Commentary on Psalm 25:1-10

For many contemporary Christians, the first Sunday of Advent will continue thoughts of Thanksgiving celebrations and excitement looking forward to a happy Christmas. The season of Advent, however, is a time of preparation for the birth of Christ in Christmas. It is a time of telling the truth about our world and our needs as part of the context in which we welcome the Christ Child. It is thus fitting that the texts for this Sunday include a prayer of need, yearning, and hope such as Psalm 25:1–10. 

Literary form

Psalm 25 is one of the alphabetic acrostic poems in the Psalter: Psalms 9–10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, and 145. Each verse of the psalm begins with the successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is a means of poetic composition ancient Israel’s scribes enjoyed and an aid for the audience in remembering the poem. The poetic form also suggests that the psalm communicates a holistic view of its subject, from A to Z or alef to tav.  

Psalm 25 provides a model for prayer at the beginning of Advent. Verses 1–3 speak of need and petition with address of YHWH in the imperative mode, as is characteristic of lament psalms. The opening verses consistently confess and seek divine forgiveness. Verses 4–10 carry more of a teaching tone in reflection on faith akin to the Wisdom Literature. These verses instruct the community on the consistent fidelity of YHWH. That instruction continues in verses 11–16. The conclusion of the psalm returns to petition.  

Themes for proclamation

The prayer articulates a variety of vocabulary and themes that are worthy of reflection for the preacher.  

• The speaker is in dire straits but also professes confidence in the covenant God who delivers. The speaker confidently “waits” (verses 3 and 5) on the God who hears and comes to deliver. This theological theme of the identity of YHWH as the God who makes and keeps covenant is a major trajectory of faith in the Older Testament.  
• The basis for this powerful hope is the hesed or “persistent love” of YHWH (verses 6, 7, 10). In verse 6 the term is paired with “mercy” and in verse 10 with “faithfulness.” This “persistent love” along with the terms for “mercy” and “faithfulness” form a stunning and profound vocabulary at the center of God’s deep commitment to ancient Israel. The community often lived under the cloud of trouble, but these profound covenantal promises made hope and abundant life possible for them. This text presents this vocabulary in the prayer of an individual in the ancient community.  
• The speaker in Psalm 25 is in turn committed to YHWH and YHWH’s covenant with the people of ancient Israel, including the covenant commandments. Verse 10 indicates that the divine good is for those who keep covenant. The speaker looks forward to the blessings of life encountered in covenant faithfulness. The speaker is a covenant keeper.  
• The speaker in Psalm 25 confesses faith in YHWH, but also confesses sin in verses 7–8.  Confession of both faith and sin forms something of a balance in the psalm. It is at least clear that awareness of sin does not eliminate the hope of commitment to YHWH. The confession in this psalm is one of honesty and integrity. The lectionary text consists of verses 1–10, but it is worth noting that verses 11 and 18 also confess sin and guilt. God’s persistent fidelity provides the context for confession of sin and guilt.  
• The psalm articulates a complicated relationship with YHWH, including faithfulness, need, and transgression in the relationship. Human faithfulness and need as well as human failure become motivations for YHWH to intervene to bring hope. Wholeness of life and hope are part of YHWH’s relationship with people of faith. YHWH is the one who in grace restores relationships in the face of sin. The divine-human relationship is never one-dimensional.  
• The divine-human relationship in the Older Testament is often expressed in terms of covenant, a relationship initiated by God and participated in by the community. A hallmark of the covenant relationship is candor in the context of this complicated and life-determining relationship. This psalm is a petition to the covenant God, and the relationship with God is both central to the petition and a motivation for hopeful divine intervention.   
• God’s faithfulness transcends the human realities of faith and transgression. The psalm clearly voices the human condition, but that condition in no way compromises God’s faithfulness or the reality of the character of the covenant God to deliver and guide.    

Theological summary

Psalm 25 is a paradigm of prayer as part of the covenant faith in YHWH. The text clearly articulates human need, hope, and candid relationship with the covenant God who hears petitions in times of trouble. It also proclaims divine mercy toward believers. God is the one who hears and comes to deliver, the basis of the covenant relationship in the theology of the Old Testament. Divine fidelity and human need mark covenant faith and create the need for a candid petition such as Psalm 25. 

YHWH’s fidelity is an overflowing mercy. The psalm ends with a final petition for all of Israel amid its troubles. The speaker’s faith in its particularity and the need the psalm expresses lead to the community and “all its troubles.” The individual psalm and petition stand for the whole community and its need. God’s covenant faithfulness embraces the need and hope of persons of faith and communities of faith. 

Final reflection

Advent is a time for telling the truth rather than embracing the false hope of all the militant consumerism and the tinsel covering our days in this season. Psalm 25 embraces, in this prayer of yearning, the human need in the depths of our lives. The psalm also professes profound and life-changing faith in the persistent fidelity of God and opts for hope. The New Testament passages for the First Sunday in Advent characteristically trumpet apocalyptic themes and can bring puzzlement and concern to readers/hearers. Psalm 25 prays in language that confesses the darkness in our world and our lives, but the ongoing faithfulness of YHWH makes hope possible for the already and the not-yet.