“Guard my soul and deliver me”
[Psalms 25:16-22]
Satan is an adversary who always aims at our hearts. He randomly sprinkles seeds of sins to get our hearts into his hands. He is persistently attacking our hearts through what we see with our eyes, what we hear with our ears and what we think by making us to conceive the seeds of sins. At that time, when evil and unclean thoughts take root in our hearts, our hearts will be occupied by Satan's sinful thoughts. Then it is only a matter of time before our hearts are moved away from holiness and sinning with our actions. The Bible Luke 12:34 says that if we aren’t on guard, “so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life.” Here, the phrase ‘the hearts is weighted down’ means that the hearts have been hardened because they have been neglected for a long time with sins. As a result, the hearts have become insensitive to the spiritual things. Why does that happen? It is because we have failed to keep our hearts.
In Psalms 25:20, the psalmist David is praying God to guard his soul and deliver him. I want to meditate on when and how we should guard our souls based on the words of Psalms 25:16-22 and to receive valuable lessons from His words.
First, when we are lonely and afflicted, we must guard our hearts well.
Look at Psalms 25:16 – “Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted.” When we are lonely and afflicted, Satan can attack our hearts and sow the seeds of sins. So we must keep our hearts well. Why are we sometimes lonely and afflicted? The cause of David's loneliness and affliction was because he didn’t compromise with all the non-truths in the world (Park). If we compromise with the world and live in harmony with it, then we might be less lonely. But the way of the saints who are guided by the truth is lonely and painful. David had many people who dealt treacherously without cause, that is, there were many enemies around him who afflicted him with vain deceptions (v. 3). In such a situation, he prayed, “Lead me in Your truth and teach me” (v. 5). He cried out to God so that he might be taught and guided by the Lord’s truth in situation in which the deceptions were rampant. We should pray to God in lonely places when we are lonely and afflicted. We must imitate Jesus' example. Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Lk. 5:16). Here, the Greek translation of the word “lonely places” is “desert.” In his loneliness and affliction, the title of David's prayer was ‘Turn to me and be gracious to me” (v. 16). Here, the prayer, “Turn to me” means that David was longing for the face of God. David was asking God to turn His face back to him. David was heading from the lonely wilderness to the garden of solitude. Solitude is not alone. Solitude is God's presence. David longed for God's presence. He also relied on God's compassion. Since David knew that God's compassion and lovingkindness were from eternity (v. 6), he asked God to remember this. Therefore, like David, when we are lonely and afflicted, we must go to the lonely place and pray to God. We should seek God's compassion as we long for God's face. That way we can guard our hearts when we are lonely and afflicted. Then God will listen to our supplications and guard our souls.
Second, when there are troubles in our hearts, we must guard our hearts.
Look at Psalms 25:17 – “The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses.” Why was David's heart troubled? The reason was because he felt strongly the suffering of the body and the sins he committed (Park). So David prayed repentance to God, saying, " For Your name's sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great" (v. 11). He was troubled in the pain of the flesh because of his sin. However, such trouble is beneficial trouble that leads to repentance. This is what Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7:10 – “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” He said “worldly sorrow brings death.” But godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation. Prophet Jonah prayed to God in suffering, after disobeying God's command and committed sin: “I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice” (Jonah 2:2). When we sin, our hearts are troubled. When we are troubled, we fall deeply into suffering. At that time, like David, we have to ask God to deliver from our suffering. Then God will guard our souls in trouble and deliver us out of suffering.
Third, when we are afflicted and in trouble, we must guard our hearts.
Look at Psalms 25:18 – “Look upon my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins.” Here it shows two meanings: First, some suffering comes because of sin, and second, if anyone suffers humbly by repenting of his sin, there is a hope that it will be released because of God's forgiveness (Park). That was why David offered prayer of repentance, “For Your name's sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great” (v. 11). David repented after he realized his great sin in the midst of suffering through persecution by his enemies rather than criticizing them by exposing their sins of deception. From that perspective, affliction is good for us. So David confessed: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word” (Ps. 119:67), “It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes” (v. 71). The benefit of suffering is the grace that makes us aware of our sins so that we can repent to God. Therefore, we must repent our sins to God when our great sins are revealed through troubles and afflictions. As we repent and our souls are being purified by obeying the truth, we must be established as God’s people who have sincere love for our brothers and sisters in Christ (1 Pet. 1:22). God will guard such souls.
Fourth and last, when our enemies hate us with violent hatred, we must guard our hearts.
Look at Psalms 25:19 – “Look upon my enemies, for they are many, And they hate me with violent hatred.” We, the saints, aren’t without enemies. However, since we are God’s children, only the enemies of God will be our enemies. God’s enemies are our enemies (Park). And our enemies is Satan and his evil servants. They oppose, deceive, and persecute us, the children of God. They hate us very much. There were many enemies of David who hated him very much. So David took refuge in God and cried to Him: “Guard my soul and deliver me; Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You” (vv. 20-21). Here, “integrity” means without hypocrisy and act wholeheartedly and “uprightness” means walking straight to the truth without wavering (Park). Even though David was in adversity through the deception of his enemies, he didn’t try to escape the way of truth and seek his own life. In the midst of that, David prayed to God wholeheartedly to direct him to the truth (Park). The soul itself has been darkened by sin and has no power to save itself. The soul can only be guarded and saved by God (Park). When our enemies hate us with violent hatred, we must take refuge in Him and look at Him who loves us the most. In the hatred of the enemy, we must meditate and realize the great love of God even more deeply. God will guard our souls.
We must commit ourselves to guard our own hearts. Satan is trying to make us lonely, afflicted, trouble in our hearts, and to dwell in affliction and trouble. In the midst of these works of Satan, we have a responsibility to guard our own souls. In order to do that, we must take refuge in the Lord and cry out to Him. As we cry out to God for His protection, we have to ask Him to guard our souls. And we must ask God to save us. This was how David cried out to God: “Turn to me and be gracious to me” (v. 16), “Bring me out of my distresses” (v. 17), “And forgive all my sins” (v. 18), “Guard my soul and deliver me” (v. 20). We must pray too. May God answer our prayers and deliver us from all troubles (v. 22) and guard our hearts.
He who didn’t guard his heart well,,
James Kim
(Praying for God’s protection)