Psalm 25: The 25th Psalm

Well the first thing I noticed about psalm 25 is that it is the 25th psalm of the Bible. That is some deep insight right there! Next I noticed that psalm 25 comes right after psalm 24 but just before psalm 26. I also noticed that psalm 25 has 22 verses in it. It contains 19 periods, 7 semicolons, 20 commas, 1 question mark and two exclamation points (in the NIV). Well that is my summary of psalm 25. Hope you all have been having a great week!

What if the above paragraph was all I wrote about psalm 25? You probably wouldn't get anything out of it. Me telling you that there are 7 semicolons in psalm 25 probably doesn't stir up the Holy Spirit in your heart. I imagine you weren't saying "Praise the Lord for the 7 semicolons!" Although I described psalm 25 in detail, one thing was missing...the Word of God! The Bible is not just a bunch of words on pages, it is the truth given to us by our loving Heavenly Father. That statement may seem obvious to you, but I think all too often we don't deeply pursue God's Word as the absolutely faultless truth that it is.

"Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." Psalm 25:4-5

"Good an upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way." Psalm 25:8-9

As these verses indicate, we should ask God to show, teach, guide and instruct us in his ways, paths and truth. We must set aside our preconceived ideas that the corrupted world we live in has placed in our minds and we must desire to know the truth. We must not approach the Word arrogantly, thinking that we already know everything. Instead we should humble ourselves and let God's Word speak to us. If we do not have a humble approach to God's Word then it will not be effective. We must fully believe ever word that we read and we must let God's Word transform our lives. Everything that we need to know is contained in the Word. We are all sinners and we need God's guidance in our lives. Let us seek his guidance through his Word.

Before reading the Bible, it would be good to have the desire of Psalm 25:4-5 in your heart "Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me..."

Its not the intelligence of the person reading God's Word that matters, instead its that person's desire to learn God's way that counts. So have humility, seek God's instruction, have faith his Word is true, and put it into practice.

Bryan