Psalm 25

¹To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
² O my God, I trust in You;
Let me not be ashamed;
Let not my enemies triumph over me.
³ Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;
Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.

⁴ Show me Your ways, O Lord;
Teach me Your paths.
⁵ Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.

⁶ Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses,
For they are from of old.
⁷ Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;
According to Your mercy remember me,
For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.

⁸ Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
⁹ The humble He guides in justice,
And the humble He teaches His way.
¹⁰ All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,
To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
¹¹ For Your name’s sake, O Lord,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

¹² Who is the man that fears the Lord?
Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
¹³ He himself shall dwell in prosperity,
And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
¹⁴ The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,
And He will show them His covenant.
¹⁵ My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.

¹⁶ Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me,
For I am desolate and afflicted.
¹⁷ The troubles of my heart have enlarged;
Bring me out of my distresses!
¹⁸ Look on my affliction and my pain,
And forgive all my sins.
¹⁹ Consider my enemies, for they are many;
And they hate me with cruel hatred.
²⁰ Keep my soul, and deliver me;
Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.
²¹ Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
For I wait for You.

²² Redeem Israel, O God,
Out of all their troubles!

Let me not be ashamed

It is important to put God first in everything we do. If we are ashamed of Him, that cannot happen. I’ll admit, sometimes I get ashamed of Him. We all do. You know, that one time when you thought maybe you should invite someone to church with you but then chickened out. Or even that time when you had to reschedule a meeting with someone but were reluctant to tell them that it was because you had Bible study the same night. It happens. Sometimes it’s tough in this world where even other Christians are giving Christians a bad name. But still, we need to be strong in our own faith, and not worry how other people are portraying us badly or what others might think. If you are a light to those in darkness, they might come to reconsider what it is we are all about. Not being holier-than-thou, not acting against things we don’t like with hate, not pretending like we know everything, but loving our communities, being faithful, and serving God. Maybe if a few more of us were less ashamed of God, we could outweigh the people doing harm to His name.

Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He teaches sinners in the way

We can’t figure out the right ways on our own. Sure, we may get lucky sometimes and his a pretty good path, but how long until it goes bad again? But, God is good and upright. He cannot be wrong; He is not touched by sin. We would have no way to heaven without Him, since we are sinners, and so he teaches us the way to get there.

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him

I’m reminded of 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” From the outside, what we do seems illogical. They are not in on the “secret” of God. If God’s love is difficult for those who don’t fear Him to find, we must be doubly sure to make sure that we are not ashamed and spread His love to the sinners who don’t yet know the way.