Untitled Sermon

Psalm 26 NASB

A Psalm of David. Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity; And I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. For Thy lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Thy truth. I do not sit with deceitful men, Nor will I go with pretenders. I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the wicked. I shall wash my hands in innocence, And I will go about Thine altar, O Lord, That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, And declare all Thy wonders. O Lord, I love the habitation of Thy house, And the place where Thy glory dwells. Do not take my soul away along with sinners, Nor my life with men of bloodshed, In whose hands is a wicked scheme, And whose right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; Redeem me, and be gracious to me. My foot stands on a level place; In the congregations I shall bless the Lord.

A Life of Integrity

 – Psalm 26.

Introduction

At the very outset, let me ask you a question before we meditate on God’s word. How many of you here, who are in this service right now, can firmly say that “I have lived a life of integrity.” It is not a question that begs you to answer publicly. But as you reflect within yourself, can you say to yourself, “I have lived a life of integrity.” (Pause)

This statement has hit me hard personally in the past two weeks as I meditate on Psalm 26, where it begs me to answer whether I have lived a life of integrity or not, before God and before others. Psalm 26 gives us a glimpse of what a person with a life of integrity looks like.

So, this afternoon, I have entitled our meditation “A Life of Integrity.”

Let me read Psalm 26 to you,

1 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.

Let us look at the background of this Psalm in short.

Background

This Psalm is somewhat hard to understand because of the nature of the Psalm itself. Why do I say that? It is because David sounds so confident about his relationship with God. You will understand how perfect the psalmists sounds in this Psalm when you read it by yourself. It seems as if the Psalmist, David, is a person who does everything right in life, a holy person, unblemished in the sight of the world and the presence of God himself. However, we should understand the setting or the context in reading this Psalm.

Most Bible commentators of this Psalm agree that this Psalm is a psalm of a person falsely accused by someone or by a group of persons, which is why David wrote this Psalm. What David is trying to do here is to plead his innocence before the LORD for the false accusations against him.

So, this is the setting of the Psalm. Once again, let me repeat, David pleads before the LORD for the false accusations against him.

So, what does the life of the one being falsely accused look like in front of our God? There are three things that we can draw from this Psalm, apart from the many implications:

A Life of Integrity is:

1. A life of consistency.

2. A life of confession.

3. A Life without compromise.

1. A life of consistency

When we read, verse 1 it says like this, “Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity; And I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.” David here pleads before the LORD that he has kept his integrity. He kept his integrity in the past and the present as well. David trusted in the LORD without wavering. He is consistent in his walk with the LORD. In Verse 2, David is trying to make a case that he is not lying, saying, examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. As if he is saying to God, if you think I’m lying, examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. That is the confidence that he has regarding his consistency in his relationship with God. In verse 11, it says, “But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity.” This verse is interesting to note that he is not talking only about the past and the present consistency of his relationship; however, it is also futuristic. He is consistent not only then and now but even in the future as well. A life of integrity is anchored in the consistency one shows in his or her relationship with the LORD. A life of integrity is a life of consistency.

2. A Life of Confession

There are two types of confessions that the Psalmist paints here, one is,

a) A Confessions of God’s Love. In verse 3, he says, For Thy lovingkindness is before my eyes. He confesses that God’s love for him is always before him. It is not behind him nor far away from him. Here, he understands the consistency of God’s Love for him. He confesses how much God loves him.

b) A Confession about God. In Verse 7, it says, “That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, And declare all your wonders.” Now here, he is not only confessing of God’s love for him, but here he is confessing about his God. He is giving thanks to God for his goodness with his voice and declaring God’s wondrous works not only to himself but also to others.

So you see, a life of integrity is a life of confession, confession of God’s goodness, and declaring God’s wondrous works to others.

3. A life without compromise

Let us look at verses 4 and 5. “I do not sit with deceitful men, nor will I go with pretenders. I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the wicked.”

These two verses show that David does not compromise his life at the expense of his relationship with his God. To him, what is white is white and what is black is black. He does not like to entertain himself in the grey zone or a middle ground. He does not want to compromise any wicked thing at the expense of his relationship with his beloved God.

Even in verses 9 and 10, he speaks of the same. He says and pleads to the LORD. “Do not take my soul away along with sinners, Nor my life with men of bloodshed, In whose hands is a wicked scheme, And whose right hand is full of bribes.”

This sums up his life as a believer in God. He does not want to mingle with things he should not be associating. He wants to be on God’s side rather on the opposite side.

So you see, a Life of Integrity is also anchored in life without compromise.               

Reflection and application

So, when we look at ourselves, do we see our lives in these three anchors of integrity, A life of Consistency, A Life of Confession. And a life without compromise.

Looking at Christians today, rarely do we see that we are living a life of integrity. Integrity is not a treasured virtue at all, and it is degrading from our lives. And it starts with me first as I meditate on this Psalm.

 Just imagine if we don’t have integrity in our lives. What will happen to us when things go wrong in life because we have done something we shouldn’t have done, and others are accusing us of the things we did that were not pleasing in the sight of God. Imagine yourself in that position. Can we go to God and plead before him in innocence? No, we can’t because we haven’t walked a life of integrity.

Billy Graham, When asked in the sunset years of his ministry what he would like to be remembered for, would often say integrity. I want to be remembered for having integrity.”

Billy Graham was not perfect at all, but he depended on the LORD to sustain him to live a life of integrity. Paul says in Philippians 3:13, “I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.” Even Paul says that He is not perfect, but he strives for perfection.

And when we talk about integrity, we can’t ignore our LORD Jesus, can we? He has lived a life of integrity. He is a prime example for all of us to follow. He has done it, and he has shown us how it can be done. In John 14:12, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the father.” If you have a relationship with Jesus, one of the most extraordinary things you will be able to do in this lifetime is living a life of integrity and be rewarded for it.

Let this Psalm be a reminder that we should live a life of integrity while we are on this earth so that through it, we can glorify God and be a blessing to others.

Therefore, remember that a life of integrity has three anchors:

1. A life of consistency.

2. A life of confession.

3. A Life without compromise.

For the Glory of the LORD, Amen.