Psalm 26

SLIDE 1 Turn to Psalm 26. Like Psalm 25, all we know about this psalm is that it was written by David. We don’t know when he wrote it or anything concerning the situation he was in. Perhaps it was Saul who was trying to kill him and spreading lies about him. Perhaps it was written much later when his son Absalom started a coup. All we know is David felt distress and in that distress he called out to God convinced that God will help him.

In this psalm, David makes three requests.

SLIDE 2 First, David asks that God would vindicate him.

1 Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered. (Psalm 26:1)

Vindicate is one of those words that we have a good idea what it means, but it’s not one we use very often if ever. It’s a term that comes from the courtroom and refers to a decision made by a judge in a legal matter.

SLIDE 3 Turn to Exodus 2. In the passage we’re going to read, Moses sees two Hebrew slaves fighting and steps in to help settle their dispute.

11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” (Exodus 2:11-14)

SLIDE 4 When Moses tried to intervene, one of the men asked who had given Moses the authority to make a decision about who was in the right and who was in the wrong. Who had made Moses a judge over them? The man used the same word David uses here in Psalm 26. “Judge me, Lord.” Moses may not have had the authority to be a judge between the two arguing Hebrews, but God does have that authority, so David called on God to judge him.

David clearly believed himself to be innocent. In the very next phrase he declared that he had lived a blameless life. That does not mean that David was claiming to be sinless. We are well aware of some of David’s sins even as David was. In Psalm 51, a psalm written after the prophet Nathan came to confront David over his adultery with Bathsheba, David said: SLIDE 5

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. (Psalm 51:3)

SLIDE 6 So, David isn’t saying that he’s never sinned, he’s just claiming to be innocent of the charges brought against him in this situation. Thus, when David asks for a judgment from God, he’s not just asking God to make a ruling, he is – as the NIV and others translations put it – asking God to declare his innocence. “Vindicate me. Defend me from these accusations and maintain my innocence.”

I think that David rightly understands that it doesn’t matter what he say about himself. He can defend himself and declare his innocence all day. What matters is what others say and even more what God says.

I think it’s just human nature to defend ourselves when people say something negative about us, especially when we know what they say is wrong. We want to prove our innocence and show that we are in the right. But I think we need to follow the example of Jesus.

We’re told that when Jesus was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin that they were looking for false evidence against him but Jesus didn’t refute them. He allowed them to refute themselves. Each of the false witnesses contradicted the one before him. Later, when Jesus was brought before Pilate the chief priests and elders made the accusations. We read that Pilate marveled when Jesus didn’t defend himself. Jesus remained silent and allowed God to defend him.

It’s a difficult lesson I’ve learned over the years. Sometimes I do better than others, but the policy is to keep my mouth shut and take it to God as David did and ask God to take care of it. The question is whether we can trust God to do that. Do we believe that God will take care of us when others are spreading lies about us? Will he protect our reputation? Will God either make sure the truth is known? And if no one ever learns the truth, will God take care of us? Paul told the Thessalonians: SLIDE 7

6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. (2 Thessalonians 1:6-7)

David believed. After asking God to prove he had been in the right, David declared his confidence in God. SLIDE 8

I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. (Psalm 26:1b, NLT)

David believed that God would take care of him. He didn’t need to defend himself because God would do it for him.

SLIDE 9 The second request David makes is that God would test him.

2 Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; 3 for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness. (Psalm 26:2-3)

David asks God to test him. That seems like an odd request. Why would David want God to test him? David is asking God to examine him and prove what he’s saying is correct. He wants God to test his heart and mind. Literally, David says to test his kidneys and heart. In that day, the kidneys were thought of as being the seat of the emotions and the heart was the place where moral decisions were made. The heart makes sense, but I’ve never thought of my kidneys as too much control of my emotions. David wants God to test not just his actions, but his intentions.

The word David uses for “test” refers to purifying a metal such as gold to see if it is pure. When referring to people, it refers to the testing of motives. It’s not just what we do, that’s important, but our motivation as well. It’s possible to do all the right things for all the wrong reasons.

In Malachi, God tells us to test him. Talking about our giving, God says: SLIDE 10

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (Malachi 3:10)

God is telling the people that they think they won’t have enough for themselves if they give to God. They’re already just getting by. They didn’t have anything extra to give. But God says that if they obey him and tithe that he will make sure they have enough. “And if you don’t believe it,” God says, “test me and see if what I say isn’t true.”

SLIDE 11 David wants God to test him and prove that what he says is true. Again, it’s not enough for David to say he’s blameless, he needs God to say it and the only way for God to say is to examine his mind and heart. If what he was saying wasn’t right, David wanted to know it.

I talked to man this week that spent the past few years in prison on the other side of Nashville. He said he was a Christian before he was arrested, but that God had shown him during those years spent in prison how he had strayed. He added that God corrects those he loves. That’s what Hebrews says as well. SLIDE 12

. . . the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. (Hebrews 12:6)

SLDIE 13 If he was not doing what was right, David wanted God to show him.

David mentions again the “loving kindness” or “faithfulness” of God. David talked about the loving kindness of God in Psalm 35 as well. It’s the Hebrew word “chesed.” The word is found almost two-hundred-and-fifty times in the Old Testament. David says he has remembered God’s promise to be faithful and that’s he has lived his life trusting in the faithfulness of God. That’s why he goes to God when his name is being slandered. He trusts God to take care of it.

In verses 4 and 5 David describes the character of his enemies. They are deceitful, hypocrites, evildoers, and wicked. And David says he doesn’t have anything to do with them. He doesn’t spend time with them or keep company with them.

4 I do not sit with the deceitful, nor do I associate with hypocrites. 5 I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked. (Psalm 26:4-5)

While this is a good example to follow, we need to understand what it means. David is not saying he is never around such people. We can’t help but be around those kinds of people. Paul told the Corinthians: SLIDE 14

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. (1 Corinthians 5:9-10)

SLIDE 15 The world is filled with people who don’t worship God and thus don’t live according to the commands of God. We would have to move to another planet in order not to be around them. We understand how impossible that would be. What David is referring to is having people who don’t take God’s laws seriously as your best friends and advisors.

There’s a Spanish proverb that says:

Show me your friends and I will tell you what you are.

Some have modified the saying to:

Show me your friends and I will tell you your future.

They are both correct because we tend to become like the people we spend time with. Solomon wrote: SLIDE 16

24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, 25 or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. (Proverbs 22:24-25)

And Paul wrote: SLIDE 17

Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)

SLIDE 18 Who we spend time with affects our ability to follow God. If we constantly spend time with those who don’t care about God or pleasing him, it will be harder to for us to please him.

In his book Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis wrote about this temptation and what we should do. He said:

Many people have a very strong desire to meet celebrated or “important” people, including those whom they disapprove, from curiosity or vanity. It gives them something to talk or even to write about. It is felt to confer distinction if the great, though odious, man recognizes you in the street. . . . But I am inclined to think a Christian would be wise to avoid, where he decently can, any meeting with people who are bullies, lascivious, cruel, dishonest, spiteful and so forth.

Not because we are “too good” for them. In a sense because we are not good enough. We are not good enough to cope with all the temptations, nor clever enough to cope with all the problems, which an evening spent in such society produces. The temptation is to condone . . . by our words, looks and laughter, to “consent”. . . .

We shall hear vile stories told as funny; not merely licentious stories but (to me far more serious and less noticed) stories which the teller could not be telling unless he was betraying someone’s confidence. We shall hear infamous detraction of the absent, often disguised as pity or humor. Things we hold sacred will be mocked. . . .

What makes this contact with wicked people so difficult is that to handle the situation successfully requires not merely good intentions, even with humility and courage thrown in; it may call for social and even intellectual talents which God has not given us. It is therefore not self-righteousness but mere prudence to avoid it when we can. The Psalmists were not quite wrong when they described the good man as avoiding “the seat of the scornful” and fearing to consort with the ungodly lest he should “eat of” (shall we say, laugh at, admire, approve, justify?) “such things as please them”. As usual in their attitude, with all its dangers, there is a core of very good sense. “Lead us not into temptation” often means, among other things, “Deny me those gratifying invitations, those highly interesting contacts, that participation in the brilliant movements of our age, which I so often, at such risk, desire.”

Lewis notes that instead of spending time with those we know will lead us astray that it would be much better to avoid such situations in the first place.

David insists that he has stayed away from those who would lead him away from God. He instead spent his time with those who worship and fear God.

6 I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, Lord, 7 proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds. 8 Lord, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells. (Psalm 26:6-8)

Washing your hands wasn’t because of germs, but a symbol of religious purity. You may remember that the Pharisees condemned Jesus for not washing his hands before eating. It had become a tradition to wash hands before eating. They didn’t do it to wash off dirt as much as for this symbol of religious purity.

There’s another story of washing hands in the New Testament that you may remember. When Pilate finally gave into the demands of the religious leaders he washed his hands. SLIDE 19

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” (Matthew 27:24)

SLIDE 20 Pilate was saying that he wasn’t responsible for Jesus’ death. He was innocent. We would have a different opinion, but he washed his hands to symbolize his innocence. Likewise, David was saying that he was innocent. He was not guilty of the sins committed by his enemies. He wasn’t deceitful. He wasn’t a hypocrite – those who pretend to be what they are not. Nor did he practice evil and wickedness.

Instead, he took joy in going to the house of God to worship. At that time the house of God was a tent. It was the tabernacle originally built at Mount Sinai after God had delivered his people from Egypt. Once in the Promised Land, the tabernacle was set up in Shiloh, not quite halfway between Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee. After David became king he had the tabernacle moved to Jerusalem.

David says he joined others in worshiping God and declaring his praises.

Think of the reasons some people go to church. Some go out of habit. Some go out of obligation. Some go because they think it will make God happy and then he’ll bless them. Some go because it’s culturally appropriate to do. People in the community will think less of them if they don’t go. Hopefully people come in order to worship God and thank him for all he’s done in their lives. That’s why David went to worship at the tabernacle. He went to sing God’s praise and declare the wondrous things God had done. It was not a ritual or an obligation, it was a privilege and he loved to go.

David asks that God would vindicate him and test him.

SLIDE 21 The third request David makes is that God would deliver him.

9 Do not take away my soul along with sinners, my life with those who are bloodthirsty, 10 in whose hands are wicked schemes, whose right hands are full of bribes. 11 I lead a blameless life; deliver me and be merciful to me. (Psalm 26:9-11)

David did not want to be confused with those who did not fear God. He could not stop the hypocrites and evildoers from joining those who worshiped God at the tabernacle. However, he could help from becoming like them. So, David asked God to deliver him from them and from their sins. David asks that God not lump him in with them.

Jesus told a couple of parables about the mixing of the saved and the wicked in the world today. It is often difficult to tell those who fear God apart from those who only pretend to do so. These who pretend to fear God know all the right answers and can say the right things, but it doesn’t come from the heart and doesn’t show in their actions. But Jesus said the day would come when they would be separated from the righteous. The tares will be separated from the wheat and the goats will be separated from the sheep. David did not want to be mixed in the ungodly. “Don’t sweep me away with the wicked!”

We need to be aware of the evil influences of the world around us. We need to be careful of those who profess to love God but only use religion as a cover-up for their sins. To remain faithful, we must also ask God to be merciful to us and help us maintain our integrity.

David then ends with this declaration.

12 My feet stand on level ground; in the great congregation I will praise the Lord. (Psalm 26:12)

I’ve never experienced an earthquake and I wouldn’t want to. I can’t imagine trying to stand when the ground is moving and shaking. David says he stands on level or solid ground. The solid ground is his trust in God. God makes him able to stand firm and not move.

Jesus compared those who build their lives on his word to someone who builds their house on the rock while those who ignore his words are like those who build on sand. God’s word is a firm foundation for our lives.

Frederick Nolan was fleeing for his life from his enemies during a time of religious persecution in North Africa. Pursued by his enemies over hill and valley, he had no place to hide. Nolan finally fell exhausted into the mouth of a small cave. Expecting his enemies to soon find him, he began to pray. As he waited for his pursuers to arrive, he noticed a spider weaving a web. Within minutes the spider had woven a beautiful web across the mouth of the cave. The pursuers arrived and wondered if Nolan was hiding in the cave. But when they saw the unbroken spider web they concluded it was impossible for him to have entered the cave without disturbing the web. So his pursuers went on, and Nolan's life was spared. Having escaped, he wrote these words:

Where God is, a spider’s web is like a wall.

Where God is not, a wall is like a spider’s web.

God is able to provide for us and to deliver us. He is a wall of protection for us. David trusted in God to vindicate and deliver him and through his trust in God he was saved. God remains a constant place of refuge and shelter for those who place their trust in him.