Chapter Overview
Summary
Psalm 25 (MT) / Psalm 24 (LXX) is an acrostic Davidic prayer combining petition, instruction, and confident-confession. The aleph-bet sequence — each verse beginning with the next Hebrew letter — is preserved in the Hebrew but lost in the Greek. The 'guide me in your truth and teach me' (v. 5) is one of the Psalter's most quoted instruction-petitions.
Notable Variants
Acrostic structure lost in LXX; 25:9 'guides the humble in justice' anticipating Beatitudes; 25:10 'paths of the LORD are faithful love and truth' echoing Exodus 34:6 divine-attributes.
Structural Notes
MT Ps 25 = LXX Ps 24. 22 verses — one per Hebrew letter (acrostic).
Of David. To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
'I lift up my soul to you' tracks MT — the psalm's aleph opening. The acrostic form runs through all 22 verses, lost in Greek translation.
My God, in you I trust. Do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies gloat over me.
Trust-and-shame tracks MT. The 'put to shame' (kataischynthō) vocabulary recurs throughout the Psalter and supplies Rom 5:5 ('hope does not put to shame').
Indeed, none who wait for you will be put to shame; shame will come to those who are treacherous without cause.
'None who wait for you will be put to shame' tracks MT.
Make your ways known to me, O LORD; teach me your paths.
'Make your ways known' tracks MT. The 'way of the LORD' vocabulary — basic to Psalm 1 and 119 — structures Davidic piety.
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
'Guide me in your truth' tracks MT. John 16:13's 'Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth' (hodēgēsei hymas eis pasan tēn alētheian) echoes this LXX-Psalm-25 truth-guidance.
Remember your compassion, O LORD, and your acts of faithful love, for they are from of old.
'Remember your compassion and faithful love from of old' tracks MT. The divine-attributes from Exodus 34:6 form the theological substrate.
Do not remember the sins of my youth or my rebellions. According to your faithful love, remember me — for the sake of your goodness, O LORD.
'Do not remember the sins of my youth' tracks MT. The not-remembering-sins theology anticipates Jer 31:34 ('I will remember their sins no more') and the NT's extension (Heb 8:12, 10:17).
Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
'Good and upright is the LORD — instructs sinners' tracks MT. The good-God-instructing-sinners framework is one of the Hebrew Bible's clearest precursors of Christian grace-theology.
He guides the humble in justice and teaches the humble his way.
'Guides the humble in justice' tracks MT. The Beatitude-precursor: humility as the condition of receiving divine-instruction. Matthew 5:3, 5:5 draws on this.
All the paths of the LORD are faithful love and truth for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
'Paths of the LORD are faithful love and truth' (eleos kai alētheia) tracks MT. John 1:14 ('full of grace and truth,' charitos kai alētheias) echoes the LXX pair.
For the sake of your name, O LORD, pardon my guilt — for it is great.
'For the sake of your name, pardon my guilt' tracks MT. The 'name's sake' pardon-principle underlies 1 John 2:12 ('your sins are forgiven for his name's sake').
Who is the one who fears the LORD? Him will he instruct in the way he should choose.
'Who fears the LORD?' tracks MT. The fear-of-the-LORD-as-instruction-prerequisite is the wisdom-literature theme (Prov 1:7, 9:10).
His soul will rest in prosperity, and his offspring will inherit the land.
'Offspring will inherit the land' tracks MT. The inheritance-promise echoes the Abrahamic covenant.
The counsel of the LORD belongs to those who fear him, and his covenant — he makes it known to them.
'Counsel of the LORD belongs to those who fear him' tracks MT. The secret-counsel theology prefigures John 15:15 ('I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you').
My eyes are always on the LORD, for he will free my feet from the net.
'Eyes always on the LORD' tracks MT. Hebrews 12:2 ('looking to Jesus,' aphorōntes eis ton Iēsoun) is the Christological-extension.
Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
'Lonely and afflicted' tracks MT.
The troubles of my heart have multiplied; bring me out of my distresses.
Multiplied-heart-troubles tracks MT.
Look on my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
Sin-forgiveness petition tracks MT.
Look at my enemies — how many they are! They hate me with violent hatred.
'Violent hatred' enemies tracks MT.
Guard my life and deliver me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
'Take refuge in you' tracks MT.
Let integrity and uprightness protect me, for I wait for you.
'Integrity and uprightness protect me' tracks MT.
Redeem Israel, O God, from all its troubles.
'Redeem Israel' closing tracks MT. The corporate-concern appendix after an individual prayer is distinctive — the Davidic king prays for the nation. The verse is 'outside' the acrostic (the aleph-tav sequence ended at v. 21), functioning as a communal-appended-coda.