Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 25:1

Whole Psalm. This is the first of the seven alphabetical Psalms, the others being the 34th, 37th, 111th, 112th, 119th, and145th. They are specimens of that acrostic mode of writing which seems to have been once so fashionable among the Jews, as is testified by numerous instances of such composition, which are to be met with in their works. Other poetic artifices were likewise adopted. We find many instances of poems being so constructed, that a proper name, or some particular sentiment, would not infrequently be expressed by the initial letters of the verses. See Bartolocci's "Bibliotheca Rabbinica, "vol. 2 pg 260, where examples of such artifices are cited. George Phillips, B.D., in "The Psalms in Hebrew, with a Commentary." 1846

Whole Psalm. This is the first fully alphabetic Psalm...The only lesson which the use of the alphabetic form may teach is this: —that the Holy Spirit was willing to throw his words into all the moulds of human thought and speech; and whatever ingenuity man may exhibit in intellectual efforts, he should consecrate these to his Lord, making him the "Alpha and Omega" of his pursuits. Andrew A. Bonar.

Whole Psalm. Saving grace is a secret that no man knows but the elect, and the elect cannot know it neither without special illumination: —1. Special showing —Shew me thy ways, O Lord, saith David. 2. Barely showing will not serve the turn, but there must be a special teaching —Teach me thy paths, Ps 25:4. 3. Bare teaching will not avail neither, but there must be a special inculcative teaching —Teach me in thy ways, to Ps 25:8. 4. Inculcative teaching will not do the deed neither, but there must be a special directive teaching —Guide in judgment and teach, Ps 25:9. 5. Directive teaching will not be sufficient neither, but there must be a special manuductive teaching —Lead me forth in thy truth, and teach me, Ps 25:5. 6. Manuductive teaching will not be effectual, but there must be also a special, choice teaching, a determining of the very will, an elective teaching —Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose, Ps 25:12. And what secret is this? not common grace, for that is not the secret of the elect, but special and peculiar grace. 1. The special grace of prayer —Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul Ps 25:1. 2. A special grace of faith —My God, I trust in thee, Ps 25:2. 3. A special grace of repentance —Remember not the sins of my youth, etc., Ps 25:7. 4. A special grace of hope —My hope is in thee, Ps 25:21. 5. A special grace of continual living in God's sight, and dependence upon God —Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, Ps 25:15. 6. Which is the root of all God's special and eternal favour and mercy —Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses; for they have been ever of old, Ps 25:6; even God's special mercy to him in particular, Ps 25:11. William Fenner, in "Hidden Manna," 1626.

Whole Psalm. In these four Psalms which immediately follow one another, we may find the soul of David presented in all the several postures of piety —lying, standing, sitting, kneeling. In the twenty-second Psalm, he is lying all along, falling flat on his face, low grovelling on the ground, even almost entering into a degree of despair. Speaking of himself in the history of Christ in the mystery, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" In the twenty-third Psalm, he is standing, and through God's favour, in despite of his foes, trampling and triumphing over all opposition; "The Lord is my shepherd, therefore shall I lack nothing." In the twenty-fourth Psalm he is sitting, like a doctor in his chair, or a professor in his place, reading a lecture of divinity, and describing the character of that man —how he must be accomplished —"who shall ascend into thy holy hill, "and hereafter be partaker of happiness. In this twenty-fifth Psalm, he is kneeling, with hands and voice lifted up to God, and on these two hinges the whole Psalm turneth; the one is a hearty beseeching of God's mercy, the other a humble bemoaning of his own misery. Thomas Fuller.

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. The lifting up of the heart presupposes a former dejection of his soul. The soul of man is pressed down with sin and with the cares of this world, which, as lead doth the net, draweth is so down, that it cannot mount above till God send spiritual prayers, as cork to the net, to exalt it; which arise out of faith, as the flame doth out of the fire, and which must be free of secular cares, and all things pressing down, which showeth unto us that worldlings can no more pray than a mole is able to fly. But Christians are as eagles which mount upward. Seeing then the heart of man by nature is fixed to the earth, and of itself is no more able to rise therefrom than a stone which is fixed to the ground, till God raises it by his power, word, and workmen; it should be our principal petition to the Lord that it would please him to draw us, that we might run after him; that he would exalt and lift up our hearts to heaven, that they may not lie still in the puddle of this earth. Archibald Symson.