The Christian's Closing Argument Text: Psalm 25:16-22
Introduction: The Prayer of a Man in a Tight Spot
The book of Psalms is God's inspired prayer book, and it is given to us so that we might learn how to pray in every circumstance of life. It teaches us how to praise God on the mountaintops and how to cry out to Him from the depths. And here, in the latter portion of Psalm 25, we find a man in a very tight spot indeed. David is cornered. He is lonely, afflicted, distressed, and surrounded by a multitude of enemies who hate him with a violent, cruel hatred. His prayer is not a sterile, abstract theological treatise. It is the raw, honest cry of a man whose troubles have swollen to fill his entire horizon.
We live in an age that is deeply uncomfortable with this kind of prayer. Our therapeutic culture wants a faith that is always upbeat, always positive, always smiling. It wants a God who is a cosmic butler, there to smooth out our difficulties and ensure our path is always easy. But the Bible knows nothing of this flimsy deity. The God of Scripture is a consuming fire, and His saints are men and women who wrestle with Him, who cry out to Him in the darkness, and who cling to Him in the storm. This psalm is a master class in how a righteous man prays when the walls are closing in.
David's prayer is a model for us because it is profoundly God-centered, even when it is intensely personal. He does not simply vent his feelings into the void. He directs his plea to a specific God, the covenant God of Israel, and he bases his appeal on God's character, God's promises, and God's glory. He understands that his personal crisis is not the ultimate issue. The ultimate issue is God's name, God's righteousness, and God's purposes in the world. He weaves together his personal affliction with his personal sin, and then broadens his plea to include the redemption of all of God's people. This is how a mature believer prays. He starts with his own aching heart, but he ends with the kingdom of God.
As we walk through these closing verses, we must see them not simply as David's prayer, but as our prayer, offered up in the name of David's greater Son. For we too are in a tight spot. We are lonely in a hostile culture, afflicted by its pressures, and surrounded by enemies who hate the Christ we serve. We must learn to pray like this, with this kind of raw honesty, this kind of theological depth, and this kind of rugged hope.
The Text
Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am alone and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses. See my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins. See my enemies, for they are many, And they hate me with violent hatred. Keep my soul and deliver me; Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You. Let integrity and uprightness guard me, For I hope in You. Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all his troubles.
(Psalm 25:16-22 LSB)
The Cry of the Cornered Man (vv. 16-17)
David begins his closing argument with a raw plea, grounded in his desperate condition.
"Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am alone and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses." (Psalm 25:16-17)
The first petition is "Turn to me." This implies a sense of abandonment. David feels as though God's face is turned away from him. In the midst of his trouble, the worst part is the feeling that he is going through it alone. To be a Christian in a world that is sprinting away from God is to know this feeling. You are "alone" not because you are a hermit, but because you stand on truths that the world despises. You are "afflicted" because that world does not leave you alone in your loneliness; it presses in, it mocks, it persecutes. This is the normal Christian position in a fallen world.
He then describes his internal state with a powerful metaphor: "The troubles of my heart are enlarged." When you are in the midst of a trial, it can seem to fill the whole world. Your troubles become enormous, occupying your entire field of vision. They swell and expand until you can see nothing else. This is not necessarily a sign of weak faith; it is often simply the nature of affliction. The apostle Paul spoke of a "blizzard of troubles." But what does David do? He does not let his enlarged troubles lead him to despair. Rather, he uses them as the very reason for his plea: "Bring me out of my distresses." He takes the swollen troubles of his heart and lays them before the throne of God. He is saying, "Lord, look how big this is! It is too big for me. Therefore, you must act." Our desperation is a mercy when it drives us to our knees.
The Double-Barreled Problem: Trouble and Sin (v. 18)
David demonstrates profound spiritual insight by linking his external problems with his internal problem.
"See my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins." (Psalm 25:18)
Notice the connection. He asks God to "see" his affliction, and in the same breath, he asks God to "forgive" his sins. A mature believer does not separate his troubles from his sins. This does not mean that every specific affliction is a direct punishment for a specific sin. Job's friends made that mistake, and God rebuked them for it. But it does mean that we live in a world broken by sin, and all our troubles are ultimately traceable back to that foundational rebellion. Furthermore, our own sin complicates our suffering. It can be the direct cause of it, or it can be the sinful way we respond to it. When we are afflicted, we are tempted to murmur, to complain, to grow bitter. That is sin.
David is wise. He knows he has a two-front war to fight. He has enemies without, and he has a sinful heart within. He brings both problems to God. He understands that if God is to deliver him from his troubles, He must also deliver him from his sins. You cannot ask God to fix your circumstances while you insist on clinging to your rebellion. Forgiveness is the foundation of all true deliverance. If God forgives your sins, then even if the external troubles remain for a season, their sting has been removed. A man whose sins are forgiven can endure any affliction, because he knows that nothing can separate him from the love of God.
The Nature of the Opposition (v. 19)
David is not being paranoid. He gives God a straightforward intelligence briefing on the enemy.
"See my enemies, for they are many, And they hate me with violent hatred." (Genesis 25:19)
The world's opposition to the righteous is not a polite disagreement over philosophy. It is a "violent hatred." It is cruel, vicious, and implacable. And it is numerous. "They are many." The Christian who decides to stand for the truth of God's Word in our day will discover this very quickly. You will not be met with reasoned debate; you will be met with a swarm. The hatred is for Christ, and because you belong to Him, it is directed at you.
Why do they hate the righteous? Because righteousness is a rebuke to their sin. Light exposes darkness, and the darkness hates the light. When you refuse to bow to the cultural idols, whether it is the idol of sexual autonomy or the idol of the god-state, your very existence is an affront to their rebellion. This hatred is not something to be surprised by. Jesus told us it would be this way. "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you" (John 15:18). David's prayer acknowledges the reality of this hatred without flinching. He doesn't ask God why it's happening; he simply reports the facts of the case as another reason why God must intervene.
The Confident Plea (vv. 20-21)
Having laid out the problem, David states his plea with confidence, based on his relationship with God.
"Keep my soul and deliver me; Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You. Let integrity and uprightness guard me, For I hope in You." (Psalm 25:20-21)
His first request is for preservation and deliverance. "Keep my soul." But notice the basis for his confidence: "Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You." Shame, in the Bible, is not just an uncomfortable feeling. It is the public disgrace of having your trust proven to be foolish. David is saying, "Lord, I have put all my chips on you. I have taken refuge in you. If you let me fall, it is not just my reputation that is at stake, but Yours. The wicked will say, 'See? His God could not deliver him.'" This is a potent argument. When we entrust ourselves to God, His honor becomes intertwined with our deliverance.
Then he prays a remarkable prayer: "Let integrity and uprightness guard me." He is not claiming to be sinlessly perfect. He just confessed his sins two verses ago. Rather, he is declaring his fundamental allegiance. His hope is in God, and therefore his intention is to walk in God's ways. He is asking that his own character, the character that God is building in him, would be a form of divine protection. A man of integrity is a hard target. His life is not riddled with hypocrisy and secret sins that the enemy can exploit. He walks in the light. This is not self-righteousness; it is a recognition that obedience is the path of wisdom and safety. As Proverbs says, "the righteous are bold as a lion." Integrity is the backbone of that boldness. It is the shield that God provides for those who hope in Him.
From Personal to Corporate (v. 22)
In the final verse, David's prayer explodes outward from his own personal crisis to encompass all of God's people.
"Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all his troubles." (Psalm 25:22)
This is not an afterthought. It is the grand and fitting conclusion. David understands that his own story is part of a much larger story. His personal troubles are a microcosm of the troubles of God's covenant people. He is the king of Israel, and his fate is tied to the fate of the nation. So, he prays for the whole. "Redeem Israel."
For us, who live on this side of the cross, this prayer has been picked up, expanded, and applied to the New Testament Israel, which is the universal Christian church. The church is the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16). Jesus Christ came as the true Israel, and in Him, He brought Israel to its maturity in the church. When we pray this prayer, we are praying for the redemption of the entire body of Christ from all her troubles. We are praying for the final victory of the gospel, the ingathering of the elect from every tribe and tongue, and the consummation of the kingdom.
This final verse teaches us to be catholic in our prayers. Your personal afflictions are real, and you should bring them to God with all the honesty of David. But you must never forget that you are part of a vast army. Your little skirmish is part of a great war. So, when you pray, pray for your brothers and sisters around the world who are also in the fight. Pray for the health and purity and victory of the church. Pray, "Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles." This is a prayer that God will most certainly answer, for He has promised to do so through the blood of His Son, our great Redeemer, Jesus Christ.