The Lord is good and upright;

therefore He shows sinners the way.

He leads the humble in what is right

and teaches them His way.

All the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth

to those who keep His covenant and decrees.

Because of Your Name, Lord,

forgive my sin, for it is great. Ps 25:8-11 HCSB

Some interesting concepts are juxtaposed in these verses.  Did you see them?

We tend to think God gives guidance to those who flawlessly do His will. But look closely at the verses above.  They say the Lord shows sinners the way.  He leads the humble and He shows faithful love and truth to those who keep His commandments.  We expected that last phrase.  God leads and loves those who keep His commandments.  That is true, but by itself it is not the whole truth.  God leads sinners who humbly acknowledge that they are sinners but are seeking to keep His covenant and decrees.  

Like Job’s friends, we tend to believe God is good to those who are good and leads those who have it together spiritually, but that puts far too much focus on us.  It also leaves most of us out.  The truth is, God shows Himself and His ways to those who admit that they fall short.  Don’t get me wrong, we need to do our best to comply with what we know of God’s will.  God does not waste time showing more of Himself and His will to those who have made no effort to comply with what He has already shown them.  But God doesn’t show us Who He is and what He wants us to do because we’re good.  He makes Himself known to us because He is good. 

We talk about God forgiving us because of what it does for us.  That’s understandable because salvation does a lot for us, but we are not the primary reason God forgave our sins.  He is.  He saved us and removed our sins for His glory, not ours.  What He did for us tells the universe that He can do what no other being can even conceive of.  His glory is beyond compare.  He has no equals or legitimate rivals. 

God makes Himself known to us because of His character.  He leads us because of Who He is.  He forgives us for the sake of His glory.  That takes the focus off us.  The universe will give glory to God, not us, and that’s the way it should be.  Plus, since forgiveness originates in the character of God, we cannot mess it up.  It’s a good thing that it’s all about God, not us.