Psalm 25:1-9
1To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2.O my God, in You I trust, Do not let me be ashamed Do not let my enemies exult over me.
3Ineed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed; Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed.
4Make me know Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths.
5Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day.
6Remember, O Lord, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses; For they have been from of old.
7Do not remember the sins of my yourth or my transgressions; According to You lovingkindness remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O Lord.
8Good and upright is the Lord; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.
9He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His way.
There is need within us all that longs for goodness. Something innately in us knows that that goodness within us can only grow and thrive because of God’s goodness and we have to seek it within ourselves by seeking God. It is in our seeking of God that we understand virtue and it is living into God’s goodness that virtue grows and thrives within us
It is not that humiliation or our enemies triumphing over us will keep us from being good. Those things are hard to deal with and we are aware of our own frailty and fear that we will abandon God because of our inability to endure those things. We know that in the pursuit of virtue, those experiences are inevitable so we ask that they not be the final outcome. We ask God for the strength to persevere and for our efforts to ultimately be rewarded. For our faith in God to be justified by the outcome of our perseverance.
We profess that we know and believe without doubt that God is good and His ways are right but we know that we are prone to weakness and can only take so much and that if we give up on God, its on us. So we ask that God let us not suffer too long.