John Calvin Commentary Psalms 25:4

"Show me thy ways, O Jehovah; Teach me thy paths." — Psalms 25:4 (ASV)

O Jehovah! make me to know your ways. By the ways of the Lord, David sometimes means, as we have seen in another place, the happy and prosperous outcome of affairs. More frequently, however, he uses this expression to denote the rule of a holy and righteous life.

Since the term truth occurs in the immediately following verse, the prayer he offers here is, in my opinion, to this effect: Lord, keep your servant in the firm persuasion of your promises, and do not allow him to turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

When our minds are thus composed to patience, we undertake nothing rashly or by improper means, but depend wholly upon the providence of God. Accordingly, in this place David desires not only to be directed by the Spirit of God, so that he does not err from the right way, but also desires that God would clearly reveal to him His truth and faithfulness in the promises of His word. This is so that he might live in peace before Him and be free from all impatience.

If anyone would rather take the words in a general sense, as if David committed himself wholly to God to be governed by Him, I do not object to it. However, since I think it probable that, under the name of truth in the next verse, he explains what he means by the ways and paths of God (of which he speaks here), I have no hesitation in referring the prayer to this circumstance. This circumstance is that David, afraid of yielding to the feeling of impatience, the desire for revenge, or some extravagant and unlawful impulse, asks that the promises of God may be deeply impressed and engraved on his heart.

For I have said before, that as long as the thought that God takes care of us prevails in our minds, it is the best and most powerful means for resisting temptations. If, however, anyone would rather understand the ways and paths of God as His doctrine, I nevertheless still hold this as a settled point. This point is that in the language of the Psalmist, there is an allusion to those sudden and irregular emotions that arise in our minds when we are tossed by adversity. These emotions can precipitate us into the devious and deceitful paths of error, until they are in due time subdued or calmed by the word of God.

Thus the meaning is: Whatever may happen, do not let me, O Lord, fall from Your ways, or be carried away by a willful disobedience to Your authority, or any other sinful desire. Rather, let Your truth preserve me in a state of quiet repose and peace, through humble submission to it.

Moreover, although he frequently repeats the same thing—asking that God would make him know His ways, teach him in them, and lead him in His truth—there is no redundancy in these forms of speech. Our adversities are often like mists that darken the eyes. Everyone knows from his own experience how difficult it is, while these clouds of darkness continue, to discern in what way we ought to walk.

But if David, so distinguished a prophet and endowed with so much wisdom, stood in need of divine instruction, what shall become of us if, in our afflictions, God does not dispel from our minds those clouds of darkness that prevent us from seeing His light? Therefore, as often as any temptation may assail us, we ought always to pray that God would make the light of His truth shine upon us, so that, by resorting to sinful devices, we do not go astray and wander into devious and forbidden paths.

At the same time, we ought to observe the argument David employs here to enforce his prayer. By calling God the God of his salvation, he does so to strengthen his hope in God for the future, based on the benefits he had already received from Him. Then he repeats the testimony of his confidence toward God.

Thus, the first part of the argument is taken from the nature of God Himself and the duty which, as it were, belongs to Him. This is because He undertakes to maintain the welfare of the godly and aids them in their necessities, on the ground that He will continue to show the same favor toward them, even to the end.

But as it is necessary that our confidence in God should correspond to His great goodness toward us, David presents it, at the same time, in connection with a declaration of his perseverance. For, by the expression all the day, or every day, he signifies that with a fixed and untiring constancy he depended upon God alone.

And, doubtless, it is the property of faith always to look to God, even in the most trying circumstances, and patiently to wait for the aid He has promised. So that the recollection of divine blessings may nourish and sustain our hope, let us learn to reflect upon the goodness God has already shown toward us. We see David did this in making it the ground of his confidence, having found in his own personal experience God to be the author of salvation.