Creative growth

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! 

The Psalmist opens the Psalm with petitions that use creative words.. Do not let, show me, teach me guide me, remember , and remember not. He is speaking the petitions in the most dependent expressions. This way of speaking is equal to walking in obedience. He uses the same kind of logic when he says Ps 66  17 I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue.18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;19 but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer." Here he is saying that a covenant child s first response to trouble or blessing is to speak to God. He is remembering his former communication as not cherishing sin. The wicked man does not seek God nor does he communicate with God. Here the Psalmist is distinguishing himself from the wicked man who through his silence shows that he harbors ill will toward God. So the Psalmist uses creative words in order to direct his thoughts toward learning Gods word as the basis of His mediation in order to be careful to walk in His ways. 

You need to understand that being obedient to Gods word is having the proper dependence upon the Spirit. Our problem with understanding is not necessarily how much knowledge we have but its knowing how to walk in this narrow path in complete freedom. Our natural desire is to use Gods word as a guide ...understanding principles and applying them. But Gods word is more than a document that we must rise up to a certain understanding in order to experience the application. All of the words of God are contained in the Spirit of one word. Gods word is the only healthy and holistic application that addresses the whole man. I am saying that Gods word is the image of the Perfect man. It is an active agent that reorders all of the attributes in man. So we can use Gods word in an art form.

 Gods word is a self attesting word. It speaks so that all other definitions of truth are subject to its scrutiny. In this sense we are what we think we are and our circumstances are defined by who we think we are. The Psalms define the reality of the Man who knows who He is at all times in an eternal sense. We could say that the Psalms are the expression of the Real man as if he were present for our observation. The Psalms describe the world through the eyes of the Perfect man. In this way they are a kind of biographical description to be used as if we stepped into the Mind of the Perfect man. You see the extreme reactions in living in the mind of the Perfect Man.This is why we must be contained in the reality of the pure transparency that we experience that some people would label as a neurosis. God shows us the mirror of our own corruption by our being like Him and yet experiencing all of these reactions beyond our humanity. We are secure in Gods experience that consumes are corrupted experience. This is what the Psalmist means by" refuge".  We are developing our image in this Psalm like strengthening a muscle.