Day 57: See, and Carry
Read: Psalm 25:16–21
Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
— Psalm 25:18 (ESV)
Reflect
David asks for two things in one breath.
"Consider my affliction." The word is re'eh, "see!" It is a plea: look at this. Notice what I am going through — my pain, my trouble, my toil.
"And forgive all my sins." The word our Bibles translate "forgive" is the same verb from verse 1, "I lift up my soul." It means to lift, to carry. Here forgiveness is pictured as God picking up the load and carrying it away.
So the verse says: see my pain, and carry my sin.
David expects the two together. Suffering and sin are not the same problem, but they arrive in the same life. Some of what hurts him comes from his enemies (v. 19). Some of what weighs on him is his own doing (vv. 7, 11). He does not sort it all out first. He brings both.
We tend to pick one. Some of us bring God only our pain, as if we had no sin worth mentioning. Others bring only our sin, as if our pain were beneath his notice. The psalm will not split them.
God sees. And God carries.
Across Scripture
At the burning bush God said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people" (Exodus 3:7). Isaiah describes the Servant who "bore the sin of many" (Isaiah 53:12) — the same verb for lifting and carrying. And when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).
Sit With It
Are you asking God to see your pain but not carry your sin? Or to carry your sin but not see your pain? Ask for both today.
Pray
See my affliction, and carry my sin.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.