Psalm 26

Portions of this are adapted from Patrick Henry Reardon’s phenomenal Christ in the Psalms. Except the part on forensic and infused righteousness. He’s entirely wrong on that.

Tonight’s psalm is traditionally to be prayed by the Pastor as he is washing his hands to prepare for Communion, on account of the verse, “I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O LORD.” Because the only innocent man to have lived is the Son of God, our Lord JESUS Christ, we can understand this psalm, like all the preceeding, as Christological.

But is it not also true that as we are in Christ because we are joined to Him in Baptism, that we also are called to innocency of life? That is why St. Paul exhorts us in the first lesson this evening, “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” We see here what God particularly has in mind by this blamelessness: that there be no unnecessary arguing or fighting in the church. The innocence our Lord calls us to is reflected in our treatment of one another, that even when we disagree, we live in peace and love with one another; and the only cause for division in the church – may God keep us from it! – is when false doctrine or immoral behavior is consistently approved and condoned, and then only after all proper warnings and admonitions have have lovingly given, in a spirit of humility and longsuffering.

The church is a place of forgiveness, pardon, and release – from us to our brothers and sisters because God has released us from the impossible debt we owed Him. That is why we sing with joy, “O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.”

The innocence that we are called to have and exhibit towards each other – the innocence of harmonious words and setting aside wrangling and disputing – this innocence is not something we derive from within ourselves. We can only begin to exhibit it because we have first been cleansed by our Master: “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me,” said Jesus.

This washing of Jesus is a forensic declaration, a legal verdict: “You are washed, you are clean, you are innocent, you have a part, share, inheritance with Jesus.” And that forensic declaration, that legal verdict that you are holy and blameless begins to transform us and change us now, a transformation that itself is the work of God, a work which will be brought to completion in the day of our Lord JESUS Christ.

That good work, that transformation, that life of innocency we pray for when we declare an intention to live a new life that is paired immediately with a supplication for mercy: “But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me.”

And none of this happens on our own; we cannot be Christians by ourselves. Just as you gain in-laws by marriage, that you may or may not get along with all that well, so has God set us into a new family of brothers and sisters in Christ, and said, “Love one another,” even – no, especially – when you don’t particularly want to. We are never Christians by ourselves, for we always say not “My Father,” but, “Our Father.” Thus our psalm concludes, “In the great assembly I will bless the LORD.”

Blessed be the God who has declared us innocent through the blood of the LORD JESUS Christ, and may we grow in innocency and walk in integrity all the days of our lives, until we are gathered to the great heavenly assembly where we will bless the LORD unto the ages of ages.

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