For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes...

Psalm 26  (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Protestation of Integrity and Prayer for Protection.

A Psalm of David.

Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity,
And I have trusted in the Lord  without wavering.
² Examine me, O Lord, and try me;
Test my mind and my heart.
³ For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes,
And I have walked in Your truth.
⁴ I do not sit with deceitful men,
Nor will I go with pretenders.
⁵ I hate the assembly of evildoers,
And I will not sit with the wicked.
⁶ I shall wash my hands in innocence,
And I will go about Your altar, O Lord,
⁷ That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving
And declare all Your wonders.

⁸ O Lord, I love the habitation of Your house
And the place where Your glory dwells.
⁹ Do not ^]take my soul away along with sinners,
Nor my life with men of bloodshed,
¹⁰ In whose hands is a wicked scheme,
And whose right hand is full of bribes.
¹¹ But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity;
Redeem me, and be gracious to me.
¹² My foot stands on a level place;
In the congregations I shall bless the Lord.

Would you have the confidence to say to the God of all creation,  Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart? Surly that is not a confidence we should  have in ourselves. We know that Romans 3:10-12 says:  as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;
¹¹ There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; ¹² All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”     

 Jeremiah 17:9 says: “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?  If we know our condition, how then can we have the confidence to ask God to examine us, to test our mind and heart. Verse 10 of Jeremiah 17 continues saying: “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds.

So if God will search our heart and test our mind, if He will give each of us according to the result of our deeds, we need to prepare our hearts and minds, that we, like David, would have the confidence to stand before God and make that request.

David begins to reveal the key to having that confidence. He says:  For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth. It begins then with our looking on the character and nature of God. We keep His lovingkindness before our eyes. We see things, including ourselves from a Godly perspective. The psalmist says: Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings (Psalm 17:8) Do you see yourself as the apple of God’s eye?  In 1 Thessalonians 1:4 Paul writes: For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you. We are loved and chosen by God. Jeremiah 1:5 says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you… 

As we begin to see ourselves as God sees us, we then can, like David walk in His truth. In verse 8 David says:  O Lord, I love the habitation of Your house And the place where Your glory dwells. It is loving the habitation of God, desiring to abide in His presence and His glory that gives us the confidence and the ability to walk in His truth, to as David says: 

 I do not sit with deceitful men, Nor will I go with pretenders. ⁵ I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the wicked. ⁶ I shall wash my hands in innocence, And I will go about Your altar, O Lord, ⁷ That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving And declare all Your wonders.

We wash our hands in innocence, the innocence of being seen through the finished work of the cross. It is no longer our actions and deeds we are judged by, but rather we are seen and judged through the redemptive work of the cross. Isaiah 1:18 says: “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.

 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.       Behold, new things have come. Behold means to see,  to look at, to gaze upon, as we behold the new things that we have become, we gain the confidence to stand in God’s presence. From that place, we, like David,  may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving And declare all Your wonders. Again though, this confidence is not based on ourselves and our own deeds. It is based solely on our faith in Christ and the cross. Ephesians 2:8-9 says:    For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Isaiah 6 describes a scene in the presence of God. It says:   In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. ² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”

The whole earth is full of His glory. If we will position ourselves in the presence of God, viewing His holiness, keeping His loving kindness before our eyes, we will see as the Seraphim see. We will see the glory of God in all the earth and through Christ we will see His glory in ourselves.

Through Christ we can have the confidence to say, Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. In Christ we can: draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.( Hebrews 4:16) and say:

Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, And I have trusted in the Lord  without wavering.  Amen.