Psalm 25:21
21 Let integrity [tom] and uprightness [yosher] preserve [natsar] me; for I wait [qavah] on
thee. KJV-Interlinear
21 Let
integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for Thee. NASB
The word for integrity, ‘tom,’
means completeness, prosperity, in the moral sense it means innocence,
fullness, perfection upright.
The word for uprightness,
‘yosher,’ means right, equity, in a figurative sense it means to make right, to
be pleasant, to be prosperous.
The word for preserve, ‘natsar,’
means to guard, to protect, to maintain, to obey.
Since the Bible rejects
all attributes of man, then these attributes of integrity and uprightness refer
to attributes that belong to God.
God is perfection, man is
not. Therefore, the psalmist is calling on attributes that belong to God to be
the source of protection, the source of maintenance, and the source to which
man must obey.
Humanity is not to look
to his own efforts or abilities or characteristics. Remember man is nothing
more than dust with human life inserted into that dust.
There is nothing in this
world that can preserve or protect or even prosper in its truest sense, the
life of the individual.
Those things must come
from a higher source, and a higher source of course is God through Jesus
Christ.
Remember, this psalm has
described the environment of this world as totally and completely adversarial
to the life of humanity.
Therefore, there is only
one source of protection, and that is through Bible doctrine. Doctrine is our
connection to God through Christ. Jesus Christ is the living word, as well as
the written word.
And there is only one way
to acquire this protection, and that is by means of learning Bible doctrine. And,
of course the only way you can learn anything is by reading it, listening to
it, studying it, using it, and repeating all of that process every day
throughout your life.
