Year 5, Day 174: Psalm 25-26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness, Information

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
• Information: This is the initial phase of become a disciple of Jesus.  Before we can do anything meaningful we must begin to understand what we are doing.  We may never gain full understanding of God and His ways, but God calls us to study Him, His Son, and His ways as the foundation of being His follower.

Psalm 25 gives us an interesting combination of two discipleship foci: information and forgiveness.  As you read the psalm, you can hear the psalmist bouncing between these two concepts.  We have a set of verses talking to us about God’s instruction into our lives.  Then we hear a set of verses about how the Lord forgives us when we fall short.

Although we don’t often pair these two topics in lessons, these topics really do go hand in hand.  After all, isn’t this often the rhythm of discipleship?  We learn something new.  We go out and practice it.  Occasionally we are successful, but more often than not we make mistakes as we try to apply faith.  When we make mistakes, we need forgiveness.  Then we need to be re-taught so that we can fix the places we messed up before.  We try again, probably making a few more mistakes.  The truth is that we often cycle between learning, applying faith, needing forgiveness, and learning again.  It is the rhythm of discipleship.

This is why the psalmist starts in Psalm 25:4-5 and speaks about being taught in the Lord’s ways.  But as the psalmist learns and grows, he reminds God to forgive his prior sins and transgressions as we see in Psalm 25:6-7.  In psalm 25:8-10 we have another set of verses speaking about the greatness of God because He instructs sinners in His ways and draws them closer to Him.  But then in Psalm 25:11-18 and have another passage about forgiveness. 

The cyclical nature of this psalm is an ever-present dynamic in life with the Lord.  we should always be growing in the Lord.  But the more we grow the more aware we become of our mistakes and the ways that we don’t quite live out a godly life.  So we learn to appreciate God’s forgiveness more.  This causes us to grow once more and the pattern continues.  It is the path of faith.

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