Psalm 26
1Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering. 2Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind. 3For your loving kindness is before my eyes. I have walked in your truth. 4I have not sat with deceitful men, neither will I go in with hypocrites. 5I hate 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, Yahweh, 7that I may make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard and tell of all your wondrous deeds. 8Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house, the place where your glory dwells. 9Don’t gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men 10in whose hands is wickedness; their 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 Yahweh.
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