Psalm 26
BSB
Vindicate Me, O LORD
Of David.
1Vindicate me, O LORD!
For I have walked with integrity;
I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.
2Test me, O LORD, and try me;
examine my heart and mind.
3For Your loving devotion is before my eyes,
and I have walked in Your truth.
4I do not sit with deceitful men,
nor keep company with hypocrites.
5I hate the mob of evildoers,
and refuse to sit with the wicked.
6I wash my hands in innocence
that I may go about Your altar, O LORD,
7to raise my voice in thanksgiving
and declare all Your wonderful works.
8O LORD, I love the house where You dwell,
the place where Your glory resides.
9Do not take my soul away with sinners,
or my life with men of bloodshed,
10in whose hands are wicked schemes,
whose right hands are full of bribes.
11But I will walk with integrity;
redeem me and be merciful to me.
12My feet stand on level ground;
in the congregations I will bless the LORD.
Introduction
Psalms 26
Holy David is in this psalm putting himself upon a solemn trial, not by God and his country, but by God and his own conscience, to both which he appeals touching his integrity (Psa 26:1, Psa 26:2), for the proof of which he alleges, I. His constant regard to God and his grace (Psa 26:3). II. His rooted antipathy to sin and sinners (Psa 26:4, Psa 26:5). III. His sincere affection to the ordinances of God, and his care about them (Psa 26:6-8). Having thus proved his integrity, 1. He deprecates the doom of the wicked (Psa 26:9, Psa 26:10). 2. He casts himself upon the mercy and grace of God, with a resolution to hold fast his integrity, and his hope in God (Psa 26:11, Psa 26:12). In singing this psalm we must teach and admonish ourselves, and one another, what we must be and do that we may have the favour of God, and comfort in our own consciences, and comfort ourselves with it, as David does, if we can say that in any measure we have, through grace, answered to these characters. The learned Amyraldus, in his argument of his psalm, suggests that David is here, by the spirit of prophecy, carried out to speak of himself as a type of Christ, of whom what he here says of his spotless innocence, was fully and eminently true, and of him only, and to him we may apply it in singing this psalm. "We are complete in him."
A psalm of David.
Cross-references: Ps 26:1 · Ps 26:2 · Ps 26:3 · Ps 26:4 · Ps 26:5 · Ps 26:6 · Ps 26:9 · Ps 26:10 · Ps 26:11 · Ps 26:12