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Psalm 25:18
Consider my affliction and my travail. Forgive all my sins.
16Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted.
17The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses.
18Consider my affliction and my travail. Forgive all my sins.
19Consider my enemies, for they are many. They hate me with cruel hatred.
20Oh keep my soul, and deliver me. Let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in you.
Notice
“Consider” and “Forgive” bring suffering and sin into the same prayer, without saying that the suffering is punishment for the sin.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What affliction would you want God to consider before you tried to explain it?
Write on thisWhat does asking forgiveness for “all my sins” mean for your prayer today?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
1 Samuel 9:16“Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He will save my …The psalm asks God to consider suffering; in Samuel, God says he has looked upon his people and heard their cry.
2 Samuel 16:12It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that the LORD will repay me good for the cursing of me today.”Both passages look to God to see suffering, with Samuel expressing hope that God will see the wrong done and repay good.
1 Samuel 1:11She vowed a vow, and said, “LORD of Armies, if you will indeed look at the affliction of your servant and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will …Hannah and the psalm’s speaker both ask God to look at their affliction, bringing their distress to him in prayer.
Lamentations 1:9Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, LORD, my …Both texts name sin and affliction, and both include a direct plea for the LORD to see the suffering.
Genesis 29:32Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Reuben. For she said, “Because the LORD has looked at my affliction; for now my husband will love me.”The psalm asks God to consider affliction, while Leah says the LORD has looked at hers.
Psalm 119:132Turn to me, and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name.Both prayers seek God’s attention and mercy, with Psalm 25 making the request for forgiveness explicit.
Psalm 31:7I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness, for you have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities.Psalm 25 asks God to consider affliction; Psalm 31 rejoices that God has seen affliction and known the speaker’s adversity.
Job 10:15If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still will not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.Both texts speak of affliction and sin, though Job considers both wickedness and righteousness while the psalm asks for forgiveness.
Psalm 39:8Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.Both prayers bring the whole scope of the speaker’s wrongdoing before God, asking forgiveness or deliverance from it.
2 Chronicles 6:39then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned …Both prayers ask God to attend to those seeking him and to forgive their sins.
Job 10:9Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?Both ask for God’s attention: Job asks him to remember his workmanship, while the psalm asks him to consider affliction.
Lamentations 5:1Remember, LORD, what has come on us. Look, and see our reproach.Both prayers ask the LORD to look at suffering, bringing affliction or reproach before him.
Where this verse fits
Guilt and confession. grief. feeling distant from God.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
You do not have to settle the cause of your suffering before praying. Here, a plea for God’s attention and a plea for forgiveness belong in the same prayer.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).