Psalms 25:1 «[A Psalm] of David. » Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.
A Psalm of David] An excellent psalm; the second of those seven called by the ancients penitential; and such as may well serve us for a pattern of our daily prayers; as wherein David beggeth three things (answerable to those two last petitions in the Lord's prayer), first, pardon of sin; secondly, guidance of God's good Spirit; thirdly, defence against his enemies (Beza). It appeareth that this psalm was made by David when he was well in years, Psalms 25:7, after his sin in the matter of Uriah (that great iniquity, as he calleth it, Psalms 25:11, saith Vatablus), and some gather, from Psalms 25:19, that he framed this psalm when Absalom was up in arms against him, Psalms 25:19 (compared with Psa 3:1). See also Psalms 25:15; Psalms 25:22. It may seem therefore that when he came to Mahanaim, 2 Samuel 17:24; 2 Samuel 17:27 (where God showed him marvellous lovingkindness in a strong city, Psalms 31:21, and wherehence he was at the people's request to help them, or to cause them to be helped, viz. by his hearty prayers for God's assistance, 2Sa 18:3), he composed this psalm with more than ordinary artifice, viz. in order of alphabet, as he hath done also some few others, both for the excellency of the matter and likewise for help of memory; for which cause also St Matthew summeth up the genealogy of Christ into three fourteens; all helps being but little enough. Nazianzen and Sedulius have done the like; the former in his holy alphabet, Aρχην απαντων, &c., and the latter in his hymn, A Solis ortus cardine Beatus auctor saeculi, &c.
Ver. 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul] i.e. Praeparo cor meum, saith R. Solomon. My heart maketh its faithful addresses to thee (and not any other), with strength of desire and delight, with earnest expectation and hope of relief. Ad te orando non ad idola. See Jer 22:27 Deuteronomy 24:15 Psalms 86:5, Cyprian saith, that in the primitive times the minister was wont to prepare the people's minds to pray by prefacing Sursum corda, Lift up your hearts. The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their synagogues these words, Tephillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah; that is, a prayer without the intention of the affection, is like a body without a soul; and yet their devotion is a mere outside, saith one, a brainless head, and a soulless body; Antiquum obtinent, Isaiah 29:13, Buxtorf. Abbreviat. This people draweth nigh to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. A carnal man can as little lift up his heart in prayer as a mole can fly. A David finds it a hard task; since the best heart is lumpish, and naturally beareth downward, as the poise of a clock, as the lead of a net. Let us, theretbre, lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us; and pray God to draw us up to himself, as the loadstone doth the iron, &c.