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In today's daily readings, Psalms 25:3 states "Calling to you, none shall ever be put to shame, but shame is theirs who groundlessly break faith."

What does it mean to "break faith", and are there grounds on which it is okay to break it, or have I completely missed the meaning of this passage?

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    – agarza
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 18:02
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    This would probably be a better fit on Biblical Hermeneutics. You can probably ask a moderator to migrate it over for you or just post the question there and delete this one.
    – agarza
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 18:02
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    – GratefulDisciple
    Commented Jun 8, 2023 at 11:13
  • This Q is better suited for BH.SE. But if you specifically want this answered from Catholic perspective as your tag indicates, please request the scope in the question body adding something like "According to Catholic teaching, what does it mean to "break faith" ..." or changing the title to "According to Catholicism, What is the meaning of "groundlessly break faith"?" so that the Q can then stay in C.SE.
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    Commented Jun 8, 2023 at 11:16

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It is good to check context and other translations.

v2 says "let me not be put to shame, let not my enemies exult over me" (RSV) These are two ways of saying the same thing. If I am overcome by my enemies, I am "put to shame".

So v2 is a personal request for help, a wish for the future.

Then if we look over v3 we find a more generalised version of the same plea; "Let none that wait for thee be put to shame"; that expands the range from "me" to "everyone who trusts in you". Let none of them be overcome.

Then "let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous" is the generalised version of the second half of the plea. It expands the range from "my enemies" to "everyone who acts as an enemy". They all need to be the defeated ones.

The only thing that you need to do is to be one of those who can say "O my God , in thee I trust" (v2).

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