Prayer and Blamelessness
The Psalms have sometimes been explained to me as example prayers for us to pray. Part of that is that they show our human weaknesses and encourage us to carry on. That gives them the freedom to cry out things like "All is lost, there is no hope!" and then say that all is not lost and there is hope. But consider Psalm 26 and Luke 18:9-14. How can Psalm 26 be a good prayer to pray? I suppose it could be useful as a warning sign... "Son, that prayer you prayed sounded an awful lot like Psalm 26. You've got some humbling coming your way!" But somehow, that's not what I thought the Psalms were there for... If I were reading this Psalm out loud, I would read it as an idea of what, perhaps, God might want me to be. Something where I am reading it and thinking "this is far from what I actually am". Also, something where I can think, "Christ covers me, therefore God does see me this way." But Christ didn't tell us to pray this way... Any insights?
posted by Soaring Gryphon | 12:53 AM
5 Comments:
Perhaps this Psalm was in reference to a particular situation in which David had acted righteously but was being unjustly treated. In that case, although God is not obligated to make life fair, I think it would be an acceptable prayer to pray.
Also, consider that faith and righteousness are very closely linked, from Abraham onward. So perhaps he is tangentially referring to an incident in which he acted righteously as in "by faith."
Nice thoughts, and thanks very much for answering.
He doesn't seem to be referring to a particular incident, but to his entire life. "I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering."
It's true that faith is closely linked to righteousness, but we know that that righteousness is totally from the Lord, "so that no one can boast." This Psalm looks like boasting.
I think your last comment in the main entry is the only way we, as Christians, can take this psalm. This is how God sees us after Christ has washed us clean and earned forgiveness for us by His blood.
From the historical perspective, the psalm shows the increasing maturity of David, and of God's people as a whole. Psalm 26 comes before Psalm 51 for a reason. David matured through hard experience, and with the prophet Nathan's help, realized that he was not as righteous as he used to think.
Many people believe that superficial righteousness is enough to get them into heaven. It is increasing maturity that brings us to the realization the we have *all* sinned and fallen short.
That's a good point! I like the explanation as a whole, and the new point that the Psalms also have value as public journal entries of David. Hm. I still maintain that Celtic heros did not update blogs. Bards are a very different thing. This comes much closer, though, since it is David's own personal thoughts that are being made public, from his own pen. However, it's still not a blog, since that's a shortening of "web-log". Instead, it is a "music-log", and thus might be most aptly named "clog". So now if anyone asks you "Who was the biggest OT fan of clogs?" you know the answer.
I have to agree that we don't in fact meet that lovely description. Nor am I completely comfortable with promising to "sin no more" when I know I'm going to, probably within just a few minutes. But also when this was written, people mainly believed you got exactly what you deserved, and keeping a set of rules mattered more than interior attitude to many. So a discrepancy between how well you'd done what the rules said and how you were rewarded was really puzzling (see Job). As Christians, Faramir is right.
Post a Comment
<< Home