Thought from today’s Bible reading from Psalm 26, 40, 58, 61-62, 64.
David placed his complete trust in the Lord and relied upon Him for help in times of trouble. He regularly referred to his integrity as a reason why God should help him, even inviting God to examine him to prove his faithfulness.
“Examine me, O Lord, and try me; test my mind and my heart. For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth.
“I do not sit with deceitful men, nor will I go with pretenders. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. I shall wash my hands in innocence, and I will go about Your altar, O Lord, that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and declare all Your wonders” (Psalm 26:2-7).
What if God examined us? What would He find?
- Do we walk in the truth?
- Do we keep ourselves from deceitful and wicked men?
- Do we hate the gathering of evildoers?
- Do we have clean hands, and can we claim innocence?
- Do we worship God as we should?
Paul told the brethren in Corinth, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” (2 Corinthians 13:5). We must continually evaluate ourselves to see if we are conducting our lives in a way that is pleasing to God.
We do not need to wonder about the standard of judgment either. Jesus said, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day” (John 12:48). God examines us according to His word. We need to examine ourselves by the same standard. If we do this, we can be confident of our reward from God.
Tomorrow’s reading: 2 Samuel 19-21
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
