Psalm 25

The subtitle wasn’t part of the original psalm. And the possible byline “of David,” isn’t necessarily a byline. The vague phrase could mean the song was written by David, about David, or was inspired by David. Almost half of the psalms are attributed to David in this way, 73 of 150. Ancient Jewish history tells of David playing a lyre and writing songs. For one, he wrote a song of mourning at the battlefield death of King Saul and his sons: “How have the mighty fallen!” (2 Samuel 1:19-27 New American Standard Bible). An ancient Jewish scroll from about the time of Jesus, discovered among the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, reports that David wrote 3,600 songs.

More literally, “who keep the covenant.” The songwriter was talking about the agreement God made with ancestors of the Jewish people, through Abraham. Many rules of the agreement were spelled out through the laws the Bible says God gave the Jewish nation through Moses. When Jewish people talk about the covenant, they are often talking about laws preserved in the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The covenant, or contract, between God and the Jewish people was a two-way street. The Jews obey God’s rules, and God protects them and blesses their work with prosperity. Benefits for obedience and the consequences for breaking the contract were detailed by Moses in a speech shortly before he died (Deuteronomy 27—28).

Literally “his covenant.” See footnote for 25:10.

This is a guess. It’s unclear whether the goodness and honesty refers to God or to the songwriter. The phrase is more literally, “May integrity and uprightness protect me.” But who’s integrity and uprightness? Scholars debate their educated guesses.