Verse of the day · September 9
What does it mean that God guides the meek in judgment?
Four times in two verses, the man praying asks to be shown where to go.
Read one of these every day in the THNK GOD app →
The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
Psalm 25:9
A man is praying, and most of what he wants is directions. Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths; lead me in thy truth, and teach me. The petitions crowd both ends of the psalm, and in the middle he leaves off asking and looks the promises over instead, the way a man in the harvest field of prayer pauses for a meal of meditation. Two verses on, a petition comes in abruptly, out of its place. Pardon mine iniquity, he asks, for it is great.
Matthew Henry calls that the surprising half of a double plea. It is the glory of a great God to forgive great sins, and the more a man sees of the heinousness of his own the better qualified he is to find mercy with God. The promise in the line directly above turns on the same thing. We are all sinners, and can we hope for any advantage by these promises? He will teach sinners, though they be sinners, because they are sinners and therefore need teaching.
John Gill starts from a rendering of the word with nothing gentle in it: the miserable, the afflicted. He means people who see themselves wretched and miserable, lost and undone, of broken and contrite hearts, crying out, What shall we do to be saved? The Geneva Notes put it in one line — he will govern and comfort them that are truly humbled for their sins. Albert Barnes lists them by temper rather than by damage: the humble, the teachable, the prayerful, the gentle of spirit, those who are willing to learn.
Charles Spurgeon, whose exposition runs across this verse and the two around it, gives another ground for the guiding. Meek spirits stand in high favour with the Father of the meek and lowly Jesus, because he sees in them the image of his only-begotten Son. They know their need of guidance and are willing to submit their own understandings to the divine will, and so the Lord condescends to be their guide. Barnes has it from the other end: a proud man who supposes he already knows enough cannot be taught. A docile spirit is the first requisite in religion, as in every other kind of knowledge.
The guiding is in judgment, and JFB gloss that in a word: rightly. The administration of justice is inside it, and Barnes carries it past that — to judging of truth, of duty, of the right way to live. Henry adds the rule it works by, the written word, in what is practical and relates to sin and duty, so a man may keep conscience void of offence — and the manner, judiciously, God suiting his conduct to their case and teaching them as they are able to bear. Gill puts that restraint on the verb itself: he will lead them on in judgment, or gently, and sends the reader to Jeremiah for the sense.
Trouble puts gentle spirits to their wits' ends, Spurgeon says, and drives them to act without discretion. That is the temper the verse promises judgment to. Grace comes to the rescue: it enlightens their mind to follow that which is just, and helps them discern the way the Lord would have them go. Fools will not learn, and therefore miss their road to heaven, while lowly hearts sit at Jesus' feet and find the gate of glory.
His way, in the second clause, is one way in particular: the way of justifying sinners by the righteousness of his Son. Those who confess their sins and unworthiness, and throw themselves on the mercy of God in Christ, are declaratively justified, Gill says, while the proud boasting Pharisee is an abomination to him. Barnes leaves the phrase plainer, the way in which he would have them to go.
John Berridge, whom Spurgeon gathered into his Treasury of David on this verse, describes those people from the inside. They have been made meek, he says, made desirous of being taught and made to pray to be so; but being now sensible of their unworthiness, they are afraid that God will not teach them — this may be done for other sinners, but not for them. So they are told who may expect teaching, even they who desire and pray for teaching. Humble spirits are endowed in this verse with a rich inheritance.
A man in that state reads his own description as the reason he will be passed over. What it names is not the wretchedness but the sight of it. He is guided because he knows he needs guiding and is willing to hand his own understanding over to the divine will, and in spirits like that the Father sees the image of his only-begotten Son. What comes back to him is the thing he let go of: a mind enlightened to follow what is just, and sight enough to make out the road he is meant to be on.
Drawn from Matthew Henry, John Gill, Albert Barnes, Charles Spurgeon, the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary and the Geneva Bible notes. How these teachings are made