There are great similarities between Psalm 17 and this psalm. In both David strongly asserts his innocence and asks the Lord for judgment in his favor.
Hear a just cause, O LORD, Attend to my cry; Give ear to my prayer which is not from deceitful lips. Let my vindication come from Your presence; Let Your eyes look on the things that are upright. You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and have found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Psalm 17:1-3 Vindicate me, O LORD, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the LORD; I shall not slip. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart. For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth. Psalm 26:1-3
But there are also significant differences. In Psalm 17 David is praying for vindication in a particular contention between himself and his enemies. He believes that he is right and his enemies are wrong, and he asks God to hear his cause and vindicate him in this matter. In Psalm 26 David talks about the wicked, but he does not once speak of them as enemies, nor even make any petitions against them. The trouble in the psalm is not that the wicked are opposing him, but simply that they exist. He regards them as those with whom he should not keep company rather than as men who seek his life.
Furthermore, we see in Psalm 26 a frequent alternation between past and future tenses that we do not find in Psalm 17. Also, the first and almost the last of these assertions are the same except for the difference in tense: I have walked in my integrity (verse 1) and I will walk in my integrity (verse 11). But what is the point? David is both claiming innocence in the past and resolving that he will remain innocent in the future. He is asking in this psalm for a vindication of his whole life. He asserts that his innocence will continue as long as he lives, and on that basis seeks vindication. That is a remarkable request.
Another striking feature of the psalm is that there are seven requests: Judge me, examine me, prove me, try me, do not gather my soul with sinners, redeem me, be merciful. There are also seven assertions of past innocence, beginning with I have walked in my integrity and ending with My foot has stood in an even place, and seven resolutions to remain innocent in the future beginning with I shall not slip and ending with in the congregations I will bless the Lord. That cannot be accidental. David makes a full assertion of innocence with regard both to past and future, and then asks fully favorable judgment on all his life.
He repeats the prayer three times. In verse 1 we have it in summary form. In verses 2-8 we have it again in a more detailed form. In verses 9-12 we have it yet again with some additional detail, though not as much as is found in verses 2-8.
1. Vindicate me (verse 1)
The word vindicate is, in the Hebrew, simply judge, and it would be better to translate it that way. Though David expects vindication, as the rest of the verse, and indeed the rest of the psalm, makes clear, he is asking that this vindication come by way of formal judgment from God himself. He envisions a heavenly courtroom in which he stands as the accused and God sits as judge. He expects a close examination of his life, a weighing of evidence, and a pronouncing of a sentence of guilt or innocence as the result of that examination. He is looking not only to God’s ongoing work of judgment while he is in the world, but also to the great day of judgment at the end of time.
The Heidelberg Catechism expresses the urgency and intensity of this prayer very well in question and answer 52.
What comfort is it to you that Christ “shall come to judge the living and the dead”?
That in all my sorrows and persecutions, I, with uplifted head, look for the very One who offered Himself for me to the judgment of God, and removed all curse from me, to come as Judge from heaven, who shall cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation, but shall take me with all His chosen ones to Himself into heavenly joy and glory.
David prays for this judgment because of his persuasion that God will find no fault in him and that he will be able to stand under his scrutiny. Looking back over his life up to this point he says:
I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the LORD.
The basic idea of integrity is completeness or wholeness. Thus, for example, one may preserve the integrity of an empire, keep it complete and undiminished. David is here asserting that he is a complete man of God, a man whose moral and spiritual wholeness remains undiminished in his walk. He has a specific character of godliness and he has walked according to that character.
This integrity arises from his trust in the Lord. Faith is the fundamental characteristic of the godly man. It is the root out of which grow all the other virtues of the Christian life, including integrity. There is no need then for David to claim here any other specific virtues, or any particular acts of righteousness. Throughout his life he has been a man of faith. He has relied on the Lord for all things, for good gifts, for help in trouble, for righteousness, in fact for whatever he has needed. He has not turned from that faith but has continued faithful to the present moment.
In the third part of the assertion of innocence we have a future tense. David says, I will not slip. He will maintain his integrity and his faith for the time to come. He will continue to walk as he has walked in the past.
These, then, are the reasons why David expects vindication in the judgment of God.
2. Examine, prove and try me (verses 2-8)
In the second part of the psalm David really repeats the request already made in the first part. Instead of Judge me, he asks, Examine, prove and try me. Instead of talking about his integrity and faith, he talks about his walk, his shunning of the company of evildoers, and his love of the Lord’s house.
The three words examine, prove and try are close in meaning, though the last one has to do particularly with testing and refining precious metals. When you put silver into a furnace it melts and impurities separate or burn away. It is tested, and if found to be very impure not much silver will remain after the refining is over. David here asks that God test him in that way, that God look for impurities in him. And he asks that this refining be even of his mind (or kidneys) and heart. He wants God to look not only at his behavior, but also at the most hidden parts of his being. He exposes himself fully to the Lord’s searching.
What will the Lord find? He will find three things: 1) God’s lovingkindness is before his eyes and he walks in his truth,2) he shuns the company of evil men, and 3) he loves the habitation of the Lord’s house. These are all, of course, good things. The Lord will not find evil.
To have the lovingkindness of the Lord before our eyes is to count on it in all the varying circumstances of life. When we are troubled, we look to his lovingkindness. When temptation comes, we depend on his lovingkindness. When blessings are in store, we praise him for his lovingkindness. It is the focus of our lives.
To walk in his truth is to depend in the ways and paths of life on his faithfulness. Men may be unfaithful, and circumstances may be constantly changing, but we walk securely because the faithfulness of the Lord is there to protect and guide us.
The second thing that the Lord finds in his examination is that he has shunned and will shun the company of evil men.
One way of assessing a man’s character is to look at what he loves and what he hates. So, David talks in these next verses first about what he has hated and then about what he has loved. He has hated the assembly of evildoers. He has loved the habitation of the Lord’s house.
Notice again the alternation between past and future: I have not sat, I will not go, I have hated, I will not sit. He claims a godly separation from evil in the past and resolves on it, or even promises it, for the future.
Consider also the descriptions of the men whose company David avoids. NKJV has idolatrous mortals and hypocrites. A better translation would be false men and those who hide from good. They are men who are full of empty talk, who flatter with their lips, who swear deceitfully, who bring false reports and give false witness, and whose mouths do not speak what is in their hearts. David has often encountered such men, but he has not sat with them. He has had no fellowship there. Those who hide from good are men who have opportunities to do good to their neighbors, but do not do it. They hide themselves from the straying ox or sheep of the neighbor instead of bringing it back (Deuteronomy 22:1-3). They turn their eyes away from the poor (Proverbs 28:27). According to Ezekiel 22:26 they hide their eyes from the Sabbath. They have opportunities to do good but will not do it. With these David will not go in. His soul recoils from the assembly of those who do evil and harmful things. He will not sit with the wicked. This has been his practice in the past and will continue to be in the future.
The other side of this coin is that he has loved the Lord’s dwelling place. That’s in verses 6-8.
He begins here by talking about what he will do. He will wash his hands in innocence. This is an allusion to an Old Testament ritual cleansing. The priests washed their hands at the laver in the courtyard of the tabernacle before they handled the sacrifices, and in Deuteronomy 21:6,7 God prescribes another such washing when the elders of a village want to assert their innocence of the blood of a murdered man whose body has been found nearby. David here means that he will proclaim his innocence, his freedom from transgression and therefore his right to receive no condemnation. He not only performs the external rite required by the law, but he also does it with sincerity and truth.
This cleansing prepares him for approaching the altar of the Lord, just as it prepared the priests in their service. In fact, David seems to be assuming for himself the rights of a priest. The priests were specially consecrated to the Lord. They were especially holy and, because of their special holiness, performed service in the tabernacle and temple which the rest of the people of God might not do. They drew nearer to God than others did. David here claims for himself the holiness of a priest, and the right to approach the altar and to work all around it with a freedom which no other could have.
There, at the altar of God, he will proclaim with the voice of thanks and tell of all the Lord’s wondrous works. He will make public proclamations of the works of the Lord and give public thanksgiving to him so that many may hear and believe. The question is, why at the altar? It is the gathering place of God’s people, the place where God and his people meet, but still he could simply have spoken of the house of God, if that is all he meant to convey. The proclamation that he intends to make is his offering to God, and he will make that offering in the appropriate place.
These things he will do because he has loved the habitation of the Lord’s house. There are many good things in this life that we may love, but for David there has been one thing above all others. More than family and friends, more than prosperity and abundance, more than the glory of his kingship and the thrill of victory over the enemies of God, David has loved the house of the Lord. To be there has been his greatest joy. There the glory of the Lord dwells, for there the cloud of glory fills the Most Holy Place, and the contemplation of that glory, beholding the beauty of the Lord, has been beyond all other good things to him.
Here is a man, then, who shuns the company of evildoers, who consecrates himself to the Lord, whose life work will be the proclamation of the Lord’s praise, and whose great love has been the house of the Lord. He has observed the antithesis and he has lived it. He has nothing to fear from the Lord’s judgment, and everything to hope.
3. Do not gather my soul with sinners (verses 9-12)
As we turn now to the last section of the psalm, let’s not look at it as if there is a very sharp break between it and the preceding section. There is not. The prayer of verse 9 follows on and is rooted in the claims of verses 6-8. But what we want to emphasize is that this is really a third petition regarding judgment. Only here David doesn’t simply ask to be judged, examined and tried, but asks for a specific verdict and result of the judgment. Two outcomes are possible: justification or condemnation, and David here asks that it not be condemnation:
Do not gather my soul with sinners, Nor my life with bloodthirsty men.
There are many who will come into judgment who will not be able to stand there. They are sinners and men of blood. They are men who have transgressed the law of God and who, instead of loving their neighbors, have done harm to them. When the judgment comes, they will stand at the left hand of the great judge, and hear condemnation: Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. David does not want to be with them when they appear before the judgment seat. He asks that his place be at the right hand.
Nor does he want anything to do with their ways. Verses 9 and 10 are not just a plea to escape condemnation, but also an expression of repugnance for the works of these sinners. They are those whose hands plot evil and whose right hands are full of bribes. David is disgusted with such things, has avoided them, and does not want God to reckon him among those who do them.
He emphasizes this contrast in verse 11 with the words But as for me. He will walk in integrity. That is a promise and resolve for the future. He has done so in the past, but he will continue to do so from now on.
In that integrity then he pleads for redemption and mercy rather than condemnation. Vindication is not merely the result of justice, but also of redemption, and mercy must mingle with justice. We tend to emphasize the mercy of God in our justification and talk about justice as a secondary thing. His mercy is a just mercy because of Christ. David here turns that around, emphasizing the justice of God in his vindication, and bringing in mercy as a secondary consideration. His justice is a merciful justice.
He closes the psalm then with further assertions of integrity. His foot has stood in an even place. That is another way of saying, I have not slipped, and so brings us back again to verse 1. There he puts it in the future tense, here in the past. He has kept his feet in the ways of the Lord where there is firm and level ground to stand on. He has remained unshaken. Finally, he makes another promise for the future: In the congregations I will bless the Lord. He intends to continue in the exercises that belong to righteousness: gathering with the people of God and offering sacrifices of praise to him. The psalm ends with a look to the future that expresses both David’s resolve and also gives the honor of everything to the Lord.
This is a psalm that is difficult for us to relate to. We seldom, if ever, offer such prayers or make such assertions as David makes here. We are very aware of our sins, and in that awareness are understandably reluctant to claim integrity and uprightness.
One way to resolve our difficulties is simply to say that the psalm is not applicable to us. We could take the position that this is a psalm about Christ, about his integrity and uprightness, and about his vindication in the judgment of God. If we leave it there, then there is no need for us to apply it to ourselves.
It is a psalm about Christ. As we have pointed out many times before, our Lord sang and prayed these psalms during his earthly sojourn. He made them his own. They were his prayers, his offerings of thanks and praise, his complaints to the God of his salvation. That was true also of this psalm. He prayed,
Judge me, O Lord, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the Lord; I shall not slip.
His integrity and his trust were perfect, and he never slipped even when the circumstances of his life were most difficult, even when God forsook him. His vindication was certain.
And all that is important for us. If he had not gone before us on this way, we could not walk the way at all. Our whole hope of vindication is in his vindication.
But the question still remains, May we pray this for ourselves?
The first answer to that question has to be, No. We do not have in ourselves what it takes to make the kinds of assertions that David makes here. We do not have integrity, nor do we have in ourselves the resources to keep such resolutions as David makes throughout this psalm: I shall not slip.
But let us point out immediately that David could not either. In the light of his betrayal of Uriah and his sinister scheme against Uriah’s life how could he say, I have walked in my integrity? In the light of his numbering of the people how could he say, I have trusted in the Lord?
Should we dismiss his claims as preposterous, and scorn them as pride and boasting? The tenor of this psalm is against such an interpretation. David talks here about loving the Lord’s house and about blessing the Lord in the congregations. When he comes into the presence of the Lord, he does not come there to boast about himself, but in fervent admiration for the Lord’s works and ways, and to bless him for the many benefits he has given. He doesn’t sound like a boaster.
Is David asserting here a righteousness that is his own? Positively not. If that were the case, he would have no need to talk of faith, of lovingkindness, of redemption and of mercy. His vindication would be purely a matter of justice. If an innocent man stands accused of a crime, he does not plead with the judge to be merciful or to redeem him. He looks for simple justice, and when he receives it there is no need for him to praise the extraordinary kindness of the judge in letting him go. The judge has simply done what he should always do.
David talks about his faith. What is that faith? It is the conviction that the Lord is my righteousness. It is not our own righteousness, but faith that constitutes our innocence in the judgment. And even with regard to that faith, the Lord does not accept it as a substitute for perfect righteousness. Faith is neither more nor less than complete reliance on the Lord. Faith looks to the Lord for the righteousness of Christ, and also for integrity, for not slipping, for hatred of the assembly of evildoers, for love of the house of God, for the voice of praise and thanksgiving, for blessing the Lord.
The Lord will find sin. But what will happen? He will forgive because he has imputed to us his righteousness. He will also begin at that moment to crucify the old man and make us new creatures in Christ.
And from where does his integrity come? From the lovingkindness of the Lord. From where does his steadfastness come? From the truth of the Lord. By what can he hope for vindication? By the redemption of the Lord. There is a price paid for that vindication, and David knows it well. On what must he rely in order to say, I have walked and will walk in my integrity? On the mercy of the Lord which imputes to him and works in him the integrity of another.