Letters to the Family of God
by Joe Franzone | August 31, 2023 | Pastor's Blog
August 31, 2023
Dear friends.
Psalm 25 is a profoundly comforting Psalm. It reminds us that God can look back at our sin-stained past and forget what He has seen. Better still, although God empties His mind of our sins, three things are permanent about His mind on us. His passionate love (Vs.7), His fervently committed love (Vs.7b), and His goodness (Vs.7c). Indeed, God never looks at His children without seeing us through these three widows. How good is that?
But there is more. For the sake of God's (excellent) name (Vs.11), He pardons our sins, great as those sins are. Which, in turn, lets the Psalmist know God is to be trusted. Then, with that knowledge of God, the Psalmist asked God to lead him in (or show me) Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my Salvation.
Follow the logic of the Psalmist. God is Holy. He never diminishes any part of His holiness. But holiness is not always doing what is right morally but forgiving what is wrong. The Psalmist's position, as we will inevitably encounter ourselves, is one of peril. Be it rebellion, miscalculation, or a trespass, whatever it is, they see it for what it is and take it to God as any Christian would (Vs11,18). Then the Psalmist waits. The whole posture of the Psalm is one of waiting on God. But while he waits, he continues his petition and takes his entire actual self to God for aid.
His fear of shame (Vs.3), his well-being (Vs.13), his emotional health (loneliness and distress) (Vs.16,18), his enemies (Vs.19), the guarding of his life (Vs.20), and all troubles not only for himself but for God’s people (Vs.22), there is nothing to hold back from God.
Let the self-centered, self-justifying soul be warned but also helped. There is one far greater than us. He commands the universe. Therefore, when all our accounts are exhausted, as the song says,
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half-done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father's full giving has only begun.
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men,
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.
He Giveth More Grace When the Burdens Grow Greater
We must never consider the help of our God as a supplement to whatever is needed after we have done our best. We cannot rightly submit to how God has revealed Himself and worship Him for such things unless there has been a bottoming out of all human strength. When we know we are needy, and without Him, we cannot do a thing, then we are safe.
May God bless you in many meaningful ways this last week of summer 2023.
Pastor Joe