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[0:00] I just try to sing that with a little soul, and my wife gives me a look, right? Is it one of those worthless looks? Yeah, it says a lot.

[0:12] It's like, you can't carry that off, man. You can't. You're not Ray. But I feel Ray in here.

[0:25] Yeah. That's a good song to sing with soul. All right, so, take out your Bibles with me, please, and turn to Psalm 25.

[0:40] We've looked at four psalms of lament. Now, with this psalm, we're turning a corner. There's still a little bit of lament in this psalm, but it's much more hopeful.

[0:52] It's much more focused on the Lord. And as we go through the next three psalms after this, Psalm 40, Psalm 37, Psalm 19.

[1:04] Yeah, I think so. It becomes much, much more hopeful as well. So I think these four psalms we're going to do now are answering the four psalms that we brought before, if that makes any sense.

[1:20] Psalm 25, a psalm of David. Very, very personal. Very intimate. David brings his soul before the Lord.

[1:38] So if you can, as I read, stand in honor of the reading of God's word, I will read from Psalm 25.

[1:50] Psalm 25. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust.

[2:02] Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.

[2:15] They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths.

[2:28] Lead me into your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day long.

[2:39] Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love. For they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions.

[2:53] According to your steadfast love, remember me for the sake of your goodness, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord.

[3:05] Therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right. He teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

[3:25] For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. Who is the man who fears the Lord?

[3:37] Him will he instruct in the way that he should go. His soul shall abide in well-being and his offspring shall inherit the land.

[3:50] The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him. And he makes known to them his covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

[4:04] Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged.

[4:16] Bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble and forgive all my sins.

[4:29] Consider how many are my foes and with what violent hatred they hate me. O guard my soul and deliver me. Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

[4:44] May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

[4:55] So reads the word. Let us pray for understanding. Father, we ask that you would come to us by your spirit, that you would take this sword and do your work upon our own souls, our hearts, our minds.

[5:14] Help us to enter into this prayer of David may it be our own. So grant us, Father, to see truth and grant us to see you in this great psalm.

[5:34] We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. Amen. Eric Fromm, the psychoanalyst, wrote back in 1977, it is indeed amazing that in as fundamentally an irreligious culture as ours, the sense of guilt should be so widespread and deep-rooted as it is.

[6:14] He was amazed that in a culture as irreligious as ours, the sense of guilt would be so widespread and deep-rooted.

[6:32] Where does it come from? this psychoanalyst wondered. David mentioned shame.

[6:46] Let me not be put to shame. It's his first prayer and it's his last prayer in this psalm. Shame. What is shame? Well, I looked it up.

[7:00] I looked at some definitions in the dictionaries. There's a whole bunch of them you can find on the internet. Some have new translations and others have. Anyway, shame is a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, by a humiliating disgrace or a sense of unworthiness.

[7:31] Shame can be imposed by self, by bullies. And I've actually heard that it can be imposed by other Christians.

[7:46] I've heard that. No. Shame on... It's a hard issue.

[8:00] A very deep-rooted problem. We've all experienced it. Some experience it to an extent where it is handicapping.

[8:13] It is paralyzing. The result of shame are feelings of never being good enough. Not being able to measure up.

[8:26] Sometimes, often, the response is to hide, to build walls, to not let people in in order to not be shamed. To not reveal myself so that they can't make fun of that self.

[8:43] Fear of rejection, humiliation. Shame. So, you know, again, I kind of did a little search and kind of looked at what's out there.

[8:54] There's a lot of causes of shame. There's a lot of responses to shame. How do you break free of shame?

[9:04] You know, I kind of typed that in and you get all kinds of stuff. man's way in order to break shame is change vocabulary.

[9:18] Just change words. Do a lot of positive thinking because shame is usually negative thinking. Build a positive self-esteem because obviously you don't have a good self-esteem.

[9:31] That's man's way. A lot of nuances of that. Not that there's problems with all of that.

[9:42] There's problems with some of that. But my question is, I don't really care what man thinks. I want to know what God thinks. What is God's way? How do you break shame? Shame.

[9:55] David speaks of it. David is afraid of it. He fears coming to shame. So here we have in Psalm 25 dealing with the subject and he takes it to the Lord and he sees the Lord as the ultimate healer.

[10:13] He sees the Lord as the ultimate one who can bring him out of his troubles and distresses. So he brings it to the Lord. As we come to this Psalm, I want you, first of all, to see the structure.

[10:28] And the framing of this Psalm, there is more structure than you might first think. So he brings up the problem of shame.

[10:40] Shame frames this whole prayer. Okay? It's the first, as I mentioned, it's the first thing he prays in verse 2. You know, he says, To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

[10:53] O my God, in you I trust. Let me not be put to shame. And then he ends this Psalm the same way. Verse 20, O guard my soul and deliver me. Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

[11:05] So it frames. It's the first and last. Frames this Psalm. So, but I want you to notice the structure. And if you have an outline, you'll see there's a, kind of an arrow shape to this outline.

[11:20] I purposely did that. because in Hebrew poetry, there's a thing called chiasm. You know that, Diane? Chiasm. From the, from the letter chi in Greek, that's only taken half of the letter, the chi looks like an X.

[11:37] Okay? In Greek. So you take one side of it and you have an arrow shape. And what it's doing is actually pointing you to the very heart of the Psalm and to how the poet, the psalmist, has arranged this Psalm to point at the very heart and point and meaning of this Psalm.

[11:57] So, I want you to see how it structures. And a chiasm unfolds and then comes back out. It, it lays out truth and then it, in the second half, it echoes that truth in section by section.

[12:12] So, so you notice in verses one and two you have let me not be put to shame. I wait for you. And then at the end, verses 20, 21, let me not be put to shame. I wait for you. Okay?

[12:23] And then we go back up. So the second part of the Psalm, verses two through seven, there are nine pleas, nine requests. I don't say prayers because the whole Psalm is a prayer.

[12:39] But here he's making specific requests and he makes nine of them in verses two through seven. The focus of them besides let me not be put to shame is teach me, lead me, right?

[12:51] And then he mentions forgive me or remember not the sins of my youth. Then we see that echoed in verses 16 through 20, the next to last section of this Psalm.

[13:04] Again, there's nine pleas, nine requests. They're not the same requests. They're totally different with the exception of let me not be put to shame.

[13:14] That's repeated. And a request for forgiveness. That's repeated. Then as you come more to the middle, the third section, verses eight through 10, talks about God's way and keeping his covenant.

[13:32] Talks about how God is good and upright and how God leads them. But he talks about covenant. Notice at the end of verse 10, for those who keep his covenant.

[13:43] And then you go down to that parallel section back and down in verses 12 to 15. Again, he's talking about God's way, God's path. But here, when he talks about the covenant, he doesn't talk about keeping the covenant.

[13:57] Here he talks about making it known. He makes known his covenant. He reveals his covenant. So you see, we have this pattern. Talking about shame at the beginning and end.

[14:08] Talking about forgiveness and requests in the second and next to last section. And then God's way keeping his covenant. God's way revealing his covenant.

[14:20] And then at the very heart of the psalm, very, very middle, verse 11. Pardon my iniquity.

[14:34] Forgive my iniquity. Three times in this psalm about shame, he asks for forgiveness. Three different ways. Remember, first time, remember not the sins of my youth.

[14:47] Second time, verse 11, pardon my iniquity. And then the third time, down in verse, where is it?

[15:00] The end of verse 18. Forgive all my sins. So there's the heart. There's the point of the psalm. We don't have to wonder. We don't have to say, well, what it means to me.

[15:11] We can read how he has laid out his psalm and know what it's, he's got a neon arrow pointing right at the heart of here's what it's about.

[15:22] Forgiveness. Forgiveness. Forgiveness. It's a sinner's prayer. So now that we see the shape, I want us to follow the thought of David's prayer for sinners.

[15:36] David's prayer for himself. And fine, how does it lead us to answers about shame? How does David handle his fear of shame and guilt?

[15:49] It's not just that he comes to the Lord, but how does he come to the Lord? And with what does he come to the Lord? And what gives him hope? Where does he see hope?

[16:03] Where does he see overcoming? Okay, so Psalm 25 gives us two answers. We have one answer in the first half of the psalm where he focuses on the love of God to remove shame.

[16:21] And then verses 12 to 21, the second half, focus on the covenant a little bit different. Instead of keeping the covenant, there's a revelation of covenant that brings forgiveness and grace.

[16:34] Now understand too, as I unfold this, Jesus instructs us to read the Old Testament from the New Testament point of view.

[16:51] He tells his disciples in the upper room, how come you don't believe? Why didn't you see me? Why didn't you know? Because they misread the Old Testament. They misread.

[17:02] So he's telling us, in the book of Moses and in the Psalms and in the prophets, I'm there. So watch for how I'm, those words point to me.

[17:17] He's not hidden. There are patterns and shapes that we look for that are only fulfilled in Christ. So first of all, first answer is only the steadfast love of God can remove my shame.

[17:32] First of all. This is what David appeals to, the love of God, according to your steadfast love. Only the steadfast love and mercy of God can remove my shame.

[17:45] So that's what he appeals to. He doesn't appeal to the covenant. In fact, as soon as he mentions the covenant, he mentions, pardon my iniquity. So, so he starts with an intimate prayer.

[17:58] Notice how intimate it starts out, just right at the get-go. To you, O Lord. He is speaking directly to Yahweh. To you, Yahweh, I lift up my soul.

[18:11] Oh my God, in you I trust. Notice how personal it is, how intimate it is. It is to the Lord directly. He's not talking about the Lord, he's talking to the Lord.

[18:22] And he talks about lifting up his soul. What is that? How do you lift up your soul? The soul is the deep inner part of us where we have all our affections. And some of them are helpful affections and some of them are not helpful affections.

[18:37] You know, our soul is what it is. It's where we can feel great distress and trouble. It's also where we can feel elation and joy. So he says, I bring, it's really his identity.

[18:52] It's one way of saying his self-identity, really. I lift up my soul because it's often how I think of myself, how I feel. So I lift up my soul. And in you I trust.

[19:04] And then comes his prayer, let me not be put to shame. He will mention this word shame four times in this psalm. This shame, what is shame? Shame, as I mentioned, is a feeling of failure to measure up.

[19:19] It can be imposed by enemies who are shaming me, who are saying I'm not good enough, who are saying you should measure up better. That's where I say Christians can do that to each other.

[19:29] You know, shame on you. You know, Christians don't go to those kind of movies. Christians don't read that kind of stuff. Christians don't this or that or that. Right? And we feel like, oh, man, I don't measure up.

[19:42] I'm not here. We beat each other up. Shame each other. Remember, and this is where as Christians, as followers of Jesus, we need to remember how he came.

[19:56] He didn't do that to people. He says, I did not come to condemn. It's not my job. I came to save. I came to deliver you from shame.

[20:13] All right, so let's not Pharisee everybody else. And then he mentions the sins of my youth.

[20:23] Well, there's a place we can get shame, isn't it? The sins of my youth. The big mistakes I made, and I'm still paying for some of those mistakes I made maybe, you know, and I can be reminded, right, because I reap what I sow and here I am and I feel shame for those past acts.

[20:42] So it makes sense that he talks about shame and the sins of his youth. He brings up enemies who probably also are wanting to shame and humiliate him. Remember, he lives under a covenant.

[20:58] In the Old Testament, the covenant of Moses, the covenant of the law was very black and white. If you keep my covenant, I will bless you. You will grow.

[21:09] You will prosper. You will be, you will have great crops. Your enemies will be kept away, right? You'll have great success. If you keep my covenant, I will bless you.

[21:23] If you do not keep my covenant, then all those positives are taken away to become negatives. I will not bless you. I will curse you and your crops will fail and your enemies will invade and you will lose your city, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

[21:39] You lose your health, et cetera. So that's why the Jew says in the New Testament, even Jesus' disciples say when there's a man born blind, they say, oh, is that because of his parents' sin or his sin?

[21:53] See, because blindness is a curse and it must be because somebody didn't keep the covenant. So whose is it? And of course, Jesus says, none of that.

[22:05] But that is a covenant understanding. That is a covenant understanding. It's black and white. And so, and Christians inherit that too.

[22:17] And we ought not. But we think the same kind of thing. Oh, if you're sick, then what'd you do? God's getting you. You know, or you're going through a lot of afflictions.

[22:29] Okay, God's not blessing you. You're, you don't have enough faith or whatever. We shame. And it has nothing, like Jesus, it had nothing to do with who sinned.

[22:43] This is for the glory of God. This is, read scripture. A lot of godly people go through hard things. Not saying perfect people, but people God oriented.

[23:01] Okay, so, so, he's concerned that, that, that maybe he, because he's going to name later, he's got afflictions and troubles and, you know, he's, he's got sin mixed in there.

[23:15] There's all this stuff. So maybe he has not kept the covenant and things are going wrong because, you know, that's what the covenant said. So don't put me to shame.

[23:28] So he's asking for mercy. Be merciful. Just like David prayed after he was, uh, pointed out for his sin with Bathsheba and all that, right? He had clearly broken the covenant.

[23:39] He could not offer a sacrifice. There was nothing he could do except a plea, plea for God's mercy. That's all, just be merciful.

[23:50] There's no sacrifice I can bring. Please be merciful. And he's asking the same thing here. So his shame, it's not one thing causing the shame.

[24:01] It's probably a combination of things. He mentions enemies, sins of his youth. He mentions the covenant. And he right away, notice in verse three, he mentions the answer to shame.

[24:15] Indeed, none who, what? Wait for you shall be put to shame. So, so there's already a knowledge of a hope that, okay, if I look to the Lord, that, that can keep the shame away.

[24:28] So I know that. I just, so that's part of what I'm working out. He's waiting for the Lord, for the mercy and the love of God. Now, I want you to notice the, the pleas he, he, the requests he brings from verse two through seven, nine, nine different requests.

[24:49] For the most part, he's focusing on, on going God's way. Verse, so verse two, let me not be put to shame. Let my, not my enemies exult over me. And then verse four, make me to know your ways.

[25:01] Oh Lord, teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. Verse six, remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love for they have, excuse me, sorry.

[25:15] They've been from of old. Remember not, verse seven, you know, remember some things, but don't, there's something I don't want you to remember. Don't remember the sins of my youth.

[25:26] Um, and then finally, remember me. How? According to your steadfast love. For the sake of your goodness, remember me. He's appealing to mercy and grace.

[25:39] He wants to know God's path. So understand this about David. He's not just wanting to get rid of his shame. He's not just wanting to be cleansed of his sin. He wants that very much. But he also wants to walk the way, the walk.

[25:55] He doesn't just want one side of God. He wants all of God. He knows he's a failure. He's already a sinner. He's already a transgressor. But he still wants to follow God.

[26:07] I want to know your ways. I want to know your paths. I want to know your truth. Teach me, teach me. I want to learn. I want to grow. See, that's part of it. It's not, I want to grow so that you can forgive me.

[26:19] It's because you forgive, because you're a wonderful God and because I love you, I want to follow you. But I need help. I need more discernment. I need more teaching.

[26:30] This is David asking. Didn't David, you know, he's writing all the songs. He knew a lot. Still has room to grow. Still need to hear some more. Want to go deeper.

[26:41] Want to go more faith. Want to go in your path. And then in 6 and 7, he says three times, remember, right? Remember your mercy and love.

[26:53] Remember me. And then in the middle, he prays for remember not my sins or transgressions. And do all this according to your faithful love. And then he does something a little different.

[27:06] Takes a different tack in verses 8 through 10. So far, all of the psalm has been directed right at God. It's speaking to God. To you, to you, teach me your.

[27:18] Now, notice in verse 8, he said, he talks about God for a couple of verses. And he's going to go back to intimate again. But he's going to make a statement about God here in verses 8 through 10.

[27:32] Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore he, so it's all third person, see? Therefore he instructs sinners. That's interesting, isn't it? Good and upright is the Lord.

[27:42] Therefore he instructs sinners. He doesn't condemn sinners. He instructs sinners. He loves sinners. He's going after sinners. He wants to teach sinners. He wants to help sinners. Because he's good.

[27:55] Okay? He's good and upright. Therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right.

[28:06] He can't lead the proud because the proud don't want to hear it. He leads the humble. And he teaches the humble his way. All his paths. Now again, see, verses 8 through 10 focusing on the way of the Lord, the path of the Lord.

[28:21] So, so, he focuses on God's way. The way this is arranged, it reminded me of the gospel. Because the first question he brings up is who is God?

[28:34] Well, God is good and upright. That's the first word of the gospel is what? We talk about four words that explain the gospel. First word is God. Who's God?

[28:44] He's good and upright. He's good. He's faithful. He's merciful. He's loving. He's forgiving. Remember how he described himself in Exodus 34? All these wonderful, beautiful traits.

[28:57] And then he says, oh, also, also, does not let the guilty go unpunished. Wait, he just said he's merciful and forgiving and he's also just.

[29:09] He's also upright. He's good and upright. He's both. So then how can he, if he's just and righteous and upright, how can he be good to sinners?

[29:20] See, this is the gospel. So he's good and upright. He's also, who's man? Well, he says man's the sinner. Man's the sinner.

[29:33] And man is the one who, at the end of verse 10, is supposed to keep the covenant. God's given the truth. The law is holy, righteous, and good.

[29:44] It's all, nothing wrong with the law. The law, it just sets the line. The problem is, how good are we at keeping the law?

[29:57] We have an Old Testament that proves it can't be done. The people given all the benefits couldn't do it. Even the ones that really wanted to.

[30:11] Even the Davids and the Daniels couldn't do it. fell at some point. The Old Testament declares that there's none who do good.

[30:25] There's none who strive for righteousness. There's no fear of God in their eyes. Nobody's there. Right? So, he mentions this, those who keep the covenant.

[30:36] So, what is our gospel? God. Man. What's the solution? Christ. Christ. How does God, who is just and upright, resolve this tension with his goodness and forgiveness?

[30:53] How does he do that? Well, he takes care of the justice by sending his son to pay the price, to pay the debt, to cover the justice. forgiveness. So, then, his forgiveness can kick in.

[31:09] David recognizes this because he talks about for those who, the end of verse 10, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies, and in the very next breath, he asks for pardon of guilt.

[31:24] Soon as he's thinking about keeping the covenant, he's immediately reminded, I'm before God so I have to be honest. Lord, you know, I haven't.

[31:37] And if this psalm is written after the whole Bathsheba incident, he's very aware that he hasn't kept it. Right? Oh, pardon me.

[31:50] You call us to keep the covenant but I have not. So, pardon my iniquity. And notice he uses the same, all these same different three words for sin.

[32:02] He talks about sin in general which means to fall short. Right? Then he uses the word transgression which is more serious not just to fall short and fail but means to transgress, to cross the line, to trespass, to rebel, to intentionally cross that line.

[32:20] And then iniquity talks about in verse 11, pardon my iniquity or our translations have guilt but it's the same word for iniquity which means twisted. So you have general failure then you have rebellion, transgression and then you have you know, our little take on it.

[32:39] After you get real rebellious for a while you can really twist it, pervert it, distort it. Something that the devil, our enemy, is good at doing.

[32:51] So he mentions all kinds of sin. Forgive me for all of that. So he can't keep the covenant.

[33:03] So what's the answer? We, reading from the New Testament point of view, we know what the answer is. We know that's going to come in Christ. David, from the Old Testament point of view, knows God has promised an answer.

[33:17] Knows God has promised a deliverer. He even knows, God told him, that your own seed, your own son, your own offspring will be the one who sits on your throne forever.

[33:30] So he knows there's a deliverer to come. Right? And he knows what it said, what the previous prophecies have said before. But he doesn't, he lives from the side of promise, not from the side of fulfillment.

[33:47] So we have the benefit of seeing how the God worked out the details of that. So David knows an answer's coming. So in the New Testament, we have the explanation of the answer.

[34:00] What is the answer to my shame? Where do I go to remove it? First Peter talks about this. Peter says, so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander.

[34:11] You're coming to God, so put those things away. Long for the pure milk, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow in respect or salvation.

[34:25] These are things you would want to do if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, coming to the Lord, you're coming to the Lord, as you come to him, him who is a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, like this tower over here, you're all being built together, you, like living stones, are being built up.

[34:56] So watch this. So as you come to him, you are being built up. I love that. It's not jumping through all these hoops, simply as you come to him, you are being built up.

[35:09] the very act of coming to him builds you up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood. That's talking about the whole church being the priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, not physical sacrifices, spiritual sacrifices, like laying down my life for him.

[35:33] For it stands in scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and watch this, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

[35:48] There's the answer. How do I remove shame? I believe in the cornerstone who was rejected and became the foundation stone by which we're all being built into a priesthood, Jesus Christ.

[36:03] Only steadfast love of God displayed in Jesus Christ can remove my shame. All the human therapy, all the human answers will numb it or twist it or what, hide it or retranslate it somehow.

[36:28] Only the love of God and Jesus Christ can actually remove it. man looks for all kinds of ways to stuff it down or just change the vocabulary of it.

[36:47] Oh, it's the culture, it's those Christians. You were raised by nuns, weren't you? That's where you got your shame. Oh, you grew up Catholic, that's it. I didn't kind of joke about that, but it's like, well, come on now.

[37:01] Shame's real. Some of it's imposed, some of it is unjust. But as David says, sins of my youth, let me be honest.

[37:13] Okay? Only the steadfast love of God and Christ can remove that. So he comes up with then a second view in the second half of his psalm. It's not only the love of Christ that removes it, but then he's going to go a step further and say, he doesn't mention Christ, but he's, I think, pointing toward him when he mentions making known the covenant.

[37:39] And so I say from a New Testament standard, standpoint, the second answer that David is leading to is that only Christ's new covenant can forgive your guilt.

[37:52] Only the covenant that he will reveal, which he does in the upper room, can forgive your guilt. The old covenant can't do it.

[38:04] It's not in there. They brought sacrifices for unintentional sins and it did not forgive it, it covered it, remember? It covered it for a while.

[38:17] Then a year later you had to do it all over again. Not to mention all the other oops, forgot, didn't realize I touched that dead body kind of sins.

[38:29] Right? An intentional sin. You will look long and hard in Leviticus for the sacrifice you can bring for an intentional sin, for an act of true rebellion, for a transgression.

[38:43] Yet the Old Testament all over speaks about God forgives transgression. question. How? How?

[38:56] Pointing forward. It's going to come. It's going to come. God promised it. It's going to come. So now I want you to see what he says in the second half.

[39:08] Look at verse 12. He asks a question. who is the man who fears the Lord? Now part of my process in Bible study is to look at the original.

[39:23] When I compare the original on this sentence it's not the same as the translation. It does not say in the Hebrew who is the man.

[39:36] It says who this man who fears the Lord. It's not a generic who is the man.

[39:47] It's a specific who is this one. Who's this particular man? Psalm 24 does the same thing. Who is this king? Who is this king of glory?

[39:58] Not just who's any king. Who's this one? Who's this one who actually does fear the Lord. Because remember the Old Testament says nobody really does.

[40:11] They seek to, they want to, but they don't actually do it in their whole life. No one loves the Lord their God with all their heart all the time.

[40:30] So who is this man? It's a answer to the previous dilemma. Who keeps the covenant? It's just assumed, we read it as if it's an assumption that we can keep the covenant, but we're being dishonest with ourselves if we think we can.

[40:54] Who fears God? According to Romans 3, no one. There's no fear of God in anyone. There's none righteous, not even one. There's no one good, who does good, not even one.

[41:07] Romans 3, borrowing from the Psalms, states these truths. The whole point of the law was not to deliver us, not to give us a way to follow God primarily, but actually to reveal our sin, to point out to us that you didn't do it.

[41:25] And then notice what he says about this man. So he says in verse 12, who is this man who fears the Lord?

[41:38] Him will he, the Lord, the Lord will instruct this man who fears him in the way that he should choose. His soul, whose soul? The one who fears the Lord, this man, his soul will abide in well-being.

[41:52] See, our souls don't abide in well-being. Sometimes it's well-being, but most of the time it's not well-being. His soul, this one, this one, his soul will abide in well-being.

[42:04] And this one, his offspring shall inherit the land. Anytime you see in Scripture the phrase offspring and inherit the land, those are trigger words that are pointing forward.

[42:17] Those are about promise. Genesis talks about offspring, right? See, the seed of Abraham, the seed of Isaac, right? And then we come to the seed of David, right?

[42:28] So it's like, okay, this is about the Messiah, the offspring, okay? And then inheriting the land. Remember land? We looked at that a little while ago. Land is a picture. Abraham understood that.

[42:40] Land, the promised land that he got wasn't, it was nice, it's okay, you know, but he knew it really wasn't the deal.

[42:50] Hebrews tells us he was looking for another, looking for something better, something lasting, something that's really says, God, not, you know, passed on from others.

[43:06] So he's talking about the offspring of this person who fears the Lord are going to inherit the land. The children of this one will inherit the land.

[43:18] And then he says, verse 14, the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him. Now, there's two ways we can read that. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, the Lord.

[43:28] Or is it the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, this man who is coming. Well, from a New Testament point, that makes more sense.

[43:41] For those who fear Jesus, friendship with the Lord. Not those who fear the Lord and somehow measure up enough, they become friends of God.

[43:56] Tried it, done work. No, those who fear Jesus, friendship with the Lord. No one comes to the Father but through me.

[44:11] That's how I'm reading it, because Jesus said in the upper room, I'm in there. I don't think I'm being unfaithful with the text at all. I think I'm drawing out the text.

[44:25] I can show you some books that I read this week that wouldn't say what I said, but. I've learned long ago they don't have all the answers.

[44:37] In fact, they have some very wrong ones. Anyway, so then he comes to please, verses 16 through 19, benign requests again.

[44:47] Now this time they're more personal, they're more kind of urgent. Turn to me, be gracious to me. Why? Now he's going to name his troubles, for I am lonely and I'm afflicted.

[44:58] The troubles of my heart are enlarged. So now he's, you know, before he was talking about teach me, lead me, guide me in truth. Now it's me, me, me. It's not a problem. He's going before the Lord. Me, Lord.

[45:09] Be gracious to me. Turn to me. Bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble. Oh, and please, please, please forgive all my sins.

[45:26] Forgive all my sins. Consider how many are my foes and with which violent hatred they hate me. So please look upon me, see what my troubles are, see my loneliness, see my distresses, see my sins and forgive them.

[45:40] And don't forget to look at my enemies and see how harsh they are toward me. So guard my soul and deliver me. Right?

[45:51] So he names all his troubles, he asks God to turn to me, forgive me, consider me, and then summarizes it in verse 20 with let me not be put to shame.

[46:05] So all these troubles seek and bring me to shame. And from David's perspective, he has to always remember this Old Testament perspective. He's under that covenant in which he must keep.

[46:17] and the fact that he has afflictions and troubles and enemies hints that he's not kept the covenant. Because the keeper of the covenant is blessed and protected.

[46:34] So you got to understand if you're under that covenant and troubles are coming, like, it's on me. It's on me.

[46:48] Shame on me. I didn't do it right. Didn't do it well enough. Should have known better. It's not just David that says that.

[47:02] Christians say that. I should have known better. I blew it. I'm so weak. Then I get a little voice that says, yeah, you are.

[47:17] Yeah, you're not worthy. Look at you. Just give it up. Oh, we like to listen to that voice, don't we?

[47:29] Kind of like beating up on ourselves sometimes. Something, I don't know about that, you know? Because maybe I want to quit. I'm really tired of trying to measure up.

[47:45] And then the spirit reminds me, remember what Jesus said? What, what, what, what? Come to me. Come to me, all who are weary, tired of trying to measure up, and heavy laden, you can't do all of that?

[48:10] Come to me. Take my yoke. Wait a minute, there's a yoke? Yeah, there's a yoke. You're tying on to me, it's not like it's all free.

[48:21] Well, it's free. Gotcha. Sorry, wrong word. Can you reverse the tape on that? Not that it's all easy. Well, wait a minute, what does he say?

[48:34] My yoke is, is easy. And my burden is light. In other words, if you've got a heavy load, you're doing it wrong, Christian. you're taking too much.

[48:52] Faith is about, what does David say? Refuge in you, waiting for you, trusting in you, lifting my soul to you. It's all about this relationship of dependence and faith with him.

[49:06] What am I doing on my own? It's about him. David got that? Boy, would he really get it, wouldn't he?

[49:17] If he saw what Jesus did and fulfilled him. It's like, so he ends, he ends this in the last couple of verses with his hope in God.

[49:35] In fact, his only protection is God. He recognized that. Oh, guard my soul. It's only the Lord that can protect my soul. It's only the Lord that can deliver me. It's only the Lord who can fulfill that I will not be put to shame.

[49:57] So back to the gospel, God, man, Christ, how do I respond? What's my part? So God sends Christ to resolve the issue.

[50:10] What's my part? Faith. What does he say at the end? He will not, let me not be put to shame.

[50:20] Why? For I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me. Why? For I wait for you. Do you like waiting?

[50:35] I know. It kind of takes faith, doesn't it? It takes trust that he will keep his promise.

[50:48] It takes trust that he intends all this hard stuff for a good purpose. That's hard to remember in the middle of the...

[51:00] It's trusting that promise. David knows that. And as believers standing from a New Testament perspective, we know it all the more.

[51:16] We know David's hope was in the right place. David's looking to his offspring of the far future who will fulfill all of this.

[51:28] his son who will sit on his throne. And it certainly wasn't Solomon who will resolve the issue of shame. So I mentioned the new covenant.

[51:42] This one who comes, this Jesus who has kept the old covenant but himself who comes and brings a new covenant. Remember in that last night in the upper room at the last supper, Jesus was doing a Passover meal.

[52:02] He was doing the old covenant meal. It's surrounded by four cups of wine. It talks about the matzah bread. He talks about the...

[52:12] So in the middle of the meal, Jesus takes that matzah bread and says, now this is my body, which is for you. And then he takes the cup. The third cup of that meal, the one right after supper is the cup of redemption, which in Passover points to God redeeming Israel from slavery.

[52:33] And so we drink that cup of joy to remember God and the picture of the blood because the lamb had to be slain to get them out of Egypt. And now Jesus says, he takes that cup and he says, this is the new covenant in my blood for the forgiveness of sins.

[52:58] Jesus, I think you got the Seder wrong. Those aren't the words of the Seder. Jesus, you're making some stuff up here that's not your blood, it's the lamb's blood.

[53:10] They didn't do that, of course, because Jesus was always saying something. They're like, okay, what? This is my blood of the new covenant.

[53:20] forgiveness. Forgiveness. The old doesn't bring up forgiveness. I'm listening because that sounds better than the one I got.

[53:38] So, what is this new covenant? Why is it better? What does it do that the old doesn't do? Just listen to the Hebrew, Hebrews author who explains it.

[53:51] He quotes from Jeremiah where the promise of the new covenant is revealed. Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 8, 6, but as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better.

[54:13] since it is enacted on better promises. For if the first covenant, speaking of the one at Sinai, had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

[54:30] For he finds fault with them when he says, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. Now, he's quoting from Jeremiah 31. When I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant.

[54:45] Here, let me distinguish it. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Why? For they did not keep my covenant.

[54:57] They did not continue in my covenant. I made a covenant with them, they brought. That's why we need a new covenant. This is by the time of Jeremiah, so we're talking about a long time.

[55:13] They have not. In fact, by Jeremiah, they're now in another land because they broke the covenant. For they did not continue my covenant and so I showed no concern for them, sent them away, declares the Lord.

[55:26] Now, here's the new one. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws not on stone, but in their hearts.

[55:38] Excuse me, into their minds and write them on their hearts. It's going to be internal. It's not out there. It's in their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people and they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother saying, you need to know the Lord.

[55:59] Why? For they'll all know me from the least of them to the greatest. How is it that they'll all know me? For this very reason, for I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.

[56:17] That's a whole different covenant. In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.

[56:29] And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. In fact, it will in 70 AD with the temple. Because no temple, no covenant, no way to keep the covenant for 2,000 years.

[56:51] The new covenant, Jesus begins at the Last Supper. It's an internal instead of an external covenant.

[57:01] It is a relational. They will know me instead of a rule-based covenant. It'll be transformational. It will forgive and cleanse their sins instead of a condemnational covenant that just says, you didn't, you failed, you didn't measure up, you're cursed.

[57:29] Only Jesus can wash away your guilt and shame. Only Jesus can give you true, true forgiveness. Not just a rewording or a new paradigm to think about it.

[57:45] Only Jesus can in fact cleanse away the shame. He comes to you.

[57:58] He changes you. He asks you to trust him, to wait for him, to look to him, to come to him.

[58:13] him. So, I'll ask you, will you lift your soul to him? will you trust in him?

[58:28] Take refuge in him? Will you, here's the hard one, wait for him?

[58:40] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for David, your servant, that you led to write down this beautiful song.

[58:53] To not just jot it all down, but to think through how he's approaching you and what point he wants to make and is willing to expose himself in doing so.

[59:07] thank you for such transparency. Thank you for such vulnerability. Help us be like that. Help us come to you with honesty, vulnerability, urgency.

[59:24] You promise, oh father, that we will not be put to shame who put our trust in you. Do that today.

[59:35]  We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.