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Whatever Happened to Integrity? Psalm 26:1-12 |
August 27, 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum |
A while back I ran across an item in the newspaper about a man named Robert Cassar. I thought the article was interesting for 3 reasons.
Reason #1: Robert Cassar’s car was impounded by the City of New York because Mr. Cassar had failed to pay some $5000 in parking ticket fines.
Reason #2: The $5000 of fines owed by Mr. Cassar is almost identical to the amount he paid the city of New York 3 years earlier for similar parking violations.
Reason #3: Robert Cassar is the president of the city of New York’s union of parking ticket writers.
Maybe it’s just me but for some reason the word “integrity” comes to mind.
Integrity is one of those words that is a bit of a challenge to define but is easy to recognize. We recognize when it’s absent, as in the case of Robert Cassar. And we also recognize when it’s present as in the case of Billy Graham who is universally identified as a man of great integrity. But how do we actually define the word. Let me offer a couple of popular definitions that I find useful.
One of those popular definitions says that integrity is that place where our talk and our walk are in perfect alignment. When the things that we say we believe, we value, we cherish, we stand for are then demonstrated in the way that we actually live our lives, we show ourselves to be a person of integrity.
Another popular definition that I find useful is this: Integrity is doing the right thing when no one’s looking. Doing the right thing even though you could probably get away with doing the wrong thing. Doing the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do. That’s what people of integrity do.
I think both of those popular definitions are useful because they help us form a kind of working definition of this thing called integrity. But let’s move on, now, to what the Bible has to say about integrity. And let’s begin by reading Psalm 26:1-12. It says,
1 Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. 2 Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; 3 for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth. 4 I do not sit with deceitful men, nor do I consort with hypocrites; 5 I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked. 6 I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, O LORD, 7 proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds. 8 I love the house where you live, O LORD, the place where your glory dwells.
9 Do not take away my soul along with sinners, my life with bloodthirsty men, 10 in whose hands are wicked schemes, whose right hands are full of bribes. 11 But I lead a blameless life; redeem me and be merciful to me.
12 My feet stand on level ground; in the great assembly I will praise the LORD.
Woven into the beauty of this psalm is a powerful lesson on the life that is, according to God’s standards, a life of integrity. Look, again, at verse one. “Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.” The NRSV translates this verse as, “Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.”
There are two words in this verse that are key to understanding the biblical view of integrity.
The first is this word, “walked” or “led.” I have “walked” in my integrity. I have “led” a blameless life. What’s being described here is a way of life. A habit of conduct. The point is that integrity is not something that you can turn on and off at will. Integrity shows itself as an on going, consistent, way of life.
The second key word here is translated by the phrase, without wavering. It speaks to a single-mindedness about one’s life. A life that is well focused around a single purpose.
And what is that purpose? The purpose is seen in verse three. “…I walk continually in your truth.”
So, as we put it all together we see that from God’s perspective, integrity speaks of a single minded, unwavering devotion to expressing God’s truth and God’s character in every aspect of life. Let me say that again. From God’s perspective a life of integrity is characterized by a single minded, unwavering devotion to expressing God’s truth and God’s character in every aspect of life. To walk in integrity is to allow the totality of your life to be guided by your relationship with God.
So, there’s our biblically grounded definition of integrity. Now, let’s move through the rest of Psalm 26 and identify some of the distinct attributes that mark the life of integrity.
And the first of those markers is this: people of integrity love the right things.
Let’s look, again, at verse 8. “I love the house where you live, O LORD, the place where your glory dwells.”
In other words, “Lord, the singular focus of my life is to please you in every area of my life. And Lord, as I walk this path of unwavering commitment to you, my desire to know and experience You just gets greater and greater.
--I want to spend my time with people who reflect Your character.
--I want to invest my time in activities that help me to know you better.
O, Lord, I love to be in those places where Your glory dwells.”
So, the point is that people who walk before God in integrity love to be in those places where they are most likely to experience the power and the reality of God’s presence.
Now, does that mean that we have to go to church seven days a week? No. But it does mean that one of the ways that we demonstrate the integrity that God desires for us is by actively seeking to fill our lives with both people and activities that encourage us to embrace God’s truth and to develop godly character. And both of those things happen when we gather together with our church family.
People of integrity love the right things.
A second mark of integrity is this: people of integrity avoid the wrong things. Look, again, at verses 4-5:
“I do not sit with deceitful men, nor do I consort with hypocrites; I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked.”
This is the flip side of the previous point. When we walk in integrity we will not only be drawn to the people and activities that encourage godly behavior but we will also avoid those people and activities that subtly and sometimes not so subtly encourage us to compromise our integrity.
--If you’ve become the confidant of a co-worker of the opposite sex who is sharing all of his/her marital woes with you, you are setting yourself up for failure. You need to avoid those kinds of situations.
--If you’re listening to your friends talk about their shady schemes to outsmart the IRS, you are setting yourself up for failure. You need to avoid those kinds of situations.
--If you are giving a listening ear to Christian brothers an sisters who never talk about God’s blessings or God’s workings but constantly gripe, complain and gossip, you are setting yourself up for failure. You need to avoid those kinds of situations.
Folks, the person of integrity doesn’t try to see how close they can walk to disaster without crossing the line, rather they stay as far away from that line as possible.
Now, does that mean that we have to cut off all contact with people of questionable character? No. But it does mean that we are wise to recognize how easy it is for us to be compromised when we surround ourselves and form intimate relationships with people who don’t share our commitment to godly values and priorities.
People of integrity love the right things.
People of integrity avoid the wrong things.
Finally, people of integrity are clear about the big things. And one of the biggest of those big things is recognizing the incredible value of our own, personal integrity. Proverbs 28:6 says it very well,
“Better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be crooked in one’s ways even though rich.”
Bottom line? When we lose our integrity we’ve lost something of incredible worth. And something that’s very hard to ever get back.
And, folks, if you’re a part of God’s family—more specifically, if you’re actively involved with your church family—it’s not just a personal loss. It’s a corporate loss. Every time those of us who stand for God’s standards and values fail the loss is felt on a grand scale.
It’s been just about 5 years ago now that rumors of an extramarital affair were confirmed by Rev. Jesse Jackson. Not surprisingly, the revelation generated a wide array of commentary. One of the most moving was written by syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. I’d like to read you an extended excerpt. He wrote,
“What’s the deal with great men lately? Meaning the celebrated ones who have enjoyed a certain moral authority by dint of job title or personal reputation. They’ve been falling like rain in recent years, felled by one embarrassing sexual revelation after another. Now, Jesse Jackson, (has) confessed to fathering a girl…by a woman who is not his wife.
(I feel) a keen sense of disappointment.
There is, however, absolutely no sense of surprise.
Somewhere along the way, I’ve lost the capacity to be stunned by low behavior from men in high places… In fact, some part of me has even come to expect such behavior.
I’m still trying to decide if that represents cynicism, a lamentable tolerance of moral hypocrisy, a world-weary ability to compartmentalize moral failings…or all of the above.
The issue is not forgiveness. We’ll forgive, certainly. But will we forget? Moral authority is a precious and perishable thing. We give it less freely than we once did, because we’ve been disappointed so much.
So the issue, you see, is trust, the ability to believe not just in a great man’s word, but in a great man’s WAY…the lofty things for which he professes to stand. How can you believe those things when he appears not to believe them himself?
There’s an old Temptations song that says, “We’re all made with feet of clay and some dreams”…meaning, I think, that we delude ourselves into thinking we can rise above our own stumbling, our own weakness…to reach the place where moral perfection lives. We can’t, of course. But that doesn’t mean you stop trying. Because in the act of reaching, we are ennobled.
Thing is, the great men are supposed to remind us of that.
And, folks, I would add that Christians are supposed to remind the world of that as well. And not just in the things we say, but in the way we live. There is no payoff that is large enough to justify surrendering our integrity. The cost is just too high to us personally and to the people who are looking to us to offer them hope and an example. We must, say, as Job (27:5) said, “Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.”
I want to read you a poem from William Bennett’s great book, The Book of Virtues. It’s called, The Question.
Were the whole world good as you…not an atom better…
Were it just as pure and true…just as pure and true as you;Just as strong in faith and works…just as free from crafty quirks;
All extortion, all deceit…schemes its neighbors to defeat…schemes its neighbors to defraud…schemes some culprit to applaud…Would this world be better?
If the whole world followed you…followed to the letter…Would it be a nobler world…all deceit and falsehood hurled…from it altogether;
Malice, selfishness, and lust…banished from beneath the crust…covering human hearts from view…
Tell me, if it followed you…Would the world be better?
It would…and it will be…if we are walking in integrity. Is that your desire? Are you willing to make that commitment, today? May God secure each of us in the very center of the path called integrity.
© Copyright 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum