“He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way.”
– Psalm 25:9
Doesn’t that make you want to pray for humility? Doesn’t Psalm 25:9 make you want to be humble, to cultivate humility, to be marked by humility when you realize that God leads the humble in what is right?
We want to do right, and we want to live righteously. The key is humility. The key to righteousness, according to Psalm 25:9, is humility before God. He will lead the humble in what is right. And how do you know the way of God? How do you walk in the way of God in his Word and the leadership of his Spirit as we make decisions? Think of all the decisions you or I will make today or tomorrow, some small, some big. Don’t we all want to make those decisions in ways that glorify God?
God, we pray for the humility of Jesus in our life.
And Psalm 25:9 is saying that he teaches the humble his way. So the key to righteousness and the key to experiencing the ways of God, the abundant life that God has designed for us, his ways in our lives, is humility.
So we pray, Oh, God, we ask for humility in each of our lives. God, we pray for humility. We pray for the humility of Jesus. We think about Philippians chapter two. He humbled himself and became “obedient to death, even death on a cross.” God, we pray for humble obedience to you.
We Need You, God
We pray that, Lord, even as we’re praying right now, I think about how little, how relatively little, we pray. And when we don’t pray, our prayerlessness is such a picture of our pride. God, we think we can do so much on our own when we know your Word makes clear that we can do nothing on our own. I can do nothing on my own. There’s no good in me apart from good that you give, that you provide, that you make possible.
God, that’s true for all of us. We need you. God, we need you. We have so many reasons to be humble before you, yet we are often so prideful, turning aside from your ways to our own ways, going through our lives as if we can do this on our own. God, we pray, make us humble. Do whatever it takes in our lives to cultivate humility. And even as we pray that, we, in a sense, shudder to think of what might happen in order to increase our humility. But God, we need it. We want to be humble.
Responding To Psalm 25:9 With A Prayer for Humility
God, I pray for this in my own life. God, I pray for ever-increasing humility. I pray for the humility of Jesus in my own life, my own heart. I pray this over my brothers and sisters who are listening right now. And we pray that as you grant us humility, that you would lead us in what is right, and as you grow humility in us, that you would teach us your way.
We want to experience life to the full. And we want to walk in righteousness. We want to obey your will. And we know, based on Psalm 25:9, that the key to this is humility. So we ask, oh God, right now for humility. Make us humble before you and before others. We pray, God, please remove our pride from us.
We ask for humility in Jesus’s name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
