Context No. 2943 of 4322 · Psalms
Context · Reflection
Psalms 25:17-22: in context
17The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses. 18Consider my affliction and my travail. Forgive all my sins. 19Consider my enemies, for they are many. They hate me with cruel hatred. 20Oh keep my soul, and deliver me. Let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in you. 21Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. 22God, redeem Israel out of all his troubles.
This is a short and unguarded prayer. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction, forgive all my sins, look at my many enemies. Guard my soul and deliver me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
The prayer weaves several needs together at once, relief from trouble, forgiveness of sin, rescue from enemies, without pretending any of them is a separate matter. The psalmist does not tidy up his request; he lays out affliction, guilt, and fear all in a heap, and grounds his hope in one thing: I take refuge in you, I wait for you. And he asks integrity itself to guard him, as though a clean life kept close to God were its own kind of protection. Honest, tangled prayer, anchored in waiting on God, is welcome to him.
Can I bring God my tangled mix of trouble, guilt, and fear all at once, and anchor it, like the psalmist, in taking refuge in him and waiting?
Sources
- Psalm 25:20: "Oh keep my soul, and deliver me. Let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in you."
- Psalm 25:21: "Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you."
- Psalm 62:8: "Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us."