Bible Commentaries
Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Psalms 25
Prayer for Gracious Protection and Guidance
A question similar to the question, Who may ascend the mountain of Jahve? which Psalm 24:1-10 propounded, is thrown out by Ps 25, Who is he that feareth Jahve? in order to answer it in great and glorious promises. It is calmly confident prayer for help against one's foes, and for God's instructing, pardoning, and leading grace. It is without any definite background indicating the history of the times in which it was composed; and also without any clearly marked traits of individuality. But it is one of the nine alphabetical Psalms of the whole collection, and the companion to Ps 34, to which it corresponds even in many peculiarities of the acrostic structure. For both Psalms have no ו strophe; they are parallel both as to sound and meaning in the beginnings of the מ, ע, and the first פ strophes; and both Psalms, after having gone through the alphabet, have a פ strophe added as the concluding one, whose beginning and contents are closely related. This homogeneousness points to one common author. We see nothing in the alphabetical arrangement at least, which even here as in Ps 9-10 is handled very freely and not fully carried out, to hinder us from regarding David as this author. But, in connection with the general ethical and religious character of the Psalm, it is wanting in positive proofs of this. In its universal character and harmony with the plan of redemption Ps 25 coincides with many post-exilic Psalms. It contains nothing but what is common to the believing consciousness of the church in every age; nothing specifically belonging to the Old Testament and Israelitish, hence Theodoret says: ἁρμόζει μάλιστα τοῖς ἐξ ἐθνῶν κεκλημένοις . The introits for the second and third Quadragesima Sundays are taken from Psalm 25:6 and Psalm 25:15; hence these Sundays are called Reminiscere and Oculi. Paul Gerhardt's hymn “Nach dir, o Herr, verlanget mich” is a beautiful poetical rendering of this Psalm.
The Psalm begins, like Psalm 16:1-11; Psalm 23:1, with a monostich. Psalm 25:2 is theב strophe, אלהי (unless one is disposed to read בך אלהי accordingto the position of the words in Psalm 31:2), after the manner of the interjectionsin the tragedians, e.g., oo'moi, not being reckoned as belonging to theverse (J. D. Köhler). In need of help and full of longing for deliverance he raises his soul, drawn away from earthly desires, to Jahve (Psalm 86:4; Psalm 143:8), the God who alone can grant him that which shall truly satisfy his need. His ego, which has the soul within itself, directs his soul upwards to Him whom he calls אלהי, because in believing confidence he clings to Him and is united with Him. The two אל declare what Jahve is not to allow him to experience, just as in Psalm 31:2, Psalm 31:18. According to Psalm 25:19, Psalm 25:20; Psalm 38:17, it is safer to construe לי with יעלצוּ (cf. Psalm 71:10), as also in Psalm 27:2; Psalm 30:2, Micah 7:8, although it would be possible to construe it with אויבי (cf. Psalm 144:2). In Psalm 25:3 the confident expectation of the individual is generalised.
That wherewith the praying one comforts himself is no peculiar personalprerogative, but the certain, joyous prospect of all believers: çåïõ êáôáéó÷õRomans 5:5. These are calledקויך (קוה participle to קוּה ot elp, just as דּבר is the participle to דּבּר). Hope is the eye of faith whichlooks forth clear and fixedly into the future. With those who hope inJahve, who do not allow themselves to be in any way disconcertedrespecting Him, are contrasted those who act treacherously towards Him(Psalm 119:158, Aq., Symm., Theodot. ïéá), and thatריקם, i.e. - and it can only mean this-from vain and worthlesspretexts, and therefore from wanton unconscientiousness.
Recognising the infamy of such black ingratitude, he prays for instructionas to the ways which he must take according to the precepts of God (Psalm 18:22). The will of God, it is true, lies before us in God's written word,but the expounder required for the right understanding of that word is GodHimself. He prays Him for knowledge; but in order to make what heknows a perfect and living reality, he still further needs the grace of God, viz., both His enlightening and also His guiding grace.
His truth is the lasting and self-verifying fact of His revelation of grace. Topenetrate into this truth and to walk in it (Psalm 26:3; Psalm 86:11) without God, isa contradiction in its very self. Therefore the psalmist prays, as in Psalm 119:35, οδήγησόν με ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ σου (lxx Cod. Alex.; whereas Cod. Vat. åôç … , cf. John 16:13). He prays thus, for his salvationcomes from Jahve, yea Jahve is his salvation. He does not hope for this orthat, but for Him, all the day, i.e., unceasingly,
(Note: Hupfeld thinks the accentuation inappropriate; the first half of the verse, however, really extends to ישׁעי, and consists of two parts, of which the second is the confirmation of the first: the second half contains a relatively new thought. The sequence of the accents: Rebia magnum, Athnach, therefore fully accords with the matter.)
for everything worth hoping for, everything that can satisfy the longing ofthe soul, is shut up in Him. All mercy or grace, however, which proceedsfrom Him, has its foundation in His compassion and condescension.
The supplicatory reminisceremeans, may God never forget to exercise Hispity and grace towards him, which are (as the plurals imply) so rich andsuperabundant. The ground on which the prayer is based is introducedwith כּי (namor even quoniam). God's compassion and grace areas old in their operation and efficacy as man's feebleness and sin; in theircounsels they are eternal, and therefore have also in themselves the pledgeof eternal duration (Psalm 100:5; Psalm 103:17).
May Jahve not remember the faults of his youth (חטּאות), intowhich lust and thoughtlessness have precipitated him, nor thetransgressions (פּשׁעים), by which even in maturer and morethoughtful years he has turned the grace of God into licentiousness andbroken off his fellowship with Him (פּשׁע בּ, of defection); butmay He, on the contrary, turn His remembrance to him (זכר ל asin Psalm 136:23) in accordance with His grace or loving-kindness, which אתּה challenges as being the form of self-attestation most closelycorresponding to the nature of God. Memor esto quidem mei, observes Augustine, non secundum iram, qua ego dignus sum, sed secundum misericordiam tuam, quae te digna estFor God is טּוב, which isreally equivalent to saying, He is áThe next distich shows thatטוּב is intended here of God's goodness, and not, as e.g., in Nehemiah 9:35, of His abundance of possessions.
The בּ with הורה denotes the way, i.e., the right way (Job 31:7), as the sphere and subject of the instruction, as in Psalm 32:8, Proverbs 4:11; Job 27:11. God condescends to sinners in order to teach them the way thatleads to life, for He is טוב־וישׂר; well-doing is His delight, and, ifHis anger be not provoked (Psalm 18:27 ), He has only the sincerest goodintention in what He does.
The shortened form of the future stands here, according to Ges. §128, 2,rem., instead of the full form (which, viz., ידרך, is perhaps meant); forthe connection which treats of general facts, does not admit of its being taken as optative. The ב (cf. Psalm 25:5, Psalm 107:7; Psalm 119:35) denotes the sphere of the guidance. משׁפּט is the right so far as it is traversed, i.e., practised or carried out. In this course of right He leads the ענוים, and teaches them the way that is pleasing to Himself. ענוים is the one word for the gentle, mansueti, and the humble, modesti. Jerome uses these words alternately in Psalm 25:9 and Psalm 25:9 ; but the poet designedly repeats the one word - the cardinal virtue of ענוה - here with the preponderating notion of lowliness. Upon the self-righteous and self-sufficient He would be obliged to force Himself even against their will. He wants disciples eager to learn; and how richly He rewards those who guard what they have learnt!
The paths intended, are those which He takes with men in accordance withHis revealed will and counsel. These paths are חסד loving-kindness, mercy, or grace, for the salvation of men is their goal, and אמת truth, for they give proof at every step of the certainty of Hispromises. But only they who keep His covenant and His testimoniesfaithfully and obediently shall share in this mercy and truth. To thepsalmist the name of Jahve, which unfolds itself in mercy and truth, isprecious. Upon it he bases the prayer that follows.
The perf. consec. is attached to the יהי, which is, according to thesense, implied in למען שׁמך, just as in other instancesit follows adverbial members of a clause, placed first for the sake ofemphasis, when those members have reference to the future, Ges. §126,rem. 1. Separate and manifold sins (Psalm 25:7) are all comprehended in עון, which is in other instances also the collective word for thecorruption and the guilt of sin. כּי gives the ground of the need andurgency of the petition. A great and multiform load of sin lies upon him, but the name of God, i.e., His nature that has become manifest in His mercy and truth, permits him to ask and to hope for forgiveness, not for the sake of anything whatever that he has done, but just for the sake of this name (Jeremiah 14:7; Isaiah 43:25). How happy therefore is he who fears God, in this matter!
The question: quisnam est virwhich resembles Psalm 34:13; Psalm 107:43; Isaiah 50:10, is only propounded in order to draw attention to the person whobears the character described, and then to state what such an one has toexpect. In prose we should have a relative antecedent clause instead, viz.,qui(quisquis) talis est qui Dominum vereaturcf1.
(Note: The verb ver-eri, which signifies “to guard one's self, defend one's self from anything” according to its radical notion, has nothing to do with ירא (ורא).)
The attributive יבהר, (viam) quam eligat(cf. Isaiah 48:17), mightalso be referred to God: in which He takes delight (lxx); but parallels likePsalm 119:30, Psalm 119:173, favour the rendering: which he should choose. Among all theblessings which fall to the lot of him who fears God, the first place is givento this, that God raises him above the vacillation and hesitancy of humanopinion.
The verb לין (לוּן), probably equivalent to ליל (from ליל) signifies to tarry the night, to lodge. Good, i.e., inwardand outward prosperity, is like the place where such an one turns in andfinds shelter and protection. And in his posterity will be fulfilled whatwas promised to the patriarchs and to the people delivered from Egypt,viz., possession of the land, or as this promise runs in the NewTestament, of the earth, Matthew 5:5 (cf. Psalm 37:11), Revelation 5:10.
The lxx renders סוד, êñáôáéas though it were equivalentto יסוד. The reciprocal נוסד, Psalm 2:2 (which see), leads one tothe right primary signification. Starting from the primary meaning of theroot סד, “to be or to make tight, firm, compressed,” סוד signifies abeing closely pressed together for the purpose of secret communicationand converse, confidential communion or being together, Psalm 89:8; Psalm 111:1 (Symm. ï), then the confidential communication itself, Psalm 55:15, asecret (Aquila áTheod. ìõóôç). So here: He openshis mind without any reserve, speaks confidentially with those who fearHim; cf. the derivative passage Proverbs 3:32, and an example of the thingitself in Genesis 18:17. In Psalm 25:14 the infinitive with ל, according to Ges. §132,rem. 1, as in Isaiah 38:20, is an expression for the fut. periphrast.: faedus suum notum facturus est iisthe position of the words is like Daniel 2:16, Daniel 2:18; Daniel 4:15. הודיע is used of the imparting of not merely intellectual,but experimental knowledge. Hitzig renders it differently, viz., to enlightenthem. But the Hiph. is not intended to be used thus absolutely even in 2 Samuel 7:21. בּריתו is the object; it is intended of the rich and deepand glorious character of the covenant revelation. The poet has now on allsides confirmed the truth, that every good gift comes down from above,from the God of salvation; and he returns to the thought from which hestarted.
He who keeps his eyes constantly directed towards God (Psalm 141:8; Psalm 123:1), is continually in a praying mood, which cannot remainunanswered. תּמיד corresponds to áin 1 Thessalonians 5:17. The aim of this constant looking upwards to God, in this instance, isdeliverance out of the enemy's net. He can and will pull him out (Psalm 31:5) of the net of complicated circumstances into which he has been ensnaredwithout any fault of his own.
The rendering “regard me,” so far as פּנה אל means God'sobservant and sympathising turning to any one (lxx å),corresponds to Psalm 86:16; Leviticus 26:9. For this he longs, for men treat him asa stranger and refuse to have anything to do with him. יחיד isthe only one of his kind, one who has no companion, therefore the isolatedone. The recurrence of the same sounds עני אני isdesignedly not avoided. To whom could he, the isolated one, pour forthhis affliction, to whom could he unveil his inmost thoughts and feelings? toGod alone! To Him he can bring all his complaints, to Him he can alsoagain and again always make supplication.
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The Hiph. הרחיב signifies to make broad, and as a transitivedenominative applied to the mind and heart: to make a broad space = toexpand one's self (cf. as to the idea, Lamentations 2:13, “great as the sea is thymisfortune”), lxx åperhaps originally it was ἐπλατηύνθησαν . Accordingly הרחיבוּ is admissible so far aslanguage is concerned; but since it gives only a poor antithesis to צרות it is to be suspected. The original text undoubtedly wasהרחיב וממצוקותי (הרחיב, as in Psalm 77:2, or הרחיב, ase.g., in 2 Kings 8:6): the straits of my heart do Thou enlarge (cf. Psalm 119:32; 2 Corinthians 6:11) and bring me out of my distresses (Hitzig and others).
The falling away of the ק is made up for by a double ר strophe. Even thelxx has étwice over. The seeing that is prayed for, is in bothinstances a seeing into his condition, with which is conjoined the notion ofinterposing on his behalf, though the way and manner thereof is left toGod. נשׂא ל, with the object in the dative instead of the accusative (tollere peccata), signifies to bestow a taking away, i.e., forgiveness, upon any one (synon. סלח ל). It is pleasing to the New Testament consciousness that God's vengeance is not expressly invoked upon his enemies. כּי is an expansive quod as in Genesis 1:4. שׂנאת חמס with an attributive genitive is hatred, which springs from injustice and ends in injustice.
He entreats for preservation and deliverance from God; and that He maynot permit his hope to be disappointed (אל־אבושׁ, cf. 1 Chronicles 21:13,instead of אל־אבושׁה which is usual in other instances). This hishope rests indeed in Him: he has taken refuge in Him and therefore Hecannot forsake him, He cannot let him be destroyed.
Devoutness that fills the whole man, that is not merely half-hearted andhypocritical, is called תּם; and uprightness that follows the will ofGod without any bypaths and forbidden ways is called ישׁר. These two radical virtues (cf. Job 1:1) he desires to have as his guardianson his way which is perilous not only by reason of outward foes, but alsoon account of his own sinfulness. These custodians are not to let him passout of their sight, lest he should be taken away from them (cf. Psalm 40:12; Proverbs 20:28). He can claim this for himself, for the cynosure of his hope isGod, from whom proceed תם and ישׁר like good angels.
His experience is not singular, but the enmity of the world and sin bring allwho belong to the people of God into straits just as they have him. Andthe need of the individual will not cease until the need of the wholeundergoes a radical remedy. Hence the intercessory prayer of this meagre closing distich, whose connection with what precedes is not in this instance so close as in Ps 34:23. It looks as though it was only added when Ps 25 came to be used in public worship; and the change of the name of God favours this view. Both Psalms close with a פ in excess of the alphabet. Perhaps the first פ represents the π , and the second the φ ;for Psalm 25:16; Psalm 34:17 follow words ending in a consonant, and Psalm 25:22; 34:23, words ending in a vowel. Or is it a propensity for giving a special representation of the final letters, just as these are sometimes represented, though not always perfectly, at the close of the hymns of the synagogue (pijutim)?
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