In Psalm 25, David repeatedly asks God to teach and lead him. He uses very similar language in Psalm 27 when he speaks of someone having no parents to guide them in life with wisdom and love (Ps. 27:10), and yet God steps into that role as our loving, heavenly Father and He teaches and leads us on the right path (27:11).
Notice the repetition of David’s requests or comments on God leading him in Psalm 25:
- “Make me know your ways, O LORD” (25:4)
- “Teach me your paths” (25:4)
- “Lead me in your truth and teach me” (25:5)
- God “instructs sinners in the way” (25:8)
- “He leads the humble in what is right” (25:9)
- God “teaches the humble His way” (25:9)
- God will instruct [he who fears the LORD] “in the way that He should choose” (25:12)
God not only shows us the path but He holds our hand and walks with us on the path. As you seek to be led, guided, and taught by God, let David’s psalm model how to receive His direction and instruction, or how to put yourself in the path so you can be led and taught. There are more things in Psalm 25 that could be added, so read through it on your own, but here are a few of the takeaways.
Pray for it
The whole of Psalm 25 is a prayer. David asks God for a number of things (mercy, deliverance, grace, strength, etc.), but his asking includes being led by God.
Prayer is the means by which we lift our soul up to God (25:1) and entrust ourselves to Him. It’s part of how we put our trust in Him (25:2) and wait on Him (25:3, 21) by faith. Praying keeps our eyes on God and hands over our cares and concerns to Him. Prayer admits our need for God’s wisdom. To paraphrase James, if anyone lacks or seek wisdom, let them ask God for it (James 1:5).
In prayer, we acknowledge our sin, we admit we often put our agenda and will before God’s, and we confess our heart is easily deceived and quick to defend ourselves (25:7, 11, 18). As we clear our hearts before the Lord in prayer, it helps set aside some of our own thoughts, feelings, and desires so they can be more fully formed and informed by God. This doesn’t mean just because we pray to be led by God, or that we try to set aside our sinful perspectives and desires, that we will not stumble all along the way or will fully see His path all the time. We can misread or misunderstand God’s leading. We can see part of the picture and wrongly fill in other details. Our warped hearts and minds can interpret things in terms of how we see things or want to see happen.
Being honest about these things helps us stay humble so we are more emptied of ourselves. But if we are praying in this way, it is much more likely we’re in a place where we can be led and taught by God.
Entrust yourself to God
David starts this psalm with, “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust” (25:1-2). What does it mean to lift your soul up to to God? It has the sense of entrusting yourself fully to God. We surrender and submit ourselves to God, putting ourselves in His hands. From there, we are better able to be led and taught by God because we’re fully entrusting circumstances, our path, our desires, our future, and our very life to God.
We run to Him as our refuge. We hope in Him and wait on Him with our eyes locked on Him alone. Only then will we follow where He leads us and take the steps He shows us.
David humbly falls on the mercy of God throughout this psalm. This posture of humility before God goes hand-in-hand with entrusting ourselves to God. We see the gulf between who we are and who He is, between our sinfulness and His righteousness, between our lack of wisdom and strength and His infinite wisdom and strength, and we then give ourselves over to Him because of it. Humility makes us teachable. Humility gives us eyes to see and ears to hear.
These overlapping ideas of lifting our soul to God, trusting in Him, waiting on Him, running to Him as refuge, and being led by Him show up in Psalm 143. Here’s one section (143:8-10).
“Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,
for in you I trust.
Make me know the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
9 Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord!
I have fled to you for refuge.
10 Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God!
Let your good Spirit lead me
on level ground!”
Charles Spurgeon adds this comment on Psalm 143:8.
“When David was in any difficulty as to his way he lifted his soul towards God himself, and then he knew that he could not go very far wrong. If the soul will not rise of itself we must lift it, lift it up unto God. This is good argument in prayer: surely the God to whom we endeavour to lift up our soul will condescend to show us what he would have us to do. Let us attend to David’s example, and when our heart is low, let us heartily endeavor to lift it up, not so much to comfort as to the Lord himself.”
As you pray, entrust yourself to God. Lift up yourself to Him. Trust Him because He alone is trustworthy and He alone can bear the weight of your trust.
Wait on God
We all know waiting is one of the most difficult parts of living by faith. We’re about as good at waiting on God as my kids are at waiting to arrive at our destination on a long car ride. But waiting on God is how we live by faith in God. No one who waits on God will be put to shame, disappointed, or failed (25:3).
Remember that we don’t just wait, but we wait on God. We wait on Him to lead and guide us. We wait on His timing and plan. We wait on His strength, patience, grace, and wisdom. We wait for His means of help, provision, or deliverance.
Waiting on God gives a chance to release control and trust in God to be in control. Waiting on God gives us a chance to quiet our hearts and truly look to Him (25:15) and hear from Him. Waiting provides space for distractions to fall away and for us to let go of our plans. Waiting keeps us from running ahead of God or straying from the path and plan He has for us.
Waiting is never wasted time because God is already at work while we wait, both in us but also for us. So wait on God by faith. Wait to see and hear what He might want to teach or how He might lead you.
As we wait in humility and faith we might discover that what God is doing for us, teaching us, or where He’s leading us is different from what we expected. And what He’s doing or where He’s leading will always be better than we expected or wanted.
Fear God
Psalm 25 twice mentions fearing the LORD as a prerequisite of being taught by Him (25:12, 14). I don’t think the “fear of God” is terror of God, like a person waiting for lightning to strike them, but it does involve trembling before God, like a person awed and amazed by the power and beauty of a lightning storm (who wants to gaze at the storm but also knows it could consume them if they are reckless before it).
Ed Welch writes, “This fear of the Lord means reverent submission that leads to obedience, and it is interchangeable with ‘worship,’ ‘rely on,’ ‘trust,’ and ‘hope in.'” When David talks about the fear of God, it’s a reverential awe and worship that recognizes all of who God is, and that we are not God. To fear God is not to be afraid or scared of him. To fear God is to worship Him as a God who is above and beyond us but also near to us.
The imagery isn’t of a child hiding from their parent out of fear. In fact, part of what’s worth noticing is the Bible holds healthy fear and friendship together. “The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him” (25:14). Again, I think a loving and kind parent-child metaphor is helpful here. My kids should have a healthy respect of me, recognizing there’s an authority that comes with being a parent and a dependence that comes with being a child. But I’d like to think my kids also view me as their close friend they love to be around and feel safe with, which is why they run to me when they’re scared, sit with me on the couch while we watch a show, tell me about their day, and turn to me when they need help. The kind of reverence in this fear is tethered to love, intimacy, kindness, and trust.
I think this fear of God keeps in mind who God truly is, and how rightly knowing and thinking about Him replaces our unhealthy, earthly fears. Throughout Psalm 25, David rehearses the attributes and actions of God. He is full of mercy and steadfast love (25:6-7, 10), good and upright (25:7-8), faithful (25:10), and merciful and gracious (25:11, 16-18). David reminds himself that God listens to his prayers, is reliable and trustworthy, eager to guide and guard him, a friend and father, our redemption in troubles, and our only hope.
When our mind is full of God, which leads to a healthy fear of God (or worship), we can be led by Him. The way to be taught and led, the way to wait and trust by faith, is to saturate your heart and mind with the knowledge of who God is, how He acts for us, how He helps us, and what He desires from us. Worship of God will lead us into the path of God and from God.
Keep your eyes on God
This might just be a way to summarize everything that’s been said, but keep your eyes on the Lord. Our eyes are often too focused on ourselves, either peering within for the solution or focused on our failures. Our eyes also can focus too much on what we feel, on our circumstances, on our pain or confusion, on the problem or proposed solutions, on the people around us and what they think or say or offer to provide, our a thousand shiny idols that offer to do for us what only God can do.
Every time you find your attention getting stuck on something other than God, remember to “look up.” As David writes, “My eyes are ever toward the LORD” (25:15). Why? Because He alone can “pluck my feet out of the net” (25:15). He alone can redeem us from all our troubles (25:22). He alone can offer the grace, guidance, wisdom, strength, and pardon we need. He alone knows what is true. He alone sees all things objectively and His wisdom cuts through all the voices and opinions. I don’t want anyone else to capture my eyes or ears besides God.
I think this reminds us as well as that David is expectant of God. He is looking to God in trust, but He’s also looking to God believing God is going to teach and lead him. Looking to God must be a watchful waiting because we believe God will show up. He will lead and guide us. He will help and defend us. He will walk with us.
Spurgeon comments:
David “claims to be fixed in his trust, and constant in his expectation; he looks in confidence, and waits in hope. We may add to this look of faith and hope the obedient look of service, the humble look of reverence, the admiring look of wonder, the studious look of meditation, and the tender look of affection.”
Like David meditated on specific truths about God, the more we fill our mind up with the truths of who God is, what He’s done for us, and His promises to us, the more our eyes will remain fixated on Him alone. The less others will have our ears and the more God alone will have our ears. The more we fear Him in worship and awe, and draw near in friendship and faith, the more our eyes will stay focused on Him (25:14). The more we keep going back to lifting our soul to God and trusting in Him (25:1), the more we talk to Him in prayer, the more we take refuge in Him (25:20), and the more we turn to Him and follow Him (25:16), the more we keep our eyes on Him. And when we do that, we are positioned to be taught, led, and guided by God.
God is faithful. He is a kind Father and trustworthy Friend who doesn’t want you to be confused, led astray, or lost. He wants to lead you, teach you, and guide you. But we must entrust ourselves to Him, wait on and worship Him, and keep our eyes fixed on Him. We must talk to Him and listen to Him.
I love the lyrics of the hymn, “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us.” The first stanza reads:
“Savior, like a shepherd lead us,
Much we need Thy tender care;
In Thy pleasant pastures feed us,
For our use Thy folds prepare:
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.”
indycrowe 