This is such an utterance as the soul of David might have had on the other side of Jordan; for there he was suffering under God’s hand for sin, but as touching his persecutors he was blameless. Varied exercise of heart would arise from such a condition. He would at times remember his sins, and desire to know more and more of God’s own way of grace; he would at times, on the other hand, plead with the confidence of integrity. And this is His varied way in this affecting Psalm—where, though the suppliant be conscious of integrity, as before men in his sufferings, yet his condition and guilt, as a sinner before God, are forcibly brought to mind; and as a soul thus quickened to the sense of sin, he desires to know God’s own way in grace or mercy. And it is only the sinner who fully learns God’s way. It is a mystery to every other student. And as Israel now, because of transgression, knows Him as a “consuming fire,” so in the latter day, in their broken-heartedness and repentance, they shall know Him as a “merciful God.” (See Deut. 4:24-31.)
We may presume that it will be the breathing of the Jewish saints by and by. Psalm 25:22 indeed shows that Israel is the suppliant here.
Psalm 25:8-10, and Psalm 25:12-14, may be read as two interruptions to the cry of the suppliant by the voice or oracle of God comforting him. And I cannot pass without noticing that “the secret” and “the covenant” of the Lord (Psalm 25:14) are the same, and mean the gospel or grace of God in Christ Jesus. For such is God’s covenant and God’s secret. One of Christ’s names is “secret,” as we know. (Judg. 13:18; Isa. 9:6. See also Deut. 29:29.)