Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Should we fear God?The Torah, prophets, and Wisdom literature relentlessly command fear of YHWH — Deuteronomy 6:13, Ecclesiastes 12:13, Proverbs 9:10, Matthew 10:28, and Hebrews…
John 15:15(v14)No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I…
Psalms 37:23(v12)A man’s steps are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way.
John 14:21-23(v14)One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love…
Psalms 32:8(v12)I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.
John 7:17(vv12, 14)If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself.
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Ephesians 1:9(v14)making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
James 5:11(v10)Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the…
1 Corinthians 2:14(v14)Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are…
Ephesians 1:18(v14)having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his…
Revelation 2:17(v14)He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I…
Psalms 79:9(v11)Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
Psalms 111:10(v12)The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. All those who do his work have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
Romans 8:28(v10)We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.
1 John 2:12(v11)I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
Psalms 37:11(v13)But the humble shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Psalms 40:11(v10)Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
Ecclesiastes 12:13(v12)This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
Hebrews 8:8-12(v10)For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and…
Deuteronomy 4:13(v14)He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets.
Proverbs 1:7(v12)The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:33(v13)But whoever listens to me will dwell securely, and will be at ease, without fear of harm.”
Proverbs 19:23(v13)The fear of Yahweh leads to life, then contentment; he rests and will not be touched by trouble.
Isaiah 50:10(v12)Who among you fears Yahweh and obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in Yahweh’s name,…
Jeremiah 31:31-34(v14)“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according…
Matthew 13:11-12(v14)He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them. For whoever has, to him…
John 8:31-32(v12)Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. You will know the…
John 17:6(v14)I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept…
Psalms 103:17-18(v10)But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children, to those…
Proverbs 15:33(v12)The fear of Yahweh teaches wisdom. Before honor is humility.
Proverbs 16:6(v12)By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for. By the fear of Yahweh men depart from evil.
Isaiah 43:25(v11)I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
John 1:17(v10)For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
John 3:20-21(v12)For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes…
Colossians 3:3(v14)For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Genesis 18:17-19(v14)Yahweh said, “Will I hide from Abraham what I do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the…
Psalms 31:3(v11)For you are my rock and my fortress, therefore for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.
Psalms 37:26(v13)All day long he deals graciously, and lends. His offspring is blessed.
Psalms 119:75-76(v10)Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Please let your loving kindness be for my…
Isaiah 65:23(v13)They will not labor in vain nor give birth for calamity; for they are the offspring of Yahweh’s blessed and their descendants with them.
Zephaniah 3:17(v13)Yahweh, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will…
John 14:17(v14)the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him and doesn’t know him. You know him, for he lives with you, and…
Acts 2:39(v13)For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
Romans 2:13(v10)For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified
Genesis 17:13(v14)He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant will be in your flesh for an…
Psalms 69:36(v13)The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.
Psalms 91:14(v10)“Because he has set his love on me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high, because he has known my name.
Psalms 112:2(v13)His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed.
Proverbs 3:32(v14)For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, but his friendship is with the upright.
Proverbs 29:25(v13)The fear of man proves to be a snare, but whoever puts his trust in Yahweh is kept safe.
Isaiah 35:8(v12)A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called “The Holy Way”. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who…
Jeremiah 32:39(v13)I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good, and the good of their children after them.
Ezekiel 34:25-28(v13)“ ‘I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil animals to cease out of the land. They will dwell securely in the…
Matthew 5:5(v13)Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
Acts 10:22(v12)They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous man and one who fears God, and well spoken of by all the nation of the Jews, was directed…
Romans 5:20-21(v11)The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; that as sin reigned in death, even…
Romans 11:26-27(v14)and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from…
Genesis 5:24(v10)Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.
Genesis 17:7-10(v13)I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to…
Deuteronomy 33:26-29(v13)“There is no one like God, Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens for your help, in his excellency on the skies. The eternal God is your…
Psalms 33:4(v10)For Yahweh’s word is right. All his work is done in faithfulness.
Psalms 109:21(v11)But deal with me, Yahweh the Lord, for your name’s sake, because your loving kindness is good, deliver me;
Psalms 143:11(v11)Revive me, Yahweh, for your name’s sake. In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble.
Proverbs 2:5(v12)then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and find the knowledge of God.
Isaiah 25:1(v10)Yahweh, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete…
Isaiah 43:2(v10)When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire,…
Isaiah 48:9(v11)For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger, and for my praise, I hold it back for you so that I don’t cut you off.
Ezekiel 20:9(v11)But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among which they were, in whose sight I made…
Ezekiel 36:22(v11)“Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “I don’t do this for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which…
Hosea 14:9(v10)Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of Yahweh are right, and the…
Philippians 4:19(v13)My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12(v12)and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be…
1 Peter 3:10(v13)For, “He who would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
Genesis 17:1(v10)When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.
Deuteronomy 33:12(v13)About Benjamin he said, “The beloved of Yahweh will dwell in safety by him. He covers him all day long. He dwells between his shoulders.”
Psalms 18:25-26(v10)With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect. With the pure, you will show…
Psalms 24:4-5(v10)He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a…
Psalms 50:23(v10)Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”
Psalms 85:10(v10)Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Psalms 89:14(v10)Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before your face.
Proverbs 20:7(v13)A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him.
Isaiah 66:10-14(v13)“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her; that you may…
Jeremiah 13:18(v14)Say to the king and to the queen mother, “Humble yourselves. Sit down, for your crowns have come down, even the crown of your glory.
Jeremiah 31:12-14(v13)They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to…
Zephaniah 2:3(v10)Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden…
Zechariah 9:17(v13)For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.
Matthew 11:28-29(v13)“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am…
John 1:14(v10)The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Romans 5:15(v11)But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by…
Hebrews 12:14(v10)Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,
Genesis 24:27(v10)He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his loving kindness and his truth toward my master. As for…
Numbers 14:17-19(v11)Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying, ‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving…
2 Samuel 15:20(v10)Whereas you came but yesterday, should I today make you go up and down with us, since I go where I may? Return, and take back your…
Psalms 28:4-6(v10)Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the operation of their hands.…
Psalms 31:19(v13)Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you,…
Psalms 36:8(v13)They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
Psalms 37:22(v13)For such as are blessed by him shall inherit the land. Those who are cursed by him shall be cut off.
Psalms 37:23-24(v10)A man’s steps are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way. Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with his…
Psalms 37:29(v13)The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever.
Psalms 57:3(v10)He will send from heaven, and save me, he rebukes the one who is pursuing me. God will send out his loving kindness and his truth.
Psalms 63:5(v13)My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (112 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv10–1410. All the ways of Jehovah. This verse is…
10. All the ways of Jehovah. This verse is erroneously interpreted by those who think that the doctrine of the law is here described as true and sweet, and that those who keep it feel it indeed to be so, as if this passage were of the same import as that which was spoken by Jesus Christ,
“My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)
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Such an interpretation is not only strained, but may also be easily disproved by many similar passages in which the expression, The ways of the Lord, is taken in a passive signification, for the paternal manner in which he acts towards those who are his people, in defending and cherishing them; nay, even for his whole conduct in the government and direction of the affairs of this world. The amount of what is said is, that God acts in such a manner towards his people, as that, in all respects, they may find from experience that he is merciful and faithful. David is not here speaking of the character in which God acts towards mankind in general, but what his own children find him to be. We have already seen in Psalm 18:26, that he is stern and severe towards the obstinate and rebellious; and even though he act with kindness towards them, in mercifully exercising forbearance towards them notwithstanding their iniquity, yet we find, that so far from seeking their full enjoyment in him, and trusting to his promises, they have no sense of his goodness. Nay, as soon as any adversity befalls them, they either become passionate and fretful, accuse God of acting cruelly towards them, or else complain that he is deaf to their prayers; and when they enjoy prosperity, they despise and neglect him, and as much as they are able flee from his presence. David, therefore, in speaking of the mercy and faithfulness of God, justly describes them as a treasure peculiar to the godly; as if he had said, We have no reason to be afraid that God will deceive us if we persevere in his covenant. These words, covenant and testimony, are of the same import, unless that the second is added as an explanation of the first. They comprehend the whole doctrine of the law, by which God enters into covenant with his chosen people.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv11–14And for none other respect.
And for none other respect.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv10–14Psa 25:10 All the paths of the LORD [are]…
Psa 25:10 All the paths of the LORD [are] mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Ver. 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth] All the passages and proceedings, both ordinantial and providential, whereby he cometh and communicateth himself to his people, are not only mercy (though that is very sweet), but truth; they come to them in a way of a promise from God, as bound to them by covenant; this is soul-satisfying indeed; this turns all that a man hath to cream, when every mercy is a present sent him from heaven by virtue of a promise.
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Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies] i.e. His law (that singular testimony of his goodness towards them), called a covenant, because he bargaineth with us, as it were, that we should keep it; which because we can never do, he undertaketh to perform his own part and ours too. Lex iubet, gratis iuvat, he worketh all our works in us, and for us; he giveth us to be what he biddeth us to be: this is the everlasting covenant, and the fruits of it are sure mercies, compassions that fail not.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv10–14All the dealings of God with them, yea, even…
All the dealings of God with them, yea, even those that are afflictive and grievous to the flesh, are done in kindness and faithfulness to them, as being very necessary for them, and tending to their great advantage.
His covenant, i.e. the laws or conditions required of them by his covenant; or, as it follows, his testimonies, i.e. his precepts, which are the testimonies or witnesses of God’s will, and of man’s duty.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv10–14All the paths of the Lord are mercy and…
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,.... By which are meant, not the paths in which the Lord would have his people walk; though these are good and gracious, right and true; his commandments are not grievous, his yoke is easy, and burden light; his ways are ways of pleasantness, and his paths, paths of peace: but rather the paths in which the Lord himself walks; not his paths of providence, though these are mercy and truth to his own people; every step he takes is in a way of goodness and kindness to them, and in truth and faithfulness to his promises; but the ways and methods he has taken towards the spiritual and eternal salvation of his people; as in his counsels and purposes, in which there is a large display of his grace and mercy; in the choice of them in Christ, as vessels of mercy, and which is of grace, and not of works; in determining to send his Son to die for them, which springs from the tender mercy of our God; in resolving to call them by his grace, and to adopt them into his family, and at last to glorify them; all which proceed from his merciful lovingkindness; and all these, his counsels of old, are faithfulness and truth, since they can never be frustrated, but are always accomplished; as also in his covenant, which springs from grace, is built upon mercy, and contains the sure mercies of David, and is ever fulfilled; the faithfulness of God is engaged to keep it, and its promises are yea and amen in Christ: and likewise the steps he has taken in Christ, the Mediator of the covenant, who is full of grace and truth; "mercy" appears in the mission of him, and redemption by him; and "truth", in fulfilling the promise of him; and both mercy and truth meet together in him: and so they do in the various blessings of grace which come by him; as particularly justification and pardon of sin, in both which there is a display of grace and mercy; and also of the truth of holiness and justice: and the mercy and truth of God appear in these paths of his,
unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies; by which are designed, not the covenant of works, and the precepts of the law, which are sometimes called the testimonies of God, because they testify what is his will that should be done: but these are broke, and not kept perfectly by any; nor is it any favour or high privilege to be shown this covenant and the duties of it, as is suggested of the covenant here meant, as appears from Psa 25:14; wherefore the covenant of grace must be intended, which is made with Christ, and his people in him; and the "testimonies" are the promises of it, which testify of the grace, mercy, truth, and faithfulness of Gods; and the keeping of these is done by faith: faith lays hold on the covenant, its blessings and promises, and claims an interest in them, as David did, Sa2 23:5; see Isa 56:4; and it keeps or retains its hold; it will not let go its hold of the covenant and its testimonies, but asserts its interest, even when things are at the worst with it; and it holds fast the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end; and to such all the steps the Lord takes appear to be in mercy and truth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv10–14Paths - All the dealings of God with them,…
Paths - All the dealings of God with them, yea even those that are afflictive, are done in kindness and faithfulness to them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv10–14Verse 10. All the paths of the Lord] ארחות…
Verse 10. All the paths of the Lord] ארחות orchoth signifies the tracks or ruts made by the wheels of wagons by often passing over the same ground. Mercy and truth are the paths in which God constantly walks in reference to the children of men; and so frequently does he show them mercy, and so frequently does he fulfil his truth, that his paths are earnestly discerned. How frequent, how deeply indented, and how multiplied are those tracks to every family and individual! Wherever we go, we see that God's mercy and truth have been there by the deep tracks they have left behind them. But he is more abundantly merciful to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies; i.e. those who are conformed, not only to the letter, but to the spirit of his pure religion.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv10, 11, 12, 14Psa 25:10. All the paths of the Lord —…
Psa 25:10. All the paths of the Lord — All the dealings of God with them, yea, even those that are afflictive and grievous to the flesh; are mercy and truth — Are in kindness and faithfulness, as being very necessary for them, and tending to their great advantage; unto such as keep his covenant — The conditions required of them by his covenant; or, as it follows, his testimonies, or precepts, which are the testimonies or witnesses of God’s will, and of man’s duty.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv10–14All the paths of the Lord - All the…
All the paths of the Lord - All the ways that the Lord takes; all that He commands; all that He does. The “paths of the Lord” denote the course in which He himself walks, or His dealings with His creatures. In the previous verse, the psalmist had said that the Lord would teach “His way” to the “meek;” he now says that all His ways are ways of mercy and of truth; or that all will be found to be in the direction of mercy and of truth.
Are mercy and truth - In all His dealings with those who “keep his covenant” He shows Himself to be at the same time merciful and true: compassionate toward their errors; faithful to His own promises.
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To such as keep his covenant - To those who are His friends; to those who are faithful to Him. This expression is often used to denote those who are the true people of God, Gen 17:9-10; Exo 19:5; Deu 29:9; Psa 132:12. The word “covenant” here is equivalent to “command or law;” and the idea is, that if they keep His laws they will find Him to be merciful and true. On the meaning of the word “covenant,” see Act 7:8, note; Heb 8:8, note; Heb 9:16-17, note.
And his testimonies - The word “testimony” in the Scripture, in this connection, refers to that to which God bears witness as “true;” or that which He has declared to be truth. In this sense, the phrase here means those who maintain His truth; or who abide by what He has pronounced to be true. The word is very often used in the Scriptures to denote the truth of God and the commandments of God. In all such cases, there is the underlying idea that the command or the statement referred to is that to which God bears witness as true or right.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv10–14paths--similar sense--His modes of dealing (compare Psa 25:4).
paths--similar sense--His modes of dealing (compare Psa 25:4).
mercy and truth-- (Job 14:1-22), God's grace in promising and faithfulness in performing.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv10–1410. Paths of the Lord—His methods or dispensations.
10. Paths of the Lord—His methods or dispensations.
Mercy and truth—Thus uniting tenderness with firmness, compassion with immutability, answering to “grace and truth:” Joh_1:17. “Grace is the alpha and truth the omega.”—Delitzsch.
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Keep his covenant—There is here an undertone of warning to such as break his covenant.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv10–1410. In all His dealings Jehovah proves His loving…
10. In all His dealings Jehovah proves His loving purpose and His faithfulness to His promises to those who on their part are faithful to Him, keeping the covenant inaugurated by circumcision (Gen_17:2 ff.), and ratified at Sinai (Exo_19:5; Exo_24:7-8); of which the Ark of the Covenant (Num_10:33) was the outward sign, and the Ten Words written on the Tables of the Covenant were the fundamental charter (Deu_9:9). Jehovah’s testimonies are His commandments, as witnessing to His will. See note on Psa_19:7.
mercy and truth] R.V. lovingkindness and truth. So He proclaimed Himself to Moses, as a God ‘plenteous in lovingkindness and truth’ (Exo_34:6).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv10, 12, 13, 14(10) Mercy and truth.—Or, grace and truth; recalling Joh_1:4-17,…
(10) Mercy and truth.—Or, grace and truth; recalling Joh_1:4-17, and showing how the conception of God and His ways was gradually passing over from the domain of the Law to that of the Gospel.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv10–14All the paths of the Lord are mercy and…
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. Mercy and truth will meet together (Psa_85:10) in the case of those who, however they may have sinned, meekly submit themselves to God"s guidance, and thenceforth keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Glorious prospect of God"s dealings.
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"All the paths" etc. The spirit of this psalm is lowly but tranquil faith. Lowly, because of deep sense of sin (vers. 7, 11, 18)and experience of sorrow (vers. 2, 15-17); tranquil, because resting in God (vers. 1, 6, 8, 12). Like a flower rooted in a rock-cleft, that shivers with every breeze, hut which you may tear to pieces but not uproot. This tenth verse contains an answer to the prayer of ver. 4. Starting from his own experience, the psalmist is elevated to this glorious universal prospect of God"s dealings. Consider
(1) the features here selected as characteristic of Gods dealings: "mercy and truth;
(2) the assurance that these are never wanting in any instance: all the paths," etc.
I THE FEATURES CHARACTERISTIC OF GOD"S DEALINGS.
1. "Mercy;" or, "loving-kindness," as the same Hebrew word is often rendered. (In Pro_31:26 and some other places, "kindness. Although it is a useful general rule to employ one English. word constantly to represent one Hebrew or Greek word, yet we could not afford to spare either of these words from our English Bible. Rules must not be pressed with pedantic strictness when they hurt in place of helping. Mercy, or loving-kindness, means goodness, and something more a personal reference, inviting personal trust and thankfulness. You show goodness, large-hearted bounty, if you set up a public fountain where one is needed. But if you are journeying through the desert, and. share your own scanty supply with a traveller ready to die of thirst, that is mercy, loving-kindness. When Israel dwelt in Goshen, God"s goodness was shown in every ripening fruit and bending ear of corn. But perhaps the poor slaves forgot to praise the bountiful hand which fed their oppressors as richly. But when a table was spread for them morning by morning in the desert, and water gushed out of the rock, Israel learned the lesson they were brought there to learn, and praised the Lord, "for he is good; his mercy endureth for ever." So with God"s greatest Gift: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son". (Joh_3:16 1Jn_3:9, 1Jn_3:10) But it is in the personal reception of this universal gift that "whosoever believeth" really learns its value. The sense of personal sin and unworthiness is indispensable to any adequate sense of God"s mercy. (comp. Gen_32:10)
2. Truth is the other great feature of God"s character here set forth. These two are inseparable. (Psa_85:10) Neither apart from the other would furnish a gospel. God"s mercy is the matter and motive of our faith; his truth its warrant and assurance. (1Jn_5:9-11) Among men one would rather trust a hard-hearted but incorruptibly truthful man, than one full of kind feeling but faithless. In God the two are as inseparable as the form and the colour which make to our view one image.
II THESE GLORIOUS ATTRIBUTES OF GOD ARE CONSTANT, because he is unchangeable. They characterize all his dealings without exception, for God is always himself All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth." The psalmist adds, "unto such," etc. This twofold description of God"s written Word corresponds with the two features we have been contemplating of the Divine character. "His covenant," including all his promises, (2Co_1:20) is the expression of his mercy; "his testimonies," the utterance of his truth. Inseparable, like the glories of his nature. They also correspond with the twofold nature of faith personal trust in God, and intelligent belief o! Divine truth. Why this limitation such," etc.? Are not God"s mercy and truth his free gift to all men the charter from which none may bar them? Surely, if they will receive them. Truth is not truth to one who refuses to believe it treats it as a fancy or a lie. A promise is no promise to one who rejects it. (1Jn_5:10) Such limitation lies in the nature of things, not in any arbitrary appointment. All are included who are willing to be included. None are shut out but those who shut themselves out. (1Ti_2:4-6) Does any child of God, sorely tried in mind, body, or estate, find it hard to hold fast this faith? Are you tempted to think some of God"s ways unmerciful that some of his promises fail? Rest assured this is your ignorance and weakness, not God"s harshness or forgetfulness. This was Asaph"s temptation, so pathetically recorded in Psalm 77, so triumphantly overcome. When "the end of the Lord" comes to be known, every one who has "kept his covenant and his testimonies" shall find that "hope maketh not ashamed;" and shall confess, "He hath done all things well."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv10–14Ver. 10. This is a rule without exception. God…
Ver. 10. This is a rule without exception. God is good to those that be good. Mercy and faithfulness shall abound towards those who through mercy are made faithful. Whatever outward appearances may threaten we should settle it steadfastly in our minds that while grace enables us to obey the Lord's will we need not fear that Providence will cause us any real loss. There shall be mercy in every unsavoury morsel, and faithfulness in every bitter drop; let not our hearts be troubled, but let us rest by faith in the immutable covenant of Jehovah, which is ordered in all things and sure. Yet this is not a general truth to be trampled upon by swine, it is a pearl for a child's neck. Gracious souls, by faith resting upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus, keep the covenant of the Lord, and, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, they walk in his testimonies; these will find all things working together for their good, but to the sinner there is no such promise. Keepers of the covenant shall be kept by the covenant; those who follow the Lord's commandments shall find the Lord's mercy following them.
Ver. 10. All the paths of the Lord, (twxra) orchoth signifies the tracks or ruts made by the wheels of wagons by often passing over the same ground. Mercy and truth are the paths in which God constantly walks in reference to the children of men; and so frequently does he show them mercy, and so frequently does he fulfil his truth, that his paths are easily discerned. How frequent, how deeply indented, and how multiplied are those tracks to every family and individual! Wherever we go, we see that God's mercy and truth have been there by the deep tracks they have left behind them. But he is more abundantly merciful to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies; i.e., those who are conformed, not only to the letter, but to the spirit of his pure religion. Adam Clarke.
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Ver. 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. As his nature is love and truth, so all his ways are mercy and truth. They are "mercy" in respect if aiming at out good, and "truth" in respect of fulfilling his promises and faithful carriage to us; therefore, whatsoever befalls thee, though it be clean contrary to thy expectation, interpret it in love. Many actions of men are such as a good interpretation cannot be put upon them, nor a good construction made of them; therefore interpreters restrain those sayings of love, that it believes all, etc.; that is, credibilia, all things believable, otherwise to put all upon charity, will eat out charity. But none of God's ways are such, but love and faith may pick a good meaning out of these. A bono Deo nil nisi bonum, from a good God there comes nothing but what is good; and therefore says Job, "Though he kill me, I will trust in him." Endeavour to spy out some end of his for good at the present, and if none ariseth to thy conjecture, resolve it into faith, and make the best of it. Thomas Goodwin.
Ver. 10. "Unto such as keep, "etc.: he is never out of the road of mercy unto them. Thomas Goodwin.
Ver. 10. God's mercy and faithfulness in providence, and the persons who may derive comfort therefrom.
Psalms 25:11*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv10, 11, 12, 14All the paths of the Lord are mercy and…
Psa_25:10
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
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The dealings of God with His people
This text is intended to represent a universal attribute of God, in all His ways in His government of the world. As such it sets before us an important element of strength to the Christian. To the saved, every event, of whatsoever kind or magnitude it may be, or seem to be, is under the ordering of one sole guiding hand, and is a token of mercy and truth.
I. The ascription of mercy and truth to all the paths of the Lord. Mercy in sparing and delivering His people when they do not deserve it. Truth, in that it is in accordance with promise. His Word will in the end be found faithful to the letter, and whoever takes his stand on that shall never be ashamed. There is a close connection between the Word of God and His paths. There is a great deal implied in the word paths: in all the events of the world we may see God moving, see by faith, that is; for His paths are in the deep waters, obliterated from view in the very act of making; His footsteps are not known, except as revealed to the spirit by the Spirit. Whatever comes to us is a path of God. For the illustration of this idea, see the evens of Davids history. You cannot unravel the web of Providence; but this is certain, all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.
II. The persons in whom this attribute of Gods acts is verified. Unto such as keep His covenant. Hereby is intended such as have come out from their worldly conversation, and are endeavouring to run the race of Gods children as Christians in the world. The lowest may be said in some sense to keep His covenant. The highest do not keep it perfectly. What of the remainder? (G. Jeans, M. A.)
The covenanter
I. The spiritual covenanter. We have heard of the old Covenanters of Scotland. I have a picture of one. But we have to speak of those who at this day keep the covenant of the Lord. The first covenant with our first father Adam shuts up the soul in despair. But there is a new and better covenant. God has shown it to us, and written it on the tablets of our heart. The redeemed man has been the subject of a special call, and is now united to God in Christ Jesus. A true covenanter says, Sooner death than false of faith.
II. The covenanters notable experience. All the paths of the Lord are mercy, etc. So, then, the Lord makes many approaches to covenanting men. I like the word paths, for it seems to say that the Lord has walks of His own. He makes them for Himself, and comes along them quietly, taking us at unawares. And they are all of mercy and truth. That is to say, God has always shown the truth of His Word. To this rule there is no exception. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The interpretive value of obedience
The text seems, at first, to mean that the Lord is merciful and faithful to such as do His will. They shall have His blessing. As they deal with Him, so will He with them. There is a covenant, a spiritual contract, between them: on the one hand, so much obedience and loyalty; on the other, so much truth and mercy. This conception is drawn from the transactions of the market, and in its lowest terms puts religion on the level of mere sale and barter. There is, indeed, an element of truth in it; see Gal_4:7-8. It is certain, however, that they who work just to be rewarded by God will miss it altogether. The true reward is the approval of God, and they alone will gain it who think more of God than of themselves. This is the distinction made in New Testament between faith and works. The difference is seen by comparing Jacobs bargain with St. Francis Xaviers My God, I love Thee, not because I hope for heaven thereby, etc. The Christian saint gives everything and asks nothing. I do not believe, however, that the text teaches that we are to obey God in order that He may be merciful and true to us, The meaning, I take it, is rather that those who obey Him are thereby enabled to understand His ways, and to see, even when the paths of the Lord are blind and steep, that they are, nevertheless, the paths of mercy and truth. They who keep the covenant and the testimonies of God have their eyes opened to know the purpose and motive of Gods acts. The secret of the Lord, the understanding of His strange dealings with us, is open and plain to those who are near to Him, who fear Him with the fear of devout reverence, and obey Him in the keeping of His covenant and testimonies.
I. This is plain enough in our relation to the world of nature. How shall we come into complete harmony of eye and ear and touch with our environment; how shall we see the desirable, clear light of the new morning, and listen fitly to the music of the brooks; how shall we so conduct ourselves that the sun and the rain, the clouds and trees and stars, the sights and sounds of nature, shall give us the satisfaction and benediction that God intends? The way is as evident as it is simple and homely: we must keep the covenant and the testimonies of God as they relate to our daily health of body; we must sleep and eat and work aright; we must answer the fitting, natural demands of our physical being, and keep ourselves alert and strong and well. Nothing else will avail. No amount of beautiful poetry read by lamplight, and no prayers said behind closed doors, can take the place of that imperative obedience to the primitive laws of bodily health by which alone we may hope to look through clear eyes upon this fair and wonderful world.
II. This everlasting fact of the interpretive value of obedience holds true in religion as in everything else. The Bible is never weary of teaching it. It is one of the eternal principles that lie at the heart of spiritual truth. The ten lepers who are cleansed as they obey are representatives of all of us: as we go along the way on which God sends us, strength and health of soul go with us. The pure in heart shall see God. They who are devoted to God, who hold all else subordinate to their service of Him, whose love of Him is the supreme fact in their lives, who live in His conscious presence, see Him and understand Him. It is as simple and natural as friendship. Their obedience opens their eyes. The chosen disciples of Jesus were able to understand Him better than the crowd, because they were keeping, as best they could, though with many blunders, the eternal laws which expressed His own will and way. He was interpreted to them by their obedience. We, too, if we would knew Him, must approach Him by this way. Not by the path of reason, perplexing ourselves among the arguments of theologians; and not by the path of authority, taking what the ecclesiastics tell us and thinking no more about it, like a blind man trying to understand a sunrise by a formula; but by the path of personal obedience is Christ best sought, so that, doing His will, we come into real sympathy with Him, and of our own selves recognise Him and believe in Him and love Him. So it is with certain hard duties to which He summons us, and which are tests of true discipleship. To love our enemies seems at first not only a difficult but an unnatural and unreasonable affection. It appears like an injustice to our friends. We say flatly, we cannot do it. And the other devout exercises which are of a piece with it, such as speaking as well as we honestly can of those who speak ill of us, and turning the other cheek, and going two miles for those who would compel us to go one, and doing good to those who despitefully use us, the more we simply talk or think about these requirements of Jesus, the more impossible they seem. But when we stop discussing and obey! when in this or that immediate instance we do the Masters will, hard as it is, going out of our way to render a kind service to one who has injured us, forbearing to defend our rights, giving up our own strong case and letting our importunate neighbour have his way, actually permitting him to take advantage of us if he will; when we simply do what Jesus tells us to do, and what He Himself was forever doing, then the blessed light shines out upon us, and we understand how this Christian behaviour is not only the best thing in a vague and general way for society, but is the very best for us in particular, and there is a consciousness of the approbation of God, and a new and consequent joy in living, which is far better than any advantage we might have gained by pushing in ahead. We keep the covenant and the testimonies of God, and our obedience interprets them, and it is made plain and sure to us that His paths are truth and mercy. Or, to take another illustration, misfortune of some kind befalls us, grief attends us, the world goes wrong, the light of life is turned of a sudden into black darkness, and a sore burden, too heavy, we think, for us to bear, is set upon our shoulders, and it is desperately hard to see how the paths of the Lord are mercy. They may be truth, they may be right; we may be punished for our sins; but how they can mean mercy, how there can be any fatherly love in them, as the Gospel tells us, passes our understanding. Then, if we betake ourselves to philosophy, there is but cold and scanty comfort. A wise man wrote a book on the consolations of philosophy, and another wise man advises us to be revenged upon fate by becoming philosophers; excellent counsel for the minor perplexities and vexations that beset us. But under a black sky, when things are not only amiss, but dreadfully and tragically amiss, it is a weary and unsatisfying occupation. We cannot by our understanding find out the ways of God. What shall we do, then? Let us submit and obey. Let us take up the new burden and carry it, facing life anew under these strange and hard conditions, and seeking to do our daily duty in it, keeping the covenant and the testimonies of the Lord. That is the way that leads to light. So it is throughout, in every alternative; everything comes right if we obey God. This very world in which we live our daily lives is already heaven to those who do the will of God as it is done in heaven. Here and today, they who keep the commandments receive the blessing of which Jesus assured us; they enter into life. (George Hodges, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v11
Psalms
A PRAYER FOR PARDON AND ITS PLEA
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Psa 25:11.
The context shows us that this is the prayer of a man who had long loved and served God. He says that ‘on God’ he ‘waits all the day,’ that his ‘eyes are ever toward the Lord,’ that he has ‘integrity and uprightness’ which will ‘preserve him, for he waits upon God,’ and yet side by side with this consciousness of devotion and service there lie the profound sense of sin and of the need of pardon. The better a man is, the more clearly he sees, and the more deeply he feels, his own badness. If a shoe is all covered with mud, a splash or two more or less will make no difference, but if it be polished and clean, one speck shows. A black feather on a swan’s breast is conspicuous. And so the less sin a man has the more obvious it is, and the more he has the less he generally knows it. But whilst this consciousness of transgression and cry for pardon are inseparable and permanent accompaniments of a devout life all along its course, they are the roots and beginning of all true godliness. And as a rule, the first step which a man takes to knit himself consciously to God is through the gate of recognised and repeated and confessed sin and imploring the divine mercy.
I. Notice, first, here the cry for pardon.
‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins’ hundreds of thousands of Englishmen have said twice to-day. Most of us, when we pray at all, push in somewhere or other the petition, ‘Forgive us our sins.’ And how many of us understand what we mean when we ask for that? And how many of us feel that we need the thing which we seem to be requesting? Let me dwell for a moment or two upon the Scriptural idea of forgiveness. Of course we may say that when we ask forgiveness from God we are transferring ideas and images drawn from human relations to the divine. Be it so. That does not show that there is not a basis of reality and of truth in the ideas thus transferred. But there are two elements in forgiveness as we know it, both of which it seems to me to be very important that we should carry in our minds in interpreting the Scriptural doctrine. There is the forgiveness known to law and practised by the lawgiver. There is the forgiveness known to love and practised by the friend, or parent, or lover. The one consists in the remission of external penalties. A criminal is forgiven, or, as we say {with an unconscious restriction of the word forgiven to the deeper thing}, pardoned, when, the remainder of his sentence being remitted, he is let out of gaol, and allowed to go about his business without any legal penalties. But there is a forgiveness deeper than that legal pardon. A parent and a child both of them know that parental pardon does not consist in the waiving of punishment. The averted look, the cold voice, the absence of signs of love are far harder to bear than so-called punishment. And the forgiveness, which belongs to love only, comes when the film between the two is swept away, and both the offended and the offender feel that there is no barrier to the free, unchecked flow of love from the heart of the aggrieved to the heart of the aggressor.
We must carry both of these ideas into our thoughts of God’s pardon in order to see the whole fulness of it. And perhaps we may have to add yet another illustration, drawn from another region, and which is enshrined in one of the versions of the Lord’s Prayer, where we read, ‘Forgive us our debts.’ When a debt is forgiven it is cancelled, and the payment of it no longer required. But the two elements that I have pointed out, the remission of the penalty and the uninterrupted flow of God’s love, are inseparably united in the full Scriptural notion of forgiveness.
Scripture recognises as equally real and valid, in our relations to God, the judicial and the fatherly side of the relationship. And it declares as plainly that the wages of sin is death as it declares that God’s love cannot come in its fulness and its sweetness, upon a heart that indulges in unconfessed and unrepented sin. They are poor friends of men who, for the sake of smoothing away the terrible side of the Gospel, minimise or hide the reality of the awful penalties which attach to every transgression and disobedience, because they thereby maim the notion of the divine forgiveness, and lull into a fatal slumber the consciences of many men.
Dear brethren! I have to stand here saying, ‘Knowing, therefore, the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men.’ This is sure and certain, that over and above the forcing back upon itself of the love of God by my sin, that sin by necessary consequence will work out awful results for the doer in the present and in the future. I do not wish to dwell upon that thought, only remember that God is a Judge and God is the Father, and that the divine forgiveness includes both of these elements, the sweeping away of the penal consequences of men’s sin, wholly in the future, and to some extent in the present; and the unchecked flow of the love of God to a man’s heart.
There are awful words in Scripture-which are not to be ruled out of it by any easy-going, optimistic, rose-water system of a mutilated Christianity-there are awful words in Scripture, concerning what you and I must come to if we live and die in our sins, and there would be no message of forgiveness worth the proclaiming to men, if it had nothing to say about the removal of that which a man’s own unsophisticated conscience tells him is certain, the fatal and the damnable effects of his departure from God.
But let us not forget that these two aspects do to a large extent coincide, when we come to remember that the worst of all the penal consequences of sin is that it separates from God, and exposes to ‘the wrath of God,’ a terrible expression by which the Bible means the necessary disapprobation and aversion of the divine nature, being such as it is, from man’s sin.
Experimentalists will sometimes cut off one or other of the triple rays of which sunlight is composed by passing the beam through some medium which intercepts the red, or the violet, or the yellow, as may chance. And my sin makes an atmosphere which cuts off the gentler rays of that divine nature, and lets the fiery ones of retribution come through. It is not that a sinful man, howsoever drenched overhead in the foul pool of his own unrepented iniquity, is shut out from the love of God, which lingers about him and woos him, and lavishes upon him all the gifts of which he is capable, but that he has made himself incapable of receiving the sweetest of these influences, and that so long as he continues thus, his life and his character cannot but be odious and hateful in the pure eyes of perfect love.
But whilst thus there are external consequences which are swept away by forgiveness, and whilst the real hell of hells and death of deaths is the separation from God, and the misery that must necessarily ensue thereupon, there are consequences of man’s sin which forgiveness is not intended to remove, and will not remove, just because God loves us. He loves us too well to take away the issues in the natural sphere, in the social sphere, the issues perhaps in bodily health, reputation, position, and the like, which flow from our transgression. ‘Thou wast a God that forgavest them, and Thou didst inflict retribution for their inventions.’ He does leave much of these outward issues unswept away by His forgiveness, and the great law stands, ‘Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.’ And yet the pardon that you and I need, and which we can all have for the asking, flows to us unchecked and full-the great stream of the love of God, to whom we are reconciled, when we turn to Him in penitent dependence on the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
This consciousness of sin and cry for pardon lie at the foundation of vigorous practical religion. It seems to me that the differences between different types of Christianity, insipid elegance and fiery earnestness, between coldness and fervour, the difference between a sapless and a living ministry and between a formal and a real Christianity, are very largely due to the differences in realising the fact and the gravity of the fact of transgression. The prominence which we give to that in our thoughts will largely determine our notions of ourselves, and of Christ’s work, and to a great extent settle what we think Christianity is for, and what in itself it is. If a man has no deep consciousness of sin he will be satisfied with a very superficial kind of religion. ‘Every man his own redeemer’ will be his motto. And not knowing the necessity for a Saviour, he will not recognise that Christianity is fundamentally and before anything else, a system of redemption. A moral agent? Yes! A large revelation of great truth? Yes! A power to make men’s lives, individually and in the community, nobler and loftier? By all means. But before all these, and all these consequentially on its being a system by which sinful men, else hopeless and condemned, are delivered and set free. So, dear brethren! let me press upon you this,-unless my Christianity gives large prominence to the fact of my own transgression, and is full of a penitent cry for pardon, it lacks the one thing needful, I was going to say-it lacks, at all events, that which will make it a living power blessedly ruling my heart and life.
II. Note in the next place the plea for pardon.
‘For Thy name’s sake.’ The Psalmist does not come with any carefully elaborated plea, grounded upon anything in himself, either on the excuses and palliations of his evil, his corrupt nature, his many temptations, and the like, or on the depth and reality of his repentance. He does not say, ‘Forgive me, for I weep for my evil and loathe myself.’ Nor does he say, ‘Forgive me, for I could not help doing it, or because I was tempted; or because the thing that I have done is a very little thing after all.’ He comes empty-handed, and says, ‘For Thy name’s sake, O Lord!’ That means, first, the great thought that God’s mercy flows from the infinite depths of His own character. He is His own motive. The fountain of His forgiving love wells up of itself, drawn forth by nothing that we do, but propelled from within by the inmost nature of God. As surely as it is the property of light to radiate and of fire to spread, so surely is it His nature and property to have mercy. He forgives, says our text, because He is God, and cannot but do so. Therefore our mightiest plea is to lay hold of His own strength, and to grasp the fact of the unmotived, uncompelled, unpurchased, and therefore unalterable and eternal pardoning love of God.
Scientists tell us that the sun is fed and kept in splendour by the constant impact of bodies from without falling in upon it, and that if that supply were to cease, the furnace of the heavens would go out. But God, who is light in Himself, needs no accession of supplies from without to maintain His light, and no force of motives from without to sway His will. We do not need to seek to bend Him to mercy, for He is mercy in Himself. We do not need to stir His purpose into action, for it has been working from of old and ‘its goings forth are from everlasting.’ He is His own motive, He forgives because of what He is. So let us dig down to that deepest of all rock foundations on which to build our confidence, and be sure that, if I may use such an expression, the necessity of the divine nature compels Him to pardon iniquity, transgression, and sin.
Then there is another thought here, that the past of God is a plea with God for present forgiveness. ‘Thy name’ in Scripture means the whole revelation of the divine character, and thus the Psalmist looks back into the past, and sees there how God has, all through the ages, been plenteous in mercy and ready to forgive all that called upon Him; and he pleads that past as a reason for the present and for the future. Thousands of years have passed since David, if he was the Psalmist, offered this prayer; and you and I can look back to the blessed old story of his forgiveness, so swift, so absolute and free, which followed upon confession so lowly, and can remember that infinitely pathetic and wonderful word which puts the whole history of the resurrection and restoration of a soul into two clauses. ‘David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord: and Nathan said unto David’-finishing the sentence-’And the Lord hath made to pass the iniquity of thy sin.’ What He was He is; what He is He will be. ‘For Thy name’s sake, pardon mine iniquity.’
There is yet another thought that may be suggested. The divine forgiveness is in order that men may know Him better. That is represented in Scripture as being the great motive of the divine actions-’for the glory of Thine own name.’ That may be so put as to be positively atrocious, or so as to be perfectly divine and lovely. It has often been put, by hard and narrow dogmatists, in such a way as to make God simply an Almighty selfishness, but it ought to be put as the Bible puts it, so as to show Him as an Almighty love. For why does He desire that His name should be known by us but for our sakes, that the light of that great Name may come to us, ‘sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death,’ and that, knowing Him for what He is, we may have peace, and rest, and joy, and love, and purity? It is pure benevolence that makes Him act, ‘for the glory of His great name’; sweeping away the clouds that a darkened earth may expand and rejoice, and all the leaves unfold themselves, and every bird sing, in the restored sunshine.
And there is nothing that reveals the inmost hived sweetness and honey of the name of God like the assurance of His pardon. ‘There is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared.’ Oh, dear brethren! unless you know God as the God that has forgiven you, your knowledge of Him is but shallow and incomplete, and you know not the deepest blessings that flow to them who find that this is life eternal to know the only true God as the all-forgiving Father.
Note the connection between the Psalmist’s plea and the New Testament plea. David said, ‘For Thy name’s sake, pardon,’ we say, ‘For Christ’s sake, forgive.’ Are the two diverse? Is the fruit diverse from the bud? Is the complete noonday diverse from the blessed morning twilight? Christ is the Name of God, the Revealer of the divine heart and mind. When Christian men pray ‘For the sake of Christ,’ they are not bringing a motive, which is to move the divine love which else lies passive and inert, because God’s love was the cause of Christ’s work not Christ’s work the cause of God’s love, but they are expressing their own dependence on the Great Mediator and His work, and solemnly offering, as the ground of all their hope, that perfect sacrifice which is the medium by which forgiveness reaches men, and without which it is impossible that the government of the righteous God could exist with pardon. Christ has died; Christ, in dying, has borne the sins of the world; that is, yours and mine. And therefore the pardon of God comes to us through that channel, without, in the slightest degree, trenching on the awfulness of the divine holiness or weakening the sanctities of God’s righteous retributive law. ‘For Christ’s sake hath forgiven us’ is the daylight which the Psalmist saw as morning dawn when he cried, ‘For Thy name’s sake, pardon mine iniquity.’
III. Lastly, note the reason for the earnest cry, ‘For it is great.’
That may be a reason for the pardon; more probably it is a reason for the prayer. The fact is true in regard to us all. There is no need to suppose any special heinous sin in the Psalmist’s mind. I would fain press upon all consciences that listen to me now that these lowly words of confession are true about every one of us, whether we know it or not. For if you consider how much of self-will, how much of indifference, of alienation from, if not of antagonism against, the law of God, go to every trifling transgression, you will think twice before you call it small. And if it be small, a microscopic viper, the length of a cutting from your finger nail, has got the viper’s nature in it, and its poison, and its sting, and it will grow. A very little quantity of mud held in solution in a continuously flowing river will make a tremendous delta at the mouth of it in the course of years. And however small may have been the amount of evil and deflection from God’s law in that flowing river of my past life, what a filthy, foul bank of slime must be piled up down yonder at the mouth!
If the fact be so, then is not that a reason for our all going to the only One who can dredge it away, and get rid of it? ‘Pardon me; for it is great.’ That is to say, ‘There is no one else who can deal with it but Thyself, O Lord! It is too large for me to cart away; it is too great for any inferior hand to deal with. I am so bad that I can come only to Thyself to be made better.’ It is blessed and wise when the consciousness of our deep transgression drives us to the only Hand that can heal, to the only Heart that can forgive.
So, dear friends! in a blessed desperation of otherwise being unable to get rid of this burden which has grown on our backs ounce by ounce for long years, let us go to Him. He and He alone can deal with it. ‘Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,’ and to Thee, Thee only, will I come.
Only remember that, before you ask, God has given. He is ‘like the dew upon the grass, that waiteth not for man.’ Instead of praying for pardon which is already bestowed, do you see to it that you take the pardon which God is praying you to receive. Swallow the bitter pill of acknowledging your own transgression; and then one look at the crucified Christ and one motion of believing desire towards Him; ‘and the Lord hath made to pass the iniquity of thy sin.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v12(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
feareth
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv10, 12, 14All the paths of Yahweh are steadfast love and…
All the paths of Yahweh are steadfast love and faithfulness
The word "paths" is a metaphor for ways. AT: "Yahweh always loves us because of his covenant and he is always trustworthy" (See: Metaphor)
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For your name's sake
The phrase "your name" here refers to Yahweh's reputation. AT: "For your reputation" or "So that people will honor you" (See: Metonymy)
pardon my sin, for it is great
The abstract noun "sin" can be stated as "sinned." AT: "please forgive me, for I have sinned much" (See: Abstract Nouns)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv11–1325:11 The psalmist again asks forgiveness for his many…
25:11 The psalmist again asks forgiveness for his many sins (25:7; 32:1-5). The sins of Israel’s kings demonstrated the weaknesses inherent in David’s dynasty and the reasons for its failure in Old Testament Israel (see Ps 89).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv10–14 10. All the ways of Jehovah. This verse is…
10. All the ways of Jehovah. This verse is erroneously interpreted by those who think that the doctrine of the law is here described as true and sweet, and that those who keep it feel it indeed to be so, as if this passage were of the same import as that which was spoken by Jesus Christ,
“My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)
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Such an interpretation is not only strained, but may also be easily disproved by many similar passages in which the expression, The ways of the Lord, is taken in a passive signification, for the paternal manner in which he acts towards those who are his people, in defending and cherishing them; nay, even for his whole conduct in the government and direction of the affairs of this world. The amount of what is said is, that God acts in such a manner towards his people, as that, in all respects, they may find from experience that he is merciful and faithful. David is not here speaking of the character in which God acts towards mankind in general, but what his own children find him to be. We have already seen in Psalm 18:26, that he is stern and severe towards the obstinate and rebellious; and even though he act with kindness towards them, in mercifully exercising forbearance towards them notwithstanding their iniquity, yet we find, that so far from seeking their full enjoyment in him, and trusting to his promises, they have no sense of his goodness. Nay, as soon as any adversity befalls them, they either become passionate and fretful, accuse God of acting cruelly towards them, or else complain that he is deaf to their prayers; and when they enjoy prosperity, they despise and neglect him, and as much as they are able flee from his presence. David, therefore, in speaking of the mercy and faithfulness of God, justly describes them as a treasure peculiar to the godly; as if he had said, We have no reason to be afraid that God will deceive us if we persevere in his covenant. These words, covenant and testimony, are of the same import, unless that the second is added as an explanation of the first. They comprehend the whole doctrine of the law, by which God enters into covenant with his chosen people.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv11–14 And for none other respect.
And for none other respect.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv10–14 Psa 25:10 All the paths of the LORD [are]…
Psa 25:10 All the paths of the LORD [are] mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Ver. 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth] All the passages and proceedings, both ordinantial and providential, whereby he cometh and communicateth himself to his people, are not only mercy (though that is very sweet), but truth; they come to them in a way of a promise from God, as bound to them by covenant; this is soul-satisfying indeed; this turns all that a man hath to cream, when every mercy is a present sent him from heaven by virtue of a promise.
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Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies] i.e. His law (that singular testimony of his goodness towards them), called a covenant, because he bargaineth with us, as it were, that we should keep it; which because we can never do, he undertaketh to perform his own part and ours too. Lex iubet, gratis iuvat, he worketh all our works in us, and for us; he giveth us to be what he biddeth us to be: this is the everlasting covenant, and the fruits of it are sure mercies, compassions that fail not.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv10–14 All the dealings of God with them, yea, even…
All the dealings of God with them, yea, even those that are afflictive and grievous to the flesh, are done in kindness and faithfulness to them, as being very necessary for them, and tending to their great advantage.
His covenant, i.e. the laws or conditions required of them by his covenant; or, as it follows, his testimonies, i.e. his precepts, which are the testimonies or witnesses of God’s will, and of man’s duty.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–14 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and…
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,.... By which are meant, not the paths in which the Lord would have his people walk; though these are good and gracious, right and true; his commandments are not grievous, his yoke is easy, and burden light; his ways are ways of pleasantness, and his paths, paths of peace: but rather the paths in which the Lord himself walks; not his paths of providence, though these are mercy and truth to his own people; every step he takes is in a way of goodness and kindness to them, and in truth and faithfulness to his promises; but the ways and methods he has taken towards the spiritual and eternal salvation of his people; as in his counsels and purposes, in which there is a large display of his grace and mercy; in the choice of them in Christ, as vessels of mercy, and which is of grace, and not of works; in determining to send his Son to die for them, which springs from the tender mercy of our God; in resolving to call them by his grace, and to adopt them into his family, and at last to glorify them; all which proceed from his merciful lovingkindness; and all these, his counsels of old, are faithfulness and truth, since they can never be frustrated, but are always accomplished; as also in his covenant, which springs from grace, is built upon mercy, and contains the sure mercies of David, and is ever fulfilled; the faithfulness of God is engaged to keep it, and its promises are yea and amen in Christ: and likewise the steps he has taken in Christ, the Mediator of the covenant, who is full of grace and truth; "mercy" appears in the mission of him, and redemption by him; and "truth", in fulfilling the promise of him; and both mercy and truth meet together in him: and so they do in the various blessings of grace which come by him; as particularly justification and pardon of sin, in both which there is a display of grace and mercy; and also of the truth of holiness and justice: and the mercy and truth of God appear in these paths of his,
unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies; by which are designed, not the covenant of works, and the precepts of the law, which are sometimes called the testimonies of God, because they testify what is his will that should be done: but these are broke, and not kept perfectly by any; nor is it any favour or high privilege to be shown this covenant and the duties of it, as is suggested of the covenant here meant, as appears from Psa 25:14; wherefore the covenant of grace must be intended, which is made with Christ, and his people in him; and the "testimonies" are the promises of it, which testify of the grace, mercy, truth, and faithfulness of Gods; and the keeping of these is done by faith: faith lays hold on the covenant, its blessings and promises, and claims an interest in them, as David did, Sa2 23:5; see Isa 56:4; and it keeps or retains its hold; it will not let go its hold of the covenant and its testimonies, but asserts its interest, even when things are at the worst with it; and it holds fast the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end; and to such all the steps the Lord takes appear to be in mercy and truth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv10–14 Paths - All the dealings of God with them,…
Paths - All the dealings of God with them, yea even those that are afflictive, are done in kindness and faithfulness to them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv10–14 Verse 10. All the paths of the Lord] ארחות…
Verse 10. All the paths of the Lord] ארחות orchoth signifies the tracks or ruts made by the wheels of wagons by often passing over the same ground. Mercy and truth are the paths in which God constantly walks in reference to the children of men; and so frequently does he show them mercy, and so frequently does he fulfil his truth, that his paths are earnestly discerned. How frequent, how deeply indented, and how multiplied are those tracks to every family and individual! Wherever we go, we see that God's mercy and truth have been there by the deep tracks they have left behind them. But he is more abundantly merciful to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies; i.e. those who are conformed, not only to the letter, but to the spirit of his pure religion.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 12, 14 Psa 25:10. All the paths of the Lord —…
Psa 25:10. All the paths of the Lord — All the dealings of God with them, yea, even those that are afflictive and grievous to the flesh; are mercy and truth — Are in kindness and faithfulness, as being very necessary for them, and tending to their great advantage; unto such as keep his covenant — The conditions required of them by his covenant; or, as it follows, his testimonies, or precepts, which are the testimonies or witnesses of God’s will, and of man’s duty.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv10–14 All the paths of the Lord - All the…
All the paths of the Lord - All the ways that the Lord takes; all that He commands; all that He does. The “paths of the Lord” denote the course in which He himself walks, or His dealings with His creatures. In the previous verse, the psalmist had said that the Lord would teach “His way” to the “meek;” he now says that all His ways are ways of mercy and of truth; or that all will be found to be in the direction of mercy and of truth.
Are mercy and truth - In all His dealings with those who “keep his covenant” He shows Himself to be at the same time merciful and true: compassionate toward their errors; faithful to His own promises.
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To such as keep his covenant - To those who are His friends; to those who are faithful to Him. This expression is often used to denote those who are the true people of God, Gen 17:9-10; Exo 19:5; Deu 29:9; Psa 132:12. The word “covenant” here is equivalent to “command or law;” and the idea is, that if they keep His laws they will find Him to be merciful and true. On the meaning of the word “covenant,” see Act 7:8, note; Heb 8:8, note; Heb 9:16-17, note.
And his testimonies - The word “testimony” in the Scripture, in this connection, refers to that to which God bears witness as “true;” or that which He has declared to be truth. In this sense, the phrase here means those who maintain His truth; or who abide by what He has pronounced to be true. The word is very often used in the Scriptures to denote the truth of God and the commandments of God. In all such cases, there is the underlying idea that the command or the statement referred to is that to which God bears witness as true or right.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv10–14 paths--similar sense--His modes of dealing (compare Psa 25:4).
paths--similar sense--His modes of dealing (compare Psa 25:4).
mercy and truth-- (Job 14:1-22), God's grace in promising and faithfulness in performing.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv10–14 10. Paths of the Lord—His methods or dispensations.
10. Paths of the Lord—His methods or dispensations.
Mercy and truth—Thus uniting tenderness with firmness, compassion with immutability, answering to “grace and truth:” Joh_1:17. “Grace is the alpha and truth the omega.”—Delitzsch.
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Keep his covenant—There is here an undertone of warning to such as break his covenant.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–14 10. In all His dealings Jehovah proves His loving…
10. In all His dealings Jehovah proves His loving purpose and His faithfulness to His promises to those who on their part are faithful to Him, keeping the covenant inaugurated by circumcision (Gen_17:2 ff.), and ratified at Sinai (Exo_19:5; Exo_24:7-8); of which the Ark of the Covenant (Num_10:33) was the outward sign, and the Ten Words written on the Tables of the Covenant were the fundamental charter (Deu_9:9). Jehovah’s testimonies are His commandments, as witnessing to His will. See note on Psa_19:7.
mercy and truth] R.V. lovingkindness and truth. So He proclaimed Himself to Moses, as a God ‘plenteous in lovingkindness and truth’ (Exo_34:6).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv10, 12, 13, 14 (10) Mercy and truth.—Or, grace and truth; recalling Joh_1:4-17,…
(10) Mercy and truth.—Or, grace and truth; recalling Joh_1:4-17, and showing how the conception of God and His ways was gradually passing over from the domain of the Law to that of the Gospel.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv10–14 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and…
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. Mercy and truth will meet together (Psa_85:10) in the case of those who, however they may have sinned, meekly submit themselves to God"s guidance, and thenceforth keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Glorious prospect of God"s dealings.
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"All the paths" etc. The spirit of this psalm is lowly but tranquil faith. Lowly, because of deep sense of sin (vers. 7, 11, 18)and experience of sorrow (vers. 2, 15-17); tranquil, because resting in God (vers. 1, 6, 8, 12). Like a flower rooted in a rock-cleft, that shivers with every breeze, hut which you may tear to pieces but not uproot. This tenth verse contains an answer to the prayer of ver. 4. Starting from his own experience, the psalmist is elevated to this glorious universal prospect of God"s dealings. Consider
(1) the features here selected as characteristic of Gods dealings: "mercy and truth;
(2) the assurance that these are never wanting in any instance: all the paths," etc.
I THE FEATURES CHARACTERISTIC OF GOD"S DEALINGS.
1. "Mercy;" or, "loving-kindness," as the same Hebrew word is often rendered. (In Pro_31:26 and some other places, "kindness. Although it is a useful general rule to employ one English. word constantly to represent one Hebrew or Greek word, yet we could not afford to spare either of these words from our English Bible. Rules must not be pressed with pedantic strictness when they hurt in place of helping. Mercy, or loving-kindness, means goodness, and something more a personal reference, inviting personal trust and thankfulness. You show goodness, large-hearted bounty, if you set up a public fountain where one is needed. But if you are journeying through the desert, and. share your own scanty supply with a traveller ready to die of thirst, that is mercy, loving-kindness. When Israel dwelt in Goshen, God"s goodness was shown in every ripening fruit and bending ear of corn. But perhaps the poor slaves forgot to praise the bountiful hand which fed their oppressors as richly. But when a table was spread for them morning by morning in the desert, and water gushed out of the rock, Israel learned the lesson they were brought there to learn, and praised the Lord, "for he is good; his mercy endureth for ever." So with God"s greatest Gift: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son". (Joh_3:16 1Jn_3:9, 1Jn_3:10) But it is in the personal reception of this universal gift that "whosoever believeth" really learns its value. The sense of personal sin and unworthiness is indispensable to any adequate sense of God"s mercy. (comp. Gen_32:10)
2. Truth is the other great feature of God"s character here set forth. These two are inseparable. (Psa_85:10) Neither apart from the other would furnish a gospel. God"s mercy is the matter and motive of our faith; his truth its warrant and assurance. (1Jn_5:9-11) Among men one would rather trust a hard-hearted but incorruptibly truthful man, than one full of kind feeling but faithless. In God the two are as inseparable as the form and the colour which make to our view one image.
II THESE GLORIOUS ATTRIBUTES OF GOD ARE CONSTANT, because he is unchangeable. They characterize all his dealings without exception, for God is always himself All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth." The psalmist adds, "unto such," etc. This twofold description of God"s written Word corresponds with the two features we have been contemplating of the Divine character. "His covenant," including all his promises, (2Co_1:20) is the expression of his mercy; "his testimonies," the utterance of his truth. Inseparable, like the glories of his nature. They also correspond with the twofold nature of faith personal trust in God, and intelligent belief o! Divine truth. Why this limitation such," etc.? Are not God"s mercy and truth his free gift to all men the charter from which none may bar them? Surely, if they will receive them. Truth is not truth to one who refuses to believe it treats it as a fancy or a lie. A promise is no promise to one who rejects it. (1Jn_5:10) Such limitation lies in the nature of things, not in any arbitrary appointment. All are included who are willing to be included. None are shut out but those who shut themselves out. (1Ti_2:4-6) Does any child of God, sorely tried in mind, body, or estate, find it hard to hold fast this faith? Are you tempted to think some of God"s ways unmerciful that some of his promises fail? Rest assured this is your ignorance and weakness, not God"s harshness or forgetfulness. This was Asaph"s temptation, so pathetically recorded in Psalm 77, so triumphantly overcome. When "the end of the Lord" comes to be known, every one who has "kept his covenant and his testimonies" shall find that "hope maketh not ashamed;" and shall confess, "He hath done all things well."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv10–14 Ver. 10. This is a rule without exception. God…
Ver. 10. This is a rule without exception. God is good to those that be good. Mercy and faithfulness shall abound towards those who through mercy are made faithful. Whatever outward appearances may threaten we should settle it steadfastly in our minds that while grace enables us to obey the Lord's will we need not fear that Providence will cause us any real loss. There shall be mercy in every unsavoury morsel, and faithfulness in every bitter drop; let not our hearts be troubled, but let us rest by faith in the immutable covenant of Jehovah, which is ordered in all things and sure. Yet this is not a general truth to be trampled upon by swine, it is a pearl for a child's neck. Gracious souls, by faith resting upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus, keep the covenant of the Lord, and, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, they walk in his testimonies; these will find all things working together for their good, but to the sinner there is no such promise. Keepers of the covenant shall be kept by the covenant; those who follow the Lord's commandments shall find the Lord's mercy following them.
Ver. 10. All the paths of the Lord, (twxra) orchoth signifies the tracks or ruts made by the wheels of wagons by often passing over the same ground. Mercy and truth are the paths in which God constantly walks in reference to the children of men; and so frequently does he show them mercy, and so frequently does he fulfil his truth, that his paths are easily discerned. How frequent, how deeply indented, and how multiplied are those tracks to every family and individual! Wherever we go, we see that God's mercy and truth have been there by the deep tracks they have left behind them. But he is more abundantly merciful to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies; i.e., those who are conformed, not only to the letter, but to the spirit of his pure religion. Adam Clarke.
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Ver. 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. As his nature is love and truth, so all his ways are mercy and truth. They are "mercy" in respect if aiming at out good, and "truth" in respect of fulfilling his promises and faithful carriage to us; therefore, whatsoever befalls thee, though it be clean contrary to thy expectation, interpret it in love. Many actions of men are such as a good interpretation cannot be put upon them, nor a good construction made of them; therefore interpreters restrain those sayings of love, that it believes all, etc.; that is, credibilia, all things believable, otherwise to put all upon charity, will eat out charity. But none of God's ways are such, but love and faith may pick a good meaning out of these. A bono Deo nil nisi bonum, from a good God there comes nothing but what is good; and therefore says Job, "Though he kill me, I will trust in him." Endeavour to spy out some end of his for good at the present, and if none ariseth to thy conjecture, resolve it into faith, and make the best of it. Thomas Goodwin.
Ver. 10. "Unto such as keep, "etc.: he is never out of the road of mercy unto them. Thomas Goodwin.
Ver. 10. God's mercy and faithfulness in providence, and the persons who may derive comfort therefrom.
Psalms 25:11*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 12, 14 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and…
Psa_25:10
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
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The dealings of God with His people
This text is intended to represent a universal attribute of God, in all His ways in His government of the world. As such it sets before us an important element of strength to the Christian. To the saved, every event, of whatsoever kind or magnitude it may be, or seem to be, is under the ordering of one sole guiding hand, and is a token of mercy and truth.
I. The ascription of mercy and truth to all the paths of the Lord. Mercy in sparing and delivering His people when they do not deserve it. Truth, in that it is in accordance with promise. His Word will in the end be found faithful to the letter, and whoever takes his stand on that shall never be ashamed. There is a close connection between the Word of God and His paths. There is a great deal implied in the word paths: in all the events of the world we may see God moving, see by faith, that is; for His paths are in the deep waters, obliterated from view in the very act of making; His footsteps are not known, except as revealed to the spirit by the Spirit. Whatever comes to us is a path of God. For the illustration of this idea, see the evens of Davids history. You cannot unravel the web of Providence; but this is certain, all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.
II. The persons in whom this attribute of Gods acts is verified. Unto such as keep His covenant. Hereby is intended such as have come out from their worldly conversation, and are endeavouring to run the race of Gods children as Christians in the world. The lowest may be said in some sense to keep His covenant. The highest do not keep it perfectly. What of the remainder? (G. Jeans, M. A.)
The covenanter
I. The spiritual covenanter. We have heard of the old Covenanters of Scotland. I have a picture of one. But we have to speak of those who at this day keep the covenant of the Lord. The first covenant with our first father Adam shuts up the soul in despair. But there is a new and better covenant. God has shown it to us, and written it on the tablets of our heart. The redeemed man has been the subject of a special call, and is now united to God in Christ Jesus. A true covenanter says, Sooner death than false of faith.
II. The covenanters notable experience. All the paths of the Lord are mercy, etc. So, then, the Lord makes many approaches to covenanting men. I like the word paths, for it seems to say that the Lord has walks of His own. He makes them for Himself, and comes along them quietly, taking us at unawares. And they are all of mercy and truth. That is to say, God has always shown the truth of His Word. To this rule there is no exception. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The interpretive value of obedience
The text seems, at first, to mean that the Lord is merciful and faithful to such as do His will. They shall have His blessing. As they deal with Him, so will He with them. There is a covenant, a spiritual contract, between them: on the one hand, so much obedience and loyalty; on the other, so much truth and mercy. This conception is drawn from the transactions of the market, and in its lowest terms puts religion on the level of mere sale and barter. There is, indeed, an element of truth in it; see Gal_4:7-8. It is certain, however, that they who work just to be rewarded by God will miss it altogether. The true reward is the approval of God, and they alone will gain it who think more of God than of themselves. This is the distinction made in New Testament between faith and works. The difference is seen by comparing Jacobs bargain with St. Francis Xaviers My God, I love Thee, not because I hope for heaven thereby, etc. The Christian saint gives everything and asks nothing. I do not believe, however, that the text teaches that we are to obey God in order that He may be merciful and true to us, The meaning, I take it, is rather that those who obey Him are thereby enabled to understand His ways, and to see, even when the paths of the Lord are blind and steep, that they are, nevertheless, the paths of mercy and truth. They who keep the covenant and the testimonies of God have their eyes opened to know the purpose and motive of Gods acts. The secret of the Lord, the understanding of His strange dealings with us, is open and plain to those who are near to Him, who fear Him with the fear of devout reverence, and obey Him in the keeping of His covenant and testimonies.
I. This is plain enough in our relation to the world of nature. How shall we come into complete harmony of eye and ear and touch with our environment; how shall we see the desirable, clear light of the new morning, and listen fitly to the music of the brooks; how shall we so conduct ourselves that the sun and the rain, the clouds and trees and stars, the sights and sounds of nature, shall give us the satisfaction and benediction that God intends? The way is as evident as it is simple and homely: we must keep the covenant and the testimonies of God as they relate to our daily health of body; we must sleep and eat and work aright; we must answer the fitting, natural demands of our physical being, and keep ourselves alert and strong and well. Nothing else will avail. No amount of beautiful poetry read by lamplight, and no prayers said behind closed doors, can take the place of that imperative obedience to the primitive laws of bodily health by which alone we may hope to look through clear eyes upon this fair and wonderful world.
II. This everlasting fact of the interpretive value of obedience holds true in religion as in everything else. The Bible is never weary of teaching it. It is one of the eternal principles that lie at the heart of spiritual truth. The ten lepers who are cleansed as they obey are representatives of all of us: as we go along the way on which God sends us, strength and health of soul go with us. The pure in heart shall see God. They who are devoted to God, who hold all else subordinate to their service of Him, whose love of Him is the supreme fact in their lives, who live in His conscious presence, see Him and understand Him. It is as simple and natural as friendship. Their obedience opens their eyes. The chosen disciples of Jesus were able to understand Him better than the crowd, because they were keeping, as best they could, though with many blunders, the eternal laws which expressed His own will and way. He was interpreted to them by their obedience. We, too, if we would knew Him, must approach Him by this way. Not by the path of reason, perplexing ourselves among the arguments of theologians; and not by the path of authority, taking what the ecclesiastics tell us and thinking no more about it, like a blind man trying to understand a sunrise by a formula; but by the path of personal obedience is Christ best sought, so that, doing His will, we come into real sympathy with Him, and of our own selves recognise Him and believe in Him and love Him. So it is with certain hard duties to which He summons us, and which are tests of true discipleship. To love our enemies seems at first not only a difficult but an unnatural and unreasonable affection. It appears like an injustice to our friends. We say flatly, we cannot do it. And the other devout exercises which are of a piece with it, such as speaking as well as we honestly can of those who speak ill of us, and turning the other cheek, and going two miles for those who would compel us to go one, and doing good to those who despitefully use us, the more we simply talk or think about these requirements of Jesus, the more impossible they seem. But when we stop discussing and obey! when in this or that immediate instance we do the Masters will, hard as it is, going out of our way to render a kind service to one who has injured us, forbearing to defend our rights, giving up our own strong case and letting our importunate neighbour have his way, actually permitting him to take advantage of us if he will; when we simply do what Jesus tells us to do, and what He Himself was forever doing, then the blessed light shines out upon us, and we understand how this Christian behaviour is not only the best thing in a vague and general way for society, but is the very best for us in particular, and there is a consciousness of the approbation of God, and a new and consequent joy in living, which is far better than any advantage we might have gained by pushing in ahead. We keep the covenant and the testimonies of God, and our obedience interprets them, and it is made plain and sure to us that His paths are truth and mercy. Or, to take another illustration, misfortune of some kind befalls us, grief attends us, the world goes wrong, the light of life is turned of a sudden into black darkness, and a sore burden, too heavy, we think, for us to bear, is set upon our shoulders, and it is desperately hard to see how the paths of the Lord are mercy. They may be truth, they may be right; we may be punished for our sins; but how they can mean mercy, how there can be any fatherly love in them, as the Gospel tells us, passes our understanding. Then, if we betake ourselves to philosophy, there is but cold and scanty comfort. A wise man wrote a book on the consolations of philosophy, and another wise man advises us to be revenged upon fate by becoming philosophers; excellent counsel for the minor perplexities and vexations that beset us. But under a black sky, when things are not only amiss, but dreadfully and tragically amiss, it is a weary and unsatisfying occupation. We cannot by our understanding find out the ways of God. What shall we do, then? Let us submit and obey. Let us take up the new burden and carry it, facing life anew under these strange and hard conditions, and seeking to do our daily duty in it, keeping the covenant and the testimonies of the Lord. That is the way that leads to light. So it is throughout, in every alternative; everything comes right if we obey God. This very world in which we live our daily lives is already heaven to those who do the will of God as it is done in heaven. Here and today, they who keep the commandments receive the blessing of which Jesus assured us; they enter into life. (George Hodges, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v11
Psalms
A PRAYER FOR PARDON AND ITS PLEA
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Psa 25:11.
The context shows us that this is the prayer of a man who had long loved and served God. He says that ‘on God’ he ‘waits all the day,’ that his ‘eyes are ever toward the Lord,’ that he has ‘integrity and uprightness’ which will ‘preserve him, for he waits upon God,’ and yet side by side with this consciousness of devotion and service there lie the profound sense of sin and of the need of pardon. The better a man is, the more clearly he sees, and the more deeply he feels, his own badness. If a shoe is all covered with mud, a splash or two more or less will make no difference, but if it be polished and clean, one speck shows. A black feather on a swan’s breast is conspicuous. And so the less sin a man has the more obvious it is, and the more he has the less he generally knows it. But whilst this consciousness of transgression and cry for pardon are inseparable and permanent accompaniments of a devout life all along its course, they are the roots and beginning of all true godliness. And as a rule, the first step which a man takes to knit himself consciously to God is through the gate of recognised and repeated and confessed sin and imploring the divine mercy.
I. Notice, first, here the cry for pardon.
‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins’ hundreds of thousands of Englishmen have said twice to-day. Most of us, when we pray at all, push in somewhere or other the petition, ‘Forgive us our sins.’ And how many of us understand what we mean when we ask for that? And how many of us feel that we need the thing which we seem to be requesting? Let me dwell for a moment or two upon the Scriptural idea of forgiveness. Of course we may say that when we ask forgiveness from God we are transferring ideas and images drawn from human relations to the divine. Be it so. That does not show that there is not a basis of reality and of truth in the ideas thus transferred. But there are two elements in forgiveness as we know it, both of which it seems to me to be very important that we should carry in our minds in interpreting the Scriptural doctrine. There is the forgiveness known to law and practised by the lawgiver. There is the forgiveness known to love and practised by the friend, or parent, or lover. The one consists in the remission of external penalties. A criminal is forgiven, or, as we say {with an unconscious restriction of the word forgiven to the deeper thing}, pardoned, when, the remainder of his sentence being remitted, he is let out of gaol, and allowed to go about his business without any legal penalties. But there is a forgiveness deeper than that legal pardon. A parent and a child both of them know that parental pardon does not consist in the waiving of punishment. The averted look, the cold voice, the absence of signs of love are far harder to bear than so-called punishment. And the forgiveness, which belongs to love only, comes when the film between the two is swept away, and both the offended and the offender feel that there is no barrier to the free, unchecked flow of love from the heart of the aggrieved to the heart of the aggressor.
We must carry both of these ideas into our thoughts of God’s pardon in order to see the whole fulness of it. And perhaps we may have to add yet another illustration, drawn from another region, and which is enshrined in one of the versions of the Lord’s Prayer, where we read, ‘Forgive us our debts.’ When a debt is forgiven it is cancelled, and the payment of it no longer required. But the two elements that I have pointed out, the remission of the penalty and the uninterrupted flow of God’s love, are inseparably united in the full Scriptural notion of forgiveness.
Scripture recognises as equally real and valid, in our relations to God, the judicial and the fatherly side of the relationship. And it declares as plainly that the wages of sin is death as it declares that God’s love cannot come in its fulness and its sweetness, upon a heart that indulges in unconfessed and unrepented sin. They are poor friends of men who, for the sake of smoothing away the terrible side of the Gospel, minimise or hide the reality of the awful penalties which attach to every transgression and disobedience, because they thereby maim the notion of the divine forgiveness, and lull into a fatal slumber the consciences of many men.
Dear brethren! I have to stand here saying, ‘Knowing, therefore, the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men.’ This is sure and certain, that over and above the forcing back upon itself of the love of God by my sin, that sin by necessary consequence will work out awful results for the doer in the present and in the future. I do not wish to dwell upon that thought, only remember that God is a Judge and God is the Father, and that the divine forgiveness includes both of these elements, the sweeping away of the penal consequences of men’s sin, wholly in the future, and to some extent in the present; and the unchecked flow of the love of God to a man’s heart.
There are awful words in Scripture-which are not to be ruled out of it by any easy-going, optimistic, rose-water system of a mutilated Christianity-there are awful words in Scripture, concerning what you and I must come to if we live and die in our sins, and there would be no message of forgiveness worth the proclaiming to men, if it had nothing to say about the removal of that which a man’s own unsophisticated conscience tells him is certain, the fatal and the damnable effects of his departure from God.
But let us not forget that these two aspects do to a large extent coincide, when we come to remember that the worst of all the penal consequences of sin is that it separates from God, and exposes to ‘the wrath of God,’ a terrible expression by which the Bible means the necessary disapprobation and aversion of the divine nature, being such as it is, from man’s sin.
Experimentalists will sometimes cut off one or other of the triple rays of which sunlight is composed by passing the beam through some medium which intercepts the red, or the violet, or the yellow, as may chance. And my sin makes an atmosphere which cuts off the gentler rays of that divine nature, and lets the fiery ones of retribution come through. It is not that a sinful man, howsoever drenched overhead in the foul pool of his own unrepented iniquity, is shut out from the love of God, which lingers about him and woos him, and lavishes upon him all the gifts of which he is capable, but that he has made himself incapable of receiving the sweetest of these influences, and that so long as he continues thus, his life and his character cannot but be odious and hateful in the pure eyes of perfect love.
But whilst thus there are external consequences which are swept away by forgiveness, and whilst the real hell of hells and death of deaths is the separation from God, and the misery that must necessarily ensue thereupon, there are consequences of man’s sin which forgiveness is not intended to remove, and will not remove, just because God loves us. He loves us too well to take away the issues in the natural sphere, in the social sphere, the issues perhaps in bodily health, reputation, position, and the like, which flow from our transgression. ‘Thou wast a God that forgavest them, and Thou didst inflict retribution for their inventions.’ He does leave much of these outward issues unswept away by His forgiveness, and the great law stands, ‘Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.’ And yet the pardon that you and I need, and which we can all have for the asking, flows to us unchecked and full-the great stream of the love of God, to whom we are reconciled, when we turn to Him in penitent dependence on the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
This consciousness of sin and cry for pardon lie at the foundation of vigorous practical religion. It seems to me that the differences between different types of Christianity, insipid elegance and fiery earnestness, between coldness and fervour, the difference between a sapless and a living ministry and between a formal and a real Christianity, are very largely due to the differences in realising the fact and the gravity of the fact of transgression. The prominence which we give to that in our thoughts will largely determine our notions of ourselves, and of Christ’s work, and to a great extent settle what we think Christianity is for, and what in itself it is. If a man has no deep consciousness of sin he will be satisfied with a very superficial kind of religion. ‘Every man his own redeemer’ will be his motto. And not knowing the necessity for a Saviour, he will not recognise that Christianity is fundamentally and before anything else, a system of redemption. A moral agent? Yes! A large revelation of great truth? Yes! A power to make men’s lives, individually and in the community, nobler and loftier? By all means. But before all these, and all these consequentially on its being a system by which sinful men, else hopeless and condemned, are delivered and set free. So, dear brethren! let me press upon you this,-unless my Christianity gives large prominence to the fact of my own transgression, and is full of a penitent cry for pardon, it lacks the one thing needful, I was going to say-it lacks, at all events, that which will make it a living power blessedly ruling my heart and life.
II. Note in the next place the plea for pardon.
‘For Thy name’s sake.’ The Psalmist does not come with any carefully elaborated plea, grounded upon anything in himself, either on the excuses and palliations of his evil, his corrupt nature, his many temptations, and the like, or on the depth and reality of his repentance. He does not say, ‘Forgive me, for I weep for my evil and loathe myself.’ Nor does he say, ‘Forgive me, for I could not help doing it, or because I was tempted; or because the thing that I have done is a very little thing after all.’ He comes empty-handed, and says, ‘For Thy name’s sake, O Lord!’ That means, first, the great thought that God’s mercy flows from the infinite depths of His own character. He is His own motive. The fountain of His forgiving love wells up of itself, drawn forth by nothing that we do, but propelled from within by the inmost nature of God. As surely as it is the property of light to radiate and of fire to spread, so surely is it His nature and property to have mercy. He forgives, says our text, because He is God, and cannot but do so. Therefore our mightiest plea is to lay hold of His own strength, and to grasp the fact of the unmotived, uncompelled, unpurchased, and therefore unalterable and eternal pardoning love of God.
Scientists tell us that the sun is fed and kept in splendour by the constant impact of bodies from without falling in upon it, and that if that supply were to cease, the furnace of the heavens would go out. But God, who is light in Himself, needs no accession of supplies from without to maintain His light, and no force of motives from without to sway His will. We do not need to seek to bend Him to mercy, for He is mercy in Himself. We do not need to stir His purpose into action, for it has been working from of old and ‘its goings forth are from everlasting.’ He is His own motive, He forgives because of what He is. So let us dig down to that deepest of all rock foundations on which to build our confidence, and be sure that, if I may use such an expression, the necessity of the divine nature compels Him to pardon iniquity, transgression, and sin.
Then there is another thought here, that the past of God is a plea with God for present forgiveness. ‘Thy name’ in Scripture means the whole revelation of the divine character, and thus the Psalmist looks back into the past, and sees there how God has, all through the ages, been plenteous in mercy and ready to forgive all that called upon Him; and he pleads that past as a reason for the present and for the future. Thousands of years have passed since David, if he was the Psalmist, offered this prayer; and you and I can look back to the blessed old story of his forgiveness, so swift, so absolute and free, which followed upon confession so lowly, and can remember that infinitely pathetic and wonderful word which puts the whole history of the resurrection and restoration of a soul into two clauses. ‘David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord: and Nathan said unto David’-finishing the sentence-’And the Lord hath made to pass the iniquity of thy sin.’ What He was He is; what He is He will be. ‘For Thy name’s sake, pardon mine iniquity.’
There is yet another thought that may be suggested. The divine forgiveness is in order that men may know Him better. That is represented in Scripture as being the great motive of the divine actions-’for the glory of Thine own name.’ That may be so put as to be positively atrocious, or so as to be perfectly divine and lovely. It has often been put, by hard and narrow dogmatists, in such a way as to make God simply an Almighty selfishness, but it ought to be put as the Bible puts it, so as to show Him as an Almighty love. For why does He desire that His name should be known by us but for our sakes, that the light of that great Name may come to us, ‘sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death,’ and that, knowing Him for what He is, we may have peace, and rest, and joy, and love, and purity? It is pure benevolence that makes Him act, ‘for the glory of His great name’; sweeping away the clouds that a darkened earth may expand and rejoice, and all the leaves unfold themselves, and every bird sing, in the restored sunshine.
And there is nothing that reveals the inmost hived sweetness and honey of the name of God like the assurance of His pardon. ‘There is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared.’ Oh, dear brethren! unless you know God as the God that has forgiven you, your knowledge of Him is but shallow and incomplete, and you know not the deepest blessings that flow to them who find that this is life eternal to know the only true God as the all-forgiving Father.
Note the connection between the Psalmist’s plea and the New Testament plea. David said, ‘For Thy name’s sake, pardon,’ we say, ‘For Christ’s sake, forgive.’ Are the two diverse? Is the fruit diverse from the bud? Is the complete noonday diverse from the blessed morning twilight? Christ is the Name of God, the Revealer of the divine heart and mind. When Christian men pray ‘For the sake of Christ,’ they are not bringing a motive, which is to move the divine love which else lies passive and inert, because God’s love was the cause of Christ’s work not Christ’s work the cause of God’s love, but they are expressing their own dependence on the Great Mediator and His work, and solemnly offering, as the ground of all their hope, that perfect sacrifice which is the medium by which forgiveness reaches men, and without which it is impossible that the government of the righteous God could exist with pardon. Christ has died; Christ, in dying, has borne the sins of the world; that is, yours and mine. And therefore the pardon of God comes to us through that channel, without, in the slightest degree, trenching on the awfulness of the divine holiness or weakening the sanctities of God’s righteous retributive law. ‘For Christ’s sake hath forgiven us’ is the daylight which the Psalmist saw as morning dawn when he cried, ‘For Thy name’s sake, pardon mine iniquity.’
III. Lastly, note the reason for the earnest cry, ‘For it is great.’
That may be a reason for the pardon; more probably it is a reason for the prayer. The fact is true in regard to us all. There is no need to suppose any special heinous sin in the Psalmist’s mind. I would fain press upon all consciences that listen to me now that these lowly words of confession are true about every one of us, whether we know it or not. For if you consider how much of self-will, how much of indifference, of alienation from, if not of antagonism against, the law of God, go to every trifling transgression, you will think twice before you call it small. And if it be small, a microscopic viper, the length of a cutting from your finger nail, has got the viper’s nature in it, and its poison, and its sting, and it will grow. A very little quantity of mud held in solution in a continuously flowing river will make a tremendous delta at the mouth of it in the course of years. And however small may have been the amount of evil and deflection from God’s law in that flowing river of my past life, what a filthy, foul bank of slime must be piled up down yonder at the mouth!
If the fact be so, then is not that a reason for our all going to the only One who can dredge it away, and get rid of it? ‘Pardon me; for it is great.’ That is to say, ‘There is no one else who can deal with it but Thyself, O Lord! It is too large for me to cart away; it is too great for any inferior hand to deal with. I am so bad that I can come only to Thyself to be made better.’ It is blessed and wise when the consciousness of our deep transgression drives us to the only Hand that can heal, to the only Heart that can forgive.
So, dear friends! in a blessed desperation of otherwise being unable to get rid of this burden which has grown on our backs ounce by ounce for long years, let us go to Him. He and He alone can deal with it. ‘Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,’ and to Thee, Thee only, will I come.
Only remember that, before you ask, God has given. He is ‘like the dew upon the grass, that waiteth not for man.’ Instead of praying for pardon which is already bestowed, do you see to it that you take the pardon which God is praying you to receive. Swallow the bitter pill of acknowledging your own transgression; and then one look at the crucified Christ and one motion of believing desire towards Him; ‘and the Lord hath made to pass the iniquity of thy sin.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v12 (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
feareth
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 12, 14 All the paths of Yahweh are steadfast love and…
All the paths of Yahweh are steadfast love and faithfulness
The word "paths" is a metaphor for ways. AT: "Yahweh always loves us because of his covenant and he is always trustworthy" (See: Metaphor)
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For your name's sake
The phrase "your name" here refers to Yahweh's reputation. AT: "For your reputation" or "So that people will honor you" (See: Metonymy)
pardon my sin, for it is great
The abstract noun "sin" can be stated as "sinned." AT: "please forgive me, for I have sinned much" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
covenant faithfulness
covenant
command
name
forgive
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11–13 25:11 The psalmist again asks forgiveness for his many…
25:11 The psalmist again asks forgiveness for his many sins (25:7; 32:1-5). The sins of Israel’s kings demonstrated the weaknesses inherent in David’s dynasty and the reasons for its failure in Old Testament Israel (see Ps 89).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.