"O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee. 21. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee."
David saw the possibility that he could do something that would bring him shame. To bring shame on ourselves we do not need to do something as blatant as David's adultery with Bathsheba. For example, we can bring shame on ourselves by what we say to people. I have seen Christians bring shame on themselves (ruin their witness) by saying ugly things to waiters and waitresses - and that on Sunday after church services. We need to watch what we say and do in private and in public. How can we do this? We can do this by putting our trust in the Lord. David depended on the Lord to help to keep him from being an embarrassment. There were two things that he saw that could "preserve" him - integrity and uprightness: Integrity is what we are when no one else is around. (This is probably not an "Amen" but an "Oh me.") We need to remember that God sees everything we do and hears everything we say; therefore, we need to watch our thoughts and intentions when we are alone. We need to be true to the better part of ourselves at all times, especially when we are alone and have no one else to answer to but to God and ourselves. I think that it is true that: “idleness is the devil’s workshop.” It is sometimes when we are alone that he really works on our minds. If we are not careful, he will have us thinking of things that would make us ashamed if anyone else knew that we were thinking them. It is interesting that Jesus was alone when the devil tempted Him in Matthew 4. It should also be noted that Jesus answered each temptation with scripture. This is a good example for us to follow. The devil thought he had Jesus where he wanted him, for He was alone and hungry. The devil knows our greatest weaknesses and he will not hesitate to take advantage of them, and this is particularly true when we are alone with our thoughts. We need to pray that we will always meet these temptations in prayer and in the power of God’s word. Uprightness is what we are in public, what people see us do and hear us say. If we want uprightness we need to have integrity. It will be easier not to bring shame on ourselves if we practice what we preach in private. Our public behavior will sometimes reveal our private sins, no matter how hard we try not to let them show. In other words, we need to keep our hearts right with God, ourselves, and others. We need to be aware of these two verses, because the public behavior of Christians is keeping people away from the kingdom. We don't mean to, but we bring shame on ourselves and on our faith. I am certainly not being self-righteous here, because I have to watch myself, and my witness, when I encounter some problem with people who work in public places. I am glad when I leave and did not say the things that I wanted to say. It is with great sorrow that I remember that waiters and waitresses say that the hardest people to wait on are people who come to eat after church on Sunday. I am not writing this to judge others, but to warn that the world is watching and what they see should be our uprightness. All of us need to be careful about our integrity and uprightness if we are to be witnesses to the world about Jesus Christ. Don't you agree? Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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