◄ Psalm 26:2 ►














Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Assailed Integrity's Final Appeal. F1
Psalm 26:1-12
C. Clemance
It seems evident that this psalm was written by some Old Testament saint who was surrounded by ungodly men, by whom he was assailed, reproached, and slandered. From them he appeals to God. By the heading of the psalm we are pointed to David as the author. And there is no reason for questioning that. Mr. Fausset, in his most suggestive book, 'Horae Psalmicae,' working along the line of "undesigned coincidences," remarks, "Another feature of undesigned coincidence is the unmistakable identity of David's character, as he reveals it in the Psalms, and as the independent historian describes it in the Books of Samuel and Chronicles. Thus the same ardent love to the house of God appears in both. How instinctively one feels the harmony between the character self-portrayed in Psalm 26:8; Psalm 27:4; and Psalm 69:9! Compare the historian's record of his words to Zadok (2 Samuel 15:25), and still more in 1 Chronicles 29:2, 3." Undoubtedly, thus read and compared, the Psalms and the history mutually throw light upon and confirm each other. But in following out our plan in this section - of dealing with each psalm as a unity - we find this, as well as all the rest, furnishing material for pulpit exposition, which we could ill afford to lose. Our topic is - Assailed integrity's final appeal.

I. WE HAVE HERE THE CHARACTER OF AN UPRIGHT MAN, SKETCHED BY HIMSELF. It may not be a very wholesome exercise for a man to be engaged in - to sketch a moral portraiture of himself. Painters have often painted their own portraits; that requires but an outward gaze on one's outer self; but to delineate one's own likeness morally requires much introspection. Few can carry on much of that without becoming morbid through the process; and fewer still, perhaps, have fidelity enough to do it adequately and correctly. Yet there may be circumstances under which such abnormal work becomes even necessary (as we shall point out presently). And when such is the case, it is well if we can honestly point to such features of character and life as are presented to us here.

1. The psalmist has a goodly foundation on which his life was built up.

(1) Trust in Jehovah (ver. 1).

(2) God's loving-kindness (ver. 3).

(3) God's truth (ver. 3); i.e. God's faithfulness.

Note: That all the supports of the psalmist's integrity were outside himself. Happy is the man that, under all the circumstances of life, can stay his mind and heart on Divine faithfulness and love. If such underlying props cease to sustain, moral and spiritual worth will soon pine from lack of motive and hope. It is one of the evils of the day that some of our most popular novelists delineate religion without God.

2. The life built up on this foundation was one which may with advantage be imitated. It was a life of:

(1) Integrity (ver. 11).

(2) Straightforward progress (ver. 1). No sliding.

(3) Avoidance of evil associations (vers. 4, 5).

(4) Cultivation of holy worship, song, and thanksgiving in the sanctuary (vers. 6-8, 12).

Note:

(a) Those to whom God is the support of their life, will show a life worthy of such support.

(b) Those who most value communion with God and a life hidden with him, will most fully appreciate and most diligently cultivate that stimulus and comfort which come from mingling with God's people in the worship of the sanctuary.

II. THE MOST UPRIGHT OF MEN MAY BE MISUNDERSTOOD, UNAPPRECIATED, MISREPRESENTED, AND ASSAILED. Speaking roughly and generally, it is no doubt true that, on the whole, a man's reputation will be the reflection of what he is, and that most men go for what they are worth. And yet, so long as there are envious hearts, jealous dispositions, unbridled tongues, few can be regarded as absolutely safe from detraction and slander. Our Lord Jesus implies and even states as much as this (cf. Matthew 5:44; Matthew 10:25; Matthew 18:6, 7; John 15:18). See Peter's words (1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 4:14); see Paul's words (Romans 12:18, 19). Paul had to boar much in the way of depreciation from some who even denied his apostleship. Job was surrounded with "miserable comforters," who thought, by defaming him, to defend God! Such trials are hard to bear. They may arise

(1) from the occasional foibles of a good man being magnified by the slanderer into sins;

(2) from the utter impossibility of bad men reading aright the character of the just and pure. Having no virtue themselves, they cannot credit others with any. "Doth Job fear God for nought?" "He hath a devil," etc. Many can say the words in Psalm 56:5.

III. IT IS AN INFINITE RELIEF, UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES, THAT THE RELIEVER CAN APPEAL TO HIS GOD. The whole psalm is such an appeal. True, the Infinite Eye can discern flaws and faults where we suspect none; but then the same perfect gaze discerns the desire after being right and pure and true, however far the believer may be from realizing his own ideal. The suppliant has to do, moreover, with One who never misunderstands, and whose glory is in his loving-kindness and truth. And from a Christian point of view we must remember that we have a High Priest who was in all points tried like as we are, yet without sin, and who can therefore pity what is frail, and pardon what is wrong. What a mercy to have such a throne of grace to which to flee

IV. THE APPEAL WILL BE MARKED BY SPECIFIC ENTREATY. Here there are four lines of supplication.

1. That God would vindicate him, and not let him be mixed up in confusion with the men whose sin he hates (vers. 1, 9, 10). He looks to God, as Job did, as his Vindicator (Job 19:25).

2. That God would search and prove him (ver. 2; cf. Psalm 139:23, 24).

3. That God would purify him (ver. 3). So the word here rendered "try" indicates. He is upright before men, but he does not pretend to be perfect before God.

4. That God would entirely deliver him from the surroundings of ungenial and unholy men (vers. 9, 10). Whether the psalmist intended any reference to a future state or no, the believer now cannot help so applying the words. Who could endure the thought of evil and good always being mixed up together? The Divine mandate is, "Let both grow together until the harvest" (Matthew 13:13). Then will come the final severance.

V. THE RESULT OF SUCH APPEAL WILL NOT BE FRUITLESS OR VAIN. (Ver. 12.) "His prayer has been heard; he is safe; he stands on the open, level table-land, where he has room to move, and where his enemies cannot hem him in; and therefore he fulfils the resolve made before (ver. 7), and publicly pours out his thanksgivings to God" (Perowne). Whoever thus lays his complaints before God will find deliverance in God's own appointed time; we must leave, however, the "when" with the great Defender. Either

(1) on earth in our day,

(2) on earth after our day, or

(3) in heaven, God will bring us and our reputation out to the light. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday (Psalm 37:5, 6). - C.

Biblical Illustrator
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
Psalm 26:2
Our need of Divine scrutiny
S. Morell.
I. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT WE MAY TRY OURSELVES BY FALSE PRINCIPLES. Self-examination is an all-important duty, but when we have searched most diligently we need that God should examine us. Now, we are prone to err in regard to our repentance, our faith, and our obedience — these which are the grand requisites for salvation.

II. WE ARE PRONE TO BE PARTIAL TO OURSELVES, — to make allowances where we should not.

III. AND OUR MOTIVES IN OUR CONDUCT ARE SO DIFFICULT TO ASCERTAIN BY ANY BUT GOD.

IV. AND WHEN WE DISCOVER IMPERFECTIONS WE CANNOT CORRECT THEM, even by that Divine grace which He is willing to bestow.

V. THE DIVINE JUDGMENT will determine the decisions of the last day. What we think, or our fellow men believe, will not avail then.

VI. WHAT IS NEEDED TO PREPARE FOR HEAVEN.

(S. Morell.)

Examinations
D. Davies.
(A talk with children): — As a rule, children are not very anxious for examinations. They do not see what possible good can come out of them. If most of them had their wishes, they never would have one at all. Yet in days to come these children will see that of all things that they did in their school days perhaps the most important were these very examinations. Now, David here asked God to examine him; he asked a very keen examiner to take the task in hand. He knew what that meant: he knew that no weakness, no ignorance, no sin would remain hidden; but that everything would be known, not only to God, but also largely to David himself. And that was one of the reasons why he wanted to he examined.

I. NOW, OBSERVE THAT THE WORD "EXAMINE" HERE IS A VERY FORCIBLE WORD. It means "to examine by fire," and, therefore, by that which shall burn up all the dross, and only leave behind that which can pass through fire. Again, the word "try" is further expressive. The Hebrew word means "melting by fire"; in other words, it means "examine by fire to the point of melting." Thus the examination the Psalmist asked for was an examination by fire — an examination that should burn away everything that was impure.

II. THE RESULT OF AN EXAMINATION TO A LARGE EXTENT IS TO MAKE ONE KNOW ONESELF. If it were not for the examinations which children get, some of them would get, very conceited, and would think that they knew everything. When anyone begins a study he is convinced in a week or so that he knows all about it. If you see him again in a twelvemonth he begins to doubt it; but if you see him in two years be is quite convinced he knows very little. Now, examinations are very helpful in that way. The condition of learning is just to learn, first of all, that we know next to nothing, and thus to be dissatisfied with ourselves. Then, and then only, we shall make an effort.

III. FAILURE IN EXAMINATION HAS VERY OFTEN LED TO DETERMINATION on the part of a boy or girl never to fail again; thus failure has been one of the greatest blessings they have had in life. David felt sure that if God examined him he would know very much more of his own poor miserable self than he did before, and some path of sin which had escaped his notice would be revealed to him. Indeed, he was anxious that the Lord should not conceal from him anything that was evil in him. To be conscious of one's error is the first step necessary to avoid repeating it.

IV. Again, there was another feeling on the part of David, namely, that thorough as God was as an examiner, and thorough as the exposure would be by such an examination, GOD WAS NEVERTHELESS VERY KIND; for David says in the following verse, "For Thy loving kindnesses are before mine eyes." Our best loved teachers have been those who, though they saw all our failings, all our mistakes, very clearly, yet did not hold us up to ridicule, but sympathised with our difficulties and put the best construction on all our actions. So it is with our Lord. He knows our hearts, and reads every thought before we express it in words. Hidden desires are all known to Him. But then, He is so kind, so loving, so forgiving, we can leave ourselves in His hands.

(D. Davies.)

Self-examination examined
Horace Bushnell, D. D.
Self-examination is to many disciples a kind of first point in practical religion. It is heard and read on all sides. But there are only two Scripture passages which can be at all cited for it, one of which (2 Corinthians 13:5) certainly has no such meaning; and the other (1 Corinthians 11:28) carries no sufficient authority for the practice. Scripture sends us to God: "Examine me, O Lord"; "Search me, O God"; "The Lord trieth the heart."

I. GOD CERTAINLY CAN EXAMINE US, and we cannot in any but the most superficial and incomplete sense examine ourselves. For —

1. Our memory is too short and scant to recall or restore the conception of one in a hundred million of the acts that make up our lives.

2. Even if we could recall them, everyone, we could never go over the survey of such vast materials, so as to form any judgment of them or of ourselves.

3. And since the understanding of our present state is impossible without understanding all the causes in our action that have fashioned the character and shaped its figure, our faculty is even shorter here than before. Omniscience only is equal to the task.

II. IN WHAT IS FREQUENTLY UNDERSTOOD BY SELF-EXAMINATION THERE IS SOMETHING MISTAKEN OR DECEITFUL which needs to be carefully resisted.

1. It is a kind of artificial state, in which the soul is drawn off from its objects and works, and its calls of love and sacrifice, to engage itself in acts of self-inspection.

2. He may even be so engrossed in self-examination as to become morbidly selfish in it; for nothing is more selfish than to be always boring into one's self.

III. HOW MUCH IS IMPLIED IN A HEARTY WILLINGNESS OR DESIRE TO HAVE GOD EXAMINE US AND PROVE US. A mind seeking after truth, ready to receive it; more, a soul already found to be in God's friendship, sealed with the witness of His acceptance.

IV. THERE IS A WAY OF COMING AT THE VERDICT OF GOD WHATEVER IT MAY BE. God designs always to give us the benefit of His own knowledge of our state. He never intended us for, and never puts us to, the task of testing our. selves. He expects to do this for us. We are complete only in Him. He is, and is ever to be, our Light, and we only know ourselves in Him. God is manifested in the consciousness of them that love Him and are right towards Him. They will know God by an immediate knowledge or revelation. They will have His Spirit witnessing with theirs. God has planned our life so as to bring us into a perception of the many defects and errors lurking in us, and to set us in the same judgment of them that He has Himself, proving us at every turn, trying even the reins and heart, that our most secret things may be revealed. If there should be any legitimate place for self-examination it is in the field where we go to discover our faults and the sins that require to be forsaken or put away.

(Horace Bushnell, D. D.)

Morbid self-inspection kills love
Horace Bushnell, D. D.
Many years ago I knew an excellent much esteemed Christian mother, who had become morbidly introverted, and could not find her love to God. Seeing at once that she was stifling it by her own self-inspecting engrossment, which would not allow her to so much as think of God's loveliness, I said to her, "But you love your son, you have no doubt of that." "Of course I love him, why should I not?" To show her, then, how she was killing her love to God, I said, "But take one week now for the trial, and make thorough examination of your love to your son, and it will be strange if, at the end of the week, you do not tell me that you have serious doubt of it." I returned at the time, to be dreadfully shocked by my too cruel experiment. "No," she said, "I do not love him;" I abhor him. She was fallen off the edge, and her self-examination was become her insanity!

(Horace Bushnell, D. D.)

God trying the reins and the heart
Horace Bushnell, D. D.
It is wonderful to see with what skill God has adjusted all our experiences, in this mortal life, so as to make us sensible of our errors and defects. As the invisible ink is brought out in a distinct colour by holding what is written to the fire, so God brings out all our faults and our sins by the scorches of experience through which we are ever passing in the fiery trials of life. If we are proud, He has a way to make us see it, and to break down our pride. If we cherish any subtle grudge or animosity, He will somehow call it out and make us see it. If we are selfish, or covetous, or jealous, or frivolous, or captious, or self-indulgent, or sensual, or self-confident, or fanatical, or self-righteous, or partial, or obstinate, or prejudiced, or uncharitable, or censorious, — whatever fault we have in us, whether it be in the mind, or the head, or the body, or I might almost say the bones, no matter how subtle, or how ingeniously covered it may be, He has us in the furnace of trial and correction, where He is turning us round and round, lifting us in prosperity, crushing us in adversity, subduing us with affliction, tempting out our faults and then chastising them. humbling us, correcting us, softening, tempering, soothing, fortifying, refining, healing, and so managing us, as to detect all our drossy and bad qualities, and separate them from us. He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver, and allows nothing to escape either His discovery or our correction. No self-examination we could make would discover, at all, what He is continually bringing to the light, and exposing to our detection.

(Horace Bushnell, D. D.)

People
David, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Clean, Examine, Fire, Heart, Mind, O, Prove, Purified, Reins, Scales, Test, Tested, Thoughts, Try
Outline
1. David resorts to God in confidence of his integrity

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 26:2

     5017   heart, renewal
     5166   liver and kidneys
     6185   imagination, desires
     8478   self-examination
     8832   testing

Psalm 26:2-3

     5197   walking

Library
Question of the Comparison Between the Active and the Contemplative Life
I. Is the Active Life preferable to the Contemplative? Cardinal Cajetan, On Preparation for the Contemplative Life S. Augustine, Confessions, X., xliii. 70 " On Psalm xxvi. II. Is the Active Life more Meritorious than the Contemplative? III. Is the Active Life a Hindrance to the Contemplative Life? Cardinal Cajetan, On the True Interior Life S. Augustine, Sermon, CCLVI., v. 6 IV. Does the Active Life precede the Contemplative? I Is the Active Life preferable to the Contemplative? The Lord …
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

Hezekiah, the Praying King
One can form a habit of study until the will seems to be at rest and only the intellect is engaged, the will having retired altogether from exercise. This is not true of real praying. If the affections are laggard, cold, indifferent, if the intellect is furnishing no material to clothe the petition with imagery and fervor, the prayer is a mere vaporing ofintellectual exercise, nothing being accomplished worth while.--Rev. Homer W. Hodge The great religious reformation under King Hezekiah and the …
Edward M. Bounds—Prayer and Praying Men

The Courts of God
"Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth."--Ps. xxvi. 8. R. Rolle, 1349. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 O Lord, I have loved the fair beauty Of the house Thou hast chosen for Thee, The courts where Thy gladness rejoiceth, And where Thou delightest to be. For I love to be made the fair dwelling Where God in His grace may abide; I would cast forth whatever may grieve Thee, And welcome none other beside. Oh blessed the grace that has made me The home …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)

Epistle v. To Theoctista, Sister of the Emperor.
To Theoctista, Sister of the Emperor. Gregory to Theoctista, &c. With how great devotion my mind prostrates itself before your Venerableness I cannot fully express in words; nor yet do I labour to give utterance to it, since, even though I were silent, you read in your heart your own sense of my devotion. I wonder, however, that you withdrew your countenance, till of late bestowed on me, from this my recent engagement in the pastoral office; wherein, under colour of episcopacy, I have been brought …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

A Discourse of the Building, Nature, Excellency, and Government of the House of God; with Counsels and Directions to the Inhabitants Thereof.
BY JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD. 'Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.'--Psalm 26:8 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Beautiful in its simplicity is this treatise on the Church of Christ, by John Bunyan. He opens, with profound knowledge and eminent skill, all those portions of sacred writ which illustrate the nature, excellency, and government of the house of God, with the personal and relative duties of its inhabitants. It was originally published in …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Letter xxxix (A. D. 1137) to the Same.
To the Same. He expresses his regret at his very long absence from his beloved Clairvaux, and his desire to return to his dear sons. He tells them of the consolations that he feels nevertheless in his great labours for the Church. 1. My soul is sorrowful until I return, and it refuses to be comforted till it see you. For what is my consolation in the hour of evil, and in the place of my pilgrimage? Are not you in the Lord? Wherever I go, the sweet memory of you never leaves me; but the sweeter the …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Assurance
Q-xxxvi: WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS WHICH FLOW FROM SANCTIFICATION? A: Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end. The first benefit flowing from sanctification is assurance of God's love. 'Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.' 2 Pet 1:10. Sanctification is the seed, assurance is the flower which grows out of it: assurance is a consequent of sanctification. The saints of old had it. We know that we know …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

St. Augustine (Ad 354-430)
PART I The church in the north of Africa has hardly been mentioned since the time of St. Cyprian (Chapter VIII). But we must now look towards it again, since in the days of St. Chrysostom it produced a man who was perhaps the greatest of all the old Christian fathers--St. Augustine. Augustine was born at Thagaste, a city of Numidia, in the year 354. His mother, Monica, was a pious Christian, but his father, Patricius, was a heathen, and a man of no very good character. Monica was resolved to bring …
J. C. Roberston—Sketches of Church History, from AD 33 to the Reformation

Question Lxxxiii of Prayer
I. Is Prayer an Act of the Appetitive Powers? Cardinal Cajetan, On Prayer based on Friendship II. Is it Fitting to Pray? Cardinal Cajetan, On Prayer as a True Cause S. Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount, II. iii. 14 " On the Gift of Perseverance, vii. 15 III. Is Prayer an Act of the Virtue of Religion? Cardinal Cajetan, On the Humility of Prayer S. Augustine, On Psalm cii. 10 " Of the Gift of Perseverance, xvi. 39 IV. Ought We to Pray to God Alone? S. Augustine, Sermon, cxxvii. 2 V. …
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

A Treatise on Good Works
I. We ought first to know that there are no good works except those which God has commanded, even as there is no sin except that which God has forbidden. Therefore whoever wishes to know and to do good works needs nothing else than to know God's commandments. Thus Christ says, Matthew xix, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." And when the young man asks Him, Matthew xix, what he shall do that he may inherit eternal life, Christ sets before him naught else but the Ten Commandments. …
Dr. Martin Luther—A Treatise on Good Works

The Morning of Good Friday.
The pale grey light had passed into that of early morning, when the Sanhedrists once more assembled in the Palace of Caiaphas. [5969] A comparison with the terms in which they who had formed the gathering of the previous night are described will convey the impression, that the number of those present was now increased, and that they who now came belonged to the wisest and most influential of the Council. It is not unreasonable to suppose, that some who would not take part in deliberations which were …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Greatness of the Soul,
AND UNSPEAKABLENESS 0F THE LOSS THEREOF; WITH THE CAUSES OF THE LOSING IT. FIRST PREACHED AT PINNER'S HALL and now ENLARGED AND PUBLISHED FOR GOOD. By JOHN BUNYAN, London: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1682 Faithfully reprinted from the Author's First Edition. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Our curiosity is naturally excited to discover what a poor, unlettered mechanic, whose book-learning had been limited to the contents of one volume, could by possibility know …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Question of the Contemplative Life
I. Is the Contemplative Life wholly confined to the Intellect, or does the Will enter into it? S. Thomas, On the Beatific Vision, I., xii. 7 ad 3m II. Do the Moral Virtues pertain to the Contemplative Life? S. Augustine, Of the City of God, xix. 19 III. Does the Contemplative Life comprise many Acts? S. Augustine, Of the Perfection of Human Righteousness, viii. 18 " Ep., cxxx. ad probam IV. Does the Contemplative Life consist solely in the Contemplation of God, or in the Consideration …
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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