For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God. 2 Samuel 22:22
I set out to mow the lawn a couple of days ago and found that a job that usually takes me 1-2 hours ended up taking much longer. Before I could mow, I had to move all the patio furniture off the lawn (long story) back onto the patio but before I could do that, I had to clean the patio of all the leaves and debris that had been left by a recent storm. Then, I had to pick up all the fallen branches and sticks in the grass (same storm) and start a fire. It was wet though and so, starting a fire took a half hour. Anyway, I would mow a section of my yard, then I’d have to clean up the next one before I could mow that one and the whole process ended up taking two or three times longer than normal. If you were watching me at any given time, you would have observed that I was doing anything except mowing. You’d have seen me picking up sticks, pulling weeds, spraying insects, and starting a fire. If you’d have examined my entire day though, you would have seen that overall, I was mowing the lawn. There was just a lot of other stuff that happened during that time.
Though it doesn’t involve mowing, this is how I interpret today’s passage in which King David claims to have kept the ways of the LORD. When I first read the passage, I thought David was deluding himself. He’d not kept God’s ways. He’d sinned greatly in the Bathsheba incident, and he’d suffered years of consequences for it. Most commentaries (experts) though, indicate that David wasn’t claiming to be perfect, but rather, he was indicating that he’d lived a life that was overall pointed at God. If we looked only at certain parts of David’s life, we’d say that David was definitely not following God. If, however, we stepped back and looked at his entire life, we’d see that overall, David sought and followed God’s will. He wasn’t perfect, but still, he followed God.
What do our neighbors see in us? Do we live perfectly? Certainly not. When others examine certain moments of our lives, they’ll see that we’re not following God’s will. If, however, an examiner would step back and look at our entire lives, what would they see? Our salvation doesn’t depend on a cosmic scale in which our good must outweigh our bad. We’re saved only through faith in Jesus Christ. If, however, our faith is real, then others will be able to see the difference in our lives. We will never live perfectly, but we can seek and follow God’s will in such a way that those around us will see and know what our lives are all about.