Psalm 26

1/17/2012 7:49:56 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 26:1-12

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  «A Psalm of David.» Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, And I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. 2  Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. 3  For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth. 4  I do not sit with deceitful men, Nor will I go with pretenders. 5  I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the wicked.

    “6 ¶  I shall wash my hands in innocence, And I will go about Your altar, O LORD, 7  That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving And declare all Your wonders. 8  O LORD, I love the habitation of Your house And the place where Your glory dwells. 9  Do not take my soul away along with sinners, Nor my life with men of bloodshed, 10  In whose hands is a wicked scheme, And whose right hand is full of bribes. 11  But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; Redeem me, and be gracious to me. 12  My foot stands on a level place; In the congregations I shall bless the LORD.”

            In his introduction to Psalm 26 Dr. Wiersbe points out that Psalms 26, 27, and 28 are all psalms that have to do with the love that David has for God’s sanctuary.  We know from Scripture that David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem and when he told this to Nathan the prophet the Lord came to Nathan and told him that David’s son would be the one to build the temple, but that God would build a dynasty for David.  David had shed too much blood to build the temple, but through all of the victories that David had he had accumulated a lot of spoils and it was with these spoils that Solomon would use to build the temple for the Lord.

            When David would go to the tabernacle he would see people there who were not sincere in heart or in their worship of the Lord and some of these men were openly disobedient and spread lies about the king.  “It was this situation that led to the writing of this psalm.  In it David makes three requests of the Lord.”  (Warren Wiersbe)  We will look at these three requests as we look at Psalm 26.

            Vindicate Me (v.1):  “Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, And I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.”

            As I look over the words of this psalm I am reminded of Psalm 1 when the Psalmist tell us not to walk, stand, or sit with the wicked and in verse four David says that he does not sit with evil doers and in verse eleven David says that his walk will be in integrity.  In verse twelve David says that his foot will stand on a level place.

            David writes of those who are evildoers in verses 4-5 and also 9-10.  There were men like this in David’s time and there are still men like this in our day.  The Lord describes them in His parable about the wheat and the tares. They are also described in Matthew 7:15 and Acts 20:26-31 as wolves in sheep’s clothing.

            In the KJV the word is translated “Judge” while in the NASB the word is translated “Vindicate,” and it means “give me justice, defend my reputation.  We know from looking at the life of David that he was a man of integrity.  “4  "As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, 5  then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ’You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’”  (1Kings 9:4-5)  This was the Lord speaking to Solomon when he had first become king of Israel.  Dr. Wiersbe write about integrity:  “Integrity means wholeness of character, an undivided mind and heart, completely devoted to the Lord.”

            He goes on to speak of David asking the Lord to vindicate him:  “When your character and conduct are attacked, it isn’t wrong to vindicate yourself, as Paul did (2Cor. 10-12), or to ask the Lord to vindicate you.  We aren’t just defending ourselves; we’re defending the name of the Lord whom we serve.  Our vindication is ‘for his name’s sake’ (23:3; 25:11).”

            Examine Me (vv. 2-8):  “2  Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. 3  For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth. 4  I do not sit with deceitful men, Nor will I go with pretenders. 5  I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the wicked.  6 I shall wash my hands in innocence, And I will go about Your altar, O LORD, 7  That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving And declare all Your wonders. 8 O LORD, I love the habitation of Your house And the place where Your glory dwells.”

            We looked at David’s examination of himself in Psalm 18:20-24 and made the comment that it was the honest testimony of a real man of God.  When we look at the word examine it means to prove and was a word that was used in the examination of metals in order to determine their value.  It also meant the removing of dross.  I worked at a foundry and it was part of my job to insure the quality of the cast iron that I made and so every half an hour we had a sample of the metal to into the lab to make sure the quality of it was good enough to make quality parts.  This was a very large foundry and we would melt upwards to 3000 tons of cast iron per day.  It was also part of my job to make sure that the slag (dross) did not get into the furnaces that were used to keep the iron molten before it was poured into the molds.  This process began when the “runners” were built out of refractory and as long as that process was good the slag “dross” would go into the water and the iron would go into the furnace.

            David examined his life and also asked the Lord to examine his life to make sure that his life was pleasing to the Lord.  We mentioned Psalm one where the psalmist wrote not to walk, stand, or sit in the presence of those who were evildoers.  David must have known about that psalm as seen in those words in this psalm describing that he would not do such a thing.  David would not associate with those unrighteous people while worshiping the Lord and that is fine.  As believers we are to be in the world but not of the world.  We are to tell others who are of the world how to not be of the world while they are in the world.  We are to witness to unbelievers but not to associate with those who are sinful in the assembly of the righteousness.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians about this when they had this all wrong, for there was a man in their local assembly who was sleeping with his father’s wife (not his mother) and the Corinthian’s were proud of the grace that they were giving him.  Paul tells them that they were not to put up with this in the church.  It was different when this happens in the world, although we know it is wrong most of the time we can do little about it, but in the church we can do something about it.  David knew the difference.

            In verse two we see the words heart and mind and these refer to kidneys and heart in the original.  The kidneys being the seat of emotions, while the heart the place of moral decision.  David asks the Lord to examine both.

            Verse three speaks of the lovingkindness of the Lord and David’s life was motivated and controlled by God’s love and truth.  We know that the Lord was faithful to His covenant and that David was faithful to the Lord.  We know that David, like all of us, occasionally fell, but the habitual bent on life was toward the Lord and His Word. 

            We have already addressed verse four when talking about David not being involved with the evildoers who came to the tabernacle and this is also spoken of in verse five.

            In verse six David is speaking of self-examination something Paul writes about in 1Cor. 11:28 “But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  29  For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.  30  For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.”

            In verse seven we see that after David has been examined and has fellowship with the Lord he will praise the Lord.  David was an emotional worshiper and we can see this when he brought the ark to Jerusalem that he was dancing before the Lord. 

            There are two more sections of Scripture concerning our examination before the Lord and Psalm 139:23-24 we see that we are to ask the help of the Holy Spirit in our examination:  “23  Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  Paul writes to the Corinthians in his second letter to them and in the last chapter these words:  “5  Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed you fail the test? 6  But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test.”

            Verse eight speaks of David’s love for the house of the Lord.  This may refer to the Ark of the Lord in Jerusalem or where the Lord dwells in heaven, or perhaps both. 

            Redeem Me (vv. 9-12):  “9  Do not take my soul away along with sinners, Nor my life with men of bloodshed, 10  In whose hands is a wicked scheme, And whose right hand is full of bribes. 11  But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; Redeem me, and be gracious to me. 12  My foot stands on a level place; In the congregations I shall bless the LORD.”

            In this section David asks the Lord to redeem him and to be gracious to him.  David knew that he was a sinner (Psalm 51), but David also knew that there was forgiveness in the Lord.  David did not want to worship with those who were not true worshipers, but he knew in his heart that there would come a day when the wicked would be separated from the righteous forever and he would dwell with the Lord forever.  David’s desire was to walk with integrity before the Lord and he knew that when you begin to hang around with those who were not believers that he could become like them and therefore he did not want to do that.  “1Co 15:33  Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals.’”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There was a lot of “testing” that was talked about in this Spiritual Diary, and just as the iron had to be tested on a consistent basis at my job it is good to have consistent testing before the Lord as I desire to walk with integrity before the Lord. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Psalm 139:23-24.

2.       1Cor. 11:28.

3.       Romans 12:1-2.

4.       Ephesians 6:10-18.

5.       Proverbs 3:5-6.

6.       Phil. 4:11b.         1/17/2012 9:30:33 AM