Listen here.
Welcome to
Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the appointed Scripture readings for
the upcoming Sunday. I am Pastor Eric Tritten from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
in Hudson, OH. Thank you for being with me today.
The Psalm for the
1st Sunday of Lent is Psalm 25:1-10. We should note that this psalm
is an acrostic poem. That means that each verse of the psalm begins with a
different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses are in alphabetical
order. If we were writing such a poem in English the first verse would start
with a word beginning in the letter “A”, the next verse would begin with a word
beginning in the letter “B”, and so on all the way through “Z”. We’re actually
reading a little less than half of the psalm.
As I read this
listen for the way that David, the author of the psalm, speaks of trust, God’s
guidance in life, and God’s goodness. Consider the Psalm in light of our Old
Testament lesson this week, when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and
our Gospel lesson, when the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil.
The Reading:
Psalm 25:1-10
To you, O LORD, I
lift up my soul.
2
O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put
to shame;
let
not my enemies exult over me.
3 Indeed, none who wait for you
shall be put to shame;
they
shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4 Make me to know 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;
for you I wait all the day long.
6 Remember your mercy, O LORD,
and
your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth
or
my transgressions;
according to your
steadfast love remember me,
for
the sake of your goodness, O LORD!
8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore
he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is
right,
and
teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the LORD are
steadfast love and faithfulness,
for
those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. (Ps. 25:1-10 ESV)
Comments:
Can you imagine
being in a tough spot, hurting like Abraham, grieving and fearful, or maybe
being sorely tempted like Jesus was, alone, no one to support you, no one to
encourage you. Can you see why this psalm would be chosen for this week?
This psalm is a
cry of faith. As we pray it we put ourselves in God’s hands to wait for His
salvation. But waiting for the Lord does not necessarily mean doing nothing. We
pray to know God’s ways and paths, for Him to lead us and teach us, so that as
we wait for the Lord we also live lives of faith as His people. We also learn
to trust in God’s mercy and steadfast love – if you listened to my Ash
Wednesday sermon, this is that word I was talking about, “chesed,” which is
really the Old Testament word of God’s grace! We learn that our power is
insufficient, and we fully rely on God; become dependent on Him as we live our
lives. This is good for us because God is good and He desires to teach us his
ways, He loves to receive us in His grace and to lead us.
In my mind, I can
imagine Jesus praying this psalm while He fasted and was tempted in the
wilderness. He put Himself wholly in His Father’s hands, and this psalm has the
right words to pray in such a time. And part of the beauty of the Psalter is
that these prayers are God’s Word, they were part of Jesus’ worship life, and
as such when we pray them He prays with us and we pray like Him.
Let’s listen to
Psalm 25:1-10 again.
The Reading:
Psalm 25:1-10
To you, O LORD, I
lift up my soul.
2
O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put
to shame;
let
not my enemies exult over me.
3 Indeed, none who wait for you
shall be put to shame;
they
shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4 Make me to know 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;
for you I wait all the day long.
6 Remember your mercy, O LORD,
and
your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth
or
my transgressions;
according to your
steadfast love remember me,
for
the sake of your goodness, O LORD!
8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore
he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is
right,
and
teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the LORD are
steadfast love and faithfulness,
for
those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. (Ps. 25:1-10 ESV)
Prayers:
O Lord God, we
are in Your hands and that is good because You love us and lead us in all that
is good and upright. Thank You for teaching us to pray and for Jesus’ example
of prayer and reliance on You. Forgive us, Lord, for putting our trust in
things other than You – our skills, our wealth, our government, our medical
system, or anything else. Forgive us for not walking in Your ways and not
following Your paths. Teach us to live as You desires us to live. Help us to
walk in Your ways and to follow Your paths in faith, trusting You to be true,
even when we feel hard pressed because of our circumstances in life. Help us to
remember Jesus, and to live in His salvation. Amen.
Memory Verse:
Joel 2:13 - Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents
over disaster. (Joel 2:13 ESV)
Thank you so much
for using Devotions for Worship, I pray that our time together has blessed you
and given you something to meditate on – some reminder of God’s grace to rattle
around in your brain – for the rest of the day.
Would you do me a
favor? If you got something out of this devotional time, would you like and/or
share it on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever you do social media? That would help
me get the word out, and hopefully help these devotions be a blessing to others.
God bless you!
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