Psalm 25 is an imperfect acrostic. Though it has 22 verses, one for each of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, verses 6 and 16 do not begin with the expected Hebrew letter. It is also a roughly constructed chiasm, and you can see the details of it in the table below.
Understanding the chiasm helps us to get hold of the psalm’s main idea. If we pass over the introduction and conclusion (verses 1 and 22), the material of the psalm falls into three categories.
1) In the center of the psalm (verse 11) is a prayer for forgiveness: “For the sake of your name, O Yahweh, pardon my iniquity for it is great.” Other prayers for forgiveness are found in verses 7 and 18, at roughly one third and two thirds of the way through the psalm.
2) Before and in between these prayers for forgiveness are prayers for teaching in the Lord’s ways and promises the Lord gives to those who keep them. See verses 4-5, 8-10 and 12-14.
3) Verses 2-3 and 19-21 are prayers for deliverance from enemies and from shame.
What ties these ideas together is that they all belong to the way of repentance. First, we beg forgiveness. Secondly, we seek amendment of our lives and teaching in the Lord’s ways. Finally, we ask for relief from his chastisement. The psalm itself does not reflect this order in a way that we today find natural; it does not begin with asking forgiveness and proceed from there to amendment of life and relief from chastisement. Instead, it puts the first thing in the middle and then surrounds it with the other material. That’s one of the purposes of a chiasm – to call our attention to the main idea by setting it in the center.
In verse 7 David asks that the Lord not remember the sins of his youth. Youth is a time of foolishness, and therefore of sin that the godly learn to overcome as they mature. It is also a time for sins that may trouble us for the rest of our lives. We receive forgiveness, but the sins have long shadows in their consequences. David’s sin against Bathsheba was an example of this. Though God forgave David, God also told him that the sword would never depart from his house (2 Samuel 12:10).
In the central petition (v.11) he asks pardon for great iniquity. Here, surely, he has in view present as well as past sin.
In the final petition (v.18) he asks that the Lord bear all his sin. Most of the translations translate the word as forgive, but this is not the same word that David used in verse 11. It is the word that we find in Isaiah 53:12 when he says, “And he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many.” It’s also the word Moses used in Exodus 32:32: “Yet now, if you will forgive [bear] their sin – but if not, I pray, blot me out of your book which you have written.” Moses asks the Lord to bear the sin but offers himself as the sin-bearer if the Lord will not do it. All of these passages direct us to the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The second step on the way of repentance is seeking amendment of our lives (verses 4-5). True repentance always involves turning away from sin. Without that desire to turn from sin and walk in the Lord’s ways, confession of sin is hypocrisy. After the prayer in verses 4-5, the next section (8-10) promises the Lord’s help with it: “He will direct sinners in the way.” Verses 12-14 show us the blessedness of walking in the Lord’s way and keeping his covenant: “The secret counsel of Yahweh is with those who fear him.”
The third part of repentance is asking the Lord for relief from chastisement. For David that chastisement took the form of enemies and shame. For us, it may be troubles of other kinds. We must recognize here that the Lord does not always give the relief we desire. Though the Lord forgave David’s sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:13), the child that Bathsheba had conceived died. In this, then, we may ask but must be ready to submit ourselves to the Lord’s will if he declines our request.
Psalm-25-1Listen to a sermon on verses 7,11,18 here.
Listen to a sermon on the rest of the psalm here.