psalm 25

Psalm 25 (NRSV)
8 Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

Lord,
Because you are good, you give instruction to sinners and you lead the humble. Your goodness causes you to reach out to sinners, to the lost, to the mistaken and to the willfully wrong. You do not keep yourself separated from sinners but reach into the orbits of their lives with wisdom and grace and the offer of pardon. You are always whispering in the sinners’ ears, “There is a better way.” You go to the bars and the boardrooms, into the streets and the bedrooms of the broken, into the lives of those incarcerated in jails and chained by habits of futility and self-destruction. You give instruction to sinners.

And who can receive the gift of instruction? Only the humble! You lead the humble, you teach the humble. What you offer to all sinners is received by the humble, by sinners who are open to the possibility that they may be wrong and in need of fresh instruction and guidance. Only to those who realize the need for guidance and grace are able to receive it, or so implies the poet.

So Lord, I pray for renewed humility. Open my soul to a new awareness of your presence and grace and help me to go where you lead and to embody that which you teach.

PERSONAL PRAYERS:
Speak your sin to God and ask for the pardon that he has promised.
Ask for the courage to be humble enough to receive the grace of God’s guidance and instruction.
Name 5 things for which you are grateful and say “thank you” to God.
In Christ’s name,
Amen.