Continuing our look at David’s psalm of praise in Second Samuel 22:
“To the faithful You show Yourself faithful; to those with integrity You show integrity. To the pure You show Yourself pure” (verses 26-27a), NLT).
“To the faithful You show Yourself faithful.” David may have had his faults, but by far, the vast majority of his life was spent in seeking to please God. Don’t ever think that your faithfulness isn’t being recorded in heaven. Remember, in His Parable of the Three Servants, He says of the two servants who wisely used all He’d entrusted to them: “Well done, My good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities” (Matthew 25:21b).
Did you catch that? “I will give you many more responsibilities.” If you want to do great things for God, first do the small things faithfully. Jesus also said, “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones” (Luke 16:10a). David was a faithful young shepherd boy who became the greatest king in Israel’s history. Those who take small responsibilities and commitments seriously are always the ones who can best be entrusted with big things.
“To those with integrity, You show integrity.” Integrity goes hand-in-hand with faithfulness. Integrity is defined as “soundness of moral character.” You don’t have to wonder how a person of integrity will respond in situations – you know they’ll do whatever’s right.
Case in point: my sweet husband. He once witnessed a woman drive off with a bank envelope full of money atop her car. It fell off and he picked it up. He wasn’t able to get her attention, so he took the money to the bank printed on the envelope and they were able to check their records and see who had cashed out the amount of money in the envelope.
It was never a question of, “Should I keep this or not?” Larry knew to the core of his very being the right thing to do. As Proverbs 11:3a reminds us, “The integrity of the upright guides them.” God blesses and guides those who walk in His ways.
“To the pure You show Yourself pure.” I like this definition of the word “pure:” “free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind.” God is most assuredly pure, but what about His people? Mankind, created in God’s image, has managed to come up with a ton of ways to contaminate their lives with all sorts of inferior things that are completely different from God’s intent and purpose. And that’s not a new thing; people throughout time have found plenty of ways to rebel against their Creator.
I love that David can sing about purity in his old age. David, like all of us, recalled all too vividly the sins that he’d committed against His Lord. But he also knew it wasn’t God doing the reminding. God had forgiven him. Given him a clean slate. And David had received it and believed it.
Ditto for when David talked about being “faithful.” His unfaithfulness was history. Forgiven and forgotten. Except by the enemy. And David wasn’t concerned with that ol’ liar. His focus was on His Savior.
What about you? Do you believe the devil’s reminders of your shortcomings more than you believe the Living Word of God who promised His forgiveness?
In Peter’s vision concerning the Gentiles, God told him, “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean” (Acts 10:15b). Listen to your heart. God is saying the same thing to you. If He’s forgiven it, He’s forgotten it. So stop believing the lies. Stop beating yourself up. You are clean and pure before Him. “Do not call something unclean… God has made… clean.”
Copyright © 2013
Judy Woodward Bates
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