David's Request

The Request - Verses 1a, 9-10, 11b Judge me - David isn't asking boastfully "God, check me out, you won't find anything wrong here." His request to be judged is a request for vindication.

Apparently, people were accusing David of things he wasn't guilty of. Their were probably people who were trying to spin David's life mischievously. They were trying to get rich off of lies about David.

Do you ever feel like God needs to vindicate you? Do you ever feel like people judge you without a cause and accuse you of things you didn't do? Do you ever feel lied about?

Maybe, you are going through hardships and other people think "they deserve that" and you feel like you need God to vindicate you. That is the request David is making here.

The Case - Verses 2-5 We can learn a lot about Godliness and what it looks like by looking at verses 2-5.

David wasn't perfect. He made some major mistakes in life. But he was a godly person.

Can I stop for a second? Listen - we have a tendency to judge others by a standard we couldn't pass. One big sin does not make someone a bad person - one area of personal failure doesn't make someone evil - it makes them human.

All of us have some area that, were we to stand before Christ, we wouldn't want the search light to linger on. All of us have things in our past. All of us have mistreated people. It doesn't make it right and we should seek forgiveness when we realize it. But it happens.

What I'm saying is that one sin doesn't mean someone isn't godly in the segregate. Do you know that with David, the later kings were judged whether or not "they walked in the ways of David their father." Even with David's major failure - he was still considered by God to be a godly man.

So this chapter isn't David saying "I've never done anything wrong." What David is saying, justly, is that he has honestly tried to live a godly life.

Now, look at how he characterizes that:

Emotionally and Intellectually Right He asks God to "try the reins and the heart." In Bible times, the heart was considered to be the source of your thinking. The reins were a word for kidney. The reins or bowels were considered the source of your emotions. What David is saying here is that as much as possible, he's tried to live without sin in his thinking and in his emotions.

Today we'd say "try my heart and mind."

By the way - that is what God cares about. He cares about what is going on in your heart and what is going on in your head. If you think right and God has control over your heart and head, your life will evidence that.

How can you live with a right heart and mind? You actually see it in the next three verses:

Living by the scriptures. He says in verse 3 "I have walked in your truth". He's living by the Bible. He loves the Word of God.

Avoiding evil influences Verses 4-5

The Commitment - 1, 6-7, 11a, 12 commitment to avoid backsliding 1 commitment to worship 6, 12 commitment to publish the good news of God 7 commitment to be thankful 7 s