Counseling by Gods word

Ps 25 1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;2 in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.3 No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.4 Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;5 guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.7 Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.11 For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.12 Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.13 He will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land.14 The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.15 My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare.16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.17 The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish.18 Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins.19 See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me!20 Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.21 May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you 22 Redeem Israel, O God, from all their troubles! 

This is a Psalm God our Father is counseling us as we become more like Christ. The Psalmist is expressing his frustration from his view of struggling with sin, overcoming the problems from his past, and experiencing the loneliness as a result of not understanding his purpose and not being able to see his desires accomplished. This is an honest petition of the Psalmist to God to have assurance by understanding who he is in the most secure way by guarding the Psalmist from the destructive power of the curse and being in a society of people who are familiar with his reputation as he grows to become like Christ.  

This Psalm teaches us how to counsel ourselves by giving us principles that draw a line for us that cannot be crossed. When we describe our experience to others this is the Psalm that we use as an outline so that we will not describe a vision of who we are that is an imagination. Its a Psalm in which we grab onto the handles so that we hold onto a secure way of self understanding. This Psalm teaches us about who we are so that we will view all of the circumstances in our lives in the way God views the world. 

Let me just go through these verses." To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;2 in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.3 No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse."The Psalmist is rising through petition in uniting his desires with Gods. The Psalmist draws a line in the sand of being complete in Christ when he declares that he is free from shame. In other words the shame is coming from the outside. Its like being held hostage by an enemy and being abused because we will not admit that we live with shame. 

The Lord has spoken His word as the absolute authority. His word cannot return void. In the Psalms to act alone as your own god is to speak violence to His perfect word. You cannot separate the words of God in relating to God with the horizontal relationships.  To speak in ones own authority is the same thing as assaulting another person. This is why I take a hard line on the blessing and cursing. The Psalmist cannot reconcile how any person who is corrupted can be innocent of assault. The only avenue by which we avoid being cursed is having a Substitute stand in on our behalf. This is why the Psalmist does not draw a line between innocence and culpability but in this idea of the new creation. The Psalmist believes that he has a full identity in Christ as a high priest in a social order. This is why he petitions through these creative words as "let". This is why ive been saying that we learn the proper usage of the word in speaking the correct words from the blessing and the cursing as the foundation of all our application of the word. The fundamental problem is not with sin since the Psalmist acknowledges that he is a great sinner.  11" For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great."I will further explain this holistic view in this Psalm.