Psalms is a place of poetry as opposed to the prose the other books consist of. We can find many beautiful things in the Book of Psalms to point back to our glorious creator. Ours eyes and hearts can be drawn in to the beauty that is God, but can also be just as distracted by other things. These tempting facades of beauty can ruin our perceptions of who God is. This is the severed relationship we now experience in this world. I just want to point out a couple points that are so important to come back into a true knowledge of God.
GIVING UP
When I say giving up I mean giving up yourself. In Psalm 25, verse 1 it reads “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.” Now that’s the first verse and we can see something significant happening. This Psalm begins with a surrender. What are you surrendering to God? The Psalmist here is surrendering his soul. Giving up the most vital parts of his being. In order to move forward in a relationship with someone we need to have an exchange of hearts. Now don’t confuse this with a romanticized picture of a societal view on love, but know that this is true love. Giving up yourself is a sacrifice in and of itself which points back to the greatest love ever displayed through Jesus Christ and why he came down to die on a cross (John 3:16). In brief, we need to give ourselves up to move away from a static and idle relationship.
TRUST
This is so important and essential as it leads into the next verse which says “O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.” This verse starts off with a proclamation of trust in God, and this could only come after you’ve surrendered the most important and vulnerable parts of yourself. We cannot realize a real sense of reliance on God if we don’t give ourselves up to Him. If trust is a bridge it is usually drawn and no one can cross, but if we are to be in relationship we need to let the bridge fall. It’s tough because we aren’t sure what will cross the bridge into our hearts and most of the time we are afraid of pieces getting stolen or broken. To surrender we must accept drawing a bridges. For trust we must allow the other person to cross onto our side.
WAITING
We find ourselves lastly in verse 3 which reads “Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.” We are always waiting for something to happen. Without surrendering ourselves and trusting in God we forfeit the opportunity of waiting upon the Lord. To wait upon the Lord requires such a high level of trust and reverence. A lesser example would be when I was a young boy, my family was experiencing a cascading torrent of financial worry. Sometimes my father would go away on business trips and my mom might’ve missed a bill or two. these bills would pile up and add so much stress to the family. I’d sit behind my apartment door waiting for my father to return home, because I knew that he would bring with him a solution; a joy and hope for the situation. In the same way we wait on the Lord knowing “..none who wait for [the Lord] shall be put to shame..”
Christ has already died and has risen from the grave into a a glorious hope for all who call upon His name. Right now we are waiting for His return. We all either go to school, have jobs, or are pursuing some kind of endeavour. In all these things we need to wait to see fruit, but if we know and believe our Lord is working then we know those who wait for Him will realize something great.
By Matt Davoodi