Level Ground

Introduction 

A few days ago, I took a trip up to Davenport to visit a friend who is the president and CEO of a food bank that services Knox County.  It was great to reconnect after 12 years and catch up on life.  He asked me if we were enjoying living in Galesburg… (and you’re all waiting to hear what I said…)  I told him the truth: that we are enjoying living here very much.  We moved from the West Coast to the Midwest twenty years ago.  One of the significant differences between West Coast and Midwestern culture is the stability of the population.  In California, long-term residents of virtually any town or city are in a small minority.  People come and go in California.  Not so in the Midwest.  Lots of folks have deep generational roots in the town in which they live.  I believe that is one of the great strengths of our community. 

But there is some advantage to having moved around quite a bit as well.  I have a wealth of diverse experiences and adventures in the different places that I’ve lived.  Perhaps the coolest place I lived was in Oxnard Shores, a beach community about fifty miles north of Malibu.  We lived there for five years while I was in junior and senior high school.  A lot of the homes there were weekend homes for people in LA.  Word was that Sonny and Cher had a house on our beach, though I never saw them.  Our home wasn’t right on the water; we were several blocks away.   

We were far better off. 

I don’t know what it is about Californians.   They always want to build where Mother Nature throws temper tantrums.  The expensive homes in LA are built on hillsides with great views and subject to the inevitable wildfires or mudslides.  I can’t imagine what their insurance rates are, not to mention their mortgage.  And the expensive homes on the water are built right on the shoreline where big storms churn up enough surf to chew away the beach.  You’ll see it every few years on TV where houses in Malibu drop into the surf.  Where we lived further up the coast, I saw lots of homes totally destroyed when the violent surf ate away the beach.  My younger sister’s friend lived in a house that was built on a concrete slab on the beach. When the violent surf eventually came, their living room just dropped into the waves.  Imagine that!

Your life – my life is like a building.  It needs a firm and level foundation upon which to stand.  You don’t want to build your life on shifting sand that will wash away when the storms of life come.   Of all the building materials that we have to make a sure foundation for life, integrity – honesty with yourself, others, and God – is perhaps the most important of all.

Text – Psalm 26 

 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 my mind;

for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love

    and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.

I do not sit with the deceitful,

    nor do I associate with hypocrites.

I abhor the assembly of evildoers

    and refuse to sit with the 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 sinners,

    my life with those who are bloodthirsty,

in whose hands are wicked schemes,

    whose right hands are full of bribes.

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.

Search Me, O God

I have always loved the psalms.  But as I have aged and matured the psalms seem to have become more precious to me every year.  They are the honest prayers of a soul laid bare in pursuit of God. 

But Psalm 26 seems strange in our ears.  It’s like the psalmist is saying, “Look at me, God!  I’m a good guy!”  But a closer look reveals a much deeper cry from the heart.  The psalm immediately preceding this one asks God to deliver from sin and from shame.  But Psalm 26 is a cry for God to search the soul and vindicate the writer who asserts his integrity. 

The Hebrew Bible indicates that this psalm is “of David.”  In all that we read in Jewish history about Israel’s greatest King, the psalm is certainly consistent with his character.  It is very possible that David wrote the psalm during his son, Absalom’s, rebellion when he had to flee his capital for his own safety.  David was not perfect.  He was an adulterer and a murderer.  But the Bible also says that he was a man after God’s own heart and this psalm reflects that. 

The psalm opens with a cry for God to test him.  Our translation says “vindicate,” but a better word might actually be “judge.”  “Judge me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life.”  Have you ever been in a situation where your integrity is called into question?  If you live long enough, you’ll probably face that challenge sometime in your life.  It wasn’t too long ago that I faced that very trial and I remember praying over and over again, “What did I do wrong, Lord?  I’ve tried to be above board in everything related to this situation.”  There are times in life when you will rightly question yourself.  The writer of Psalm 19 rightly wonders: “Who can discern his errors?  Forgive my hidden faults” (Psalm 19:12).  Ever been there?  When you’re not sure…?  That’s the intense yearning for the person who strives to walk rightly with God.  It’s the cry of a heart of integrity.  That’s exactly the sense of this psalm. 

But it is not self-righteousness that the psalmist is depending upon.  Notice verse 3: “For I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.”  Godly integrity is not sinlessness.  That isn’t possible.  Godly integrity is faithfulness and reliance upon God’s promised goodness and faithfulness to you.  Knowing God intimately and trusting him is the key to living a life of honesty and integrity.  You know that God will reward faithfulness.  And so, you can be honest with yourself, others, and God.  Depending on God’s mercy and grace is a safe place.

The middle part of the psalm, vs. 4-8, is the psalmist’s testimony of integrity.  It is no coincidence that Psalm 26 uses the same words that we read this morning from Psalm 1:1: “Blessed is the man who dies not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the way of mockers.”  He leads a blameless life.  The King James Version says, “I have walked in my integrity.”  He doesn’t sit with the wicked or the deceitful.  And he is standing on level ground.  The three words, walk, sit, and stand are very important.  They refer to a total lifestyle and are very similar to the essential words of our D6 program where we are to integrate our faith “when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut. 6:7).

And he loves to worship!  There is nothing in the Jewish law that requires worshippers to go around the altar proclaiming God’s praise and testifying of all the wonderful things that he has done.  You won’t find that listed in the requirements of the things that ministers are supposed to do in worship.  But David’s always breaking the rules in worship.  He’s extravagant.  He’s loud.  He makes a fool of himself…

May God give us more Davids.

This is a person who loves God more than anything else: 

“Lord I love the house where you live,

the place where your glory dwells.”

He prays that he will not be swept away by the evil influences of the world that are all around him.  A person of godly character is always aware of his own propensity towards wrongdoing.  Such a person isn’t arrogant in his righteousness.  We are all prone to wander.  It is only by the grace of God that we stand.  

Integrity is Foundational

C.S. Lewis described integrity as “doing the right thing even when no one is looking.”  Integrity – honesty with ourselves, others, and God – is essential for a Jesus-follower.  It is the only way to build a joyous, fruitful, and secure life.  Navigator’s former president, Jerry White tells the story about the integrity of baseball legend Ted Williams.  When he was forty years old, the slugger suffered a pinched nerve in his neck that brought his batting average below .300 for the first time in his career.  That year, he was the highest paid athlete in any sport.  But when the Red Sox offered him the same $125,000 contract the following year, he refused it because, in his mind, he didn’t deserve it.  He ended up cutting his own salary by $31,000.  That’s rare integrity.  But, on the other hand, Williams didn’t have to live with the burden that he wasn’t playing up to the level that the Red Sox wanted to pay him for.

Integrity gives a man peace.  Dishonesty and deceit, on the other hand, are a vicious cycle that will ultimately undermine a life and bring destruction.  Think about it.  Every time you lie, twist the truth, or act deceitfully, you have to put on an act to cover your trail.  And the further the lie goes, the deeper and deeper you go into moral indebtedness and risk.  Think of those who went in deep and were finally found out:  Richard Nixon, Kenneth Lay, Jim Bakker, Dennis Hastert…the painful list of destroyed lives goes on.  How much better to be a person of integrity in every situation than heap up destruction for yourself.   Instead of destruction, godly integrity promises a life of abundant fruitfulness:

            He is like a tree planted by streams of water

                        Which yields its fruit in season,

            And whose leaf does not wither.

                        Whatever he does prospers.

                                                                        Psalm 1:3

Walking with God

Enoch, born six generations after Adam in the Book of Genesis, was a man of godly integrity.  It’s interesting.  But he wasn’t always that way.  The Bible says that he lived for sixty-five years and then he had a son called Methuselah.  After that, the Scriptures say, “he walked with God.”  Funny what having a kid will do to you.  It makes you look at life differently.  And the fact that it wasn’t until he was sixty-five that he started walking with God tells the seniors among us that it is never too late to begin with God. 

But after Enoch walked with God for 300 years (things were different back then; they didn’t have McDonalds) the Bible says that he didn’t die.  God just took him.  It’s one of the strangest verses in the Bible: “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away” (Gen. 5:24).

The life of Enoch reminds us that being human doesn’t keep us from being virtuous and godly.  We can’t justify ourselves by saying, “I’m only human!”  Sure.  Nobody is perfect.  But God calls and we can live lives of righteousness. And it wasn’t easy for Enoch, either.  He lived during a time that the Bible says was exceedingly wicked and violent.  But Enoch remained steadfast and even boldly proclaimed God’s judgment on the ungodly (Jude 14-15).  Enoch is a sterling example of godly integrity.

Psalm 26 closes with a simple prayer and a profound statement:

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.

The Hebrew word that is translated as “level ground” can also be rendered as “uprightness” or integrity.  Godly integrity does not mean that a person is perfect.  We all fail from time to time.  But a person who walks in integrity – like an Enoch – will be a person who knows God and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. 

What kind of person are you?  Do you find yourself frequently covering for the sneaky little things that you are doing when no one is looking?  That’s shaky ground.  It will all come tumbling down sooner or later.  And the longer you play the charade, the more painful your downfall will be.  Or are you a person of integrity – honest with yourself, others, and with God?  Friends, God is a good Father.  He knows your weaknesses.  Our sins may be many, but his mercy is always more.  Be honest with God.  You are safe with him.  And when you can be honest with him, you will find that you can be honest with others as well. 

Be honest with God. 

You are safe with Him.

Choose level ground.  Be a person of integrity.