Book of Psalms - Psa. 26, vv. 3-6

Well good morning, I guess we'll go ahead and get started. It's been a minute told Katie I was just gonna get up here and say as I was saying. Because it was 12 weeks ago at this point since I've done Sunday school is we Ben and I have started splitting it down the middle since he felt called to preach and stuff and We were gonna do six weeks him six weeks up me and then What happened was it was I was doing adults or he was doing the adults.

I was doing the teens for Sunday and Wednesday and then we were gonna switch and I was gonna do the adults and he was gonna do the teens but he got this idea that maybe instead of Me doing teens and him doing adults and then switching we should do like half and half I do the adults and Sunday and he does the teens on Sunday and then on Wednesday We'd switch and I'd be doing the teens.

You're already confused. I was getting confused. So instead of us just doing teens for six weeks and just doing adults for six weeks You'd have a Sunday and a Wednesday where you switch. So when he made that decision he was like, so.

And he kind of got this look on his face like I knew what he was doing. He was like, so which one do you want? And I was like, oh so I'm not gonna be teaching one of them for like 12 weeks and he's like, yeah I was like, okay, go ahead and keep doing your Sunday school stuff and he said, okay, so it's been a while.

And we stopped right in the middle of a psalm last time so It's in the archives. Just go watch it listen to it. But I'll do a quick recap. We are in Psalm 26. So when I started teaching Sunday school here.

It was because it was out of necessity really brother Bill Nichols passed away and He had just started the Psalms and so brother Bill did Psalm chapter 1 and Then he went on to be with the Lord and I've picked it up ever since and so we are now It's been a while.

So yeah, we haven't been going very fast through these songs but we're in chapter 26 and If you if you want all the details go listen to the archive. But essentially we walked through 2nd Samuel chapters 3 4 for some context.

Because it is often thought that this psalm was written after the events of that. So real quick recap of those events.

You have.

Joe ab Kind of wheeling and dealing to kill some of David's enemies and David's not happy about it Because he has tried to stay above reproach in the assuming of the throne.

So.

When when his teammates come and say hey we killed.

Saul's son.

He killed them for it and Every time they tried to go outside of his commands. He was like now you're in trouble I know you went after my enemies, but you're in trouble now and Part of it was that he wanted to do it entirely God's way.

He had a complete trust in the Lord that even though he had been Anointed King It was going to be brought about in God's timing and by God's methods and that he wouldn't have to go and take the throne Even though in man's eyes he had all the right to do so.

So we have another instance of that in Samuel chapter 3 and 4 and Like what happens anytime there's a change of power there are some people who like it and there are some people that don't and We assume based on David's prayer that he's essentially Appealing to the Lord because there are people that do not like David taking power and they're not happy about it.

So he has been in the eyes of some accused of some wrongdoing is if he's just another tyrant right now we've got ourselves another tyrant, but he knows he's not and So we read through all that and then we got to the first two verses of this psalm and We saw that David starts off By asking the Lord to judge him, which is a pretty big deal Ask God to judge you and so we'll we'll we'll go ahead and read the first two verses again Judge me O Lord for I have walked in my in mine integrity.

I Have trusted also in the Lord. Therefore I shall not slide And we broke down some of the words for integrity the words for I have walked Probably I have walked was one of the cooler things we learned we found that I have walked if you if you look at the Hebrew word for it, which is halak and You break down what each letter in the Hebrew means.

It meant.

Behold shepherds palm and We talked about when we are Walking with the Lord. David has preached this a lot You hold on to God's hand like that's how you walk with the Lord is like you are In a spiritual sense holding on to Jesus's hand.

So the words for I have walked means behold shepherds hand. She's pretty cool. Integrity meant cross-blood. Now the This is each letter. So like in in the Hebrew The word means something and then each letter means something and when you break down What the letters mean they add to the meaning of the word and so If you did that's what we did we just broke down the meaning of each letter.

Integrity was cross-blood.

And.

Cross-blood thorn. And it just went to show that Integrity comes. The source of it comes from the sacrifice of Jesus. And so we went through all that. We talked about how he said I have trusted also in the Lord.

I shall not slide. Trust Is but which is bait tet jet which those letters mean house surrounding fence or a boundary. And when you are trusting in the Lord you are acting according to the boundaries he Said when you go out and you drive your car.

You.

Trust going 75 miles an hour down the road. Even though there's someone else doing 75 miles an hour down the road just a foot or two the opposite direction like We don't worry about it because we are trusting the boundaries that are set.

You know the the lines even though people can go outside the boundaries. There's an element of trust that you'll be okay staying within the boundaries. And so that that's gonna bring us to verse 2, which is examine me Oh Lord and prove me try my reins in my heart.

And the word for prove meant to can continue protect and reveal and the word for try I Meant to smelt or refine and so it was as if David was saying You know protect and reveal the truth. For here are these people who are accusing me of wrongdoing?

I'm asking you to look at my insides because they can't do that. And maybe it looks bad on me on the outside because my people went and killed those people. So I'm asking you to judge me on the inside to let that come out and be proved or revealed let the truth come out and So at the same time he's asking the Lord to try him which is to refine his thoughts and feelings about it because if you Think about it if if you are being wrongly accused of something and What do you often want to do if you're?

Wrongly What do you guys think? Seek justice in what way like you want to prove that you're innocent, right? And so you would want to defend yourself you would want to set the record straight and What has David done up until this point it has been He's he's always trusted in the Lord and his methodology.

He hasn't sought to obtain the throne under his own power so it's as if he's like Refine my feelings on this and keep me in that mode. You know, I I'm gonna trust that you will reveal the truth. I'm not gonna try to fix it myself.

I Dealt with my people and they can see all right. He punished the people that did this. So he's he's declaring that I wash my hands of that scenario. But I can only do so much. I can't make people believe me.

So that's the part that I need God to do for me. And so Now we're in verse 3 and that's where we'll pick up. So if you want if you really want to get into the details of verses 1 and 2 you have to go Listen to the recording but verse 3 He says for thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in my truth.

Now I have as of late felt extremely loved By my wife Katie.

In a in a.

You know, you know you feel loved by somebody. But then sometimes it just seems like they're going the extra mile and really making you feel special. That has been Katie last couple of weeks. Told her this last night.

I have not done as good a job at that as she has for me, but She has she's gone out of her way to make me feel appreciated and important. Has someone ever done that for you. What does that do to you when you feel like they were they're just going extra to make you feel appreciated or important.

Okay makes you. I love that. It started with it makes you want right? It makes you it changes a desire in you and Then that want is followed up with either a B or a do like I want to be something better I want to do something better.

And David who's appealing to the Lord for his judgment has the Lord's loving-kindness as his focus. And so he's saying Your loving-kindness or thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes and he follows it with what he does and I have walked in thy truth.

And. The lesson there is that in order to walk in the Lord's truth that has to be your focus is the Lord's love. It's all centered around the love that he has for you and what he's done for you. When we lose sight of that love it's pretty hard to stay in his truth.

If you are Negligent of a relationship You are not thinking of how does that person? Truly feel about me. You're not thinking about. Do they do they love me?

Do they?

Desire to be around me or near me and. It's very easy to Get to the point where you are not thinking about how you're treating them. Because you're not thinking about how they've treated you and sometimes we go.

Okay, but what about when they do treat me poorly? They treat me poorly. Now I kind of want to treat them poorly, you know, the flesh will make me want to do something like that and so. That's why it's so important that in our relationships and I I was at a wedding last night.

I'm gonna just go completely off the rails here because this this fits really well.

I.

Drove down to Buda one of my basketball buddies was getting married and They had a full-blown service with a sermon right in the middle of like the bride and groom sat down for the sermon this is gonna be a little bit long and The pastor had a pretty good message.

It was that your love for someone else will have to be dependent on Someone else's love for you. And at first I was like wrong. No, I disagree, you know, but then he qualified it. He said your love for someone else is dependent on the love God has for you.

That's who the love Originates from and so If you make your love dependent, like if I made my love for Katie dependent on her love for me. It's just not gonna work because there will be times when she will fall short.

It's very seldom hardly ever but but if that happens Then what's that gonna do to how I love her if my love is dependent on how well she loves me. Then if she falls short, then I'm gonna fall short and if she's doing the same thing.

It's just gonna become this continuous cycle down and we've seen this in people. We Katie and I call it the crazy cycle, right? Like you somebody messes up the other person gets even you never want to get even when they mess up because that's going down.

So you mess up again and they get even and she says oh, you're just is downward spiral. It's terrible. But when he qualified it and said your love is always dependent on the love God has for you. That's a never-ending love and if you make the way you love others Dependent on that Then you're gonna be pretty good at loving others and I was like, okay.

This guy gets it like that's a good message for these two and then I'm going well, that's a good message for me. You know, not just easy. They're not the ones I need. I need to hear that and so I just think it's really interesting that as David walks in the truth that God has it Originates with David's focus being on the love he has for him and so he says My attention is toward your love and my actions are toward your truth those kind of go hand-in-hand.

What is our part in that process? I mean, obviously there's a there's the Lord giving this. This unconditional love that just never stops. So what's our part in the process? Of our daily walk. What would you say that is?

Okay, taking that love and reflecting that love and reflecting that love To others right letting them see that love that's a that's a good thought because If the love I have for my wife for instance is completely dependent on the love God has for me.

Then in order to keep showing her that love I have to keep Focusing on that love. I have to get a better understanding of that. Love. I have to study that love I have to go. Okay, if I'm gonna show it to her, I better know what it looks like right and So part of that is actually going to be trust.

Why why is that gonna be trust.

What do you think. Yeah, no, it's okay so.

You said that perfectly. You said that perfectly. So like let's say I'm gonna show Any one of you better love right. If I'm gonna show you better love. In order to know What love looks like I've got to have a source To say okay.

This is what love looks like right and now I have to show it to you. So Obviously the easy answer is well part of my part is to study that right? But what's the genesis of that? I think is is trust and I'm gonna show you I think that here in a second.

But why would you think that the genesis of me being able to look at this love and go? Okay, that's what it looks like. I'm gonna show it to Colin. I'm gonna show it to Tyler. Why does that have to start with trust?

Okay.

We are really relying on him. I was just what I was looking at.

Spirit.

Like so much of that is just it's like it's the fruits of the spirit. Yep, it's he's the one. So I think with loving other people There's a certain amount of your you right. We're relying on him to supply the patient.

It's his patience, it's his kindness. It's not in and of ourselves. If we're relying on our flesh to just, we're just going to be, we're just going to do better today. In and of ourselves, that's really hard.

But if you're good at recognizing when you're not patient, or when you're envying, or when you're being self-seeking, when you're behaving unseemly I've been talking to my kids, are you loving when you're, you know, sticking out your tongue?

That's not the thought of the coming of the Christians. To be able to recognize the flip side of life. Well this isn't how love looks according to God. And being willing to confess that in the moment, then you're trusting God that he's forgiving you.

And he's also going to give you his mind and his ability to love that person.

But, you have to trust him for that. And you have to trust that his way is better than your way. And you don't need to get back, and you don't have to wag your tongue. That was really bratty that they bragged that they got the priesthood.

That didn't sound like you've experienced that at all.

We've been talking about you for a little bit.

Okay, well, so think of it like this. You know how the scripture, did you, it looked like you were going to say something.

I think that we have to trust that God is going to love us in return. Because the people we're loving through him won't always love us back.

Really like that.

Well, think about what happens when you love and you put someone else first. To do it right requires a sacrifice, which is a giving of yourself. I learned back in college, I was talking about this with Pop last night.

I kind of went on this journey of like, what is love? I just had my heart broken, lost a bunch of friends and a girlfriend. That's a good story. Anytime I talk about it with Katie, she falls asleep. It's pretty fantastic.

But I decided I need to know what this love stuff really is. Because I thought I was doing it the way I'm supposed to as a Christian. And it didn't seem to work. It just didn't seem to work for me. Because I wasn't loved back.

And I learned that love is a one-way street. Which means the world will tell you true love is where you love someone and they love you back.

But look at what Jesus did.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were enemies with him. Because he first loved us. So true love didn't require loving back. It was going to be a one-way street until it wasn't.

And so when I figured that out and I read through passages that I had already read a thousand times before. One of which being greater love hath no man than this than he that would lay down his life for a friend.

I had been sitting and struggling with that verse because I was going, I was willing to die for the people that I'm claiming to love. I know I would die for this person. I know I would die for my best friend who dumped on me.

And that guy's a brother. I know in my heart I would die for him. And I began to realize that the verse says greater love hath no man than this than he that would lay down his life. And I'm thinking, well but that sounds like dying.

But really what did Jesus do before he went to the cross and died? He lived for us a perfect life. Every single thing he did was a sacrifice in life for us. He had to overcome the flesh, which I can't seem to do more than a few minutes at a time sometimes it seems like.

He did it for 33 years without failing. And coming to the point of being in the garden and sweating blood, he was fighting it so hard. I can't even imagine the kind of struggle that was for him. And it was a constant giving.

And it drains a person. We see every time that Jesus goes, I mean his whole life I believe was a spiritual struggle. But every time it's highlighted, like when he's going out into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan.

We see him in a state of almost being drained because the angels had to come and minister to him afterwards. We see him in the garden sweating blood. And we go, wow. We see him walking and power goes out from him when the woman touches his garment.

And we go, it's not like he has less power. But it is a giving. And for us, we don't have infinite power. We have access to the source of infinite power. But when we're giving, there's a sense of sacrifice and energy being expended and it can drain us.

And so if we're dependent on the other person to fill that back up, we're never going to, if we're doing it right, we're always going to be less full than someone else can make us. But if our dependency is on Christ's love, we can always get back to full tank.

And is that making sense? Is everybody following so far? And so it's really important for us to trust God in this process that he will fill our tank. That he'll make us feel loved like Ashton said. But also, if somebody comes to you and says, hey, let me do that for you.

Whatever it is.

It can be bringing in the groceries or something.

I don't know.

Taking out the trash or getting, here's a good example. Getting a room in the house clean.

Right?

And the kids come to mommy and say, I'm going to do the room for you. In order to receive that, there is a level of trust Katie has to put in.

Right?

And if she doesn't put that level of trust, then she's not going to get to receive the blessing of the kids cleaning and really, truly doing a good job of the room. And so trust comes in relinquishing the need to be self-sufficient.

Trust comes in the ability to trust that the other person will do the thing. It comes in having, relinquishing the feeling of duty. Like, no wait, that's my job. I'm supposed to clean the house. I'm supposed to do that.

That's part of who I am and what I do. Doesn't need to be a part of who you are or what you do. You have to relinquish control of a lot of things in order to trust. And so trust is not an easy thing, especially for us guys.

Like, men typically have a need for control and a need to say, I am in control in a situation. And so a way to help with that is realizing that trust is a form of self-control. It's a form of controlling your own fleshly desires to be the man.

Your own fleshly desire to say, well, I did it. I accomplished it. And so when we are trusting the Lord, like David says here, he says, For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes, and I have walked in thy truth.

His actions are trusting that God's truth will help him in the situation. His actions are trusting that God will get the job done. Like if he's anointed king, that is his calling in life. Think of how much trust it takes to say, OK, I'm technically king, but I'm not going to go and take the throne.

Some of us would struggle with, well, does that mean I'm not walking in my anointing? Like it really takes a man's ability to control his own desire to bring about the thing and get to know God better in order to walk in his truth.

Otherwise, you have scenarios like Abraham, who knows he's supposed to be a father. And God said, we're going to have a kid, and it hasn't happened for years. And because Abraham and Sarah are like, yeah, it's not really working.

All right, let's make it happen. Obviously, this is our part. We got to go do it. And you bring about a really tumultuous family dynamic. And of course, the Lord uses it all for good, right? When we mess up, God can still use that, and it's all part of his plan.

It was very obviously part of his plan to bring about Ishmael before he brought about Isaac. Man's role isn't just to make sure God's will is done. It will always be done. Our role is to trust that God will lead us in the way we're supposed to go and that he will make it happen like he says he will make it happen.

It doesn't relinquish us of responsibility. When God makes it obvious, here's an opportunity for you to do something like you're supposed to do, you go and do it. And so think of how much of a struggle it is to know the difference between this is my role, I'm supposed to step into it, or this is my thought that I'm imposing on God's will, and I'm going to step into it because it's there, and I could.

If you don't know God's truth, you're not going to know which one you're doing. You're going to think, oh, it's there, it's an opportunity, so I should do it because obviously God put the opportunity there.

And you do it, and you might not be doing it according to God's methodology. So how do we do that? We get into his word, we study his truth, we understand what that truth is, and we trust that it will come about.

We keep, in this case, his loving kindness always before us, and when we do that, we go, okay, now, based on God's loving kindness, based on what God says in his word, if I take this step, which I could take, is it a step that aligns with what God says a Christian man should do?

If it is a step that aligns with God's word, and I can take it, there's a good chance I should take it. But if it's a step that's a little bit wonky, like, oh, I should take my wife's handmaiden, you know?

Maybe I should second-guess myself on this, right?

Can I add something? Because it's the thing that you just mentioned in the Bible reading thing about, so Abram made that horrible decision that you're referencing, but then also on the flip side, he did the thing where he did trust God when the evil king of Ibleb offered him the people, the money, the sheep, all the things, and Abram said, I'm not going to accept that because God has made me these promises, and I'm leaning into you.

So it's interesting, and then I was thinking about David, how he didn't kill Saul at the time because he knew, this isn't how God is putting me on the throne.

And it's not that these godly men that are such fantastic examples in many areas, it's not that they never mend up, but even here, David's taking responsibility for what his men did. He said, he's not at fault, but he is responsible.

And he handled them accordingly. And I think that is an area where a lot of these Old Testament patriarchs are such an example to us. It's not that they didn't ever stumble. I mean, some of the mistakes are just like, are you kidding me?

But they do take responsibility. I mean, David does here and many other times, and Abraham took responsibility, and they reap what they sow.

David lost a child.

I mean, the consequences are pretty huge. And the example that's being set, the Lord has given us layers of this example. Obviously, what you just brought out with these great men of God who go, okay, when I mess up and I don't do it by God's way, there's a punishment for that, or like there's a repercussion, right?

But then even David, who is a man after God's own heart, gives us that example with his men who went outside of his commands, did it their own way. And he's like, last time someone did that, I strung them up and they're dead.

So guess what? And then he kills those guys. And so we get examples, just tons of them, of like when you do it the right way, things go pretty great. Do it the wrong way, it's not like, oh, it didn't go as well.

It's like, no, things go terribly wrong. And so we've got to be very careful about just stepping into what we can step into because in all of those scenarios, it was something they could do. So you could justify it in the flesh and say, well, God made it so that I could do that.

He gave me that opportunity. Not every open door is a door that God wants you to walk through, I guess is what I'm saying. You've got to ask the Lord, is this the open door I walk through? Or do you have a different open door?

And if I don't see the other open door, that doesn't mean I walk through this open door. It means I keep asking until it's 100 certain that this is okay for me to do and it's good for me to do, so I'll do it.

And then I'll trust that I was right. But if I haven't checked that out at all and I just walk through it because it's an open door, I could end up really messing things up. So it does take a lot of discernment because there are a lot of things we can do that we shouldn't do.

If you try to be, I just think it had to be referring to different seasons of life.

It's a lot.

You can always just say, well, what would you like me to do, honey, to actually be the head and be the one that has to help navigate that, which is seeking the Lord first. Yes, I mean, but husbands are important.

So Charles Spurgeon says, Faith trusts God to accomplish his own decrees. Why should I steal when God has promised to supply my need? Why should I avenge myself when I know that the Lord has espoused my cause?

Confidence in God is a most effectual security against sin. So you've got to get to the point where you don't just say, all right, God made me an able-bodied person, so I'm just going to go do it. You got to go, all right, God did make me an able-bodied person.

And that's a whole lot of power. But with great power comes great responsibility, right? Now I've got to ask the Lord, how do I wield this power? How do I make sure that just because I can do it, I don't do it for that purpose.

I do it because you made it abundantly clear I should do it. And that does take some discernment. So then we have, we'll move on down to verse four. I doubt we'll get through the whole chapter, but maybe we'll see.

So in verse four he says, I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. The word for dissembler means to conceal, hide, or be hidden. Which is interesting because you go, well, of course you won't go in with someone who's hidden.

But what that means, a dissembler is someone who has a hidden agenda or a hidden cause. So enough to hang out with people who are just blatantly rejecting God. But there is something particularly vile about being, say they belong to the Lord and don't.

People that are pretending to be Christians, concealing it. And now we have to be careful too because we have all been that person at one time. I think, at least if you grew up in church, at some point you were probably very much like a pretender.

I know I was.

I grew up in church and church was just always a part of life. And I knew how to speak the language of a churchgoer. I knew how to look like a churchgoer. And when the Lord changed me, Satan used that time in my life.

He'll still to this day try to use that time in my life when I knew I had this imposter syndrome. When I knew I wasn't following God but I could make it look like I was. He'll still use that anytime I slip up to say, that's not who I am anymore.

But Satan will put that label on me and say, ah, there you are. I remember you, you imposter. And I have to remind myself and trust God that he does love me the way he says he loves me. And that that's not me anymore.

And so when David says, I have not sat with vain persons, people who are just looking out for themselves. It's all about them. Neither will I go in with dissemblers. I'm not going to be counted among those who pretend.

So in other words, Lord, I'm not a pretender. It's like he's reminding himself of his true identity. I am not one of those that acts like he knows God and doesn't. I know God. He has revealed himself to me.

And one of the great callings in our life now is to get to know him better. Because Satan will use your lack of knowledge of God against you too. Do you know God? Because there's a lot you don't really know about him.

It's going to be that way for a long time. And the more you know, the more you find out you don't know. And so don't let him use that against you. Part of trusting God is that when he says you're his, you are.

When he says that you have been made new, old things have passed away, you have been. And you are not this dissembler type person anymore. And so here's what it means. It means that David looks different on the inside from the people that he keeps on the outside.

So I look different than those people. I won't be counted among those people. Verse 5. I have haters and will not sit with the wicked. Now here's another Spurgeon quote. A man who does not hate evil terribly heartily.

That's one to contemplate. We hear the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. In Proverbs it also tells us that the people who hate evil. And so we need to practice that at times.

Old man that's still attached to us and that old man will never hate evil. He will always try to pull you back into evil things. So we have to learn to really keep God's loving kindness at our forefront.

In order to walk in his truth, which is we are not that old man anymore. We're someone new. And so when we begin to understand that we will begin to experience what God's word says that it divides. Even into the like divides the bone from the marrow.

We begin to have a separation between identities are who we used to be and who we are now. And when we recognize that we are no longer who we used to be. You are someone else. You will have to act like something else when you begin to believe you are something else.

It's just because the way your psychology works you will always move towards congruency. And so it's very difficult and I think we've all experienced this too. If you have experienced the imposter syndrome.

It's tiring. It's hard to keep acting a certain way when you know you're not that way. And it will drain you. And so understanding the difference between who you are and who you were will begin to change the way you act.

So you have to trust. You have to trust that you are somebody different because God has told you you are somebody different. I will wash. Oh wait no I've got another cool Spurgeon. I got a lot of Spurgeon quotes this week.