Psalm 25, Addendum as Applied to Youthful Lusts (1)

Recently, in the course of my regular Bible reading, I read Psalm 25.  As I am sure you know, if you have a program that takes you regularly through the Bible, you never get tired as you read the same scriptures.  Because of our particular life situation at the time or better, because of the Holy Spirit’s ministry at the time, we may see things we missed before or be encouraged to apply the passage in a new way.  We never tire of God’s word!

So, probably because of a recent conversation I had, and quite likely because of my own need to properly deal with the command to “flee youthful lusts,” I saw in Ps. 25 several encouragements related to the constant temptation.  And I mean constant.  You don’t have to be on some porn website.  Many Christians in the US frequent conservative news pages like Fox News or the Drudge Report.  I can tell you: they regularly have headlines highlighting some hot actress in a skimpy dress or some “news” story of rape or licentious activity of some sort.  It’s a business decision because, as we all know, web pages make their money off hits on their headlines or links to other pages.  But deeper than that, as always, it’s Satanic.  It’s his world at this time and his system is in operation.  We need to have renewed minds because these kinds of things come at us without warning.  Therefore, Ps. 25.  And my apologies as this will take two posts!

·       25:1-3: If I think that going after the “lure of Satan” will bring me some pleasure I need to understand that going after the “lure of Satan” will ALWAYS disappoint me.  That is the essence of being “ashamed.”  It will not work.

·       25:4-5: Why is this?  Because of who the LORD is!  He is the “God of my salvation.”  He has saved me from the guilt of sin.  He will save me from the chains of sin.  Therefore, my prayer must be “show me … teach me … lead me!”  Since those who wait on the LORD will never be ashamed, waiting on the LORD must be my lifestyle, not just my “seven minutes with God” each day.

·       25:6-7: We seldom think of David’s sins as a youth, when he was the shepherd boy who killed a bear and a lion and a giant and was always successful with God’s help.  We think of Uriah the Hittite and the sin of his later years with its terrible consequences (oh, how disappointed, how ashamed was David after that brief ‘pleasure’).  David knew there were issues from his youth that worked against him.  The answer to “youthful lusts” is not simply to get older.  We must be renewed and transformed so that they do not continue to plague us as adults.

·       25:8-11: These sins were real and great.  They needed to be pardoned, a term first used in Ex. 34:9 when Moses prayed that God would forgive those stiff-necked people.  With them, with David, and with me, there were and will be consequences.  And when God teaches, those who learn are those who are humble, teachable, accepting His word without hesitation or argument.