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[0:00] We're going to be spending the next three weeks looking at three different Psalms here.

[0:13] ! And we do that normally when we're in between other series. We always come back to the book of Psalms. We have sort of this ongoing long-term series through the book of Psalms, one at a time, and we've arrived this morning at Psalm 26.

[0:27] And so I want to first talk a bit, before we read this morning, I want to talk a little bit about the Psalms, just to remind you, refresh your memory on what the Psalms are and why they are so significant.

[0:40] The Psalms are right there in the middle of your Bible. If you hold your Bible, and most English Bibles, and just open up to the middle, you'll land usually somewhere in the Psalms. And the Psalms are not just physically in the middle of your Bible, but they are often central to our worship, central to our expression of our response to all that God has done for us.

[1:04] The Psalms are really simply just a collection of songs written by people in Israel. There are 150 individual Psalms in the book of Psalms.

[1:17] Now, there are some other Psalms, that is, some other songs, that you find in some other books of the Bible. You'll find them in Deuteronomy and other places. You'll find them in the story of David. You'll find them scattered throughout the Bible.

[1:28] But here we have a collection of 150 Psalms that were chosen and put together and became a part of the collection of the books that we call the Bible. Out of those 150 songs, almost half of them, 73 of them, were written by David.

[1:46] Some were written early in David's life, before he became the king of Israel. Some were written after he became the king of Israel. And you'll notice in a lot of the Psalms, especially the Psalms that David wrote, you'll have right before verse 1, you'll have some sort of little description of the Psalm.

[2:03] It might tell you what kind of song it is. And there will be some kind of Hebrew word there that we don't really always fully understand the meanings of those words because they're just giving us musical information about the way that they used to sing or used to play this particular Psalm.

[2:16] Sometimes they'll tell you who the Psalm is by. If it's of David, we know it's by David because we're told before the Psalm even begins, this is a Psalm of David. And so we find those little bits of information before them to help us to better understand them.

[2:32] Sometimes those little pieces of information tell us about when David wrote the Psalm, what was happening in David's life, and that helps us to better understand what's happening in the Psalm.

[2:44] And then sometimes we're barely given any information. In fact, in the Psalm that we're going to look in this morning, we don't know anything about its immediate context other than the fact that David wrote this particular Psalm.

[2:56] So Psalms are important for us. They're quoted in the New Testament more than any other book of the Old Testament. The Psalms are quoted over and over and over in the New Testament. The New Testament writers help us to see and understand that these aren't just the songs of Israel, which they are, but they are also uniquely the songs of the Messiah.

[3:18] They are songs that point us toward Christ in different ways, depending upon the Psalm that you're reading. But they point us to Christ. They help us to see more of His glory.

[3:30] And so we're going to have sort of a twofold purpose this morning as we walk through Psalm 26. First, we want to understand what David was saying. What's David communicating to us, and how does that apply in kind of an immediate way to our lives?

[3:43] But then secondly, we want to see how in the world does this Psalm point us to Jesus? So if you've opened up to Psalm 26, I want to invite you to stand to your feet, and we'll read through the whole Psalm together.

[3:59] As I read through this Psalm, anytime you see the word Lord in all capital letters, I'm going to say the Hebrew word Yahweh, which is God's name, so it will stand out and you'll see that this is a very personal psalm.

[4:11] Of David, vindicate me, O Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in Yahweh without wavering.

[4:22] Prove me, O Yahweh, and try me. Test my heart and my mind, for your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness. I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites.

[4:36] I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O Yahweh, proclaiming thanksgiving aloud and telling all your wondrous deeds.

[4:51] O Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes.

[5:08] But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity. Redeem me and be gracious to me. My foot stands on level ground. In the great assembly, I will bless Yahweh.

[5:22] Let's pray. God, we thank you that by your providence and by your inspiration, this song was included in the book of Psalms for us.

[5:34] And that you brought it to us this morning so that we might be encouraged or convicted, so that we might look to Christ, the true King, and see in Him the full embodiment of all of our hopes and the foundation of our future.

[5:57] So give us eyes to see this morning. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. You guys can take a seat. Well, I said just a moment ago as we were just giving some information about the Psalms that there are some Psalms about which we know a lot of the background.

[6:16] We know, for instance, what was happening in David's life when it was written. Who was attacking David? Or what David was responding to? Or in some cases, the sin that David had committed and he's praying and asking for forgiveness.

[6:28] There are a lot of Psalms like that where in what's called the superscription, that little bit of information before verse 1, we're told something about the background. But in this particular Psalm, we're not given any of that information.

[6:42] The only thing that we are told in terms of background information is that this Psalm is written by David. And that's no surprise. As I said, nearly half of the Psalms in the book of Psalms are written by David.

[6:54] And David wrote many, many other songs that are not recorded in the book of Psalms or anywhere else. David was a prolific songwriter. So it's not at all surprising that we would see a Psalm written by David.

[7:07] What we don't have is a lot of information about what was happening in David's life. The best that we can do is guess from what David says in the Psalm itself at what was happening in David's life.

[7:20] And it seems as if, based upon what he says here, that David is either being accused or lumped in with some who have done something bad. Either he himself is accused of having done something wrong, or he's being lumped together with people who've done something wrong.

[7:36] Now based on that, we could maybe venture a further guess about when David wrote this Psalm. He might have written it while he was on the run from the previous king, from King Saul.

[7:47] King Saul knowing that David had been anointed to be the true next king of Israel. King Saul aware that the people sang songs that extolled David above King Saul himself.

[8:00] And so David spent many years running and hiding from King Saul. And during that time, he was often accused of things, lumped in with wicked, evil people.

[8:11] So it could have been that David is responding to Saul's own threats and lies against him. Maybe this was written in the earlier part of David's life. Or it could be that David wrote this Psalm later in his life.

[8:25] Because later in David's life, after he had successfully conquered nations around him, and he had children, and he had a large family, and he had done all of these great things, suddenly one of his own sons rises up against him, and instigates a coup against him.

[8:41] And David is chased out of his own capital city, and he has to go on the run once again. Even though he's the king, he's on the run once again. And there are people, his son and others, stirring up things, and lying about David and the things that David has done, or David's motivations.

[8:57] So it could be that David wrote this Psalm during that period of his life, once again, when he's being accused falsely, and when he's on the run from someone else. Or it could be that David wrote this Psalm at some other point in his life, and we just have no clue.

[9:12] What's important for us to understand is that David is responding to real events that are unfolding in his life. And it's important for us to understand that, because we read these Psalms, and we come to them for comfort or for encouragement whenever we're dealing with real life.

[9:32] Whenever we're struggling with some of the most difficult things that we struggle with, when we open God's Word, we often turn to the Psalms. Sometimes because we just flop our Bible on the desk, and it's in the middle.

[9:43] Sometimes because we know exactly where we want to go and read, and we begin to read specific Psalms that we feel will be encouraging to us. There's a reason why, when you get those little tiny Bibles that you can fit in your back pocket that are almost impossible to read, there's a reason why they usually simply have the New Testament and the Psalms and the book of Proverbs.

[10:04] Because without the Psalms, we lose a significant source of encouragement for us. But they're more encouraging for us if we remember that real people wrote these in response to real circumstances that were going on in their lives.

[10:20] Maybe you have been falsely accused of something. Or maybe consequences have come upon you for something that you weren't a part of and you weren't really involved in.

[10:31] You can relate to David and know that David would relate to you. Maybe you have been associated with people that you would rather not be associated with. Maybe you've been lumped in together with people that you've not done the things that they have done, yet you're being accused along with them.

[10:49] David would understand that. David could relate to that. And he wrote this Psalm out of frustration, out of a heart that was hurting, and yet trusted in Yahweh throughout all of his troubles.

[11:06] Now as we look at the Psalm itself, it's easy to sort of break the Psalm apart into three parts. They're not equal in length, but it's easy to see it breaks down into three parts. You have at the very beginning, you have in verses one through three a sort of plea from David.

[11:21] David pleads his innocence and his integrity. David makes a statement at the very beginning of the Psalm about his own innocence. And then he goes on in the second part of the Psalm to provide two different proofs for his innocence.

[11:36] So the middle part of the Psalm is all about David proving his innocence. And then when you get down to verse nine, verse nine all the way down to the end, it's David's prayer.

[11:46] In light of his innocence and his integrity that he's now proven by giving evidence for, he now offers up a prayer to God in the last four verses of the Psalm. So you've got a plea from David followed by the proof of the thing that he's been pleading for himself, followed by a prayer that's rooted in all those other things that David has said.

[12:11] And so I want to jump in, just look at each section of the Psalm. Now, again, I'm going to ask two questions. Number one, what did this mean for David? And so how does it help us in our daily lives?

[12:21] But then number two, how does this point us toward Jesus? And my answer to question number two, each time is going to be somewhere along the lines of Jesus is the greater David.

[12:35] One of the things that you want to realize as you read through some of David's Psalms, not all of them, but some of David's Psalms, is that they're written in such a way that when we come to the New Testament and we begin to read and learn about Jesus, we have to go back and reread the Psalms in light of the fact that Jesus is presented in the New Testament as the descendant of David, the heir to all of David's promises, and the everlasting king who will rule from David's throne forever.

[13:07] That's who Jesus is, which means that some of the things that are said about David are true about David, but in a very limited way. And yet when we turn and look to Jesus, we see that some of those things that were true about David in a very limited way are true in a much greater way about Jesus.

[13:27] And so some of the things that we're going to see this morning in this Psalm that are about David, that David is expressing, that are true about him and his experience and his circumstances are true in an even greater way about Jesus, which is going to be a huge encouragement to us.

[13:43] So let's jump in at the first part of this Psalm, David's plea. He says in verse 1, vindicate me, O Yahweh. Now that word vindicate literally means judge.

[13:55] So it's a picture of David almost imagining that he is standing in God's court, he's standing before the judge of all the earth. And so David's not about to say anything glibly.

[14:08] You can't think that David is saying anything lightly. Everything that David says here is said in light of the fact that he's presenting himself before the judge of all the earth.

[14:20] Judge me, vindicate me, prove me to be in the right, O Yahweh. That's not a prayer that you want to utter without giving careful thought first.

[14:31] Okay? Yes, we can use many of David's Psalms. We can pray these Psalms ourselves. But we need to first look and we need to ask, do I want to utter this prayer of David?

[14:44] Am I bold enough to say this sort of thing? God, vindicate me. Judge me. Now obviously David doesn't mean God look at the totality of my life and declare me to be innocent.

[14:59] Because David is a sinner, isn't he? We know of some of his sins. In fact, one of the reasons or the primary reason that David was not permitted by God to build the temple, it was David's son Solomon who would build the temple, is because David was, and I quote here, a man of blood.

[15:18] David was a man of blood. David was a violent man. Not only was he violent, David had given in to sexual temptation in his life.

[15:31] We all know the story of Bathsheba. We know that David is not innocent and blameless if you look at the totality of his life.

[15:41] And I don't think he's calling upon God here to look at all of his life and declare him to be innocent and blameless. No. Whatever the circumstance is, whatever the situation is, and we don't know it, but whatever David is dealing with in this circumstance, in this situation, David is saying, God, judge me in regard to this.

[16:01] Look at me. Examine my life in regards to these circumstances. Judge me. Vindicate me, O Yahweh. And then he gives the reason why. For, because, I have walked in my integrity.

[16:17] I have trusted in Yahweh without wavering. That's a massive statement, right? If he means throughout the whole course of his life, and that's why he doesn't.

[16:28] But in this little slice of his life in regards to these people and these circumstances, David can say, I've walked in integrity and I've trusted you through this whole thing.

[16:42] And yet it's still a mess. And that's going to happen sometimes. If we're really honest, we have to admit that there are going to be times when we make the right decisions, we do the right things.

[16:55] We're not perfect, but we do the right things. We don't walk down the crooked, winding path. We do what we ought to do. We tell the truth.

[17:07] We stand upon principle. And yet even after having done that, accusations will be hurled. Our name will be drugged through the mud.

[17:18] And we'll find ourselves at a place to where we fall before God and we say, God, you know the truth. You know the truth. Even if nobody else in the world believes me or knows the truth, you know the truth.

[17:32] And that's where David has arrived. God, I have walked before you in my integrity. I have trusted in you. And then he throws two more pleas out there that are essentially the same as the first.

[17:43] Judge me. He says, prove me, oh Yahweh. Try me or test me. And then another word that also means to test. Test my heart and my mind. So he's digging deeper now.

[17:55] Now he's not just saying in this circumstance I've done all the right things outwardly. Right? No. He's saying, you can look in my heart.

[18:06] Look in my mind. Look into my inner being, God. And you'll even see there my motives are right. My motives are pure.

[18:17] And one of the reasons that David does this is because David understands something that Jesus teaches us later on in the Sermon on the Mount. And that is that real integrity, real righteousness is not just what you do on the outside.

[18:31] It's not just externally making the right decisions so that other people can see that you are a righteous person. Real, genuine righteousness is something that begins inside of you and it flows from inside of you.

[18:47] You're not able to plead your innocence and integrity with God if you said the right thing even though in your heart you really, you really deeply wanted to say something else.

[19:04] David says, you can look on the inside, God. Look at my heart and my mind. Examine me. And you'll find even there I will pass the test. I'll pass the test.

[19:15] For, verse 3, another reason. For your steadfast love is before my eyes and I walk in your faithfulness or truth. In other words, the ultimate sort of ground, the reason for David being able to say, I know in this my heart is pure.

[19:36] I know that I've done the right things. The ultimate ground of that is because David has set his eyes upon the character of God Himself.

[19:48] He says, your steadfast love is before my eyes. That word steadfast love is kind of really difficult to translate into English. And so, when you read different English translations, maybe you have a King James Version or an NIV, you'll see different translations of that.

[20:03] Sometimes it's translated loving kindness. Sometimes it's just love. Here we have steadfast love. Because the idea behind this word is God's covenant love that He has towards His people uniquely.

[20:18] Right? It's not just God's general love that He has for all people and for all of creation. That's true. That's a reality. But this is something more specific. This is something that is more of an encouragement to David.

[20:31] God's covenant love. God has made promises. He has given those promises to His people. He has set His love in a special way upon His people.

[20:43] And David fixes his eyes on that reality. It's the reality of God's covenant love coupled together with His truth or His faithfulness.

[20:55] That is God's commitment to the things that God has said. It's knowing those things, setting those things before His eyes. Those things have been the very things that have motivated him and enabled him to live in integrity and now to be able to plead his integrity.

[21:13] Without that, David can't make this plea. But now David, he can plead his innocence. And again, it doesn't erase the difficulties that he's facing.

[21:27] He's just simply saying, in this circumstance, God, I need you to prove me and try me and judge me and I need you to declare me innocent of the things of which I stand accused by others.

[21:42] Because in the end, the only judgment that matters is God's judgment. The only test that you need to pass are the tests that God Himself puts in front of you.

[21:55] other people will put a lot of other tests in front of you. They will want you to jump all sorts of hoops. They will want you to do all kinds of things. They will want you to prove yourself over and over again.

[22:09] And sometimes you will succeed in those things and sometimes you will fail in those things. But the only test that matters is the one that God administers. David understands that.

[22:21] David knows that. And at least in this circumstance, facing whatever it is that he's facing, David can say, God, I'm innocent.

[22:32] I have integrity in the matter. The greater David, Jesus, can do far more than that. The greater David can not only say in regard to specific circumstances, in regard to certain accusations or in my relationships with these people, in this event, I have done what is right.

[22:57] No, the greater David can step back and say, in the broad sweep of my life, in every word I have spoken, in every step I have taken, with everything that I have ever done, I have walked in integrity.

[23:12] I have been righteous and blameless and pure and holy. The greater David can make that kind of claim. Jesus can plead his innocence before his father in a way that no one else ever could because he actually is innocent in every circumstance that he ever faced, in every relationship that Jesus ever had.

[23:40] Jesus, this is remarkable, never dishonored his mother or his father. not once. Not once.

[23:52] That's remarkable. Jesus never sinned against his brothers or his sisters. Impossible. Impossible.

[24:04] I can see my brother right over here. Impossible for me to live 44 years or four without ever sinning against him.

[24:15] Can't be done. Jesus walked in innocence and integrity. He crawled in innocence and integrity every moment, every day because he's the greater David and his innocence is ultimately, ultimately the real ground of our hope.

[24:40] But David wants to make sure that at least in these circumstances that he's facing that he has some evidence to present of his own innocence and of his own integrity.

[24:51] And so he's going to give two pieces of evidence that are sort of two sides of the same coin here. Alright? So if you look down in verse 4, here's his first piece of evidence that David is going to offer for his innocence, for his integrity.

[25:05] He says, I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.

[25:20] What David is essentially saying here is that I've not bound my life to sinful, wicked people. I've not thrown in with the bad crowd.

[25:34] I've not done that. In fact, the language that David uses is remarkably similar to the language of the very first psalm, which is important because the first psalm in the book of Psalms sort of sets the expectation for the whole book, right?

[25:51] The very first psalm helps us to plan ahead for what the theme of all of the psalms is going to be in one way or another. And I want you to listen to these opening words to the first psalm.

[26:03] It says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. That's the man who's blessed by God.

[26:17] The one who's not a part of the counsel of the wicked. The one who's not united himself with sinners. But he stands apart in his relationships.

[26:30] And David is saying here in Psalm 26, I've not thrown in with them. I've not done that. In fact, even in the New Testament, when you turn to the New Testament, in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, we are told, Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?

[26:55] Usually when we hear that verse quoted, it's usually spoken to some young person telling them, You don't need to date a non-Christian. Because the Bible says, Don't be unequally yoked.

[27:07] And that's not a bad application of that verse, that's actually a good application of that verse, but it's much broader than that. Paul's not talking about who you marry or who you date. Paul's talking about who you associate with on a regular basis.

[27:21] Now he does not mean by that, Paul does not mean, and I don't think David means in Psalm 26, that you have no connections with people that are outside of the faith. Or that you have no interactions whatsoever with people who live sinful lifestyles.

[27:38] Because that's impossible. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, that if that were his expectation of the church, then the church would have to leave the world, just get out of the world, right?

[27:49] You can't avoid connections and associations with people who are not followers of Christ. David can't avoid connections and associations with people who are either not of the nation of Israel, because he has to make treaties with other kings, or even people within Israel who don't live the kind of life that he lives.

[28:08] He can't avoid some superficial connections and transactions with people like that. So you'll go to work and you'll work with non-Christians and sometimes work with them all day long.

[28:18] Or you'll have family members who are not believers, or you'll know people, you'll have neighbors and others that live lifestyles that you know are contrary to what God has called Christians to live up to.

[28:32] You know that. And the point here is not that I've severed all connections. The point is that those with whom I've thrown in my lot, the people that I would call upon in trouble, or the people that I know would call upon me if they had trouble, the person who if your phone rang in the middle of the night and you answered it and it was their voice on the other end, you would be concerned, but not shocked that they chose to call you.

[28:59] Right? Those people, David says, those people in my life, they are not men of falsehood, hypocrites, evildoers, or wicked.

[29:14] Our friendships matter greatly. Because the truth of the matter is that we will, all of us, to one degree or another, we will look like the people that we are closest to and that we surround ourselves with.

[29:29] We will. I was talking to somebody not long ago, he was talking about his teenage daughter and she had gotten in a little bit of trouble because some of her friends had gotten into some stuff and even though she didn't do the thing, she was with them and so what he told her was, look at your friends, take the average of your friends and that's who you are.

[29:51] That's who you are. You're the average of the people that you surround yourself with that you are most closely connected to and I think that that's true and David is saying those people are not among the wicked.

[30:06] They're not hypocrites. I've not aligned myself with them. So that's one proof that David has of his integrity in this situation.

[30:20] But then on the other side of the coin, David establishes another proof. He says in verse 6, I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O Yahweh, proclaiming thanksgiving aloud and telling all your wondrous deeds.

[30:35] O Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. David not only does not align himself with wicked men, men, but he also centers his life around the assembly of God's people in the place where they worship.

[30:59] David's not content to simply say, I don't have bad friends. David wants to say, I've got good and godly friends. He's not content to say, I'm not a part of the council of the wicked.

[31:11] He wants to also say, I am in the assembly of those who come to worship before you. David's life is essentially a life that revolves around worship and the people who join him in worship.

[31:28] Listen to those words again. He says, I go around your altar, O Yahweh, proclaiming thanksgiving aloud and telling all your wondrous deeds. I go to the place of worship, I go to the altar, I go to the place where God's people gather together, and there I proclaim thanksgiving.

[31:47] He says, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. I love these things. I love them. In the Old Testament, it was easy to identify the place, right, where God's people gathered for worship.

[32:08] After Solomon, it was the temple because they had a permanent structure, but before Solomon, it was the tabernacle, this massive tent-like structure where the priests would offer sacrifices, and where for certain festivals and for other times of worship, the people of Israel would come and they would gather at the tabernacle, and that's where the corporate worship of the people of God would take place, right there at the tabernacle.

[32:33] And David says, that's where I love to be. That's where I long to be. The greater David comes into the world, and he too demonstrates a love for the place where God's glory dwells.

[32:52] He turns over the tables of the money changers. He chases them out of the temple because they're disrespecting the temple. He says, does not the scripture say that my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?

[33:07] Jesus is, by his own testimony, zealous for the place where God's glory dwells. But Jesus is more than that.

[33:22] Jesus is not just excited about the temple. Jesus is the temple. Jesus doesn't come into the world to leave the gathering of God's people or to leave the place where God's glory dwells, there in Jerusalem at the temple.

[33:44] Jesus himself comes. John tells us that he tabernacled among us. Jesus is now the place where the glory of God dwells.

[33:55] He is the glory of God with flesh on. That's who Jesus is. Jesus doesn't need to go to the temple because he is the temple.

[34:08] And now the place where God's people gather. is toward Jesus. There's been a lot of confusion I think when people will quote the words from Matthew chapter 18 where Jesus says wherever two or three are gathered there I am in their midst.

[34:27] There's a lot of confusion over that because we read that and we think ah we just need two or three people, two or three Christians and wherever two or three Christians get together there it is, there's the church.

[34:42] So I don't really need to go to church on Sunday because I have Bible study with my family or I have a lunchtime Bible study with my co-workers. I don't need to go because Jesus is present.

[34:54] Wherever there are two or three Christians together Jesus is present. But that's not the point of that verse in context and that's not what Jesus means. In context Jesus is talking about the work of the church when they gather together for church discipline.

[35:13] That's what he's talking about. Jesus is not envisioning two or three people huddled together around their Bibles calling that a church. Jesus is envisioning the church gathered together to make decisions as a church body and as a family.

[35:29] And the reason that Jesus says two or three is because he's drawing on the language of Deuteronomy that says the testimony of two or three witnesses is binding. His point is when my people gather to me in my name as the body of Christ the things that they do the proclamations that they make they have eternal significance.

[35:52] Their testimony is accepted before God. He is not saying just get another person alongside of you read your Bibles pray together and you don't have to worry about church.

[36:05] that's not what Jesus is saying. In fact it is an essential part of the Christian life that we gather together regularly with the body of Christ.

[36:19] It is not enough for you to just have me and Jesus and my Bible. That is not enough to sustain you spiritually.

[36:30] It is not enough to please Jesus. Jesus is present when the church gathers. And you say well isn't God omnipresent?

[36:43] Yes, but the point there is that God was omnipresent during the time of Israel but he made himself known at the temple. He makes himself known among his people now when we gather together as the church.

[36:55] That's why the writer of the book of Hebrews is so concerned when he hears of believers who have stopped meeting together with the gathered congregation.

[37:08] He's concerned enough that he gives them a warning that they are not to forsake the gathering of themselves together. Don't forsake, don't give up on, don't walk away from the regular gathering or the regular assembly of God's people.

[37:24] If you are physically capable of gathering together with the body of Christ, you need to gather together with them.

[37:37] I'm grateful, especially during the times of COVID that we have had the technology that we have had, so that people who have been not of their own choosing but have been cut off from the body of Christ are able to be fed in some sort of way and connect remotely in some sort of way.

[37:58] But that is not the assembling of God's people. Virtual church is not church. It's been a blessing for us to be able to provide that over the last year and a half, but we better not confuse what it means to love the place where God's glory dwells with sitting in front of our computer or our television, listening to a church service or listening to our favorite preacher.

[38:33] It's not the same thing and it never will be. David says, I, I love the place where your glory dwells. I love the habitation of your house.

[38:46] And that very love for corporate worship in David's life is the proof that he offers up of his own innocence as he's charged with wrongdoing of his own integrity.

[39:07] If if our attendance in worship and our overall participation in the body of Christ became the measure by which a judge decided whether or not we were guilty or innocent of something we were accused of, where would you stand in that?

[39:26] David is confident. And because he is confident that in these circumstances he is innocent, he then goes on to ask and to pray and plead with God for something.

[39:40] Verse nine. In light of his innocence, do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men in whose hands are evil devices and whose right hands are full of bribes.

[39:56] I'm not united with them. I'm not a part of them. But I understand that your judgment is right and good and it will eventually come.

[40:08] So when it comes, don't sweep me away with them. Because I don't belong to them. Verse 11. But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity, redeem me and be gracious to me.

[40:24] My foot stands on level ground in the great assembly. I will bless the Lord. In other words, David's prayer is, God, treat me like what I am. In this matter, innocent.

[40:36] But ultimately in need of redemption and grace. Redeem me and be gracious to me. And David does not envision this.

[40:51] This coming vindication as that's over. Now I can just move on with normal life. No, David says. In the future, I will bless the Lord and I shall walk in my integrity.

[41:09] In other words, David's commitment to do what is right. David's connection to the people of God and his determination to be among the assembly of those who belong to the Lord.

[41:23] Is not for the sake of being vindicated in the moment. It may be the reason that he wants to be vindicated in the moment, proven to be right.

[41:35] But it's not for the sake of that. In other words, David does not intend having gotten what he wants, having heard God's answer to his prayer to then say, oh, man, I'm glad that's over now and then go to some other lifestyle.

[41:51] We all too often. We reform our lives. Change what we're doing.

[42:03] Turn a new direction. And God blesses us. And he works in us and he does things for us on our behalf.

[42:16] And he gets us through whatever it is that we're facing. And then we just drift back or turn back to where we to where we were.

[42:31] David's righteous living is not so that God will answer his prayer. No. He's just saying. I've been right in this.

[42:43] And my prayer is that you will prove me to be right. And you won't judge me along with those who are in the wrong. For David. Walking in integrity or walking in innocence was not.

[43:00] A temporary lifestyle change. It's just a lifestyle. A lifestyle with bumps and bruises and mess ups and slip ups and and stumblings and failings, to be sure.

[43:12] Just read the story of David in second Samuel. He has he makes plenty of mistakes. But it is a life of continued focus upon who God is as his redeemer.

[43:31] As his savior. As the covenant Lord who sets his love upon him and is the one who is faithful and true to his word. And now we have the privilege of looking to the greater David who is all those things.

[43:49] He is the one in whom and through whom God's covenant love comes to us. He is the one who laid down his life upon the cross.

[44:01] Innocent though he was, more blameless than David could ever dream of being. He laid his life down to take the penalty for people who actually are not innocent. Maybe you've been thinking throughout this whole sermon.

[44:15] I wish this applied to me, but it doesn't because I'm actually the one that was wrong. They're pointing their finger at me because I did it. And I know it even if nobody else does.

[44:28] So I don't know that this sermon has a whole lot to do with me because I'm not like David and I'm not innocent and I'm not righteous. And that's okay because the righteous one laid his life down for the sins that you committed.

[44:41] He is the one through whom God's covenant love comes. And because God is always faithful to his word and Jesus does everything he promises to do. If you in fact call on his name, you will be, as the scriptures say, you will be saved.

[44:56] You will be delivered from your sins if you call on his name. And then you will have one who becomes your mediator.

[45:10] You will have one who not only promises redemption, but actually has redeemed you, has been gracious to you, has set your foot on level of ground, has brought you into the great assembly and who now says, join with those who've been proclaimed to be innocent.

[45:32] And sing the praises of the one who brought you here. Let's pray. Father, it would be really easy for us to just focus upon the surface level of this particular song.

[45:51] To be impressed by David, to marvel at David, to try to live up to David's example. But that wouldn't be a very Christian thing to do.

[46:07] We want more than to admire David. We want to look to Jesus and treasure the one that we see. God, I pray for your people.

[46:21] If there are some here that are in the midst of circumstances where they're being blamed for things they didn't do, I pray that you would strengthen them and encourage them by this psalm today. Help them to stand.

[46:37] Help them to approach your throne with confidence. And cry out, vindicate me, O Lord. Lord, I pray for those but I also pray for those among us, those of us who are guilty.

[46:53] Not just broadly, but maybe we're the ones who messed up our marriage. Maybe we're the ones who did something unethical at work.

[47:07] Maybe we're the ones who have forsaken the gathering together of God's people. Whatever it might be, I pray, Father, that you would cause us to look to Jesus and trust in him and know that his righteousness can be counted in our place.

[47:31] And that he will take our sins and bear their weight. Father, we ask all of these things in the name of Jesus.