Selected verses from Psalm 25 are referenced throughout this blog post.
As we follow our Savior’s footsteps to the cross and walk through the season of Lent, Psalm 25 is an appropriate and comforting psalm to keep in the forefront of our minds.
We began the Lenten journey a little over a week ago with Ash Wednesday—a remembrance that dust we are and to dust we shall return. Not just because of the sinful things we do, but because of the things we don’t do. “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).
And yet—though we are dust and ash as sinful human beings—we cry out along with David, “In you, Lord my God, I put my trust. I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame.” Is this not the same desperate yet confident cry echoed by countless other Christians throughout the ages? “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Our confidence, our trust, is not in ourselves. We know there’s no strength, no hope, to be found therein. No. We’re putting everything—our hope and our very lives both here and also in eternity—on God and who he says he is. No one who hopes in the Lord will ever be put to shame.
How do we know that with absolute confidence and certainty? Because that is what God tells us in his Word. We fall to our knees and pray alongside David, “Show me your ways, 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.”
Without the Lord’s instruction and guiding hand, we’re prone to wander and stray. We know that from painful, firsthand experience. Our wayward ways can hang heavy on our hearts like a terrible weight we can’t throw off. We sometimes feel that because our sins remain ever before us, they also remain ever before our heavenly Father. So we plead, “Do not remember me according to my sins, though they are many. Do not remember my rebellious ways. Rather, remember me according to your love, for you, Lord, are good.”
And the Lord is good. It’s who he is. He cannot be anything else! Good and upright is the Lord. Because of that, he teaches and guides us in what is right and good and pleasing in his sight. For his name’s sake, he forgives our sins, though they are great and many. He lifts our downcast eyes and directs our attention to the cross, where our sins were paid for in the suffering and death of our Savior, Jesus.
That is where our eyes need to be—ever fixed on Jesus. He alone can release us from the snares that entangle and entrap us. Dust and ash, we may be, but Christ has died and Christ has risen again—the first fruits from the grave. Our foes may be many, but sin, death, and hell itself lie crushed and defeated in our Savior’s wake. Because he lives, we too shall live.
There may be times in our lives when we feel lonely and afflicted—crushed beneath the weight of our burdensome, sinful lives. We cry out to our God, “Have mercy on me and be gracious to me!”
Dear Christian, God hears us. He answers us. He is gracious. He has looked upon our affliction and distress and has taken away all of our sins. That everlasting comfort relieves the troubles of our hearts, frees us from our anguish, and sustains us our whole lives through. God has delivered us from all of our troubles and all of our woes. He guards our lives and rescues us.
Our hope is in him.
Looking for a devotional book for Lent? Up to Jerusalem is a book of 55 inspirational devotions that tie together the four gospels and lead you through Jesus’ journey to his suffering, death, and triumphant resurrection in Jerusalem.
Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.