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Nothing to Hide.

Psalm 26 — A prayer for anyone who's done pretending

4 min read

Key Takeaways

David's confidence before God isn't "I'm perfect" — it's "I'm not hiding," and that distinction changes everything about how you approach prayer.

Integrity isn't just what you do — it's what you tolerate around you, and David got surprisingly specific about who he refused to keep company with.
There's a real difference between showing up for God out of obligation and genuinely loving being in his presence — David had the second kind.
When corruption goes unpunished and cynicism creeps in, the most productive thing you can do is bring that frustration straight to God.
The whole psalm lands on one image: feet on level ground — what happens when your life and your private self actually match.

📢 Chapter 26 — Nothing to Hide 🔍

26 is at his most transparent. He's not confessing a failure. He's not crying out from a crisis. He's standing before God with open hands and saying: look at everything. Test me. I'm not hiding anything.

That's a rare kind of . Most of us come to God with requests, complaints, or carefully curated versions of ourselves. David came and said: examine all of it. And what follows reads like an open book — twelve verses of total transparency.

Inside this Chapter

Prayer Identity Integrity Self-Worth

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Go Ahead — Look 🔍

opened with the boldest request anyone can make of God:

"Vindicate me, Lord — I've walked with integrity. I've trusted you without wavering.

Examine me. Test me. Put my heart and my mind through the fire.

Your faithful love is always right in front of me, and I've built my whole life around your faithfulness."

Think about that for a second. David isn't saying "I'm perfect." He's saying "I'm not hiding." There's a massive difference. Most of us live with this low-grade anxiety that if anyone really saw everything — our private thoughts, our real motivations, the stuff behind the curated version — they'd think less of us. David looked at God, who actually can see all of it, and said: go ahead. That kind of confidence doesn't come from being flawless. It comes from knowing that God's faithful is the thing you've been staring at — not your own track record.

The Circle He Chose 🚪

Then got specific about who he doesn't spend his time with:

"I don't sit with dishonest people. I don't keep company with hypocrites. I can't stand the gathering of those who do evil, and I refuse to take my seat among the wicked."

This isn't arrogance. It's intentionality. David wasn't saying he was better than everyone — he was saying that who you surround yourself with shapes who you become. Think about who fills your group chat. Whose opinions actually influence your decisions. Who you spend your evenings with. isn't just about what you do — it's about what you tolerate around you. You don't drift toward by accident. You choose it.

The Place He Loved Most 🏠

The psalm shifted from what avoided to what he actually loved. And here David's voice opened up with something almost tender:

"I wash my hands in innocence and gather around your altar, Lord —

lifting my voice in thanksgiving, telling everyone about your wondrous works.

Lord, I love the place where you live. I love the place where your glory dwells."

David wasn't checking a religious box. He genuinely loved being in God's presence. There's a difference between showing up because you feel like you should and walking in because there's nowhere else you'd rather be. David had that. The , the , the telling of God's works — none of it felt like obligation to him. It felt like home.

Don't Count Me with Them 🙏

Now voice shifted to a plea. You can hear the urgency in it:

"Don't sweep my soul away with sinners, don't lump my life in with the violent —

people whose hands are full of evil schemes, whose palms are heavy with bribes."

This is David saying: I've worked hard to live differently. Please don't let me share their fate. It's the of someone who's watched corruption succeed and wickedness go unpunished and thought — does integrity actually count for anything? And rather than spiraling into cynicism, David did the most productive thing you can do with that feeling. He brought it straight to God.

Feet on Solid Ground ⛰️

closed exactly where he started — with a quiet, steady resolve:

"But as for me, I will walk with integrity. Redeem me. Be gracious to me.

My feet are standing on level ground. In the great assembly, I will bless the Lord."

That last image is everything. Level ground. Not shifting sand. Not the shaky foundation of other people's approval or the exhausting performance of pretending to be something you're not. David's feet were planted — and from that place, he could freely. The whole psalm is twelve verses of one idea: when your life and your private self match, you can stand anywhere without flinching. That's not perfection. That's integrity. And it's the foundation everything else gets built on.