Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 27 GNT, Ch. 28 NCV, Ch 29. CEB

Support

Please remember that this is a listener supported show. Your support of any amount is needed and very much appreciated. Find out how by clicking here.

Thoughts

In Psalm 26, David prays as one right with the Lord. Obviously, David lived before Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected, but David’s faith was in the saving power of the Lord. In verse 2, David asks God to examine him, test him and judge him. 

Some commentators have likened this prayer to the refiner’s fire that purifies gold. It’s as if David was asking God to be that fire, and show David what needs to be burned off, so that he can be pure.

Oh, beloved, that we would pray the same kind of prayer. Yes, if we have put our faith in Jesus, we have been credited with righteousness, and God does see us as pure. But as Paul said in Romans 7: “18And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.”

This is a subject that has sparked discussions and sermons for millennia, but for today’s purpose, for today’s show, let’s just say this: David’s prayer in Psalm 26, asking God to test him, to purify him in the refiner’s fire, is one that we would do good to imitate. And we can do that with confidence, because of the verse in Ps 26 which immediately follows it: Your constant love is my guide; your faithfulness always leads me.

David knew, and we do too, that the refiner’s fire is tempered in God’s love and faithfulness.

Oh, how wonderful it is to know God’s love.