Psalm 26 - Who Would You Trust?

If it was possible to let someone know every single thought you had, would you do it? A total mind-meld is kind of scary and I’ll bet that if you’re even remotely considering it, you’d be very choosy about who it was.  Here’s the thing, the LORD does know every last little detail about you, and it really is okay. Because He cares for us and knows us so intimately, we can pray like David prayed, “examine my heart and mind.”

Transcript

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If it was possible to let somebody know every single thought that you ever had, would you consider it? A total mind meld actually sounds pretty scary. And even if you're remotely thinking about it, I'll bet you're being super choosy about who you would give access. Here's the thing. The Lord actually does know every last little detail about our lives, including all those thoughts that we actually don't say out loud. But it's okay. He cares for us and he knows us intimately and still he likes us and loves us. Welcome to Meet Me in the Word. I am so glad that you've joined us today. We're in Psalm 26. It's a psalm where David expresses his desire to let the Lord examine his heart and mind and for him to be vindicated before the Lord. Go ahead and open up your copy of the Word to Psalm 26 and we'll read it together. But before we do anything else, let's take a moment to talk to God. Jesus, thank you for this amazing day. God, thank you for Mondays. Lord, we we sometimes don't look forward to them because it's the beginning of the work week, but um, God, we want to delight ourselves in you. God, we do uh ask you to search our hearts and to know us. Lord, we trust you. Would you lead us in the best way possible? Amen. All right. Psalm 26, again, it's a psalm of David, and uh you'll probably notice there's kind of three movements that happen uh along the way, but we'll go ahead and read that and then uh unpack it a little bit more here together and hopefully gain some good encouragement uh for the rest of whatever the Lord has for us today. Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life. I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered. Test me, Lord, and try me. Examine my heart and my mind, for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness. I do not sit with the deceitful, nor do I associate with hypocrites. I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked. I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, Lord, proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds. Lord, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells. Do not take away my soul along with sinners, my life with those who are bloodthirsty, in whose hands are wicked schemes, whose right hands are full of bribes. I lead a blameless life. Deliver me and be merciful to me. My feet stand on level ground, in the great congregation I will praise the Lord. Let's just take a moment here to pause and uh listen to the Lord, and then we'll uh take a look more at the text. All right. Uh I really have it's kind of maybe a a shorter time here uh together today. I think that's okay. There's a little sense of uh it's summer outside and uh and and we're enjoying that, but also just the nature of this particular psalm. Um, I I was struck by really three main ideas that I'd like to share with you, and uh hopefully they're uh an encouragement uh for for you. So I wanted to talk about this idea of a blameless life and sort of picking up on that idea of being like searched and tested, and we'll get more to that, but David's claiming a level of of blamelessness, and he as much says so in in two spots uh at the beginning uh there in in verse one, uh I I have led a blameless life, and then again in verse 11, I lead a blameless life, deliver me, and be merciful to me. So, what is that all about? Because I know, because even just last week in in Psalm 25, he does talk about let my sins be forgiven and and washed away. And certainly in other psalms we see him wrestling with those kinds of ideas, and yet here he talks about being blameless and somebody who has, you know, done life right. And so, what's the understanding of of all of that? So I have three ways of understanding this idea of a blameless life before the Lord. The first one is that he's based that off of his uh his continual trusting uh in the Lord. So I'm blameless in that regard. Like I've continued to trust you through thick and thin, through the hard times, through all of the different uh things that have happened in the course of life, uh, the complexities, all of those different things. I've I've continued to trust you. And verse one highlights that idea. I've I've trusted in the Lord and I have not faltered. In other words, his faith, right? His faith never waned uh from the Lord, that he was always seeking uh God out, uh regardless of what was happening uh around him, or maybe even in his own heart, that there was this ongoing sense of trust. Uh and so there's just that that piece that's there. And then the second part would be like based on his uh his being mindful, and verse three, he lays that out a little bit more. He says, I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness. So this recognition of God's unfailing love and his faithfulness that David has always welcomed and like leaned on, trusted in. There's that sense of, yeah, that part of life has always been present. I'm blameless uh in that sense. And then certainly here there's a there's a belief in his own innocence in that middle section there, verses four through seven. Uh he says, I, you know, I don't sit with the deceitful, I don't associate with hypocrites, I don't, I'm not with the evildoers or any of those kinds of players. I wash my hands in innocence. In other words, I don't have guilt on my hands. Um there's nothing outstanding here. And so there's this refusal on his part to associate with those who were against what the Lord uh had for them. Uh this part I didn't actually write down to share with you, but I was like, yeah, I need to say this part too. Some of it also I think depends a bit on like when in David's life he composed this. Uh sometimes we we recognize, you know, he, you know, after he sinned uh with Bathsheba, and certainly in other uh sections of scripture, he we see that repentance. We see him like, God clean me up, like there's a recognition of guilt there. Uh, but in in this moment, he's at least acknowledging, you know, he's he's done the thing here, he's confessed whatever needed to be confessed, uh, and in that regard, again, he's he's blameless. And I was thinking, yeah, that that actually does make some sense. Um, and and that's just what the way that he's coming before the Lord. The second bit I wanted to highlight uh happens in verse 2, I think the most, it's the best uh example of of what I'm talking about. It's just the idea of test me, right? Test me. Uh examine my heart and my mind. And like, man, that is that is a really bold idea to just say, Lord, you know, search my heart, get get in there, get into the little nooks and crannies of of my emotions, of my thoughts, of all of those different things. Search me and and test me, vindicate me, prove me to be somebody who is upstanding, somebody who is right. And I think there's this confidence that he has that that whatever stuff has happened that would be identifiable as sin in his life, that he's confessed it, that it's clean now. And and so there's that sense of search me, test me, know me, uh, and that's that's a really uh big deal to him. And and I think he expresses it so beautifully. And then finally, he he gives this idea of keep me. And man, that is a request of requests. Uh Lord, verse 8, I I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells. That's where I want to be. I don't don't include me with these other people, right? I've kept my hands clean, I've not associated with them. Don't don't take me away. Don't take my soul away along with the sinners, uh, my life with those who are bloodthirsty. That's verse nine. I I don't want to be connected with that, not just because of like guilt by association, but because I want to be with you. So, God, would you keep me? Uh test me, yes, but then keep me. Keep me in your presence. That's really where I want to be. Those were the things that spoke to me the most as I processed uh this particular psalm, and then I found myself reflecting, and I'd like to share some of those um those bits with you as well. The first one is to is to kind of piggyback off of something I said earlier, which is blameless people confess their sin. That sounds a little bit contradictory, and I get that, but that really what is that really is what it is. There's a there's I think a freedom that we can have when we're like, yeah, I I did something that was dumb, I did something that was wrong, I knew what I was doing was wrong, or even I didn't know, but I found out later what I did was wrong. Whatever that circumstance is, to not be like, oh, well, but it's okay, because no, just to say, like, yeah, that was wrong, confess it, and to receive that forgiveness. That's that's a free way to live. I I think if you've been uh listening to me for any length of time or just kind of tuning in, uh, you've heard me say things like confession is a gift, and it really is. I believe that that's true. Sometimes we look at it as this really, really intense, scary thing to admit wrongdoing, but it's not like that with God. If we want to be blameless, then then it doesn't mean that we're never gonna do anything that's wrong. It just means that we're gonna own up to our stuff, confess it, move on. And and I think the Lord invites that. In fact, I know that the Lord invites that in our lives. So blameless people confess their sin. And then the the the last bit is just I want them to live in God's house too. I I don't know about you, uh, but that seems like a pretty good place to be and and to reject those other things. You know, here's what I would say about it is the way that David writes this, um, especially that middle section, verses four through seven, you know, I don't sit with the deceitful or the hypocrites, the wicked, those kinds of people. And we can look at that and go, like, yeah, that's kind of gross, right? But sometimes the things that people are are doing that actually are maybe wicked can look enticing to us, at least from the outside, at least from the beginning. We're gonna like, oh, actually that looks like it might be fun, or that might be intriguing, or maybe it would give me a chance to just kind of do what I want to do. And and there there might be an allure that way, but when we fall for that, and that's probably the best way to say it, when we fall for that illusion, when we fall for that myth, then what we miss out on is the goodness and just the joy of being in the house of the Lord. So uh just a couple things for for you to kind of carry with you, hopefully, throughout the rest of your day. Uh yeah, thank you again for for being uh here in this space. Yeah, and we'll go ahead and pray and just uh invite the Lord to be all that we need as we move on. God, thank you so much, Lord, for your word. Thank you that we can come to you and and we can be ultimately blameless, Lord, that that because you forgive completely and quickly, because you are that kind of of lover of people, Lord, we we can live in that sort of freedom. So, God, would you give us just the joy of of living that free life, of living in your presence? We love you. Amen.