Preserve from What?

Psalm 25:21 “May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”

I thought I had thought this verse to death.  But in a moment of intense awareness of my own short-comings, I cried out the verse that has been floating on my heart’s surface: “May integrity anduprightness preserveme, for I wait for you.”

Whoah, that drew me up short.  Until now, I had assumed that in praying this Psalm, I was asking for preservation against outside forces:  bad people out to get me;  the world’s corruption out to tempt me.  But if I see myself as potentially my own worst enemy, well then it certainly makes sense that I would pray that integrity and uprightness would preserve me from myself.

These are interesting layers of depth: praying to be preserved from both internal and external forces.  Looking through both layers at once,  both internal and external forces become indiscernable.  Maybe my propensity to give in to temptation isn’t so different from viruses floating out there waiting to infect me.  Maybe my inclination to be self-centered isn’t so different from the materialism out there messing with people’s motivations.

They’re all the result of fallen humanity; all part of the kingdom of darkness.

It is a scary thought to know the enemy has infiltrated so close.  It is also a simplifying thought.  Crucifying my sinful nature with Christ suddenly no longer seems such a personal loss.

I’ve only got one battle to win: that of waiting on God.  Then He’ll provide that integrity and uprightness I am so desperate for.  Then, everything will be okay – both internally and externally.

Preservation Ingredients

Psalm 25:21  —  “May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”

Integrity and uprightness are always good.  But it seems they are not enough for self-preservation.  The world is rough and will take shots at even the most upright people.  “I can’t believe such a bad thing would happen to such a good person!”

Here, the added ingredient of waiting for the Lord activates integrity and uprightness as a force for being preserved.

As the second to last verse in the Psalm, the theme of waiting on the Lord has appeared already several times throughout this prayer/song.  So it appears here as a closing, summary statement.  Throughout the Psalm, we are on the brink several times of deseperation, of being overwhelmed by either outward forces or by personal sin.  But somehow after all tumult of the prayer, the matter seems settled here with this statement/request: “May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”

Though there are many repeating themes throughout the Psalm, this is the first direct mention of integrity.  The only other mention of uprightness is in reference to God:  “Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs sinners in the way.”

It seems almost obnoxious that we should finish this prayer, declaring our integrity and uprightness, especially when uprightness is only attributed to God.  Not only so, but we also confess several times in this Psalm how great is our need of forgiveness.

David gives us clues to the possibility of such a claim throughout the Psalm by examining God’s character.  In this prayer, most statements of God’s character describe how He is faithful to direct people; people who are sinners, who are humble, who fear him; basically, people who wait for him.

So it is with confidence that we can declare our integrity and uprightness before the Perfect God because we know that He loves share His character with His people.  The confidence comes from a certaintity of God’s ability and willingness to instill His very own traits within our souls.

So, perhaps it isn’t correct to understand self-preservation as requiring the three ingredients of integrity, uprightness and waiting on God.  Rather, there are only two ingredients: integrity and uprightness.  But these two ingredients are only reaped when harvested through waiting on God.