our sin.

And David is

pleading that promise

on his own behalf.

But we have

that assurance,

again,

the pleading for it,

but the assurance

of forgiveness.

Look at verse 11.

For your name's sake,

O Lord,

pardon my guilt,

for it is great.

There's a sense

of expectation

that David has

because he's dealing

with his people.

He says,

because of the covenant,

because of the promise,

do these things.

Not because of

anything in myself,

but because of

what you have done.

The same is true

in the gospel.

That we are not

claiming eternal life

on anything

that we have done.

This message

that we have

in the good news

of Jesus

is because of

your love,

O Lord,

because of who you are,

because of your promise

that we should love.

Please love us

because of that.

There's a comfort

and that forgiveness

when we know

that we are in Christ,

that God

is faithful

to his promise

because of his covenant.

So David can call

for deliverance.

He can call

for guidance.

He can even call

for forgiveness.

But that center point,

that inflection

of this whole psalm

is God himself.

Look with me

at verses 8 and 10.

Good and upright

is the Lord,

therefore he instructs

the sinners in the way.

He leads the humble

in what is right.

He teaches the humble

his way.

And all the paths

of the Lord

are steadfast love

and faithfulness

for those who keep

his covenant

and his testimonies.

We can feel that

because it's not

to you, O Lord.

We see that it's kind of

like in third person now.

It's about God himself.

He is the center point

of all of what's going on.

He's the center point

of David's life,

even in the midst

of not knowing

how to feel

or what to do,

but he's also

the center point

of this text.

It's a shift,

not pleading,

but statements

about God,

who he is.

The difficulty though,

we know this

from our experiences,

we can gloss over

that really quickly.

We can be consumed

by how we feel

in the moment,

but David is encouraging us

to go back

to that reference point,

to God himself.

himself,

who's at the center

because he's not silent,

he is not absent.

In fact,

he is the one delivering,

giving guidance,

and even forgiving sin.

And that's the beauty

of the Savior.

That's the beauty

of Jesus,

the fact that we have

Christ who intercedes

even now,

that God has sent

his son

to be the focal point

of our lives.

I've kind of made

a big deal

throughout this sermon

about the structure

of Psalm 25.

Now,

not every Psalm

is structured like this,

but the ones that are,

it's very telling

when it doesn't follow

that model.

There's one part

that doesn't follow

this whole model,

and it's the last verse.

Redeem Israel,

O God,

out of his troubles.

It's a misstep

in this flow.

But in that misstep,

we see that it's not

just David's experience.

It's the experience

of God's people.

This calling back

for God

to be the center point

of our lives.

So that we might cry

in the midst of storm

for deliverance,

ask for instruction,

but most of all,

we are crying

and asking the Lord

to be the focus

of our lives.

May we do that this day.

Let's pray.

Lord,

we are thankful

for the reminder

from your word

of your promises

in Scripture.

We ask that you might

remind us,

even now,

that you are to be

the focal point

of our lives,

that we are offered

forgiveness in the gospel.

May we plead for it,

and Father,

may we be assured of it.

In our times of trouble

and distress,

may you give us instruction.

May we plead for it.

May you grant us it.

And Father,

even in the presence

of our enemies,

just like your servant David,

may we plead for deliverance,

and may we be assured of it

in all these things

because of what Christ has done.

We ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.