Bible ABCs - 'Xamines

Would you care to allow someone to read a scrolling print-out of all your innermost thoughts?  Once again, we turn to the Psalms and King David.  He always spoke with the LORD with shameless audacity which the uninitiated may believe  to be akin to arrogance.  Yet, as you read many of David's Psalms, you'll get a feel for his sincerity and his overwhelming confidence in the LORD, enough for Him to undisguisedly see such a list of David's misdemeanors.

The first three verses of Psalm 26 (ESV) give just such a snapshot...

"Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.  Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind.  For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness."

David declares he's "walked in integrity" and in God's faithfulness, trusting the LORD "without wavering".  He dares to write that knowing full well that the subjects in his kingdom knew he had made a mammoth mistake!

Actually, much more than a mistake....it was in direct opposition to the Ten Commandments.  He did covet his neighbor's wife and committed adultery with her, and he had someone "murdered" (the neighbor's wife's husband, in fact)! (2 Samuel 11 & 12).

He did repent and God forgave him yet he had to bear the consequences for those terrible offenses.

Now he asks the LORD to vindicate him.  Maybe there were accusers trying to bring him down; to "impeach" him.  He requests God to "prove...try...test..." his heart and mind.  What a tally some of us would have!  David was game for God to probe him.

David bathed securely in the knowledge that God loved him.  "Steadfast love" was the description he gave.  Love that held, no matter what he did or did not do.  David counted on God's love.  He said it was "before his eyes".

This is something good for us to focus on too.  God's love.  God's care.  God's understanding of His human beings.  David was secure in this love:  it made him "at home" with his LORD, and be willing to let, indeed, invite, Him to test what was in his heart and mind.

All was right with David's world as he communed with his LORD and blessed Him (verse 12).

Let the LORD train His "microscope" on you.  Let Him "'Xamine" your heart and mind, and bring forth your repentance, confession, integrity and grow an open and honest relationship with Him.  (He knows it all anyway.)  Be sensitive to His Holy Spirits's guidance in your life.

A person would pretty well have to be an open book and that could leave one vulnerable to false accusers.  In God we can trust to have our back, to be gracious and merciful.  David understood this and opened himself wide to Him.  He was in good hands

For instance, think of the time David took punishment from God for doing a census of the people (1 Chronicles 21; 2 Samuel 24).  He didn't want the judgment and sentencing to come from the hands of men.  He knew men's hearts .  God far outclassed man.  In God he could trust without wavering.

God will treat His other children the same; with graciousness, faithfulness and with a heart full of love for us...for the individual.  Bless His holy Name.

                                                           ~ERC  November 2019~

Glen Payne and George Younce sing, Cleanse Me under the Gaither's