Psalm 26

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Hey, hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions.
This Thursday morning, it is February 4th. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. Thanks so much for joining me this morning.
Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee and we'll pray before we get into a beautiful, but sometimes perplexing psalm, Psalm 26. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the rich blessing it is to be your people, to sit at your word, to hear your prophetic proclamations. Lord, we pray that as we sit here this morning, you would soften our hearts that we might believe that we might know who you are. In Jesus's name, amen.
All right, why don't we go ahead and jump into God's word this morning. Let's turn to the screen. Here, and real quick, if these videos are helpful to you, you know how to beat that Facebook and YouTube algorithm. Go ahead and hit the like button, subscribe, share this with a friend, let other people know that this is valuable to you. Let's go ahead and turn over this morning to Psalm 26. Psalm 26, 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. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Try my mind and my heart, for your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in your truth. I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, nor will I go in with hypocrites. I have hated the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked." Now, we need to stop real quick here.
And we need to ask ourselves, how is David able to say this? This is a Psalm of David. Vindicate me, O Lord. But we know that in David's life, he's not this perfect person. We know that he's a man after God's own heart. God himself said that. But there's different times in David's life in which we have to look at this and say, this doesn't sound right. David can't say this about his whole life. And this is where we need to sit back and recognize that David is writing both in one sense about his situation at that time, and that might be true, but I think there's a reality here that much of the Psalter, almost the entire Psalter, is prophetic. David's not just limited to himself, but at times he is taking upon his lips the very words of Jesus himself.
And so when we have struggles, how do we line this up with David's life? We realize we don't have to. That's reading the scriptures as a flat, this is one guy saying one thing about his own life, but that's not how prophecy works. Here, David is saying, Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity.
I have also trusted in the Lord. I shall not slip. Well, you know, David did slip. But you know who never slipped? You know who is tempted in every way, just as you are and just as I am, and yet never sinned? the true Son of David, Jesus Christ Himself. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Try my mind and my heart. Who was it who fulfilled these words? It was Jesus Christ who came to do the will of His Father. It was Jesus who could honestly say, try my mind and try my heart.
I have not walked with those idolatrous mortals, nor have I gone in with hypocrites. I have hated the assemblies of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. It's Jesus who's saying he's not gonna sit with the wicked. Now you might say, well hold on here, hold on, didn't Jesus go in and sit with tax collectors and sinners?
Aren't those the wicked? Well yeah, we don't even need scare quotes around that. This is wickedness. Those are people who sin, but what did Jesus do? Jesus didn't just sit with them and let them stay in their sin. What did we find the tax collector doing when he was convicted of his sin? He repented. He turned away from his sin. And in Jesus Christ, he was found righteous.
See, Jesus doesn't sit in the assembly of the wicked, but he sits in the assembly of the righteous because we're in his righteousness. If we trust in Jesus Christ, we don't need to cry out and think, oh, this isn't me. No, we can say, we can take up with ourselves that we are in the assembly of the righteous. not our own righteousness, but of Jesus's righteousness. I will wash my hands in innocence. I will go about your altar, O Lord. I will proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all your wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells."
We can think about Jesus as he is there in the temple. when he's a young boy and his parents think that he's with them and Mary and Joseph, you know, they go off and they're there a couple days away. And they freak out when they realize that Jesus isn't with them and they come back and they're looking all throughout Jerusalem.
Finally, they come to the temple and they find Jesus there and, what did you do? Why would you do this to us? And Jesus just looks at them and, didn't you know I would be about my father's business? Jesus needed to be there. He needed to be at the temple.
But even more than just Jesus when he was a boy at the temple, more than just Jesus when he was an adult and he was cleansing the temple of the tax collector, or of the money exchangers and people like that who were making his father's house instead of a house of prayer, a house of robbers. Instead, what did Jesus do? He didn't just stay there in the physical temple, but he has risen and he sits in heaven.
And there he ministers. as the lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. There he is, our eternal atonement. More than just, I will go about your altar, O Lord. He sits upon the altar as our sacrifice, as our priest forever. Do not gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men. and whose hands is a sinister scheme, and whose right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me and be merciful to me. My foot stands in an even place in the congregations. I will bless the Lord."
This is where this interchange, right, where it's this prophetic voice of Christ, and then the words of David step forward as well. We see this back and forth all throughout the Psalms, and if we don't see this... Well, I'm gonna give you a $5 theological word. Propological. This, at times, God speaking and then seamlessly the author is speaking of himself and then seamlessly the Lord is speaking again. This happens all throughout in the Psalms, all throughout all the books of prophecy.
There's times in Isaiah where you have to scratch your head and go, where did God start talking? But it's obvious as you get a few verses in that it is God talking. This happens in the book of Jeremiah. It happens in the book of Ezekiel. And so here, I think this is David crying out in verses 9 through 12. This is the psalmist David himself crying out.
Do not gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands is a sinister scheme, and whose right hand is full of bribes. And then he also cries out, but as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me and be merciful to me. Redeem me, God, buy me back. And we know that God has done that. The book of first Peter tells us that we have been redeemed, not with silver or gold, not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. My foot stands in an even place in the congregation. I will bless the Lord.
So let me ask you, in our church, we sing these Psalms. Could you sing? verses one through five, could you say that about yourself? Could you sing this whole psalm as being applied to you? Well, I think we can, because we are in Christ and Christ is in us. We sing these Psalms Christologically. We sing these Psalms knowing that they speak of Christ, knowing that we are in Christ, knowing that Christ is the fulfillment of these things. And when it's the words of Christ, we recognize it and we sing with Christ. And when it's speaking of us, we can pour out our hearts to Him. This is the beautiful thing about the Psalms. They're rich in pointing us to Jesus. and they're rich in being honest about where we are in our own souls. So the question is, will you go in the congregation and bless the Lord? Let me know down in the comments what's the best verse to summarize this section. Let me go ahead and change this up. What would you underline in your Bible? I'm gonna leave that one up to you today.
What are you called to do? Will you look to Jesus Christ as the one who has walked in perfect righteousness Will you trust in Him? And will you sing with confidence that He is the one who will vindicate you? Will you cry out to God? Maybe this is your first time watching, or maybe you've watched for a while, and you've held off on a lot of this. God's been pricking at your heart. But maybe it's time for you to cry out, Lord, redeem me. God, buy me back by the blood of Jesus.
Why don't we go ahead and pray this morning? Lord, we thank you that we do have one who walks in perfect righteousness and integrity. We thank you for your care for us. We thank you for these prophetic words. We pray, Lord, that you would let us walk in confidence that Jesus is our priest and that we have been your blood-bought saints. In Jesus' name, amen. May the Lord bless you today. May you look to Jesus Christ, and as you find your identity in Jesus, may you have hope and joy for today. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.