Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - New Testament Vs. Old Testament Faith | The Writings | Psalm 26

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

What parts of the Bible offend you or make you uncomfortable? Is it part of the Old Testament or the New Testament? Is God different in the Old and New Testaments? What does faith look like now versus before Jesus was born? In today's episode, Keith answers all these questions and more during his discussion on Psalm 26. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 26

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Are there parts of the Bible that make you feel uncomfortable? It's a silly question, isn't it? Of course there are. So let me rephrase it. Which parts of the Bible make you feel uncomfortable? I think it's inevitable that as Christians living in our day, there are going to be parts of the Bible that are offensive. Parts of the Bible that just rub us the wrong way.

I think that's always been true, by the way. Christians have always had parts of the Bible. of the Bible that seem countercultural to them, that are offensive to them, regardless of what century they lived in or what continent they lived on. So what is it for you that makes you feel uncomfortable? Is it Jesus talking about wealth? Or maybe it's when he says to love or enemy and turn the other cheek? Or maybe it's Paul talking about women in the church or God committing the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanite. I mean, the list could go on and on. There are lots of uncomfortable stories in the Bible, and they're also uncomfortable prayers, specifically in the book of Psalms. I think Psalm 26 is one of those prayers.

Now, Psalm 26 doesn't make me uncomfortable because it questions God's goodness or his ethics. It doesn't make me uncomfortable because it introduces me to some hard teaching that I need to follow. No, it makes me uncomfortable because honestly I don't know if I should even pray Psalm 26. I mean, listen to the first couple of verses of David's prayer, and I think you'll be able to tell what I mean. Here's how it starts. Verse one, vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life. I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered. Test me, Lord, and try me. Examine my heart and mine. For I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness. See, when David asked God to vindicate him, it indicates that he's been charged with

some sort of wrongdoing. Maybe someone has accused him of doing something wrong, or maybe it's his own conscience that he's burdened by, it's impossible for us to know. But when he says, Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life and have trusted in the Lord without faltering, it sounds like David is asking God to save him because he's perfect. I know you're thinking that only Jesus was perfect and without sin. So how can David say he lives a blameless life? It has never faltered. How can David pray to God with such confidence in his own righteousness? I mean, just think of David's sins inside of his own family, the adultery with Besheba, the murder of her husband Uriah. His whole family was an absolute mess. He was obviously not a very good parent.

So of all people, how does David say that he is blameless? We have to put Psalm 26 in the context of David's other prayers in the book of Psalms. For example, in Psalm 25, which Jeff talked about last Friday on TMBT, David says, do not remember the sense of my youth and my rebellious ways. And then in Psalm 51, David says, Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. So these verses and plenty of others show us that David knew he was a sinner. David knew he messed up and fell short of God's glory. David isn't claiming to be morally perfect in Psalm 26, that we can be sure of. So then what is the point that David's trying to make? Let's look at the next few verses,

and I want you to notice why David thinks God should vindicate him. Let's start in verse four. I do not sit with a deceitful, nor do I associate with the hypocrites. I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with a wicked. I wash my hands in innocence and go about your altar, Lord, proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds. Lord, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells. Do not take away my soul along with the sinners, my life with those who are bloodthirsty,

in whose hands are wicked schemes, whose right hands are full of bribes. See, based on these verses, David isn't asking God to save him based on his moral perfection. He's asking God to vindicate him because he's part of God's covenant community. Now, I know this gets a little deep for what I usually do on TMBT, but we need to understand prayers like Psalm 26. otherwise, we're just always going to be confused. So let's start all the way back at the beginning. In Genesis 1 and 2, God creates everything. He creates the world without sin, but then in Genesis 3, sin enters the world and everything

falls apart. Kane kills Abel. You have the flood as judgment against the people of God in their sin. You have the Tower of Babel. And God responds to all of that in Genesis 12 by making a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. And part of the promise that God makes to Abraham and his descendants is that he would bless the world through the family of Abraham. In Psalm 26, David wants God to recognize him as part of that family of Abraham. He is one of Abraham's descendants that God made a covenant with.

But if you've read much of the Old Testament all, you know that this family of Abraham screws up time and time again. In other words, they have the same sin problem the rest of the world does. Abraham's family was deceitful. They were hypocrites. They were evildoers. They acted wickedly. I want you to get the big picture here. The world falls into sin and God calls Abraham and Israel to save the world. But they end up having the same sin problem that everyone else does. So now what's God going to do? Well, in Exodus 34, God reveals his name and character to Israel on Mount Sinai. Remember, Moses goes up on the mountain and receives the Ten Commandments, and in that process, the cloud descends and God speaks. It says this in verse four. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord.

And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. See, the covenant that God made with Abraham has forgiveness built into it. Forgiveness and mercy and grace were built into the very name of God. To keep the covenant didn't mean you are perfect. It meant that you knew that you were a sinner and you look to God for grace and mercy. So in Psalm 26, David talks about the altar and the temple. God dwelt in the temple and the people were to worship him there, but they couldn't enter into God's presence in the temple in their own righteousness.

They needed a sacrifice for sin. The altar is where the sacrifices were offered to deal with the sins of the people. For David to say he was a blameless member of the covenant community didn't mean that he was without sin. it meant that he acknowledged his sin and depended on God's sacrifice. He trusted God's sacrifice to pay for his sin. This is why in the last two verses of the Psalm, David is able to say, I lead a blameless life. Deliver me and be merciful to me.

My feet stand on level ground in the great congregation I will praise the Lord. David sees himself as a part of God's great congregation, the people God promised to save through a sacrifice that he provided. We know that the covenant is fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. His blood purified his people so that we can now enter into God's presence. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, God welcomes us into the holy place. But now, instead of dwelling in the Old Testament temple, God dwells inside of Christians. We are God's temple, and he dwells in us through the Holy Spirit. So here's the big time.

take away. The people in the Old Testament were saved the same way people in the New Testament were. Or the same way we're saved today. It's not like there's an Old Testament way of becoming a believer and then Jesus brought a new way. It's always been by grace through faith. Salvation has always been through God's sacrifice. The book of Hebrews says that the blood of bulls and goats, which were the sacrifices in the Old Testament, the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. Those sacrifices pointed forward to Jesus. And it's why when John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Another thing Psalm 26 teaches us is that God promised to save a people, not just individuals. We put the emphasis on an individual person,

but God puts the emphasis on the community. And in Psalm 26, David is very concerned about who he is associated with. That's because David knows his Bible and what God had promised to Abraham. David knew that God made promises to his people, the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites. David knows that God rescued his people out of slavery in Egypt and took them into the promised land. David knows that God promised his people, a future descendant who would crush the head of the serpent. All those promises were ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus rescued us from slavery to sin and said he would take us into the promised land. Jesus defeated sin and death and rescue. who? His people, not just individuals. The covenant community is at the heart of what God is doing

in the world. So what does it look like to be a part of God's people? Well, for David, it looked like worshiping, praying, hearing God's word in the community. And then in Acts 2, we see the earliest Christians sharing meals, sharing their home, sharing any resources they had to help those who had needs. This is what it looks like to be a part of God's people. This is the community that God has promised to save. Are you a part of God's people? Maybe you put too much emphasis on you as an individual and not enough to what God is doing inside of the community. God wants to use Psalm 26 to encourage you to find Christian community, and that starts with a church. In Hebrews 10, the author tells us to not stop meeting together, which unfortunately is what a lot of people have done. In the book of Hebrews,

what they're talking about is the church. Don't stop meeting together as the covenant community in your local church. And that's instruction that we need to obey. We need to find a church that makes Jesus the center of our faith, and then we need to get involved. Maybe that's through a small group or a grief ministry or something. There's tons of ways to get involved and serve and to encourage and help God's people. What's the next step for you and your involvement inside of your

local church. You can think of individual Christians like puzzle pieces. Puzzle pieces only reveal the full picture when they're all connected. And in the same way, Christians can only reveal the full picture of God's glory when we are connected to each other. And it's within that bigger puzzle that each piece finds its worth and value. An individual puzzle piece isn't much help, but put them together with the other pieces, and man, it makes a beautiful picture. Psalm 26 teaches us that God doesn't change. Lots of people are tempted to say that God we find in the Old Testament is different than the Jesus we find in the New Testament. And they say the Old Testament, God seems angry, mean, wrathful, and demands perfection from his people, while Jesus is full of grace and kindness and love,

and he gives us second chances. But is that really what we see? I don't think so. Remember, in Exodus 34? God's very name is gracious and compassionate and forgiveness. And then in Psalm 26, we find that Old Testament God being merciful to his people. In Psalm 26, we see that Old Testament God, the only God, the true God, the God and Father of Jesus, providing the sacrifice to atone for the people's sin. In Psalm 26, we see the Old Testament God pointing us forward to the cross. The Old Testament God is the same God who died on the cross on behalf of His people. God does not change. He's always been a God full of steadfast love and faithfulness. Therefore, as David said in verse 12, our feet stand on level ground. The circumstances of our life can't shake us because God is our firm

foundation. He does not change. That means that we can live with the same kind of confidence that David had. As followers of Jesus, we know that our sin has been atoned for, so we can approach God's throne of grace with confidence. We can trust, just like David, that God will vindicate us in the end. So David's plea in Psalm 26 is not because of his own moral perfection, but because he is part of God's perfect family, purified by God Himself. Amen.