The lutheransermons's Podcast

Bible Study - Thoughts for Father’s Day

Two times in the Gospels Jesus says very similar things about fathers (and parents). In Luke 11:11-13, He refers specifically to fathers. In Matthew 7:9-11, Jesus speaks of “men,” but uses a term that sometimes just means “human beings” and not just “males.”
(Jesus preached for three years, off and on, and said similar things to many of the people, but did not always use the exact same words, as we see in these passages. Take a look at both passages, to begin with.) In both passages, Jesus says something that seems contradictory. He says to fathers (and mothers), very bluntly, “You are evil.” Yet at the same time he says, “You know how to give good gifts to your children.” You would not give stones or serpents or scorpions to your children, but you give what they need - bread or fish or an egg.

Why would Jesus particularly say to fathers (and mothers), “You are evil"? That’s not what we want to hear on a day like Father’s Day. (I’ll just speak about fathers, since I am a father.) Jesus always spoke the truth,  and so He had to speak the Law of God to us. Ever since the fall into sin, we have all been sinful people, born with a sinful nature.
As early as Genesis 6:5 we read, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intention of his heart was only evil continually.”  The Lord said through Jeremiah, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus Himself said, “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts… false witness, slander”…. and so much else (Matthew 15:18-20).

The commentator Martin Franzmann says that the Matthew passage might be the strongest “indictment" of us in the Sermon on the Mount. “Jesus is here taking man at his best, in his fatherhood, where the very structure imposed on his life by the Creator forces a certain selflessness on him - Jesus is taking man as the giver of good gifts to his children and is even there calling him evil. Man’s incapacity for real righteousness… could hardly be more strongly stated” (Discipleship, p.50-51).

At the same time, Jesus always also preached the Gospel. As we hear in this week’s Epistle lesson, Romans 5:6-15,  we have, at times, been “weak,” “ungodly,” “sinners,” and even “enemies of God” (Romans 5:6-10). “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us… We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son… and saved by His life.” Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:17-19: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this from God… In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” Again, Paul wrote, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel,” the same one Jesus preached, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).  He also said that those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ are loved by God and called to be saints” (Romans 1:6-7). This all means that in Christ, we are now forgiven sinners, but also saints, headed for eternal life, in Christ.

We can also, as a new creation in Christ, give good gifts to our children and be a blessing to them. We know the tension we still face in this life, as both a saint and a sinner. We have good intentions, but can’t always seem to keep them. We make promises, but can’t or don’t always follow through on them. We battle our sinful nature, even as fathers, as Paul describes in Romans 7:15-25. Yet we rejoice that God loves and forgives us and that our children and spouse love and forgive us, too. That is the grace of God at work in us all, because “our (perfect) Father who is in heaven gives His greatest good gifts to us, in Christ.

God’s love and forgiveness help us learn and do better as fathers, too. Just before the Matthew 7 passage, Jesus had taught that we need to be careful about judging others too harshly, if we want God to continue to be merciful to us with our own failings. We can grow in being more forgiving, as we have been forgiven by our Lord (Matthew 7:1-5). Jesus also said, right after the Matthew passage, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:12).

We can grow into being better fathers, as the Lord works mercifully in our own lives, but we need God’s power to do so. That is why just before the Luke 11 passage, Jesus was teaching about prayer and the need to keep praying for the Lord’s help for our lives, even as fathers. We can “ask and seek and knock” and the Lord will hear our prayers and answer in the way that is best for us (Luke 11:1-10). It is a great privilege to be fathers and to give good gifts to our children and spouse and others around us. What joy we can bring to others and receive from them, in our families, as we work and serve together. And we have the promise of Jesus that our caring Heavenly Father will keep giving us His Holy Spirit to strengthen our own faith through His Word and help us in dealing with our children and spouse and family (Luke 11:13).

One last thought. We rejoice in our own fathers who have been a blessing to us and gave us good gifts and good examples, as imperfect as they were, too. And even if our fathers were not so helpful or even troubling or absent, we have a Heavenly Father who can bring us healing and strength and help to go a better way through His love and care. As Peter wrote, “In everything may God be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever” (1 Peter 4:11).

Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost - July 2, 2023

Sermon for 5th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Jeremiah 28:5-9 

Romans 7:1-13      

Matthew 10:34-42

Sermon originally delivered June 26, 2011

New Sermon for Trinity Sunday - June 4, 2023

Sermon for Trinity Sunday, based on:

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Acts 2:14a, 22-36        

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon originally delivered June 4, 2023

Preparing for Worship - June 11, 2023

The psalm is Psalm 119:65-72, one of 22 eight-verse portions of this psalm. The author knows that the Lord has been “good” and has “dealt well” with him. He had been going “astray,” but the Lord had “afflicted” him in some way that drew him back to His Word and the value of His law, “better than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” (In the next portion of the psalm, Psalm 119:75, the psalmist even says to the Lord, “In Your faithfulness, you have afflicted me.” You can hear more about this psalm in this week’s podcast study, also.)

In the Old Testament lesson, Hosea 5:15-6:6, the Lord is also being faithful to His Old Testament people by allowing them to have “distress” because they had gone away from Him and His will for them. He says that He will go away from them, until they admit “their guilt” and “seek His face” again. The people seem to “return to the Lord” after He has “struck them down” and “torn” them, but the Lord knows that their “love” is only temporary, like a “cloud” or “morning dew” that quickly “goes away” as soon as their troubles lessen, with the Lord’s help. The Lord “slays them” by His Words through the prophet Hosea and says that He really desires “steadfast love” (mercy) and their continuing attention to “the knowledge of God,” instead of insincere “offerings and sacrifices.”

Jesus quotes from this Old Testament lesson in the Gospel lesson, Matthew 9:9-13. Jesus had just called Matthew, one of the hated “tax collectors,” to be His disciple. Matthew followed Jesus and invited other people who were considered to be more notorious “sinners” to join them for a meal.  Religious leaders, the Pharisees, criticize Jesus for associating with such “bad” people. Jesus said that He had come for those who were “sick” and knew they were “sinners,” and that the Pharisees needed to learn what God meant when He said through Hosea, “I desire mercy (steadfast love from people) and not" simply outward “sacrifice.”

Paul was teaching, in the Epistle lesson, Romans 4:13-25, that everyone is a “sinner” and that the Law of God brings “wrath,” exposing our sins and showing that none of us keeps the Law perfectly, as Abraham and the psalmist knew, though they tried to do the right things. Abraham was “counted righteous by faith” by trusting that “God was able to do what He had promised.” The same is true for people “of many nations” - all those who “believe in Him, (the Lord) “who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” It is through the Great “Physician,” our Lord, that we are “called” and brought to saving faith, too, not by our efforts.

Bible Study - Psalm 119:65-72

This week, we look at Psalm 119:65-72. This is also the assigned psalm for the Second Sunday after Pentecost, this year. Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in the Scriptures, and the author is not identified. This is also an acrostic psalm, like Psalm 25, that we studies earlier. It is even more complex, though, because there are 22 eight-verse portions and each portion begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The first portion begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the second portion begins with the second letter, and so on through all twenty-two letters. In addition, in each portion, each of the eight verses begins with a word with that same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is “Aleph.” So, verses 1 to 8 all begin with a word that starts with the letter “Aleph.” Verses 65-72 all begin with the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, “Teth.” (Some translations, including the NIV and the ESV, list these letters at the beginning of each portion. Otherwise, you would not be able to tell that this psalm is so carefully structured.)

The whole psalm is a celebration of the importance and value of God’s Word for the author and for us. Every verse includes a reference to God’s Word. Verses 65-72 use the words: Your Word, Commandments, Statutes, Precepts, and Law. Other verses in the psalm also use the words: Your Righteous Rules, Testimonies, Promise, Ways, and other words. The word “Law” is used at least 25 times, and Dr. Roehrs indicates that it is not always the opposite of the Gospel, but it refers to “all manner of instruction given for our benefit.” Dr. Roehrs also says that the repetition of the words and phrases is like “the language of a lover who does not tire of saying the same ‘I love you’ to the one he loves,” even in a variety of ways. God and His Words are so, so important to the author, and he is reminding us that they are equally important for us, because God loves us.

Psalm 119:65-72 especially teaches us that, as P.E. Kretzmann says, “A course in the school of suffering always works benefits for the children of God.” The author of the psalm says that the Lord had “dealt well” (v. 65) with him, even in times of trouble and difficulty. “It is good for me that I was afflicted,” he says (v.71). And why? He writes, “Before I was afflicted I went astray” (v.67). He had gotten away from the Lord and His will in some way and needed to be re-awakened and drawn back to God and His Word. Affliction, trouble of some kind, can do that. For Christians, affliction is not so much punishment, as it is discipline from the Lord because He cares for us. See again words we have read before from Hebrews12:5-11. The Lord is our loving Heavenly Father who disciplines us because He loves us, or like a good Friend who chastises us and shows us where we are wrong and then helps us go in a better direction.

Look at Psalm 119:75, where the author now realizes that the Lord was acting in “faithfulness” to him as He afflicted him. Maybe he had been doing things that were very wrong and dangerous and needed to be corrected. Now, he says, ”I know, O Lord, that Your rules are righteous.” He says, ”You are good and do good” (v.68), even when the correction hurts. Now the author wants to be “taught” more, through the Lord and His Word (v.68). He “believes” and trusts more that the Lord is working for his good, even in tough times. He wants to have “good judgment” and better “knowledge” in the decisions he makes, for the Lord’s way is the wisest and the best for him and for others (v. 66). He “delights again in the law of the Lord” (v.70).

The author is also learning humility before the Lord. “Those who are insolent,” arrogant people “smear him” (and others) “with lies”(v. 69). “Their hearts are” (literally, in the Hebrew) “fat with grease,” “unfeeling with fat” in the ESV (v.70). We know today how dangerous it is to have build-up of bad things in our heart and arteries. That seems to be the picture image here. It is used in other place: “hearts of the arrogant (literally) closed with fat, with no pity for others” (Psalm 17:10) and people with “pride as their necklace… Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with folly”  (Psalm 73:6-7). In Isaiah 6:9-10, also, Isaiah is to warn of those who “hear but don’t understand and see, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people (literally) greasy and their ears heavy and their eyes sticky” (F.Delitzsch translation). Some people still call others “greasy” today, and that is not good or a compliment.

In contrast, the author of Psalm 119 now has a “whole heart” open to God’s precepts (v.69). He humbly calls himself God’s servant (v.65) and wants to keep His Word in his heart. He know that what comes “from the mouth of the Lord is always better for him than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (v. 72). If you look ahead to v.76-77, the author also finds “comfort in the steadfast love” and “promises” of the Lord, even to “servants, and he prays that the Lord’s mercy would come to him, that he might live.”

That Word of God is prophetic of Christ and His great mercy and forgiveness earned for us, that we may live, too, in and through Him. Truly, as the author discovers and says in Psalm 119, the Word of God is the true treasure for all believers, including us, as Kretzmann also says. May we keep learning from that Word.

Sermon for Trinity Sunday - June 4, 2023

Sermon for Trinity Sunday, based on:

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Acts 2:14a, 22-36        

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon originally delivered June 19, 2011

Preparing for Worship - June 4, 2023

The Scriptures for this week teach us many things, but also show us examples of how the one true Triune God is revealed to us in the Bible. This teaching is very important for us always, and is seen in the readings this Trinity Sunday.

The Gospel Lesson, Matthew 28:16-20, gives us words of Jesus just before He ascended into heaven and received again “the glory He had with the Father before the the world existed” (John 17:5). He truly does have “all authority in heaven and on earth” and His disciples are now to “teach” and “baptize” people of “all nations” in His Name, along with “the Father” and “the Holy Spirit.” Yet this is one Name, the Name of the one true Triune God. As God’s Son, Jesus promised to be “with us always, to the end of the age” (along with the Father and the Spirit). He can do so as the Son of God.

In the Epistle lesson, Acts 2:14a, 22-36, we hear Peter preaching about “this Jesus“ being “crucified and killed,” and yet death could not hold Him. “This Jesus God raised up” and “exalted to the right hand of God.” And who was involved in all these mighty works and deeds? It was “the Father” and “the promised Holy Spirit,” along with Jesus, who is called both “Lord and Christ,” along with God “the Lord.”  It is the One True Triune God at work, for us and our salvation.

The Old Testament lesson is Genesis 1:1-2:4a, the story of the Creation of all things by God. Who was involved? Only God. Only He existed in the beginning. Yet we hear of “the Spirit of God hovering over the waters,” and we hear God saying, “Let us make man in our image.” There is both singular and plural language for God, as God created “male and female He created them.” The New Testament also reveals that God the Son, called “the Word,” was also there at the beginning, “through whom all things were made.” “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This Word is clearly identified as God the Son, Jesus, “the Light,” “the Word” Who “became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1-9, 14).

The Psalm is Psalm 8.  David begins and ends this psalm by declaring the “excellencies,” the majestic nature of God’s Name, because that special Name, LORD (Yahweh). speaks of the “glory” and “strength” of God Himself and His “eternal power and divine nature” over all His creation (Exodus 3:13-15, 6:6-7, Romans 1:20). This Psalm is also a prophecy of Jesus, the “Son of Man.” Four times, parts of Psalm 8 are quoted in the New Testament with regard to Jesus and His becoming a true “man,” “a little lower than the heavenly beings,” both angels and the Lord, in order to do His saving work for us. Once that work was complete, Jesus received “dominion” again, “with things under His feet,” as the true Son of God, as well as true man. (See for example, Philippians 2:5-11.)

If you want more detail on Psalm 8, see the Bible Study for this week in my podcast. If you want more information about the teaching of the Trinity, listen to a new sermon I will preach this coming Sunday and will include with the materials in the podcast next week.

Bible Study - Psalm 8

Our Bible Study this week focuses on another psalm of David in the Old Testament, Psalm 8. As you may have heard before, the “Gittith” mentioned in the introduction is probably a musical notation or a kind of musical instrument to be used with singing the psalm. This psalm was to be given to the “choirmaster” to prepare for use in worship in the tabernacle, and later on, in the temple, in praise of the Lord.

David begins and ends this psalm with the phrase, “O LORD, our LORD, how excellent is Your Name in all the earth.” Some translations use the term “how majestic” or another term of great honor for God and His Name. The capitalization of the word “Lord” in the Old Testament always indicates that this is the special name of God, mostly likely “Yahweh.” The name was so special, though, that Jews often did not say it out loud, but used some alternative vowels which made it look like “Jehovah.” We still see that alternate Name in hymns and other materials and translations. (I do not usually capitalize all the letters, for simplicity’s sake, in what I write for my podcasts, nor are they all capitalized in the New Testament. When we hear “Jesus  is Lord,” though, it is referring to Him as Lord and God, as in the Old Testament. You can read more about this special Name for God in Exodus 3:13-16 and 6:6-7, for example.)

David also adds that the Lord’s Name is excellent “in all the earth” - or it should be! The earth and the whole universe are the Lord’s. His glory is everywhere, even “above the heavens” that we can see (Psalm 8:1). Though there are “enemies” and “foes” and “avengers” against the Lord, He is still in control and can finally “still” them and their opposition. (Psalm 8:2).

Isaiah 40:22-24 describes the enemies as like “grasshoppers” compared with God, even if they are “princes” and “rulers.” They come and go, and the heat and tempest of life will eventually bring them to “nothing,” like “stubble.” 1 Corinthians 1:27-28 says God can “choose what is “foolish” and “weak” in the world to “shame the wise and the strong” in the world’s eyes. Even what looks “low and despised” in the world can “bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

David says that God can even use babies and infants to accomplish His purposes (Psalm 8:2). Jesus Himself quoted this passage in Matthew 21:14-16 when He was “healing the blind and the lame,” people weak and despised by the religious leaders, and “the children were crying out, ”Hosannah to the Son of David.” Little children could recognize who Jesus was, while the “chief priests and scribes” could not. Jesus said that the Lord had “prepared perfect praise out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies,” just as David had predicted. Earlier, Jesus had also said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will” (Matthew 11:25-26). Simple, childlike trust in the Lord is what God wishes to bring to all of us.

In Psalm 8:3, David “looks at the heavens” …. “ the moon and the stars” and all “the work” of God that He has created,” and marvels that God still cares about the little people of this earth. David “clearly perceived” “the eternal power and divine nature” of God “through His creation and the things that have been made” by God, as Paul described in Romans 1:18-32. So many people, then and now, have rejected God as Creator and think that this amazing universe just happened through natural and/or accidental, random processes. They have worshipped things in the creation and themselves and their wisdom and ideas, instead of God. Terrible things have happened as a result. The Scriptures say that all of this has happened, of course, because of rebellion against God and the fall into sin, beginning with Adam and Eve and now infecting all people.

Then David, in Psalm 8:4, by the inspiration of God, speaks in a prophetic way of “the Son of Man.” This is a phrase in Daniel 7:13-14 and here in Psalm 8 and in other places, predicting the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus used this phrase more than 80 times in the Gospels of the New Testament to refer to Himself, as “the Son of Man sent to seek and to save those who were lost” (Luke 19:10).

Jesus was God the Son, the second “Person” of the Triune God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, from all eternity. As David prophesied, though, in Psalm 8:5, God the Son needed to be made a real human being, “a little lower than the heavenly beings,” in order to come into this world and do His saving work for us all. The Hebrew phrase here is hard to translate. It literally seems to say that the Savior, Jesus, would be a little lower than God. What we see in the New Testament is that God the Son was still God, and yet did not use His Godly power much of the time, and became the true man, Jesus. Sometimes Jesus said, as true man, not using all power, that only the Father knew certain things. (See passages like Matthew 24:35-36 and Acts 1:7.) As true man, Jesus would be tempted as we are, yet did not sin, and would fulfill perfectly what we fail to do in our lives, as we do not always follow God’s will as we should. He would also suffer the penalty for all of our sins, as He suffered and died for us, to free us from condemnation for our sins, and earn for us the gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

This amazing, humble work of Jesus, as true God and yet true man, is described for us also in passages like Philippians 2:5-8, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and 1 Peter 2:24-25. When that work was complete, the Lord did exactly what David also predicted in Psalm 8:5b-8. Jesus, with His Ascension into heaven, was “crowned with glory and honor.” See the words of Jesus in John 17:4-5, and what happened after Jesus’ “state of humiliation” for our sake was completed, in Philippians 2:9-11. The name of Jesus is now “the name that is above every other human name.” “Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord, our Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

As David also predicted, God the Son, Jesus, also had His “dominion” over all creation restored, and “all things were again put under His feet” as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Psalm 8:6-8 and Revelation 19:16, etc.). Notice also how the writer to the Hebrews quotes also from Psalm 8:4-8 in Hebrews 2:5-9. God the Son was even made lower than “the heavenly beings, the angels,” as well as God the Father “for a little while” when on earth: but His power and authority have been restored, though “at present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him.” The world is still in great chaos, and we have our own struggles. We can’t see it all yet, but we know the Lord’s promises in Christ, and “we have that peace in Christ that surpasses all human understanding” (Philippians 4:4-7).

Psalm 8:6 is quoted two more times in the New Testament, with regard to “all things being put under the feet of Jesus,” after His resurrection and ascension. See 1 Corinthians 15:22-27, when Christ returns on the last day and death will no longer bother any believers any more. See also Ephesians 1:18-23, especially v.22. God the Son, Jesus, will rule, “not only in this age, but also in the one to come.”

We will also be with Him in that eternal existence, as His church, the body of Christ, all who trust in Him. What a future is in store for us, too, because of Jesus, Son of God and true man, and all He sacrificed for us, along with the plan and working of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. We, too, look forward and say with David, again and again, “O LORD, our LORD, how excellent, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth.” We are secure in Christ.

Preparing for Worship - May 28, 2023

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, and the readings focus on God’s giving the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and how the Lord wants to lead and guide us into the truth of His Word through the Spirit.

The Old Testament lesson is from Numbers 11:24-30. The Lord had told Moses to gather 70 men of the elders of Israel around the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. The Lord then put a portion of the Spirit that was upon Moses upon these elders. They were able to “prophesy,” but only briefly, as a sign from God that they were chosen to help Moses in dealing with all the people. Two others were given this same gift, and though some object, Moses says that he wished that the Lord would put His Spirit on ”all the Lord’s people.” (The Holy Spirit was certainly present in the Old Testament, working through the Word, but specific mentions and manifestations of the working of the Spirit are mainly with prophets and kings and others in leading God’s people and bringing them God’s Word.)

The wish of Moses was fulfilled in the Epistle lesson, Acts 2:1-21, on the Day of Pentecost, as predicted by the prophet Joel. The Holy Spirit came upon all the early Christians and showed His presence by “the sound of a mighty rushing wind” and “tongues as of fire” and by His enabling these believers to “speak in other languages“ and “tell of the mighty works of God” in Jesus as Savior. The purpose was that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (The Spirit still works today, as people are “born again of water and the Spirit” in Baptism and through the Word of God. See Acts 2:38-39 and John 3:3-6 and 1 Peter 1:23-25, etc. In fact, if we are trusting in Jesus as our Savior, we do have the Holy Spirit, for Paul reminds us, in 1 Corinthians 12:3 that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit,” as he brings people to faith .)

Jesus also predicted a number of times this coming of the Holy Spirit, in the Gospels, and in our Gospel lesson for today, John 7:37-39. Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths, where there were water ceremonies, and people would sing of God’s salvation and quote from Isaiah 12:3, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Jesus cried out about “rivers of living water” available through faith in Him and through the working of the “Spirit” who was to come. Again, as in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was at work through the Word, but the unique coming of the Spirit at Pentecost was still to happen later. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, “He dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17. The promise is of the Spirit’s presence with us “forever.”

The Psalm is Psalm 25:1-15. David says to God, “In You I trust.” He knows, though, that he continually needs God’s forgiveness for his sins and God’s mercy and steadfast love for him. He needs God to “redeem him and Israel out of all their troubles.” David also knows, to be a “man who fears the Lord,” that he needs to walk humbly with God and needs to be “instructed in the ways of God “and “the ways he should choose to go in his life.” In the New Testament, we know that the Holy Spirit does much of that teaching, as we use God’s Word.

Bible Study - Psalm 25

Psalm 25 is another psalm of David and is unique in a way that is not evident in the English translation. It is structured in a Hebrew poetic way. Verse 1 begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Verse 2 begins with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It goes on in this way. Hebrew has only 22 letters, and so verse 22 begins with the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The vowel sounds are not counted as letters and are just included as dots or or other small markings. Sometimes, the writers would not include the vowel markings at all and one just had to know what vowel to read in.

Psalm 25 has a careful organization, but the content does not follow a logical organization, as we might prefer or expect in an English poem or song. David has a few main themes, but they are scattered through the psalm. Some think the psalm is answering the question raised in verse 12: “Who is the man who fears the Lord?” David mentions several characteristics of such a man.

The first characteristic is that a man who fears God realizes that he struggles with sin and knows that he must keep confessing it and asking the Lord’s forgiveness. In v.1, David speaks of those who are “wantonly treacherous.” He remembers at least one such time in his own life, in what happened with Bathsheba and her husband, and he is “ashamed.” In v. 7, David asks the Lord “not to remember the sins of his youth or his transgressions.” He must still regret his failures, and they bother him. He calls himself one of the “sinners” in v. 8, and pleads in v. 11, “For Your Name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.” Again, in v.18, he asks the Lord to “forgive all my sins.” He knows that they are many, and as “a man who fears the Lord,” he must be honest and admit that he (and all Israel) need to be redeemed by God Himself. David cannot pay the penalty to earn forgiveness for himself or anyone else. (See Psalm 49:7-9 and Romans 3:9-11 and 19-20, for example. This is true of every one of us.)

The second characteristic of “one who fears the Lord” is that he is sorry and wishes the Lord’s help and instruction to know what the Lord’s will is and to try to do better in following it. In Psalm 25, v. 4-5, David prays to the Lord, “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me.” In v. 8, David says that “the Lord instructs sinners in the way.” One needs to be humble enough to be willing to learn from the Lord and His Word. In v.9, David says that the Lord “leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble His way,” In v.12, in answer to the question, “Who is the man who fears the Lord?,” David says that it is the one “whom the Lord instructs in the way that he should choose.” The right way is not following our own choices and desires, but what the Lord knows is right and is best for us and others. As another psalm says, “God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (Psalm 119:105). It is a great help to us, but still, we do not always follow it, because of our struggles with the devil, our sinful world, and our own sinful flesh and nature.

The third characteristic of “one who fears the Lord” is that we keep turning back to the Lord and His mercy when we fail, even with the best of intentions and instruction. In Psalm 25, v.2, David does not say, “In myself I trust,” but “O my God, in You I trust; let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exult over me.” In v. 5, David admits, “You (alone) are the God of my salvation.” In v. 6-7, David asks that God remember His own “mercy” and “steadfast love” and His own “goodness,” instead of David’s own imperfect goodness. In v.10, and v.12-14, David speaks of the Lord’s covenant faithfulness  and His promises to him and his people and His “friendship” for them. The Lord alone could “turn to them and be gracious” (by His grace David and the others could be saved) and “pluck their feet out of the net” of “affliction” and “trouble” and “loneliness” (v.15-18). David could still only plead, in v.20, “O guard my soul and deliver me… for I take refuge in You.” He had to trust in the “integrity and uprightness” of the Lord to preserve him, not his own goodness. Only God could redeem him and Israel out of all their troubles (v.21-22).

That meant one more characteristic of “one who fears the Lord.” including David and others who lived by faith in the Lord and not in themselves. They had to “wait” for the Lord and His own good timing, in carrying out His plans. Three times in this psalm, in v. 3, 5, and 21, David talks to the Lord about waiting for Him to act. “None who waits for You shall be put to shame… For You I wait all the day long… for I wait for you.”

It was only “when the fullness of time had come that God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we all could receive adoption” as the children of God through Christ (Galatians 4:4-7). How happy were people like Simeon, who trusted God’s mercy and “was waiting for the consolation of Israel,” and Anna, “who began to give thanks to God and to speak of Him (Jesus) to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem,” when Jesus our Savior finally came (Luke 2:25-32 and 36-38).

May the Lord help us also to be ones who “fear Him” and “wait” upon Him and keep repenting for our own sins, and learning more of His Word and will, and walking humbly before Him, and trusting Him alone for His saving work for us, in our own day. May we say with David, “Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation,” through Christ (Psalm 25:5).

In discussing the 10 Commandments, Martin Luther said that “we should fear, love, and trust in God.” David includes all of these elements, but puts the greatest emphasis on trusting God’s grace and love and mercy for us. There is our hope (Romans 5:5 and John 1:16-17).