Daily Double: Psalm SeriesНамуна

WHY PSALM 26?

Psalm 26 is an individual lament. The psalm has strong confessions of innocence that Christians can declare boldly because of Jesus' grace and saving work. There are repeated words that give images of courtrooms and judges. In this case, God is the just judge who fairly judges all good and evil.

The person confesses their good works and praises the judge for His fairness. The psalm leads us to have an open heart towards God, but to also invite God to test our hearts and see that we are blameless. It also helps us see ourselves in the future when we stand before God completely innocent because of the powerful sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

VITAL VERSE

Verse 2 - Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart.

The whole psalm is built around David declaring himself innocent – he is open to God’s judgement.

SUB SKILL: QUESTION & RESPONSE LISTS

This skill builds on our reflection question skill from Psalm 23. Questions & response lists are designed to get to the truth and put it before you on paper.

SOLO GO: WRITE OUT A QUESTION & RESPONSE LIST

Psalm 26 is about trusting God’s judgement about how we should act. We are not the ones to work out what is right and what is wrong – Christian’s trust in God’s Word and what it says about how we should live.

So – let’s allow God to “test us” (Verse 2) by writing out an account of our behaviour lately. Doing this will be hard, but we can trust God and put forward the truth before Him.

Putting it down on paper is a way for us to be confronted with truth, but we can also take our lists once we’re done and throw them away because Jesus has freed us and declares us innocent despite our sins every day!

PRAYING THE FUTURE

Christians have two lives. We are who we are now, with all our faults and failures, but there is also a future self. Our future self lives completely free from sin, guilt, and God’s judgement. The Bible promises a new life through Jesus’ death and resurrection (1 Peter 1:3-4).

Here’s what’s crazy… Psalm 26 declares this perfect future. We will one day be able to declare this not only in ‘faith’ but in ‘truth’. We will be declared innocent by God if we have our faith in Jesus. So let’s praise God for our futures in our prayers!