NOTES for Psa 25

Can everyone say with confidence that they are ready to stand before the Lord? Who among us would dare call their way blameless?

Yet the psalmist boldly declares his readiness to stand before God's judgment. He cites examples of his own integrity and hopes that his righteousness will vindicate him.

At first glance, such confidence may seem like excessive self-regard. But if we read the lines of the psalm carefully, we will see that the psalmist does not rely solely on his own merits. Indeed, he asks the Lord to forgive his sin precisely because it is great.

His confidence that, with the Lord's help, our earthly paths will be set right and that we ourselves will be delivered from the power of sin and saved is rooted in hope in the Lord and in His boundless mercy.

What is righteousness? Is it the keeping of commandments? Yes, certainly, all biblical authors without exception link righteousness in particular to commandments, with the law given by God, with what we call in the biblical language Torah. But indeed, for the authors of the biblical books, Torah is not only the law, even if it is a law given by God. Also enters into the notion of Torah the lifestyle corresponding to this law, and the spiritual state necessary for such a life. All this together is called the way of righteousness, which is indicated by God.

It would seem, that the sinner cannot be righteous by definition, righteousness is God's miracle, it is possible not thanks to, but in spite of the nature of the fallen man. How is it possible to learn a miracle? And all the same, as is evident, God wants from us, that we decide on fact, knowingly hopeless, to begin war, which without Him we shall lose indubitably.

Even with His participation this war turns out deathful for us, quite as any war. And still it turns out more difficult than any earthly war: because it is about war with sin, which is not only inside us, but also around us, a war, where there are neither fronts, nor rear areas, where the enemy is everywhere, and we turn out to be someone like guerilla on the territory occupied by this enemy.

The support from on high in such situation plays naturally a decisive role; but also depends not less on our ability to accept. The way of righteousness is a thing of the man-God, from man depends here in a certain sense not less, than from God. That is why it arrives to the one wishing to reach the goal to learn righteousness, and it turns out not only God's miracle, but also habit. This habit of righteous life, without which even God's help can turn out useless for us.