Read this first: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+25&version=NIV
This is a psalm of confession and it’s a psalm of trust in God. There’s no shame if you trust in God because you know what you’re doing is for him. That’s the start of it!
Show me your ways and teach me your paths is what resonates with me- it may remind me of a song that I have searched the internet for and cannot find. But still it’s interesting that the psalmist immediately follows that up with – oh forgive me for what I did when I was younger. It’s very honest. All of us have things in our past that haunt us. God allows us to let that stuff go so we can move forward with him. In fact it’s necessary to do so.
We should be looking to God for instruction. There are many things in scripture that are hard for us as a society to follow. We want God’s instruction to match what our culture is saying and often what we think. But that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be the opposite. God’s word is supposed to change me which then changes the culture. Tim Keller says something to the affect of if your God says exactly what you want and thinks what you think- then your God isn’t God. Your God is you. There’s truth to that.
This prayer goes back to the idea that prayer is supposed to change us. It’s not supposed to change God. I often forget this and think my prayers are about what I want changed in the world and my friends lives. The truth is it’s about changing my life and perhaps through that changing others.
Show me your ways oh Lord. Help me be like you.
Marking It Up 