Verse 1

CONTENTS

We have here expressed the state and fervour of the soul towards God; suited strength and help is earnestly desired, and that upon the promise of the covenant.

A Psalm of David.

Psalms 25:1

We shall enjoy the spiritual sense of this beautiful Psalm still more if we behold Christ in it as the great Intercessor. For who, but Jesus, could undertake to say, I lift my soul unto thee? Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord. Jeremiah 30:21. And this view of Christ, as our High Priest, will by no means lessen, but rather heighten our confidence in those devout exercises.

Verse 2-3

These are blessed promises, and blessed encouragements, to those which wait upon the Lord. Isaiah 65:24.

Verse 4-5

There is a beautiful order in these expressions; first to be shown, then to be taught, and then to be led, in the path of grace. How, blessed it is to have the Spirit to teach, the Spirit to lead, and Jesus himself to be the way. And all this because God in Christ is every poor sinner's salvation that trusteth in him.

Verses 6-10

These are all so many witnesses to the same blessed truth; and they all speak to the evidence of human wants, and divine faithfulness.

Verse 11

There is a great singularity in this petition. Men, in their dealings with one another, plead, when they ask for forgiveness, either the slenderness of their offence, or that it hath not been repeated, or that the offender will not again trespass. But here the petition for mercy is founded upon the greatness of the offence. Is not this with an eye to Christ; as if the suitor said, Lord, I am a great sinner, but Jesus is a greater Saviour; therefore, for his sake, pardon me. Reader, think what methods the Lord hath taken to magnify the exceeding riches of his grace: and when sinners cry from the deeps of sin to the deeps of divine mercy, these are blessed encouragements, in Jesus, to go upon. But Reader, besides this view of the subject, I would ask, Is here not a view of Christ, who, though in himself he knew no sin, yet, standing as the sinner's surety, may be supposed here to be calling upon Jehovah?

Verses 12-22

I do not interrupt the reading through the whole of these verses; their plain and obvious meaning they carry along with them. They bear a decided testimony to divine faithfulness, and man's necessities. And though the enemy of God's people doth wage open and secret war against God's heritage, yet Israel shall be ultimately successful, in a full triumph through God's deliverance. Isaiah 45:17.

Verse 22

REFLECTIONS

READER, let us never lose sight of Christ, as Jesus, the Christ of God and our appointed High Priest; in all the fervent prayers we meet with in the written word: for as we cannot pray profitably without his Spirit helping us, so neither can our prayers ever come up before God and our Father unless presented with an eye to Jesus, and his finished salvation, and by him as our great Intercessor.

But, blessed Jesus! who is it that thus addresses the Father but thee? Who is enabled to lift his heart to God but thee? Thou thyself hast graciously taught us, that without thee we can do nothing. Do thou, therefore, gracious Lord, both teach us how to pray, how to appear before thee in the way that thou shalt choose, and how to lift up our whole heart's affections and desires after thee; for thou art the Lord our righteousness. And as God our Father pardoned all the sins of thy redeemed, though they were heavy, great, and grievous, because thou didst bear them all, and take them as thine own; so, Lord, for thy great name's sake, pardon ours, notwithstanding their heavy nature, and the many provocations with which they have been marked. Precious Jesus! may our souls find confidence in the blessed hope that, as thou wert made sin for us, when thou knewest no sin, so thou hast redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in thee: and art made of God to us, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord.