Psalm 26 - Liam Neeson and Thieving Hands

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Welcome back to another week of Tabernacle Talk. And today we are in Psalm 26. This week we're going through Psalm 26, 7, 8, 29 and 30.

And there's a couple of these that I know some songs from that I know will be an encouragement to you.

This particular song that we're going to be looking at today is not one necessarily that I know a song from, but in reading through it, I think it'll be an encouragement to you. If you'll notice, my voice is a little bit lower today.

Been with the change of seasons, have had a little bit of congestion that my body's like, oh, cool, all sorts of new stuff's happening. There's some pollen in the air.

There's some things that we think you need to process, as well as when I'm recording this, it's on a Sunday.

So had a sound check, got some good conversations with people, led worship at Tabernacle, and then preached, and then had a good meeting in which we spoke with our Quench volunteers about that program, and heard from them, heard some good feedback,

had some good kind of next steps that will be taken with that ministry. And so if my voice is very low today, I suspect once it comes to tomorrow, it might even be more low.

So you might get a little bit of what is normally called ASMR, and it's, I forget what all the phrase is, but it's when you have kind of those fun sounds that people do, or if you have someone that's speaking in a particular tone of voice that tends

to be more pleasant to listen to. You know, you can have a Mickey Mouse type voice, or you can have like a Liam Neeson type thing. And I think right now with where my voice is at, it's tending a little bit more towards the Liam Neeson side of things.

So, that's what we're dealing with today. And looking forward to being in Psalm 26 with you. I would encourage you.

One thing that even as we were talking today, as a church family and for some volunteers, one thing that was mentioned again and again was the importance of people reaching people.

And I want to encourage you today, maybe it might be through something as simple as maybe sharing an episode of Tabernacle Talk that's been an encouragement to you, maybe by sending whatever your church's Sunday sermon was, sending that out to a

friend and saying, hey, this was an encouragement to me and I thought it might encourage you. Just maybe some small things, small steps that you could take.

Bring some cookies to a neighbor and drop a church invite or a Bible tract or something with them. Have our minds on people, and on caring for people and on reaching people. But I wanted to mention that right at the outset of our time today.

Psalm 26 is a Psalm of David and he says this, Vindicate me, Yahweh, because I've lived with integrity and have trusted in Yahweh without wavering. He says, test me, Yahweh, and try me. Examine my heart and my mind for your faithful love guides me.

And I live by your truth. He says, I do not sit with the worthless or associate with hypocrites. I hate a crowd of evildoers and I do not sit with the wicked.

I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, Yahweh, raising my voice in Thanksgiving and telling about your wondrous works. He says, Yahweh, I love the house where you dwell, the place where your glory resides.

Do not destroy me along with sinners or my life along with men of bloodshed and whose hands are evil schemes and whose right hands are filled with bribes. But I live with integrity. Redeem me and be gracious to me.

My foot stands on level ground. I will bless Yahweh in the assemblies.

Here in this Psalm, David has another one of these prayers where he's saying, God, you see me, you know me and I'm calling out to you both to recognize what I have done, what I have committed myself to with you.

And also Lord, I want you to see how everyone else is acting and God, I need you to bring me to a place where not just I'm pursuing you, but that I'm genuinely with you. So let's dive in and we'll look at some of this through the passage.

It says, vindicate me all way because I've lived with integrity and have trusted in the Lord without wavering. That's a big statement. I wonder how many less could say that same thing to God.

It's one thing to say to other people.

I think even as I talk with individuals, if they were to say, oh man, there was this time in my life where I was really following this particular thing that wasn't God, that I just completely abandoned God, I don't know if I in the same way have that

exact testimony. But for myself, so in that sense, I might say with David, I have lived with integrity. I've tried to follow God throughout my life and I am imperfect. I am not, I'm not perfectly righteous.

I had thoughts and actions and deeds and words that were not what God would have intended or would have wanted for me. But I've tried to pursue God and I think that's David's heart here. So he says, God, vindicate me.

There are people that are from the outside judging me and condemning me. And I don't want to just vindicate myself. He says, God, you know who I am.

You know my heart. So I'm calling on you to vindicate me. Here he's not looking for help me establish my own righteousness in front of other people.

Instead, he's saying, God, I need you to vindicate me. And he says he's trusted in the Lord without wavering. Many of us, we have not felt exactly that way.

And even as you read through some of the other Psalms, obviously, David here is not saying in a 100% concrete way, Oh God, I have never wavered.

We could read through some of the other Psalms where he is wavering and he's telling God, God, I'm wavering because I'm seeing this taking place and I'm seeing this.

So we know we know that he's using some poetic license here to describe his actions and his faith.

But it's a great thing that we can trust in God here without wavering without being truly truly demolished by the trials of this life that we can trust in God. I think of James Chapter one.

And actually, I'm going to turn over there just because I'm tired enough at this point in in the day that I don't want to mess up my quotation of it.

Bible says this, if any of you lack wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting, for the doubter is like the surging sea driven and tossed by the wind.

That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord being double minded and unstable in all his ways.

We ought to have a heart when we come to God that says, God, I'm asking this and I genuinely believe that you can do it if it's your will.

I think even of Jesus and his statements to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane that he prayed, God, I genuinely believe that you could have this cut pass for me. He says, but not my will, but your will be done.

When you pray, when you are talking to the Lord, what is your expectation? Is it that God genuinely can do it? And the only reason that he won't do it is because of his will and that you are genuinely open to what the will of God is for your life?

Or do you harbor some doubts that says, I don't think God can do this. I don't think God can save that loved one. I don't think God can fix this job situation.

I'd encourage you, God is a God that can be trusted, that we can have full confidence that with him, nothing is impossible. The grave is not permanent. Our sins are not forever, they can be washed away.

Those that are virgins can conceive, obviously, in the person of Mary with Jesus. God makes the impossible possible. So genuinely believe in your heart as you come to God, as you pray to him, that he can answer.

You can come to him in faith without wavering, without doubting that he can do it if it is in line with his will. Verses 2 and 3, test me, Lord, and try me. Examine my heart and my mind, for your faithful love guides me, and I live by your truth.

There in verse number 3, the line, for your faithful love guides me, most literally in Hebrew, says this, love is in front of my eyes.

And man, I love that, that God's here again, that has said that covenant love that I made a promise and you're, you're part of my family. And I'm not reneging on that, on that promise here.

It guides us his, his covenant, faithful, loyal love guides us in every aspect of our lives and it's because of God's guiding love and because of God's truth that we can ask God to test us and try us to examine us.

This is a great prayer request that David prays several times throughout the Psalms that I'd encourage you to pray as well. God show me who I really am. I think I'm wonderful.

I think I'm great. I think that I treat people the way they should be treated. I think that I respond in a way that's godly.

But we need God to show us who we really are. We all think the best of ourselves. We need God and his word to show us, here's where you're not measuring up.

Not in a way to like shame you or to make you feel bad, but in a way that we would say, I want to be more like Jesus.

But if I don't know the ways in which I'm not acting like Jesus, I will never be able to take steps towards becoming more like Jesus.

If I don't realize that my attitude, if I don't realize that my words, if I don't realize that when I am doing these actions that I'm outside of the will of God, that I can never adjust those things to better follow Jesus.

So it's a crucially important thing for us to pray this prayer. God, test me, try me, examine me.

And our prayer would be that as we do this, as David prayed here, that God would say either, hey, here's this area or I know you're genuinely following me.

Yeah, maybe here's this area, but my child, I know that you are following me in the best way that you know how right now. And what an encouragement that is to our hearts that we can know where we're at with God. It's not an unknown.

It's not a question mark. God has made himself known and he's made his will known to us that we can know if we're in the will of God by if we're following the word of God. And that's a great comfort to us.

Verses 4 through 7, he gives this list of four things that he says, I'm not with this group of people. He says, I don't sit with the worthless. I don't associate with hypocrites.

I hate a crowd of evildoers and I do not sit with the wicked. Like we learned about even in Psalm 1, blessed is the man that does not walk in the council of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the mockers.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law, he meditates day and night.

This is kind of along the same lines where he's saying, I don't spend my life lived intentionally in the council and friendship of those that do not love and honor God.

That does not mean that we can't be, it doesn't mean that we can't be friends with those that are not Christians. Jesus was maligned by the Pharisees as a friend of sinners.

But it does mean that who we adopt the worldview of, who we allow to give us council as far as the direction and purpose of our lives should not be those that are anti-God.

It should be those that know and love Christ, which obviously we would know if Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. If someone does not believe that, then they're going to send you a wrong way.

They're going to send you with wrong truth, and they are going to send you in a way that leads to death. Quote the verse in Proverbs, often there is a way that seems right to a person, but the end of it are the ways of death.

So you're David saying, those aren't my people. Instead, verses six and seven, he says, I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, Lord, raising my voice in thanksgiving and telling about your wondrous works.

Like I started off with today, encouraging you to evangelize other people, to invite them into your life, to share what Jesus is doing, to give someone a church invite or gospel tract and invite them to come to a small group or men's study or women's

study or a church service with you, just to invite people to participate with you in your Christian life. Tell others about God's wondrous works. Verse number eight, I love this verse.

Lord, I love the house where you dwell, the place where your glory resides. What makes this verse so amazing for me is not that, obviously, we don't have the temple as such anymore.

Instead, God's people are his temple now, that the Holy Spirit lives in each believer. And here, as David loved going someplace where God was and enjoying that special presence, man, we ought to enjoy the presence of other believers.

And it's truly a terrible thing when a church has become so worldly and so ungodly, that you don't feel as though you're interacting with God when you speak with other believers in the church.

It's not, hey, when special music plays, do you get warm tinglies in your belly? And that's when you know that God's in there. No, no, no, God, that's not where God lives.

God doesn't come through an electric guitar. God doesn't come through a particular song set list. God lives in his people.

And we should be looking for the presence and comfort of God in his Word and in his church. And that comes through people.

I would encourage you have a love, have an excitement, have an anticipation for when you interact with the people of God that God might be speaking to you. And I love that thought.

It really changes the dynamic of Sundays for me because I'm not going saying, all right, how can I personally make a great Sunday for a bunch of people? Instead, I'm going because I know that I'm going to be blessed.

And my prayer is that I would be a blessing to others. But I'm going not hoping that maybe the size of the crowd would wow me or give me a great feeling or that I would get such great feedback on my sermons.

Frankly, I would much rather spend some time in conversation with God's people because I know that when they speak, they're saying, hey, here's how God's interacting in my life. Here's how God's working in my heart.

Here's what God has for me to tell you. And those are always wonderful times for me that I get that enjoyment. And I can echo here with David, God, I love the house where you dwell, the place where your glory resides.

It's in your people. Verses 9 and 10. Do not destroy me along with sinners or my life along with men of bloodshed in whose hands are evil schemes and whose right hands are filled with bribes.

I think of Jesus when I look at those verses, that he was destroyed along with sinners, that he lost his life along with men of bloodshed, thieves, those that would have taken from other people.

And especially with how a lot of theft worked in the ancient world, it was normally through beating people up and then taking their things. That that was how Christ died.

Verse number 10, and whose hands are evil schemes and whose right hands are filled with bribes.

These schemers, these plotters that Jesus died beside, and I think of their hands filled with evil schemes and with bribes, and his hands were filled with the nails, and that they were filled with holy blood, that his pouring out of life redeemed us.

And what an incredible thought. Jesus was the house where God dwelled. He was the fullness of all of the Godhead bodily, in person, the exact imprint of God's nature in human form.

And we have to always be thankful for Jesus and remember his sacrifice. Verse number 11, I live with integrity, redeem me and be gracious to me. Hear these words, he says, I live with integrity.

He says, this is the general direction of my life. But then he does state who he really is. He's a person in need of redemption.

He says, redeem me and a person in need of God's grace. He says, God, I don't deserve these blessings. I don't deserve these things.

He says, but I'm asking you to be gracious, to give me what I don't deserve. And because of that, verse number 12, my foot stands on level ground. I will bless the Lord in the assemblies.

One of the incredible thing that we can stand on shore on steady ground because of Jesus. And because of Jesus's integrity, we are redeemed. We have been given God's grace.

The ground is level at the foot of the cross, and we can bless the Lord in our assemblies even as we did today at Tabernacle. And I'd encourage you today. May you have a heart like David that would say, God, I want to be following you.

My direction is towards you. I fail. I'm in need of redemption, but I'm going to call out to you because I know that you will redeem me.

God, I'm asking that you would try my heart and my mind. Try my emotions, try my motives, as well as trying my thoughts and what I think about and how I think about things, how I think about people. God, like, try me, show me who I really am.

Let's not be those that would pursue the council and closest life relationships with those that do not know Christ, but let's love God's people, those in whom the Holy Spirit of God dwells.

And let's love him, let's be thankful for the cross and remember the sacrifice that he paid for us, the innocent for the guilty. I hope that would be an encouragement to you today.

Thanks for tuning in and I hope that this would be an encouragement to you tomorrow. Psalm 27 is a great psalm and have a song that I really, really love that goes along with that psalm. So we'll attach that to that particular episode.

Thanks for tuning in, and have a wonderful day. Bye.