Psalm 26

We should thank the Lord for every blessing. Did you wake up with a good outlook on the day ahead of you? Is there food for breakfast? Do you have a safe place to lay your head? Is the sun shining? Do you have enough health that you can enjoy the fresh air and some light exercise? Is your family nearby? Will you be able to worship God in freedom today? Thank God!

Yet understand that not everyone can say yes to those questions. Can a man who is in turmoil and under assault also bless the Lord?

It is possible to ignore God when we have much and to ignore Him when we seem to have almost nothing. It also possible to acknowledge God in all circumstances. The man who turns to the Almighty every day has plenty to talk to God about when he is in desperate need.

What is his spiritual condition? Is he a man of integrity? Has he heard the Word of God and followed without wavering? Who can say yes without some qualification?

When the Son of God came to save us, he entered upon a mission where he would face increasing suffering as He moved closer and closer to the cross. Yet even in His earliest days, there was a king who wanted to take his life, and that king was willing to massacre all the little boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding region just to make sure that this one Child was stopped. When this Child grew, He was able to cry out to God without qualification, “Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.”

This Jesus represents us in His life and death. We turn to God for the mercy that comes to us through our holy Substitute. We come humbly asking that the Lord forgive our sins, and that He remember the righteousness of Christ and the blood that was shed for our salvation. We ask for daily strength to follow the Word that we know to be right. But Jesus is able to say, “Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind. For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.”

Our first word concerning heavenly righteousness has to be “Jesus.” God has provided a spotless Lamb to offer up in our place. There is a second word for those who would claim to be covered by the blood of Christ. When we hear the precepts of the Lord, the second word is “Yes.”

God says that we should not enter into evil with men of falsehood, and with hypocrites. We say, “Yes, Lord.” God says that we should stay out of the assembly of evildoers. We respond, “I hear your voice, O Lord, and I will obey. I will not sit with the wicked and turn away from you”

The first word of righteousness, “Jesus,” is our justification. We call upon the Name of the Lord, and we are declared righteous based on the perfect Man. Our hope of heaven is secured by the obedience of another. The second word, “Yes,” is our growth in the life of faith, our sanctification. Even this second word, “Yes,” comes from heaven as a gift to us based on the merits of Christ, but it is progressively experienced by us, rather than instantaneously declared about us and applied to our account. This second word, “Yes,” this sanctification, is happening in us and is expressed through us. It is something that God does, and because He is at work, then we are at work both to will and to do according to His good pleasure.

This word of following the Lord is what makes a Job to be the most righteous man in his generation. It is what made Mary, the mother of the Lord, such an unusual woman, and what defined Simeon, the old man who met her in the temple, who knew He could leave this earth in peace because He had seen the Christ according to the promise of God. This work of following admits of variation among those who are named by the perfect word of righteousness, “Jesus.” Not all who call upon the Name of the Lord are equally sanctified. We thank God that He has mercy on the weak, and that He will not break a bruised reed. But we also seek Him for growth in our own faithfulness and holiness.

If we are looking for truly perfect holiness, there is only one Source. Jesus was completely innocent. He worshiped His Father perfectly, and gave the quiet testimony of sincere faith and love, even though he did not always have a safe place to lay His head.

Because of His unique righteousness, in His death and resurrection He became the only safe place for us to dwell as we put our trust in Him. He is the cornerstone in a new house of God. His Word confirmed to us by apostles and prophets is the foundation of that house in which we have become living stones.

Just as righteous Simeon loved the temple in Jerusalem and loved the appearing of the Messiah, we love the heavenly church that our King is gathering here on earth, and we look for the glory of the fullness of body of Christ at our Lord's return.

Jesus suffered death for us, but His Father did not sweep His soul away with sinners. There was no evil in Him. There was much evil in us, but now His death has brought us life with Him, our living Head, and has granted to us a new power to turn away from evil.

Christ has walked perfectly in His own integrity. It is our privilege to follow Him. He has provided the level ground upon which we stand. Whether we have a lot or very little of the good things that God is pleased to distribute throughout the earth today, if we have Jesus, the first Word of righteousness, we are truly blessed, for we will bless that Lord in His glorious assembly forever.