Psalms 25 KJV
A Prayer for Guidance and Pardon
About This Psalm
An acrostic prayer for guidance, forgiveness, and protection. When you're lost and need direction, this is the prayer.
1nto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.
3 Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
4 Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.
5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
6 Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodnessโ sake, O LORD.
8 Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
11 For thy nameโs sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.
12 What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
13 His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.
14 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.
15 Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.
18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.
19 Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.
20 O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.
21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.
22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.
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Did You Know?
Psalm 25 forms an imperfect acrostic that omits the letter qoph, a deliberate gap some interpreters read as underscoring human incompleteness before divine mercy rather than poetic failure.
The psalm's chiastic arrangement places the explicit plea for forgiveness of iniquity at its center (v. 11), making pardon the structural and theological hinge between the surrounding petitions for guidance and deliverance.
Verse 14's reference to 'the secret of the LORD' draws on covenantal language elsewhere reserved for intimate divine counsel shared only with those who fear him, linking the psalm to wisdom traditions of hidden revelation.
Early Jewish liturgical use associated the psalm with the Day of Atonement because its movement from confession through instruction to trust mirrors the Yom Kippur sequence of repentance and restored relationship.
The repeated motif of 'lifting up' the soul (v. 1) and eyes (implicit in v. 15) creates a literary thread connecting this psalm to the Songs of Ascents, portraying prayer as an embodied ascent toward God's throne.