4 Make your steps clear to me, O Lord; give me knowledge of your ways. 5 Be my guide and teacher in the true way; for you are the God of my salvation; I am waiting for your word all the day. 6 O Lord, keep in mind your pity and your mercies; for they have been from the earliest times. 7 Do not keep in mind my sins when I was young, or my wrongdoing: let your memory of me be full of mercy, O Lord, because of your righteousness.
8 Good and upright is the Lord: so he will be the teacher of sinners in the way. 9 He will be an upright guide to the poor in spirit: he will make his way clear to them. 10 All the ways of the Lord are mercy and good faith for those who keep his agreement and his witness. 11 Because of your name, O Lord, let me have forgiveness for my sin, which is very great. 12 If a man has the fear of the Lord, the Lord will be his teacher in the way of his pleasure. 13 His soul will be full of good things, and his seed will have the earth for its heritage. 14 The secret of the Lord is with those in whose hearts is the fear of him; he will make his agreement clear to them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 25:4-14
Commentary on Psalm 25:1-7
(Read Psalm 25:1-7)
In worshipping God, we must lift up our souls to him. It is certain that none who, by a believing attendance, wait on God, and, by a believing hope, wait for him, shall be ashamed of it. The most advanced believer both needs and desires to be taught of God. If we sincerely desire to know our duty, with resolution to do it, we may be sure that God will direct us in it. The psalmist is earnest for the pardon of his sins. When God pardons sin, he is said to remember it no more, which denotes full remission. It is God's goodness, and not ours, his mercy, and not our merit, that must be our plea for the pardon of sin, and all the good we need. This plea we must rely upon, feeling our own unworthiness, and satisfied of the riches of God's mercy and grace. How boundless is that mercy which covers for ever the sins and follies of a youth spent without God and without hope! Blessed be the Lord, the blood of the great Sacrifice can wash away every stain.
Commentary on Psalm 25:8-14
(Read Psalm 25:8-14)
We are all sinners; and Christ came into the world to save sinners, to teach sinners, to call sinners to repentance. We value a promise by the character of him that makes it; we therefore depend upon God's promises. All the paths of the Lord, that is, all his promises and all his providences, are mercy and truth. In all God's dealings his people may see his mercy displayed, and his word fulfilled, whatever afflictions they are now exercised with. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth; and so it will appear when they come to their journey's end. Those that are humble, that distrust themselves, and desire to be taught and to follow Divine guidance, these he will guide in judgment, that is, by the rule of the written word, to find rest for their souls in the Saviour. Even when the body is sick, and in pain, the soul may be at ease in God.