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Lesson 4 of 21 · about 30 min

Trust in the Darkness

How do we hold onto faith when we feel abandoned or guilty?

📖 Psalms 25:1-33:22
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Psalms 25:1-33:22

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1By David. To you, LORD, I lift up my soul.

2My God, I have trusted in you. Don’t let me be shamed. Don’t let my enemies triumph over me.

3Yes, no one who waits for you will be shamed. They will be shamed who deal treacherously without cause.

4Show me your ways, LORD. Teach me your paths.

5Guide me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. I wait for you all day long.

6LORD, remember your tender mercies and your loving kindness, for they are from old times.

7Don’t remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. Remember me according to your loving kindness, for your goodness’ sake, LORD.

8Good and upright is the LORD, therefore he will instruct sinners in the way.

9He will guide the humble in justice. He will teach the humble his way.

10All the paths of the LORD are loving kindness and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

11For your name’s sake, LORD, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

12What man is he who fears the LORD? He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose.

13His soul will dwell at ease. His offspring will inherit the land.

14The friendship of the LORD is with those who fear him. He will show them his covenant.

15My eyes are ever on the LORD, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

16Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted.

17The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses.

18Consider my affliction and my travail. Forgive all my sins.

19Consider my enemies, for they are many. They hate me with cruel hatred.

20Oh keep my soul, and deliver me. Let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in you.

21Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.

22God, redeem Israel out of all his troubles.

1By David. Judge me, LORD, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in the LORD without wavering.

2Examine me, LORD, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind.

3For your loving kindness is before my eyes. I have walked in your truth.

4I have not sat with deceitful men, neither will I go in with hypocrites.

5I hate the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked.

6I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar, LORD,

7that I may make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard and tell of all your wondrous deeds.

8LORD, I love the habitation of your house, the place where your glory dwells.

9Don’t gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men

10in whose hands is wickedness; their right hand is full of bribes.

11But as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me, and be merciful to me.

12My foot stands in an even place. In the congregations I will bless the LORD.

1By David. The LORD is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

2When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.

3Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident.

4One thing I have asked of the LORD, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the LORD’s house all the days of my life, to see the LORD’s beauty, and to inquire in his temple.

5For in the day of trouble, he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. In the secret place of his tabernacle, he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock.

6Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me. I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.

7Hear, LORD, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me.

8When you said, “Seek my face,” my heart said to you, “I will seek your face, LORD.”

9Don’t hide your face from me. Don’t put your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Don’t abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation.

10When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.

11Teach me your way, LORD. Lead me in a straight path, because of my enemies.

12Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty.

13I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

14Wait for the LORD. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the LORD.

1By David. To you, LORD, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me, lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.

2Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.

3Don’t draw me away with the wicked, with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.

4Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the operation of their hands. Bring back on them what they deserve.

5Because they don’t respect the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he will break them down and not build them up.

6Blessed be the LORD, because he has heard the voice of my petitions.

7The LORD is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.

8The LORD is their strength. He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.

9Save your people, and bless your inheritance. Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever.

1A Psalm by David. Ascribe to the LORD, you sons of the mighty, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

2Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to his name. Worship the LORD in holy array.

3The LORD’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even the LORD on many waters.

4The LORD’s voice is powerful. The LORD’s voice is full of majesty.

5The LORD’s voice breaks the cedars. Yes, the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

6He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young, wild ox.

7The LORD’s voice strikes with flashes of lightning.

8The LORD’s voice shakes the wilderness. The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

9The LORD’s voice makes the deer calve, and strips the forests bare. In his temple everything says, “Glory!”

10The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, the LORD sits as King forever.

11The LORD will give strength to his people. The LORD will bless his people with peace.

1A Psalm. A Song for the Dedication of the Temple. By David. I will extol you, LORD, for you have raised me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.

2LORD my God, I cried to you, and you have healed me.

3LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

4Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of his. Give thanks to his holy name.

5For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

6As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”

7You, LORD, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled.

8I cried to you, LORD. I made supplication to the Lord:

9“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?

10Hear, LORD, and have mercy on me. LORD, be my helper.”

11You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,

12to the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent. LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. In you, LORD, I take refuge. Let me never be disappointed. Deliver me in your righteousness.

2Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be to me a strong rock, a house of defense to save me.

3For you are my rock and my fortress, therefore for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.

4Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for you are my stronghold.

5Into your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, LORD, God of truth.

6I hate those who regard lying vanities, but I trust in the LORD.

7I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness, for you have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities.

8You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.

9Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.

10For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.

11Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.

12I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery.

13For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life.

14But I trust in you, LORD. I said, “You are my God.”

15My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.

16Make your face to shine on your servant. Save me in your loving kindness.

17Let me not be disappointed, LORD, for I have called on you. Let the wicked be disappointed. Let them be silent in Sheol.

18Let the lying lips be mute, which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt.

19Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you, before the sons of men!

20In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues.

21Praise be to the LORD, for he has shown me his marvelous loving kindness in a strong city.

22As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.

23Oh love the LORD, all you his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.

24Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the LORD.

1By David. A contemplative psalm. Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

2Blessed is the man to whom the LORD doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

3When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

4For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.

5I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

6For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.

7You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

8I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.

9Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.

10Many sorrows come to the wicked, but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in the LORD.

11Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!

1Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous! Praise is fitting for the upright.

2Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre. Sing praises to him with the harp of ten strings.

3Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully with a shout of joy!

4For the LORD’s word is right. All his work is done in faithfulness.

5He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the LORD.

6By the LORD’s word, the heavens were made: all their army by the breath of his mouth.

7He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses.

8Let all the earth fear the LORD. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

9For he spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood firm.

10The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.

11The counsel of the LORD stands fast forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

12Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.

13The LORD looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.

14From the place of his habitation he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,

15he who fashions all of their hearts; and he considers all of their works.

16There is no king saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

17A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither does he deliver any by his great power.

18Behold, the LORD’s eye is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his loving kindness,

19to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine.

20Our soul has waited for the LORD. He is our help and our shield.

21For our heart rejoices in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.

22Let your loving kindness be on us, LORD, since we have hoped in you.

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