Psalm 25: A Call to Lay Everything at His Feet

I began my day today, by God’s astounding blessing, with time to myself! In a house filled to the brim with eight people all on various missions to ensure that the place is in the best possible working order, time alone is scarce to be found. So, I did my absolute favorite thing with my free time: I grabbed a cup of coffee, made a yogurt parfait, opened my Bible to Psalms, and began to pray through scripture. I had merely breeched the second verse of Psalm 25 when my mind was sent reeling off in a million different directions. The psalmist begins his prayer like this, 

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.”

The first verse was such an encouragement. The night before had passed with frustration and restless sleep. I needed nothing more in the provision of calm the following morning to “life my soul” to the Lord, let him take my burdens. It was the next verse that blew me off course. What does it mean to “not be put to shame?” Who are my enemies and when are they not to “exult over me?” Surely if this prayer was one God sought to answer with a “yes” for his children, Christ would not have been shamed by his own people! Truly, if God did not desire for our enemies to exult over us, the church would not be so readily put to death or persecuted for all of history! What then, or could I, pray along with these words of scripture? Where was my heart to be led?  

As I continued to meditate on this scripture and read through the remainder of the Psalm, I came to the realization that this verse is a cry for the Lord to be who he says he is. Perhaps we will face fleeting moments of shame or defeat, but may it never be that God’s children are shamed at the end of all things, for God is who he says he is! What an attitude to have; what a prayer to put before the Lord. “Father, be who you proclaim yourself to be. I trust enough in who you are to know that if you simply continue to be “the same yesterday, today, and forever,” (Heb 13:8) shame will never come to me, my enemies will never exult over me.” But, part of God being who he says he is, is revealing himself exactly when and how he determines is best for his glory. “O my God, in you I trust,” means that God may choose to allow for suffering, for shame to come for brief moments of our time on earth. Whatever it is that, in the end, leads God and his children to “not be put to shame,” that is what will be accomplished by God’s great sovereign hand. 

It’s interesting, looking at this scripture in light of the possibility of cancer my family is now facing. This week I have found myself pushing the issue aside, not wanting to talk about it again, becoming tired of having the same conversation ten times a day. Today I was reflecting on the natural flow of these conversations that persist into updates about my family and Tom Selleck’s character from Friends came to mind. There’s a scene in one of the first episodes he’s in wherein he explains to Monica and Phoebe how conversations about his divorce were made complete with the head tilt and the head bob. A ridiculous reference, I know, but in truthfulness, that’s often how things seem to proceed. Not that I don’t wish for those conversations. The head tilts and bobs certainly don’t diminish the necessity of those exchanges. Sometimes, though, I want to just wear a sign that says, “you are correct, my life is not perfect nor is it going according to plan” just to save people the trouble of asking. But life’s never going to be perfect for two distinctly different reasons. First, because we live in a fallen world. Cancer will not exist in heaven, where all creation will glorify God without any tarnishing evidence of sin. Second, because I have imperfect expectations of what perfection is. Though I might demand that things work out “perfectly” for me, I have no idea what that really means because I cannot in any way comprehend what perfection looks like. Instead my prayer should be,  

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.”

My response should be one that echos the words of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they are facing prospect of being thrown into the fiery furnace. They make it known that God can save them, but he may choose not to. 

“But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up" (Daniel  3:18)

This is my prayer, that I may continually grow in having this attitude. “O my God, in you I trust.” You may determine life and death for me, for you created them both, and over them you have power and dominion. May I lift up my soul, my life, my future, my brother, everything I naturally hold dear. He alone has the correct formula for perfection.