Day 53: Psalms 26:1-5
Psalm 26:1 A Psalm of David. Vindicate me, O LORD, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the LORD; I shall not slip.
Most holy God, there is none righteous, but You alone and the ones You have declared righteous by Your grace through faith. Is the Psalmist speaking in the place of Christ? Is this Christ’s prayer? Or is this the prayer of the child of God made righteous by Christ? Only the Lord Jesus Christ lived without sin, walked in perfect integrity, trusted the Lord, and never faltered into sin.
Yet, by Your perfecting grace, You have declared us righteous and called us blameless in Your sight when we trusted You. We can walk in godliness and true holiness. We can trust and obey You because we have been given the gifts of faith and repentance. You have set our feet upon a rock and caused us to be able to stand without falling before You.
We can live righteously by faith in You.
Psalm 26: 2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart.
Lord, You look on my heart. You differentiate between my thoughts and my intentions. Before a word is on my tongue, You already know what I am going to say. You can see my awareness of my sin and You have said, blessed are the poor in spirit. You see my desire for You and Your righteousness that You have put within my soul. I hunger and thirst after Your righteousness. This is what I need.
Lord, You alone have the words of eternal life. You are my strength, my song, and my salvation. Lord, please look into my heart. Search me, O God, and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the path everlasting.
Psalm 26: 3 For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth.
Jesus, You said that Your sheep hear Your voice and You know them and they follow You. You have opened our spiritual eyes and ears so that we see You and know You and love You because You have first loved us. You have enabled us to hear and to believe, to love and obey You.
Your lovingkindness is better to us than life. We begin to understand that the plans You have for us are good and not evil, to give us a future and a hope. You alone have the words of eternal life, eternal joy, eternal peace, and love. To know You is to live.
Only the Lord Jesus Christ always kept His eyes on the Father and perfectly went where He was supposed to go all the time. All the rest of us have gone astray so many times that we are amazed that God would even give attention to us
But the Lord has shown us His truth and given us a love for Him and for His word. We love Your truth and by Your grace and mercy we abide in Your truth. We love it, we abide in it, yet we need it still more and more. Teach us, O Lord, Your way of truth.
Psalm 26:4 I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, Nor will I go in with hypocrites. 5I have hated the assembly of evildoers, And will not sit with the wicked.
Lord, I have trusted You and walked with You. I have not knowingly sat with those who sinfully celebrate their idolatrous ways. Lord, I have confessed my sin and prayed for Your help to honor You alone. I have not pretended to be perfect, but have confessed my need of You. Still O Lord, I feel that I have loved this world too much. Is that not idolatry? O Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.
I have hated the assembly of evildoers, of those who gather together promoting their unbelief, their wicked schemes, their mockery of all that is good. Lord, I will not join in their wickedness, though I will seek to be like Christ who sat with tax-gatherers and sinners not as a participant, but as One who sought to love them into the kingdom of God. O Lord, I long to see the day when there are no more assemblies of the wicked when the hatred and mockery of all that is true are over and done. Lord, make us holy and rid the land of those who refuse to humble themselves and follow You. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Growing in Prayer 