Psalm 26 This psalm takes an opposite tack from the many that implore God to intervene against enemies. Instead, it almost dares God, “Judge me, O Lord,” and later, Test me, O Lord, and try me.” This is hardly “Lead us not into temptation.” However, as usual, context is everything. This psalm is not so much a psalm of thanksgiving–and certainly not one of supplication–as it is a psalm that professes the poet’s innocence. Innocent not because “I shall not stumble, ” but innocent because “the Lord I have trusted.” David has hewed strictly to the paths of God’s righteousness and “walk[ed] in Your truth.”
This is a psalm of confidence. Not a confidence born of self-righteousness or thinking he’s got it all figured out on his own. Or that he is exempt from danger. But the confidence that arises from complete trust in God. It is not arrogance that causes him to exclaim, “Test me, O Lord, and try me,” but complete and utter confidence in God’s righteousness. I think this is what Oswald Chambers is getting at when he talks about “abandoning” ourselves to Christ. Ego and the need to be in control have been supplanted by complete and total faith in a loving God. This is why he can ask so confidently to be judged and tested. He is on a journey on which “I shall walk in my wholeness. Redeem me. Grant me grace.” Only God can supply that wholeness, that confidence.
Genesis 46:1-27 The conversation between Jacob and Go in his dream-vision shows striking parallels to the conversations God has had with Abraham and Isaac, especially Jacob’s simple sentence, “Here I am” in response to God’s call (46:3). And it’s crucial to help us understand that Jacob did not pull up stakes just to have a happy family reunion or even to avoid famine, but that the journey to Egypt is God-ordained, “I am the god, God of your father.. Fear not to go down to Egypt, for a great nation I will make of you there.” (46:3b) So, Egypt, not Canaan, is where God will transform Israel from a clan into a nation. No one surely saw that coming.
And Jacob does not go down to Egypt alone while God waits back in Canaan. God promises, “I Myself will go down with you to Egypt.” (46:4) Even more importantly, God has no intention of abandoning Israel in Egypt, and it is here where the Exodus return is initially promised: “and I Myself will surely bring you back as well.” Which of course is exactly what happens. Certainly not in the way Jacob may have imagined and certainly not 400 years in the future. But as unknowable as God’s plans may be, God’s promise is steadfast. This is the same God in which David expressed such confidence that he can “walk in wholeness.”
Matthew 16:5-20 We tend to think that Jesus’ disciples never quite “got” what Jesus was talking about. But here, for once, “they understood that he had not told them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (16:12) It’s just as important that we “get it.” Bad yeast corrupts bread, and bad theological yeast can do the same. Not just the Pharisees and Sadducees, but the bad yeast that abounds today in the form of corrupt teaching, as e.g., the “prosperity Gospel.”
This is where puns will get you. Protestants and Catholics will argue until the Second Coming about the exact meaning of 16:18: ” And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” Is the petra Peter (“Rocky”) or Jesus Christ or something else? I am of the “petra = Jesus Christ” persuasion because I think it is the Church that has the keys to the kingdom, not a single disciple, but I can see where the Catholics are coming from. For me, the real point here is that the Church is serious business and whatever we do as or in the Church, we do not do lightly or casually because “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (16:19b).
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