Sermon Tone Analysis

Imagine writing a poem about the LORD with each line starting with a letter of the alphabet, beginning with A and working your way to Z.

It might be a helpful exercise.

It might really get you thinking about the LORD Yahweh and His attributes, His character, His work, His love and mercy expressed to you.

Maybe try it this week: Write a 26-line poem or prayer with each line starting with the next letter in the alphabet.

It might inspire your thinking about the LORD.

An acrostic poem/prayer is exactly what we have here in Psalm 25.

David starts at the beginning of the Hebrew alphabet and writes, line-by-line until he gets to the end.

As you can imagine, this psalm isn’t the most cohesive.

It’s a little harder to trace the lines of thought or to make a nice, three-point sermon out of this psalm or any other acrostic.

But it’s not supposed to fit into our rigid categories.

This is poetry.

It’s emotion and feeling and truth arranged in a poetic manner (in this case, according to the Hebrew alphabet).

These are David’s reflections on life with the LORD.

There are some dominant themes, some insights into David’s devotional life.

This is a glimpse into David’s personal life, and hopefully an encouragement to us.

I like to picture David sitting at a table, staring out the window.

I think, maybe, he’s spiritually stuck, trying to eek out a prayer or a song of praise.

Life, we know, isn’t always great for David (he faces a lot of trials and struggles, some close brushes with death.

Not every song he sang or wrote down was a happy, upbeat tune composed in a major key; there are plenty of dark psalms, psalms written when life looked a little bleak, psalms that would absolutely be played in a minor key.

Life doesn’t always go swimmingly for our pal David.

So he starts to write down an acrostic poem; he doesn’t hit all the letters, but the Hebrew alphabet guides him and supplies the framework for the psalm.

There are some obvious themes.

To start, some issues he’s facing:

ENEMIES and SHAME

Enemies are rarely absent from the psalms David writes, perhaps because they’re so numerous, so close to him, so deadly.

David’s enemies have him ensnared; David’s in need of refuge and rescue.

David writes about his enemies quite often.

We know David’s enemies are very real—Saul, the Philistines, the Amalekites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, David’s own son Absalom, and countless others—real people who actually wanted to get David.

To do him physical harm (not just rivals in a football game).

David has actual flesh-and-blood enemies who want him dead.

And there are doubtless those who are ideologically opposed to David.

Enemies who don’t want to harm him physically, but enemies who are against him politically and otherwise.

David’s enemies raise their heads here once again.

They are making it difficult for David and his people to live life peaceably.

David places his trust in the Lord and believes that the Lord Yahweh is the One who prepares a table before [David] in the presence of his enemies.

Notice, though, David’s enemies are still there.

He still faces enemies.

I’d like to say that we face our share of enemies, but we have to admit our enemies are much different than David’s enemies.

I very much doubt anyone within the sound of my voice is facing an enemy the likes of David’s enemies (even the people this reaches via Facebook and YouTube).

At least I pray you don’t have anyone who is actively out to get you, searching for ways to physically harm you, or worse.

I’m guessing our “enemies” (if you can call them that) are those who oppose us ideologically, those who are actively seeking to discredit us, those who would badmouth us and speak about us unkindly behind our backs, those who oppose our beliefs and the teachings of the Bible.

Beyond our earthly foes, we do have an Enemy who prowls about seeking those he might destroy.

Satan and his demons are out to tempt and torment us as much and as often as they can.

Now, a Christian can’t be possessed, but they can be afflicted.

And you better believe Satan is doing everything he can to oppose us and to keep us from sharing the Good News of Jesus.

David and his readers (that’s us) face enemies while walking this earth, just as Jesus did.

But David teaches us to trust the Lord in the midst of our enemies.

And the LORD will protect and guard His people from the plans and purposes of the Enemy.

Protection from the ultimate evils of Satan, and sin, and death is promised to us:

Hebrews 2:14-15 “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

God the Father delivered His Son, Jesus, from His enemies when God raised Him from the dead, as Peter preached in the book of Acts:

Acts 3:13-15 “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.

You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.

You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.

We are witnesses of this.”

Our deliverance is based on Jesus’ deliverance and victorious resurrection:

Romans 4:25 “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

Our enemies will not triumph over us, and we will not be put to shame.

Shame is, however, something David is concerned about.

In verses 2-3, the word shame is found three times and again in verse 20.

By shame, David means he’s afraid of being let down or disappointed.

David has staked his entire life on God, and he’s praying that God will not abandon him in the midst of the darkness he faces at the hands of his enemies.

I think David knows better than to believe that the LORD Yahweh would ever abandon him, but, remember, he is surrounded by enemies.

Ps 25:2 “[don’t ] let my enemies triumph over me.”

Ps 25:19 “See how numerous are my enemies and how fiercely they hate me!”

David’s enemies are a constant threat and a snare (v.

15).

It’s certainly a concern for David (and for those who are reading this psalm).

David faces the potential of shame, but notes from the beginning that he will not be put to shame.

Those who will be shamed are those who are treacherous without cause.

David speaks about shame as something that seems likely considering the enemies he faces, but David—quietly and maturely—says there’s no chance he will ever be put to shame because his trust is in the LORD his God.

David’s trust is not his own ability to outwit, outplay, outlast his enemies.

David’s trust is in the LORD Yahweh, the covenant God, who never lets go.

David faces far deeper threat than any his enemies could pose.

David prays to the LORD Yahweh:

Besides enemies and shame, David faces his own:

SINS and INIQUITIES

In the psalms, up to this point, there has not been a single mention of the noun “sin.”

“Sinners” have come on the scene occasionally, but they’re always other people!

Nobody in the psalms had yet admitted to being a sinner themselves, David included.

Here, David readily and maturely points the finger at himself and, very honestly, mentions his sins and his iniquities.

Sins are offenses of a moral standard.

Iniquity can be translated guilt and has the general sense of wrongdoing and/or wickedness.

The sins of his youth and his rebellious ways, in addition to his iniquity (which is great, he says) are David’s chief problem.

And ours.

David is consciously aware of his guilt before the LORD.

Are we? Do we admit our sinfulness, confess our iniquity?

Are we honest about our rebellion?

That’s a start—an important start.

And so is David’s understanding of the LORD’s response to sin.

Instead of remembering David’s sin and rebellious ways, David pleads with the LORD to remember something else:

This is our only hope.

That the Lord would remember His mercy and love and goodness is the only chance we have to get out from the weight of our sinfulness and what it deserves.

David pleads for the LORD’s forgiveness (v.

11) “For the sake of your name, Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.”

It’s forgiveness we need.

Mercy and pardon from the LORD.

Release from the sentence our sin imposes upon us.

The removal of guilt.

Psalm 103:12 “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”