Day 58: Walking in Wholeness
Read: Psalm 26:1–3
Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.
— Psalm 26:1 (ESV)
Reflect
"Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity." At first this can sound proud. Is David claiming to be perfect?
No. The word is tom, "integrity," and it does not mean perfection. It means wholeness — being complete, in one piece. The same family of words describes God's law in Psalm 19:7: "The law of the LORD is perfect." Whole. Nothing missing.
Integrity is being in one piece.
Now notice the verb: "I have walked." This is the language of a walk, not a résumé. David is not listing his achievements. He is describing the direction of his life, a steady path he has been on. One path, not two.
Integrity is an integrated life. What you do in public and what you do in private are the same walk. The person in the pew on Sunday and the person at home on Tuesday night are the same person.
That is why David can go on to say, "Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind" (v. 2). He is not afraid of being looked at closely, because he is not hiding a second self. And he does not lean on his integrity alone: the same psalm prays, "redeem me, and be gracious to me" (v. 11).
Across Scripture
God told Abram, "walk before me, and be blameless" (Genesis 17:1) — whole before him. Job was "blameless and upright" (Job 1:1). Psalm 15 describes the one who may dwell with God as "he who walks blamelessly" (Psalm 15:2), and David resolves, "I will walk with integrity of heart within my house" (Psalm 101:2). Paul prays something similar: "may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
Sit With It
Integrity means what you do in public and what you do in private are one walk. Where in your life are you two people?
Pray
Make me whole, and let me walk whole.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.