i roll over in bed trying not to get mad at the people outside my window who have been shouting for the past half hour. Before frustration sinks in, my thoughts are directed to the psalm we read in evening prayer just a few hours earlier. I lay thinking halfway between sleep and being awake. all i want to do is roll over and go back to sleep, but i sense the prompting to get up and write down my thoughts about this Psalm 26.
I spent the Next three and a half hours writing and praying through the thoughts. I don't know why the Lord had me do it (maybe it would not have made such an impression if i had not written it), but as i was writing the last bit down the computer does what it is inevitably going to do periodically--it shut down and lost the three hours of writing...
You have been spared a really lengthy update. Maybe it was for me, maybe to come out ate some other time.
In summary the thoughts went along these lines:
First, The psalm opens up by seeming to boast with how unwavering, and how pure and holy David thinks he is, but a closer look will find that he is saying God has set His ways in front of David to Love and His faithfulness; David is saying i see it and i walk in the direction that God heart goes with a whole determination of mind soul and Body.

Second, David is saying that he doesn't fool himself into thinking that doing things for His gain, or say one thing and then do whatever he wants; he doesn't allow himself even the opportunity to be mixed up with them. (a bunch of my reflections were on this section. The people most commonly thought of as the group this section talks about are the "non-believers" the people who do the drugs, who fill our prisons, who take advantage of the Charity that "good" people give, who sell their bodies and get polluted with alcohol...you know what i mean. But i don't think that is the crowd this section is talking about being far away from. --if these were them then what am i doing here in the DTES because a large percentage of the people i hang with would fall into these categories. But what about those who say...this is the way of God follow me, and yet it is hard to find any trace of the Faithful and loving God that David sees, what about those who say i see where God is moving, or promise to take care of the poor and oppressed that God loves and then abandons these commitments and insights to do what they want and what will be comfortable for themselves, trying to compromise and say that doing half of God's will is good enough, or those who do good and care for the needy during Christmas and Easter, in order to pat themselves on the back and say i am a good person i have given to the poor but don't do anything for the other 363days of the year, or the people who God pushes on their heart to get out there and minister to the poor, but decide instead to give their money to a shelter and say that is good enough without getting dirty or meeting the the people face to face....) Just some thoughts...

Third, David says that his putting into action the heart He sees in God, gives him an innocence that he can "go around the alter". This to me i saw as a beautiful picture, because the alter is why most people came to the temple, but if he is going around the alter he has come to the place where he can by pass the place of constantly needing to ask for things and ask for blessings, but to a place of dwelling in the presence and enjoying just seeing the presence of God...to tell of God's wondrous acts...The active heart of God in Daily practice, in the faces and people he meets, for there is where the Glory of the Lord dwells.

Fourth, He realizes that this Love and faithfulness and God's grace is what he needs too. He is not above any other but is in as much need as the next person...blessed to be a blessing.

The voices of the people outside my window are the voices of the people who are created to carry the image of God. May all things be reconciled and made holy in Him by the blood of the Lamb Jesus, so that we may go past the alter and dwell in the presence of the Lords Heart being active and rejoicing in the Miracles of our God. May we be continually made into the image of Jesus--the word of God that dwelt among us