Wholehearted

I love that I get to study and preach and teach the Bible for a living. There’s nothing like it. This, in its 66 books, is a matchless blessing.

I love the book of Psalms in particular. It comforts me and convicts me. It teaches me to pray and instructs my praise. It informs my thoughts and corrects my thinking. It confronts my sin and steadies my hope in the LORD.

Psalm 26 is a different kind of psalm, and yet it’s helpful and instructive in its own right.

Let me tell you, it’s really worked on me as I’ve been studying it. I’ve learned from these short twelve verses, and I trust that you will, too. The LORD has a way of using His Word to teach us and conform us to the image of His Son. That’s why we preach this book and no other.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Psalm 26. If you’re able and willing, stand with me for the reading of God’s Word:

Psalm 26 NIV

Of David. 1 Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered. 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. 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. 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. 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. 12 My feet stand on level ground; in the great congregation I will praise the Lord.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

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In Psalm 26, David is asking the LORD Yahweh to judge him based on his own integrity and the LORD’s faithfulness, David’s hatred of evil and his love of worship.

Right out the gate, in the first stanza of the song, the first sentence of his prayer, David is asking the LORD to judge him, to set him in the clear, to show that he stands under the LORD Yahweh’s approval.

David’s enemies (and even some of his “friends”) may criticize, berate, and condemn David. But that’s not David’s primary concern.

If you’ve ever been spoken of in an unkind manner, if you sense that people are talking about you behind your back, if you’ve ever been the topic of conversation at the cafe or the subject of a group text, you’re in good company.

David doesn’t worry so much about his reputation with his enemies or his so-called friends.

David is appealing to the LORD Yahweh, the covenant God, his God for a true verdict. David’s enemies won’t give him a fair hearing; they’ve already made up their mind about David. So now, David cries out: “Yahweh, be my judge!”

In the early church, the apostle Paul faced a similar situation.

At Corinth, some there were evaluating Paul and his ministry in terms of externals. “He’s not that impressive, really. He’s not very charismatic.” 2 Cor 10:10 “For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”

Paul does what David did many years before. Paul places himself in the judgement of the LORD. He says,

I Cor 4.3-4 “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.”

David appeals to the LORD as His judge; the LORD is the One who would vindicate him.

In Psalm 26, David is asking the LORD Yahweh to judge him based on his own integrity and the LORD’s faithfulness, David’s hatred of evil and his love of worship.

Live with wholehearted integrity

What sticks out immediately as I read the NIV translation of Psalm 26 is the word “blameless”. You see it in verse 1 and again in verse 11.

The psalms don’t necessarily build on each other in the way other books do. Each psalm stands by itself without context—what comes before or after—having much, if any, bearing.

The psalms are a little different, but that doesn’t mean we can’t glean some understanding and insight into David’s line of thinking from other psalms.

Just last week, in Psalm 25, David referred to his sins and iniquities, his rebellion. David refers to himself as a sinner. We know that David doesn’t believe himself to be blameless in the sense of sinless.

So it caught me off-guard when I read Psalm 26:1 and Psalm 26:11.

David writes, “I have led a blameless life.” Really?

And again, David writes, “I lead a blameless life.” Come on, David. Are you for real?

When I thought by blameless David meant “sinless”, he lost me. But that’s not what David means here.

In fact, Psalm 25 translates the same word as integrity.

Psalm 25:21 NIV

21 May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, Lord, is in you.

There are several versions of the Bible that take the word “blameless” in Psalm 26:1, 11 and translate it as integrity:

Vindicate me, O Lord, For I have walked in my integrity OR because I have lived with integrity.

David is simply saying he has an undivided heart; David’s heart is really the Lord’s, however badly he sometimes lets Him down.

In Psalm 25, David can admit his sin (he’s not blameless) and at the same time plead integrity.

The word is tom in Hebrew. The sense is “to be whole, complete.” David is tom, that is, he’s “all there.”

David’s not touting some level of perfection, but an overall consistency. He doesn’t claim a sinless record, but a godly disposition.

David’s integrity is possible because he has trusted in the LORD and has not faltered.

David has been loyal to God, with a lifestyle of personal integrity. His faith and trust in God was unshaken. His trust in the LORD has not slipped away.

The foundation of his integrity is his trust in the LORD. What a strong basis for scrutiny! “Judge me, LORD; I’ve put my trust in You and haven’t faltered.”

Based on his trust in the LORD—his lifestyle of integrity and faith in Yahweh—David says, Psalm 26:2 “Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;”

This is what “sits below the visibility line.” This is something only the LORD can test. This is what is internal, as opposed to external actions that others are able to see.

David’s heart and mind are known by the LORD. For David, that’s enough. That’s what matters.

We may never convince anyone else of the condition of our heart and mind, but the One who formed us and made us sees us.

He knows.

Psalm 139:23–24 NIV

23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

To me it seems a little like one of those confusing conversations you have from time to time. “I know that you know that I know you know, you know.”

When the LORD tests David’s heart and mind, examining him, David knows the LORD knows what David knows.

David’s trusting the LORD who knows him. There’s certain comfort there, don’t you think?

In what seems to me like the key verse of the psalm, David confesses:

Psalm 26:3 NIV

3 for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.

This is monumentally important. For David, it’s not his integrity or his blamelessness. It’s the fact that he has put his trust in the LORD and that he’s mindful of the LORD’s unfailing love and faithfulness.

Trust wholeheartedly in The LORD’s Faithfulness

The LORD’s covenant love—unfailing love—is what directs David’s living. The LORD’s faithfulness is what he trusts. The LORD’s faithfulness is where he hangs his hat.

Like a goldfish who never knows anything outside the bowl it swims in, the LORD’s faithfulness is the water in which David swims.

David has lived/walked in integrity within the realm and sphere of the LORD’s faithfulness.

Note, David does not say here that he himself has been faithful. David is not depending upon his own faithfulness. David says he has walked in the LORD’s faithfulness.

“I have been enjoying your faithfulness to me all along the way.”

David is claiming that he has remained consistent, but only because God’s faithfulness to him has kept him so.

Like the goldfish who (if he could talk) would say, “I’ve lived relying on this water you provide; this is where and how I’ve been swimming.”

David asking the LORD Yahweh to be his judge would be a fool’s errand if David was clinging to anything but the steadfast love and mercy and grace of the God who keeps His covenant to a thousand generations.

David is pleading his case, and if you ask me, as of verse 3, he’s proved it. That would settle it, but David wants to make clear that he is walking in integrity, distancing himself from certain stuff and living closer to what he should.

Verses 4-5 sound a lot like Psalm 1 (give it a read sometime). The psalmist makes an important distinction between the righteous and the wicked.

Psalm 1:1–2 NIV

1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Learn what to Hate

There are people David shuns. He does not sit with the deceitful. He doesn’t associate with hypocrites. He abhors the assembly of evildoers. He refuses to sit with the wicked.

He’s not hanging out with them or enjoying their company/friendship. He’s keeping himself from “those people” on purpose.

Anytime anyone says anything like what David says here— “I refuse to sit with the wicked” —there’s someone who objects.

They say, “But Jesus associated with sinful people!” That’s true. But Jesus is Jesus and you are, well…you.

Alexander Maclaren clarifies this for us:

None comes so near to sinful man as the sinless Christ. And if He had not been truly separate from sinners, He would never have been near enough to redeem them.

We can safely imitate His free friendship [with them]. How else did He earn His glorious name “Friend of sinners” if not by spending time with them. We can (and should) imitate His friendship, if we imitate His remoteness from their evil.

Jesus loved sinners and even ate with them (!), but He also always called them to repent and turn from their sinfulness. He didn’t participate in their evil deeds, and that’s important.

Be their friend (if you can), but don’t be one of them.

David’s not sitting with them or associating himself with them. David knows something to be true: 1 Cor 15:33 “Bad company corrupts good character.”

David wants to make clear his separation from the assembly of evildoers. He abhors them—that sounds stronger than “hate”, doesn’t it? But there it is...

The separation from that crowd can lead to loneliness. Just ask Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 15:17 NIV

17 I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation.

There’s a certain cost to pay for keeping yourself from certain groups.

The apostle Peter says they won’t understand why you don’t drown yourself in the same debauchery they crave; it drives them nuts and they get so angry that they malign and badmouth you.

I Peter 4:4 “They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.”

Part of walking in integrity means you hate the assembly of evil-doers.

Davis puts it like this: “Holiness requires hatred.”

“Holiness requires hatred.”

“God’s people need Psalm 26. We are so smothered in our culture and in the church with sugary pronouncements about needing to “accept” everyone that we may lose the hostility we’re meant to keep!

There’s an expression some southerners use when someone wants to get in the good graces of someone else—they speak of ‘kissin’ up’ to them.

David says he has not done that; he has not cozied up to or kissed-up to folks who hate God, God’s laws, and God’s people.”

This is what David hates. And he’s right to hate such things. That doesn’t sound very nice or churchy—at least not culturally acceptable—but it is very Biblical. “DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO THE PATTERN OF THIS WORLD!”

We are to be salt and light. That is, we are to be different! There has to be contact and contrast. We can’t avoid them, but we don’t adopt their behavior. We must be different.

The core of David’s argument is his claim to abhor the assembly of evildoers—to hate that assembly and to identify with another.

This isn’t a matter of taste, but of spiritual alignment. David is declaring his allegiance.

The Church is people—a certain segment of people, these people and not those people.

Learn What to Love

In verses 6-8, David, states his affection. His devotion.

David shuns the fellowship of evil, but loves the fellowship of worshippers.

He prepares himself for the gathering (v. 6) in some way similar to Moses and Aaron and Aaron’s sons washing their hands and feet before serving at the altar or tent of meeting. David prepares himself before he goes joyfully to the LORD’s altar.

Psalm 26:6 NIV

6 I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, Lord,

David celebrates while declaring the LORD’s praise and deeds (v. 7). The psalms teach us that praise done properly centers on the LORD’s saving deeds, not on the feelings and experience of the worshiper.

Psalm 26:7 NIV

7 proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds.

His appetite and craving is for the LORD’s house. He loves the house of the LORD, the place of the LORD’s glory and presence.

Psalm 26:8 NIV

8 Lord, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells.

Far better than a temple or tabernacle, building or tent, we have Jesus. When Jesus came, He brought down to us this glory and presence.

John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling [tabernacled] among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

David loves the house of the LORD and longs to be there over anywhere else. David wouldn’t conceive of being elsewhere.

Of the two assemblies, David will choose to gather before the LORD and worship the LORD with the LORD’s people.

I listen to the excitement my children have on Saturday nights. They are so excited to “go to church”, that is, to gather with the church to fellowship and to worship in word and in song.

I love their excitement and I pray it never disappears or wanes.

There is nothing like the gathering together of the LORD’s people to worship. David knows it’s a much, much better alternative than the assembly of evildoers.

He doesn’t want to be united with the bloodthirsty, those in whose hands are wicked schemes, whose right hands are full of bribes.

David wants to be certain his soul and life aren’t swept away with them; he doesn’t want to be gathered together with them, just to be thrown out with them, gathered together in bundles to be burned (Matthew 13:30).

He has so much love for the LORD’s house and for the assembly of the LORD’s people, David can’t envision his life apart from either.

And when his life on earth is over, he wants to be with the LORD.

> At the end of his psalm, David returns to the theme of his life—blameless, integritous.

Psalm 26:1 NIV

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

And now,

Psalm 26:11 NIV

11 I lead a blameless life; deliver me and be merciful to me.

From “I have led” to “I am, I will lead” a life of integrity. If he meant his life was sinless/perfect, he wouldn’t ask the LORD to deliver him or be merciful to him. But he does.

David knows full well that he can walk in integrity, live with integrity ONLY with the LORD’s help, redemption, and mercy.

“I have walked in whole-heartedness and I intend to go on living like that.”

This is his resolve. David will continue to live how he’s been living—in reliance upon the LORD, choosing to keep himself from one group, opting instead to be with the LORD’s people.

David’s just going to keep on going. It’s rather simple, but sometimes that’s the call. Most of the time, that’s what is required.

“Sometimes we conquer, not in any brilliant fashion, but by continuing.” -George Matheson

There was some Christian fellow in the early centuries of the church who was plowing a field with his ox. Some excited, super-charged Christian brother came by who was apparently struck by the any-time-now Second Coming of Jesus. He asked our plowing friend what he would do if he knew Jesus would return, say, in the next hour.

The man paused, looked down at the field, pointed, and said, “I’d finish this furrow.”

Maybe we need this realization. “Sometimes we conquer, not in any brilliant fashion, but by continuing.”

Sometimes the call is simply to go on walking in integrity.

To be wholehearted people.

To shun evil.

To love the LORD and worship Him body, mind, soul, and strength.

To depend daily on the LORD’s faithfulness.

When your trust and reliance is in the LORD, you can have a certain confidence. What David writes, the one who trusts in the LORD can also say with full integrity:

Psalm 26:12 NIV

12 My feet stand on level ground; in the great congregation I will praise the Lord.