“You have tested my thoughts and examined my heart in the night. You have scrutinized me and found nothing wrong. I am determined not to sin in what I say. I have followed your commands, which keep me from following cruel and evil people. My steps have stayed on your path; I have not wavered from following you.”
Psalm 17:3-5 NLT
David points out to God several ways in which he claims he has achieved perfection. God, he says, “You have scrutinised me and found nothing wrong“. David said his speech is sinless and his following of God’s commands faultless. But who can ever make such claims as these? Is David stating facts or is he self-deluded? The one theme threading through these verses today is that David is doing nothing that will cause God to censor him. He is ticking all the boxes required of a follower of God. Of course, that was how God created human beings, sinless beings who would follow Him and would fellowship with Him forever. But after sin entered the world, everything went wrong and God, the perfect sinless and holy Being, had to recoil from contact with His creation and their new-found desire for sin and evil. They had become tarnished and polluted by sin to the point that their evil and wicked ways created an impenetrable barrier between God and man. But there were Davids around in every generation. People who were determined to follow God and His ways, and aspire to be sinless in their thoughts and behaviour.
God gave His people, through men like Moses, laws and regulations that defined how His people should behave, in the hope that this would resolve the problem of sin. And for many it did, with Godly men and women following Him faithfully all their lives, but as we know, the animal sacrifices were replaced by the ultimate sacrifice, God’s Son Himself. Jesus died, taking on the punishment for sin that was ours to bear, so that we could be covered by His righteousness and able to come into God’s presence, pure and holy, acceptable in His sight. So our thoughts and deeds are cleansed by the Blood of Jesus, and we can claim correctly that we are truly without sin.
If only that was how things were going to stay. Sin is always waiting for an opportunity to destroy the perfection God intended. In Genesis 4:7 God said to Cain, “You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master“. But our redeemed hearts and minds are constantly being tempted by sinful desires. The Apostle James wrote, “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). Peter also gave a warning, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith …” (1 Peter 5:8-9a). We pilgrims, like David, live in a hostile environment, where there is always something or someone trying to pull us back into the sinful ways of the world. The battle is incessant, and if it wasn’t for Jesus, it would have been unwinnable.
We pilgrims must regularly pray David’s prayer at the end of psalm 139, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life”. It’s a dangerous prayer to pray, in that something might, in fact it probably will, bubble up to the surface and stare us in the face. We find yet another crossroads in our lives. The way of sin to the left, the way of God to the right. Which path do we take? We know which way we should go, but it’s difficult and costly. At this point so many of God’s people camp out, unable to move on, deferring the decision for as long as possible. Other people take a left turn, hoping for a miracle to happen, with the sin that is consuming us disappearing. However, they are more likely to find the left path circles around and brings us back to the crossroads with the same sin still there. Even more sinners will find that God introduces some discipline. Proverbs 3:11-12, “My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights“. God may even allow us to face the consequences of the sin, forcing us to stop procrastinating and instead make us deal with it.
But in it all, we pilgrims are on a journey to Heaven and some of us can see a glow in the sky before us. God wants us to be holy like His Son Jesus, and our journeys we call sanctification. Of course, we will never succeed in our own strength, and it is only by allowing God to work within us that we can clean up our lives, leading us to claim as David did that He has “scrutinised [us] and found nothing wrong“. But we are human and we keep short accounts with God, confessing our sins when we do wrong. And His peace and acceptance will flood over us, once again.
Dear Father God. You see our hearts and we pray that You indeed bring to the surface anything that shouldn’t be there. We’re so grateful for Your love and grace, bountifully available to all who call upon You. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 