From the Home Place

November 6, 2025

The thermometer is showing a hearty 53 degrees at 3:45 a.m., but the forecast is that it will be 46 by 7 a.m., with 47 mph wind gust. The fun part is that I need to put 4′ by 8′ sheets of foam on the house today, this ought to be exciting!

A long time ago, as a preacher and a Bible teacher, I learned the value of words. Psalm 26 holds some extremely valuable words for us to consider. Beginning in verse 6 we read, “I shall wash my hands in innocence, And I will go about Your altar, O Lord.”

Have you ever covered your hands with something like automotive grease or oil, or how about blood, or maybe roofing tar? When you get any of the above-mentioned products on your hands, it is very difficult to get it off. Fifty years ago, grease covered hands were cleansed with gasoline. Yep, we went from one problem on our hands to another problem. What we get on our hands does matter.

Shortly after Miss Deb and I were married, she accidently broke a dish that had sentimental value to her. It wasn’t a bad break, just a two-inch chip. So, I purchased this new product called “Super Glue” and commenced to fix her plate. The problem is, being a male, I didn’t read all of the instructions on the package. I had missed the part of being very careful to not get any of the glue on my hands.

Yep, I glued myself to the plate. It took a month to get all of that glue cleaned off of my hands, once we got me unstuck from the plate. My point is this, it does matter what we get on our hands. In Psalm 26:6 the psalmist is advising us to wash our hands with “innocence.”

It would appear that when it comes to our standing before God, we will each wash our hands in either innocence, or guilt. All through the Bible, the guilt of sin defiles the rest of our body. Guilt was what caused Adam and Eve to attempt to hide from God. Guilt has the same effect upon your life and mine today.

Let’s just pretend that one of your children or grandchildren swipes a cookie which you have forbidden for whatever reason. When that child takes said cookie, how often do they walk into your presence to eat it? No, they will find a place to hide and eat their cookie—guilt robs that child of the joy of eating the cookie. When it comes to sins like gossip, we are all cookie monsters!

David washes his hands with “innocence.” Meaning that he is free to be at God’s altar. Oh my, how many times have I attempted to kneel at the altar of the all-knowing God with guilt in my life? It’s just like Momma knows that her child has eaten the forbidden cookie.

Verse 7 contains more valuable words, “That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, And declare all Your wonders.” A “voice of thanksgiving” is tied to hands of “innocence.” Guilty hands proclaim excuses, while hands washed with innocence proclaim “thanksgiving.” Yep, that is the way it should be around our tables on November 27 as we enjoy Thanksgiving. We will find it difficult to be thankful when we are guilty. Yet when we are innocent, thanksgiving flows from our lips before the turkey flows across our lips.

Verse 7 is home to another important word, “declare.”(NASB) In the Hebrew language this word means to “count, make a written record of, to make known.” When our hands are cleansed by confession, we are found to be innocent before God and as such, we want to declare God’s working in and through our lives. We give testimony of the “wonders” of being in God’s presence. (v.7b)

And that brings us back to our challenge for this month, to answer the question, “I saw God today when…” With hands washed in “innocence”, it is easy to “declare” God’s “wonders.” Interesting how all of that ties together isn’t it? This Thanksgiving, may we each “make known” the “wonders” of our Heavenly Father as we “declare” how we have seen Him at work in our lives.

Declaring with you, Neal