Yea, none that wait on thee shall be ashamed they shall be ashamed that deal treacherously without cause.
Verse 2 was a personal prayer for the psalmist himself. Verse 3 widens it to everyone who waits on God, and then names who will carry the shame instead. So what does waiting involve, and why are the treacherous the ones who end up ashamed?
The opening of the psalm moves in steps. One writer traces them in order:
The psalm opens with subjection to the Lord — "To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul"; confidence in the Lord — "in you I trust"; and dependence on the Lord — "wait for you." Those who do this have the assurance that they will never be ashamed.
Waiting is what a person does instead of defending himself. The same writer shows what happens when we act first:
The believer overcomes all his difficulties by implicit trust in the LORD. He does not, as one has said, take "the smallest step for the injury of his enemy." Instead, "he refers his case to Jehovah, and leaves it in His hands, looking for His deliverance." … At times we meet opposition and insults. Then we trust in ourselves and our own efforts to avenge insults and crush opposers. We only find that we expose ourselves to shame and to the triumph of our enemies.
The promise belongs to those who wait. So everything depends on whether our waiting is real:
"They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me." This is the true record of the living God. Everyone whom grace has enabled to exercise a living faith has proved that record true. But then we must remember how much is involved in those three words, "wait for Me." The waiting must be a real thing. It will not do to say we are waiting on God when our eye is really glancing sideways at some human prop, some confidence in a created thing. We must be shut in to God alone. We must come to the end of self, and to the bottom of circumstances. Only then do we fully prove what the life of faith is, and what God's resources are.
The psalmist cannot keep his prayer to himself. He asks for every other waiting soul what he asks for himself:
The true heart has no other refuge… But when it is real, it cannot keep to itself. Grace links it with God's goodness, felt in this very hope, and then with all those who wait on Jehovah. It desires that the wicked may be ashamed. These are transgressors without cause — those who love evil, not those who fall into it… The Christian cannot desire that one enemy come under judgment. But he does desire that evil be set aside, and that the adversaries of good be made ashamed.
The verse calls them "wantonly treacherous" — their betrayal has no provocation behind it.
Right now the picture looks upside down. The faithful suffer, and the treacherous are comfortable. One writer notes the temptation and the coming reversal:
Satan tries hard to make us ashamed of Him. So how important that we should pray He would keep us from shame! Peter gave in to that temptation because he thought he would never be ashamed… But if we truly wait on the Lord, He will preserve us from being ashamed. In fact, those who ought to be ashamed are those "who deal treacherously without cause" (v. 3). The day will come when they will indeed be ashamed. At present they are not honest enough to be ashamed of their evil ways.
Commentators read the psalm at more than one level. Some hear Christ Himself speaking for the faithful part of Israel:
In Psalm 25, then, Christ speaks as the head of the remnant, so to speak. "O my God, I trust in you; let me not be ashamed; let not my enemies triumph over me." We always find Him among enemies who hate God, never joined with them. So, as He suffers, He prays that He may not be shut in with them.
- Lift, trust, wait. Verses 1–2 make three moves: the soul lifts itself to God, trusts Him, and keeps waiting. The promise of verse 3 rests on all three.
- Wait only. Waiting is real only when the sideways glance at a human prop is gone. The soul is shut in to God alone.
- Hands off. The waiting believer takes no step to injure his enemy. He hands the case to God and looks for His deliverance. Hitting back is what exposes us to the shame we feared.
- Not me only. Real trust cannot stay private. It asks for every waiting soul what it asks for itself. And it wants evil set aside, not one enemy destroyed.
- Shame changes address. Those treacherous without cause are not honest enough to be ashamed now. But the day is coming when the shame moves from the waiting to the wicked.
Make me to know thy ways, O Jehovah; teach me thy paths.
The prayer here is not for advice or a plan. It asks for the ways and paths that belong to God Himself. It follows the trust of the opening verses, and it raises two questions the psalm goes on to answer: what are God's "ways," and who learns them?
The prayer asks for something narrower than good guidance. One writer notes both where such ways are found and what God's teaching involves.
This is not a request for even a right way, but for God's own way. We cannot learn His ways and His paths anywhere but in His word. And we cannot trust ourselves to learn this properly without God's own leading. So the psalm goes on, "Lead me in Your truth and teach me" (v. 5). We need more than to be told God's truth. We need God to teach us. His teaching is not only instruction. It also includes His disciplining hand, which holds back wrong thoughts and encourages true ones.
Learning these paths does more than direct our steps. It shapes what we become.
These are not simply ways in which He would have us walk, but ways which are in principle His own ways. We are called and privileged to "be imitators of God, as dear children" (Eph. 5:1, Gk.). Obedience is an essential part of this for us. And the Son of God Himself has "learned" obedience — learned it in suffering, down here among us (Heb. 5:8). What an incentive and encouragement for us!
This prayer comes from a settled heart. It also turns attention away from something that often distracts believers.
He has found rest by committing himself, and his circumstances, to the LORD. Now he wants to see the LORD's ways, to be taught His paths, and to be led in the truth. Believers are often too taken up with the evil ways of men, the crooked paths they walk, and the errors they teach. But God has His own ways to guide how His people live, His paths for their feet to walk, and His truth to teach them.
The answer to this prayer is not a set of directions handed over once. It is God's own attention, and it asks for attention in return.
It is not a way marked out and then left to us. God Himself watches over us and guides us. The way suits Him and is the fruit of His wisdom — a divine way for us. God Himself is what we see here: His goodness, His leading, His interest in us, ready to forgive when needed and to lead with the undistracted eye of love. But this assumes that the heart pays attention to the eye of God. The way is to watch Him and to follow with understanding. So God teaches the soul within what pleases Him, and shapes it after Himself in knowledge.
The psalm does not leave the prayer hanging. The verses after it describe the person who can receive the answer.
Knowing what God does is not the same as knowing His ways. The difference is nearness to Him.
He deals this way with those who are near Him in heart. He gives them the capacity to understand Him and to receive what is in His mind. This is solemn. Israel could only know Him by His outward acts. In heart they were far from Him, so they were unfit to hear His counsels and His ways. It is always so. One Christian is fit for this: he obeys the mind and will God has revealed, he wants to bow to Him, and he responds to the way God has shown Himself. God waits for that, and guides and instructs him. Another is slow to hear, and learns very little.
The prayer does not stop with guidance. Verses 6 and 7 turn to confession.
The thought of God's ways reminds the believer of his own ways, often so contrary to God's. This leads to the confession of sins, and to the believer casting himself upon the tender mercies and loving-kindness of the LORD.
- The request — Not for a right way, but for His way; and it is learned in His word, under His teaching.
- The content — His paths carry His own character, so walking them means becoming an imitator of God.
- The Teacher — He does not mark out a route and leave it. He watches, forgives, and leads. He looks for a heart that pays attention.
- The learner — Meekness, obedience, honesty, fear of the Lord and dependence make a person able to see His way.
- The effect — Seeing God's ways exposes our own, so the prayer for guidance opens into confession and fresh mercy.
Make me to walk in thy truth, and teach me for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
Psalm 25 is a prayer of someone who wants direction and knows he cannot find it on his own. Verse 5 asks for God's own truth, not for general advice about life. The plea rests on two things: who God is to the one praying, and how long he will wait.
The plea builds on verse 4. Whose path it is, and where we learn it, both matter.
"Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths" (v. 4). This asks not even for a right way, but for God's own way. We can learn His ways and His paths nowhere but in His word. And we cannot trust ourselves to learn them correctly without God's own leading. So the psalm adds, "Lead me in Your truth and teach me" (v. 5). Hearing God's truth is not enough; we need God Himself to teach us. And His teaching is not only instruction. It includes His disciplining hand, which restrains misguided thoughts and encourages true ones.
The prayer carries a warning about where our attention goes.
Believers often get taken up with the evil ways of men, the crooked paths they walk, and the errors they teach. But God has His ways to guide the conduct of His people, His paths for their feet to tread, and His truth to instruct them. Our great concern should be to see His ways, to be taught His paths, and, not only to know the truth, but to be led in the truth.
Why ask to be led when you have already asked to be taught? One writer answers by tracing a rising scale of God's help that runs well past instruction.
Sheep are passive creatures and can do little for themselves. Believers can do just as little in the work of their salvation. In themselves they know the way of salvation no better than sheep do. They cannot walk in it unless they are taught and led. "Teach me, O Lord" (Ps. 119:33): "Lead me in Your truth" (Ps. 25:5). They are like a blind man holding out his hand to his guide. Leading may suppose some willingness; but we must be drawn: "No one can come to me unless the Father… draws him" (John 6:44). There is a word of special grace that goes beyond teaching, leading and drawing. That word is leaning: "Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?" (Song 8:5). And there is one word more: bearing. When the good Shepherd has found the lost sheep, "he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing" (Luke 15:5).
The prayer gives its own grounds: God is the God of my salvation. One writer shows why that title is the argument. He quotes an older translation, with "faithfulness" where the ESV has "truth."
And this God, whose ways we are called to know, is the "God of salvation." This is where worship springs from, as the Lord showed at the well in Sychar (John 4:22). And the spirit of worship must always be the spirit of obedience too. The salvation itself is, of course, a salvation from sin, or it would be no salvation at all. How suitable then is the argument, "Direct me in Your faithfulness, and teach me; for You are the God of my salvation"! He must be faithful to this purpose of His heart. So the glad soul may "wait for Him all the day long" without growing tired. That is how it gathers strength, for waiting on Him is itself rest. His patience is the patience of Almighty power, and it can never run short.
The closing words are harder than they look. One writer sets them against the soul still trying to work its own way back to God.
A soul may be convinced of sin and try to recover the place it has lost before God. This soul believes there is some means other than pure pardon. It has no true relationship with God yet. It can no longer seek the world; it observes the Lord's day; it attends meetings, and rests on such things. But then the soul is not convinced that God is love, any more than it is in God's presence with a true knowledge of itself. Not being humbled, it chooses its own way to reach God, and cannot say, "I wait on you," as in verses 5 and 21. It is when we are convinced that there is no question of getting to God, but that we are in His presence and lost, that we can say, "For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great."
The prayers of this psalm form a chain, and those who pray it now do so from firmer ground.
They will turn to Him and inquire for His ways, His paths and His truth. Here are their prayers: "Show me — lead me — teach me — remember Your mercies — remember not my sins — remember me." And He will answer; yes, He will remember their sins and iniquities no more and remember them in mercy. Our prayer as Christian believers is also for guidance, but we know that our sins are put away, that He has saved us.
- His way — not a good path, but God's own path, learned from His word and never left to our own reading of it.
- His leading — God does more than inform. He guides, draws, lets us lean, and carries us, because we can no more find the way than sheep can.
- His truth — the pull is away from watching the crooked paths and errors of men, and toward being led in what God has said.
- His salvation — "God of my salvation" is why the prayer expects an answer. He must be faithful to the purpose of His own heart.
- His time — only the soul that has stopped trying to reach God can say "I wait" — and waiting on Him is itself rest.