Psalms 25

A Psalm of David.

This is the third of the alphabetical psalms, of which there are eight besides. (Psalms 9:10, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145.) The peculiarity of these psalms is, that they are didactic, made up of separate and independent apothegms, all bearing on the same general subject. The alphabetical arrangement that is, the beginning of each line, verse, or strophe with a letter of the alphabet in serial order is a mechanical help to the memory in a class of composition professedly devoid of logical connexion. But the alphabetical principle is defective in the psalm before us, both in the number and arrangement of the letters, while it shows a trace of progression of thought, and of strophical arrangement. The theme is prayer for the forgiveness of sin and deliverance from enemies, with expressions of faith in God and the safety of the righteous. Its tone is sorrowful, pathetic, and earnest, and its sentiments and language elevated and beautiful. The style well enough suits David, to whom it is ascribed in the title; but if he wrote any part, a later hand must have revised it. The sufferings of the psalmist are the fruit or his sin, which he now bemoans and deprecates; but he speaks not for himself, but in behalf of the people. “The individual features are not concrete enough to refer them to the life of David,” (Moll,) but suit the nation in the time of the exile. Psalms 25:7 cannot apply to David. No record is anywhere given of “sins of his youth” so flagrant as to awaken dread of penal visitation in his old age; but this agrees perfectly with the youth, or early history, of the nation as given by Moses. No condition of David in his old age, or of his kingdom, answers to Psalms 25:17-19, and the most natural construction of Psalms 25:22, makes it a prayer for the return of Israel from captivity, as in Psalms 130:8