Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Living in Tune With God | The Writings | Psalm 25

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

What areas of your life feel harmonious with God? What areas feel dissonant? In today's episode, Jeff uses Psalm 25 to share the process of tuning your life to God. Learn how to live in tune with Psalm 25. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 25

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Of all the sounds in the world, this is one of my favorites. Before a concert, the first chair violinist, also called the Concert Master, signals for the oboe to play the A-note. And as that A-note resonates from the oboe, the other instruments chime in, changing their tune to match it.

And while they begin a little too sharp or a little too flat, they end in harmony and tune together. This process of tuning to the oboe is functional for sure. I mean, without it, there would just be complete dissonance. And at the same time, this is more than just a pragmatic process. It's also beautiful. The process of tuning is beautiful because of the sound it makes, yes, but also because it points to something beyond itself. It signals the audience that they are about to be brought into something transcendent, something beyond themselves. The tuning of instruments is not only necessary in aligning the notes, it's also glorious in creating the harmony of music.

The tuning of instruments reminds me of the hymn, Come thou found of every blessing, in which the hymnist Robert Robinson gives us an invitation to approach God when he says, tune my heart to say, thy grace. Those words are wonderful to sing, and at the same time they imply a truth that is difficult for us to swallow. Our lives tend to be out of tune with God. Where there's meant to be harmony, there's dissonance. What does it look like to have our hearts tuned to the creator of all things? How does it not only change us, but also the world around us as we live in a time of exile? What kind of music does God make when our hearts are tuned with Him? Psalm 25 is a Psalm of David that teaches us about the process and the product of tuning our hearts to the living God. Let's start with the first three verses. Lord, I appeal to you. My God, I trust in you. Do not let me be disgraced. Do not let my enemies

gloat over me. No one who waits for you will be disgraced. Those who act treacherous. Those who act Without cause will be disgraced. Verse one begins with David lifting up his whole self to God. Some translations say, I appeal to you, and that's great. Yet others fit the more literal meaning from the Hebrew, which is, Lord, I lift up my soul to you. It's David's way of saying, every part of who I am is before you now, God.

Now, before we keep going, let's just pause and make this our prayer going into the rest of Psalm 25. God, I appeal to you. I lift my soul, my entire life to you. Help me see and hear what you have for me in your word today. David continues Psalm 25 in verse 4. Let's pick up there. Make your ways known to me, Lord.

Teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. I wait for you all day long. Remember, Lord, your compassion and your faithful love, for they have existed from antiquity. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my acts of rebellion. In keeping with your faithful love, remember me because of your goodness, Lord. Now, notice the things that David asks for here.

Make your ways known to me. Teach me, guide me, lead me. David is asking for God to change him. to bring him into a kind of tuning process. And the direction of this tuning or change in David's life, it is focused. Your ways, your paths, your truth. This isn't a squishy kind of spirituality that asks for God to validate all of our prefabricated plans for life. This is a vulnerable openness to God to be shaped by Him.

God himself is the standard by which David wants to tune his heart. And why? Well, verse 5 gives us a reason. For, you are the God of my salvation. We can tune our hearts, our lives to God's truth, not just because of his perfect power and wisdom, yes, absolutely those things, but also because of his saving love.

Verse 6 calls that same love to mind. When it says, remember Lord, your compassion and your faithful love. David's talking about the steadfast love, the Hesed of God, in which he's relentlessly committed to his promises and to his people. Now, why does David ask God to remember his compassion and love? Is there somehow a risk of God forgetting his character, forgetting his commitments? Not at all. Biblical scholar Brevard Childs says this about God's remembering in the Bible.

He says, God's remembering always implies his movement, toward the object of his memory. Say that again. God's remembering always implies his movement toward the object of his memory. The essence of God's remembering lies in his acting towards someone because of a previous commitment.

So think about this. God's remembering isn't about a lapse in his memory. It's about his movement toward his covenant people, his attunement to us. So our lives aren't aligning with an impersonal note or fact. We are being tuned to the living God who made us and saves us

is in relation to us. There are so many things pulling on our hearts and our minds in exile, so many other things on offer to tune our hearts to. The latest headline or tweet, the juiciest gossip, the loudest public figure, God, our hearts need to be tuned by you.

Would you help us recognize the things that are distracting us from you and creating dissonance in our lives. David continues Psalm 25 by reflecting on the character and on the actions of God. Let's pick up in verse 8. The Lord is good and upright. Therefore he shows sinners the way. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the Lord's ways show faithful love and truth to those who keep his covenant and decrees. Lord, for the sake of your name, forgive my iniquity, for it is immense. Now these verses doubled down on some of the things we've already observed in Psalm 25. God leads us and teaches. He tunes the lives of his people. And again,

Psalm 25 highlights the steadfast love of God in contrast with our guilt and our sin. And notice here in verse 10 how the ways or the paths of the Lord are faithful, love, and truth. His steadfast love and his faithfulness. Now, these two words would have popped out to the people of God in David's Day and the people of God in exile. These are two fundamental descriptors of God's character in Exodus chapter 34 versus 6 through 7. It's that powerful moment when God reveals who he really is to his people as they prepare to embark on his mission. Now, let's just ask this question. Why does that connection to Exodus 34 matter?

Well, it matters because David is bringing us into the purpose, into the why, behind our lives being tuned to God. And that purpose is the very mission of God, God's mission to bless the nations, to participate in God's work of making all things new in Jesus by giving the world a portrait of what he's really like, what life in his kingdom is like. So whether God's people are in the exodus, the exile, the prophetic days, or in the exile of our Jesus, context today, there is a calling to make the music of His kingdom mission. But that can only happen if our lives are in tune with Him. Versus 12 through 15 continue to unpack what this looks like in the life of God's people and it starts drawing upon some of the wisdom themes of fearing the Lord,

giving him our reverence and our awe. Let's pick up in verse 12. Who is this person who fears the Lord? He will show him the way that he should choose. He will live a good life. and his descendants will inherit the land. The secret counsel of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he reveals his covenant to them. My eyes are always on the Lord, for he will pull my feet out of the net. I just love David's words here in verse 15.

My eyes are always on the Lord. Amidst the onslaught of competing things to tune our lives to and tune our hearts to, David has this intentional focus on God because he's the one who will pull his feet out of the net. He is the one who saves. And again, the reason behind all of this is not just God's attributes, like in a philosophical sense,

but his actions, his actions that take place in real world history and all real stories. I want God to teach me and guide me and lead me, not just because he knows more than me, even though he absolutely does, obviously. But not just because of that, but because he loves me.

Do you believe that about God? Do you want him to teach you and guide you and lead you because he loves you? David leans into his relationship with God going to verses 16 through 19. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am alone and afflicted. The distresses of my heart increase. Bring me out of my sufferings. Consider my affliction and trouble and forgive all my sins. Consider my enemies.

They are numerous and they hate me violently. Now, notice here David's sensitivity to how sin causes dissonance in his life. Here's a question for us. Do you have a growing sensitivity to your sin? Or have you been desensitized to your sin? This portion of Psalm 25 is really important. It kind of threads together some of the themes that have been going on when David's talking about sin and suffering. It identifies a fundamental problem for many of us today.

And that's this. We don't feel the need to be taught or led or guided. by God because we're so desensitized to our sin. We've gotten comfortable with it. We've explained it. We've rationalized it. We're prone to see ourselves as a finished product. But notice how David, he sees himself as a work in progress. In what areas of life do you need to be more sensitive to your sin? See, you and I are perfectly loved and perfectly safe in the finished work of Jesus. and at the same time, we are also a work in progress as the love of Jesus creates harmony out of the dissonance in our lives. The last three verses of Psalm 25 are so powerful.

Guard me and rescue me. Do not let me be disgraced, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and what is right, watch over me, for I wait for you. God redeem Israel from all its distresses. Now there's so much we could explore here, but I want to just focus on one thing in the last verse. God redeem or deliver Israel from all its distresses. This ending isn't just focused on the individual person of David, but on the community of God's people. This is really such a cool way for Psalm 25 to end. So much of the Psalm has focused on the tuning of the individual, and that's massively important. Opening your life to God, being taught, led, and guided by him, having a reverend,

awe for God, keeping our eyes on him, being sensitive to your sin. And yet, this ending is about not just a person of God, but the people of God. Almost like the tuning of an orchestra, Psalm 25 is trying to get each of us in tune to the way of Jesus so that together we can be a part of his mission, the music of his masterpiece. How is God trying to lead you, guide you, guide you, and teach you as he tunes your heart to his own. In the days of exile, the dissonance of the world can be loud. And yet, God is at work, teaching us, guiding us, leading us in his way, so that the goodness and beauty of his masterpiece can resonate into the world.