In Jesus's Name, Amen

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In our passage today, David calls upon God to judge between him and Saul. He is calling upon God to sort out who is righteous and who is not. He is honestly doing this, trusting that God will judge righteously. He reminds Saul that he, David, will not raise his hand against Saul. Saul has made himself the judge of David but David will not make himself the judge of Saul. He leaves that up to God, who alone judges perfectly.

         There is a sense in which this Table is a place of judgment, a place where the righteous and unrighteous are revealed. But it is not for man to judge. We come to the Father, in the name of Jesus, and the Father judges righteously. We are glad to leave that judgment up to Him. We do not judge one another. We cannot peer into hearts and know who is really blessed and who is not. You cannot even accurately judge yourself. The Scriptures call upon you to examine yourselves to see if you rightly discern the Lord’s body, that is, do you love the saints? Are you serving them? We can judge this to some degree.

         But if you try to determine if you are righteous or worthy of coming to this Table, you will get into trouble.  If you are honest, you will surely find fault with yourself and be unwilling to come to the Table of Life. Or, if you are dishonest, then you will deceive yourself and approach the Table in your own name, only to find it a dangerous, sickly Table of Death.

         The only safe way to come to this Table is to come in Jesus’s name. You reveal your need for Jesus and your desire to be clothed in Him. There is no hypocrisy of your own worthiness, nor shrinking from the Father’s blessing of you in His Son, in whom He is well pleased. If you come to the Father in the name of Jesus, the Father judges you worthy and welcome.