Psalm 26 A Psalm of David

¹Vindicate me, O Lord,

For I have walked in my integrity.

I have also trusted in the Lord; I shall not slip.

²Examine me, O Lord, and prove me;

Try my mind and my heart.

³For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes,

And I have walked in Your truth.

⁴I have not sat with idolatrous mortals,

Nor will I go in with hypocrites.

⁵I have hated the assembly of evildoers,

And will not sit with the wicked.

⁶I will wash my hands in innocence;

So I will go about Your altar, O Lord,

⁷That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving,

And tell of all Your wondrous works.

⁸Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house,

And the place where Your glory dwells.

⁹Do not gather my soul with sinners,

Nor my life with bloodthirsty men,

¹⁰In whose hands is a sinister scheme,

And whose right hand is full of bribes.

¹¹But as for me, I will walk in my integrity;

Redeem me and be merciful to me.

¹²My foot stands in an even place;

In the congregations I will bless the Lord.

Preamble

This Psalm is a prayer David prayed while facing some slanderous accusations being leveled against him, and this from people within his own nation. Now though the source of this is man, the agent behind it is always Satan, whose name means “slander”, “accuser”, for he is the accuser of the brethren, of all of God’s people who keep God’s commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 12:17). And so, through his sway and influence over those of this world he is always ever so skillfully prompting people to be suspicious of us, to prompt people to think the worst of us, for he is always seeking ways to denigrate us, to make us out to be as bad as possible or imaginable, so that people whom his hand is strongest with may hate or fear us. Now this has been happening to Godly Christians since the apostle’s generation right up to this day, (2 Tim 3:11-12; Rev. 1:9), and this will only get worse as evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse infiltrating and undermining the church until the end (2 Tim. 3:13). Therefore, the prayer here is a model for our own on how to address such things, by seeking our vindication from God who is Sovereign over all things,

Commentary

Vs. 1 “Vindicate me, O Lord,

For I have walked in my integrity.

I have also trusted in the Lord; I shall not slip.”

The basis for every believer’s vindication (when falsely accused) is that they have walked in integrity before God, that they have been and are trusting in the Lord, not only for their salvation, but also to vindicate them on the Day of His judgment.

Vs. 2 “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me;

Try my mind and my heart.

Because David's accusers were so vehement about the things they were saying about him, so sure about the evil things they were imagining him doing, (so that others were also being swayed to set themselves against him), David now commits himself to the Lord, for it is the Lord who alone knows our thoughts and the intents of our hearts, and He is never swayed by the cunning speech of evil people. Therefore, David asks the Lord (our Lord) to examine him, to prove him, to see if there is any merit in any of their false accusations and charges that they are laying against him. As well David’s also asks that the Lord to try his mind and heart, to test him and see that his motives are not wicked and evil as his accusers are so readily assuming about him. For even when he does good, they still look on him with an evil suspicion, like there is some sort of hidden agenda or evil to come from it upon them. Therefore, David in doing this is seeking the Lord’s vindication of his person before them all.

Vs. 3” For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes,

And I have walked in Your truth.”

Now in making his defense of his person, (which runs through to verse seven), David declares his own faith in the Lord, in the Lord’s lovingkindness, which always upholds all who walk in His truth and are oppressed for doing so. And so David confesses to Him that he has walked in His truth, His Words truth, not sinlessly, but faithfully, for that is what the Lord requires of us all, not sinless perfection, but honesty and humility (Luke 18:9-14). And so, when we stumble and all fall, (and thus fall short of the glory of God), not to self deprecate which accomplishes nothing, but to confess our wrong and return to Him (1 John 1:9).

Vs. 4-7 ⁴I have not sat with idolatrous mortals,

Nor will I go in with hypocrites.

⁵I have hated the assembly of evildoers,

And will not sit with the wicked.

⁶I will wash my hands in innocence;

So I will go about Your altar, O Lord,

⁷That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving,

And tell of all Your wondrous works.

In declaring his faithfulness to the Lord, David now asserts to Him that he has not taken up a seat with those who worship idols, nor has he played the hypocrite with those who delight in their own hypocrisies. Instead David has loathed all such things. And so he now declares to the Lord that he has hated the assembly of evildoers, hated all the ways of those who gather to worship the Lord on the one hand, and yet are doing, plotting, and or scheming evil on the other. Therefore, he says that he will not sit with the wicked, he will not sit with those who openly and brazenly blasphemy the Lord, who fearlessly declare all of their lawless and wicked deeds before men. For there is no fear of God on their tongues or in their lives, therefore he will (we will) have nothing to do with them, not as long as they continue on in their wicked course of life. Therefore, David says he will (we will) wash our hands in innocence, (and thus not be guilty of ruining people’s lives, nor of shedding innocent blood as they so readily do), so that we may come before You O Lord and worship You in the beauty of holiness! That we may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, Your Great Goodness towards all the sons of men, for You want all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Therefore we will tell of all Your wonderous works, all of Your wonderous works that You work in everyone’s life who believes and trusts in You!

Vs. 8 “Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house,

And the place where Your glory dwells.”

Indeed, not only has David hated the works of all wicked and evil people, but he just as everyone who truly believes in the Lord, truly loves the habitation of the Lord’s House, which in O.T. times was His Temple where He made His glory dwell. But now in the New Covenant era His glory dwells inside of each and everyone of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:16). Thus, loving His habitation where His glory dwells is synonymous with loving all His people who bear the same (1 Cor. 8:3; 1 John 4:7-11, 16, 20-21 etc. antithesis 1 John 3:15).

Vs. 9-10 ⁹Do not gather my soul with sinners,

Nor my life with bloodthirsty men,

¹⁰In whose hands is a sinister scheme,

And whose right hand is full of bribes.

Because David has sought to live his life in integrity and truth, he now asks the Lord not to gather his soul with sinners, (unrepented and unbelieving people), nor allow his life to be taken by blood thirsty men, whom he also describes as men whose hands are full of sinister schemes, and whose right hand is full of bribes, for they are ever ready and willing to betray him or anyone for evil pay.

Vs. 11 “But as for me, I will walk in my integrity;

Redeem me and be merciful to me.”

Even though David knew that they were plotting against him, he would not allow himself to follow that evil course of life, to avenge himself of them through the same. Instead, he now says to the Lord that he will stick to his integrity, and because of that he is now asking Him to redeem him and be merciful to him. Again, David was not sinless (nor are you) and in choosing to live uprightly he (we) still need the Lord’s Redemption and Salvation of our person no matter how faultless and blameless we have lived.

Vs. 12 “My foot stands in an even place;

In the congregations I will bless the Lord.”

Having then placed all of His faith and confidence in the Lord’s Person to redeem his soul and deliver his life, David now sees himself standing solidly on level ground, (unmoved by the wicked), therefore David now says in the congregations (that is wherever God's people assemble) he will bless the Lord! 

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982):Thomas Nelson.