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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

Psalm 26

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

If you think about it, we tend to ask many things of the Lord as we walk through life. Don’t we?

When life brings difficulty of some nature, like illness or financial problems or a relationship strain, we call on the Lord for help, whether for healing or provision or reconciliation, and often others call on Him on our behalf as well, interceding for our needs. We call on Him because we believe and trust that God is who He says He is: a God who is so powerful that nothing is impossible when He’s in action.

We also turn to God for guidance and wisdom. Life often places us in situations that can be confusing, situations that offer us multiple options to choose from and leave us uncertain as to which path is the best one to take. Often there is a lot of risk involved, a lot to lose if we choose the wrong way and so we get anxious and nervous because so much is at stake. We don’t want to make matters worse by making the wrong decision.

And so we turn to God who we know is omniscient, a fancy word that simply means “all knowing.” In fact, the scriptures remind us that the wisdom of the world is considered foolishness by Him (1 Corinthians 3:19). In other words, there is no legitimate wisdom except the wisdom that comes from God Himself. Once we mess our lives up a time or two trying to rely on our own understanding and wisdom, we find out that we need to turn to God for His counsel always for when we follow His lead, He will always bring us to the right place by following the right path. After all, perfect righteousness is only found in God, right?

Sometimes we just want to learn more about God, His Son Jesus who saves us, and the Holy Spirit who guides us through life. We read God’s word in the scriptures to seek understanding but find ourselves with a lot of questions as we try and discern what God is trying to say to us in His word. This is when we ask the Lord to open our hearts and our minds to His instruction, ready to receive His teaching as He illuminates His words and imparts knowledge upon us. We gain no greater insight into life than when we read and pray over the words of the Bible, offering ourselves as hungry students, our minds craving to be fed by the Divine Professor of life.

Yes, we ask the Lord for a lot. We search for help, we look for guidance, and we seek instruction. In the 26th Psalm, David gives us one more thing to consider asking for, one that we seldom do. Let’s look at the scripture:

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.

David, a man after God’s own heart, was definitely like you and me.

He found himself in his share of difficulties and dangers and so he called on God for help and in doing so, found deliverance, a deliverance only God could bring.

He sought the wisdom and guidance of God over and over again, not sure what to do in the midst of the problems he faced, understanding that God would show him the right paths to take in life, paths that would sustain him and lead him from harm. And David saw that in every circumstance when he looked for God’s counsel, God delivered it and in turn rescued him. It is little wonder why David saw God as His refuge and a very present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1).

And although David didn’t have the full Bible, he had the portions that would become the Books of Law and he sought God’s instruction regarding obedience to the commands He had given. David wanted to make sure that he and his people were not violating God’s guidelines for right living and knew God would always teach him the way to go to conform to His will.

Yes, David sought to live a blameless life and trusted in the Lord so he would not falter. He sought to avoid hanging out with people who would be a bad influence on him and tried to stay innocent before God. David fully recognized what sinful living was and wanted to avoid it. As believers in this time in life, well over 2,000 years after David, we strive to do the same. And like in David’s time, there is no shortage of temptations out there to draw us away from God and His desires toward worldly lures which drag us into sin.

So how do we stay on track? How do we stay connected to God’s help and wisdom and instruction, avoiding falling into worldly enticement?

We look for someone to keep us accountable and it goes back to God and asking Him for something we seldom ask for: examination.

For go back to this Psalm and you’ll see David asking God to look inside of him and assess his state. He says, “Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.”

David seeks to be accountable, not just to his closest and most trusted advisors, not just before the priests who were in his court, but to God, the only One who can see into the deepest depths of our hearts and minds, the only One who cannot be deceived for nothing is hidden from His sight (Hebrews 4:13).

It’s takes a bold believer to ask God to test and try them, to ask God for an examination. I think most of us would be afraid to do so for we we’re ashamed of what God might see when He gives us a checkup. We wouldn’t want to hear His diagnosis.

But maybe, just maybe, that’s our problem. We don’t ask God to examine us as we should. Just think how doing that would change the whole concept of living for us. For you and I would definitely think more on a micro-level when it comes to all the things we do, say and think, knowing that every action, word or thought would be examined by God. We would be extremely careful so that nothing would be found that would displease God. We would strive to get a good report during our checkup just as much as we do when we go to the doctor or dentist.

Yes, God, the Great Physician, is always ready to examine us. And in truth, He examines us even when we don’t ask Him and so why would we think we’re not under scrutiny just because we don’t ask?

In the final translation of God’s wisdom from this psalm, we, like David, should ask to be tested. We should hold ourselves to a standard that would leave us in a place where we would not fear His examination because we so submissively pursued His help, wisdom and instruction that all we did, said and thought were of God and His will.

We’re sinners, yes, but we don’t have to submit to sin. We can be in remission from it but only if we allow the God who made us to be the God who leads us and the God who tests us.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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