John Calvin Commentary Psalms 25:1

"Unto thee, O Jehovah, do I lift up my soul." — Psalms 25:1 (ASV)

To You, O Jehovah! etc. The Psalmist declares at the very outset that he is not driven here and there, like the ungodly, but directs all his desires and prayers to God alone. Nothing is more inconsistent with true and sincere prayer to God than to waver and look around for worldly help, as the heathen do; and, at the same time, to forsake God or not to turn directly to His guardianship and protection.

Those who imagine that David here declares he had devoted himself entirely to God, as if he had offered himself up in sacrifice, do not properly understand the meaning of the passage. Rather, the meaning is that, in order to strengthen his hope of obtaining his request, he declares—what is of greatest importance in prayer—that his hope was fixed in God, and that he was not ensnared by the world's allurements or prevented from lifting up his soul fully and sincerely to God. Therefore, so that we may pray properly to God, let us be guided by this rule: not to distract our minds with various and uncertain hopes, nor to depend on worldly aid, but to give God the honor of lifting up our hearts to Him in sincere and earnest prayer. Moreover, although the verb is properly translated I will lift up, I have followed other interpreters in changing it to the past tense, I have lifted up. By the future tense, however, David denotes a continuous action.