May my vindication come from You; may Your eyes see what is right. Though You probe my heart and examine me at night, though You test me, You will find nothing; I have resolved that my mouth will not sin.There are many similar passages in the Psalms which express the idea of personal blamelessness or sinlessness. Such passages are troubling to many. The Scriptures also speak of the depravity of the human heart, which, we are told, is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Every truly converted person has a deep conviction that they are sinful and need the love and ministry of forgiveness. How, then, can we understand a passage such as our text?
Psalm 17: 3
Some suggest that we should see David speaking prophetically of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this theory, David is not really speaking about himself or his own experience, but of Him who was to come forth from his line. These words which announce blameless really belong to Christ and can be uttered truthfully only By Him. After all, only Christ was sinless, so these words make sense only when applied and referred to Him.
The problem with this approach is that it requires us to strip the passage out of any historical context of David’s life and experience. The psalm becomes a prayer of the Lord Jesus to God the Father, not a cry from the heart from David to the Lord.
A second approach is to take this as David’s cry. He is oppressed by wicked men who surround him and attack him. (verse 9) He is asking God to rise up and deliver him. But in his declaration of personal blamelessness, he casts himself upon the blamelessness of Christ imputed to him—so that when he invites God to test him and declares that He will find nothing wrong with David, he really is asking God to look at the righteousness of Christ which has been imputed to him by faith.
This is a better approach in that it forces us to deal with the real crisis David was facing—and therefore helps us apply the Psalm to ourselves. When we are facing the hostility of wicked men, this Psalm is then able to offer direct comfort and counsel. Yet the approach is awkward. It forces us to read too much back into the text. Whilst it is true that the imputed righteousness of Christ undergirds all salvation, whether in the Old Covenant or the New, and whilst we can call upon God’s love and favour only because of the saving work of Christ in our behalf—and that this was as true for Abraham and Moses as it is for us in the New Covenant—nevertheless it requires a leap or intrusion into the text which seems artificial and stereotypical.
A third approach is to set this, and similar, Psalms in a more narrow context. David is being attacked by wicked men who are seeking to destroy him. He is being attacked because he is God’s servant. He does not deserve their hostility and enmity. The things of which they accuse him are lies and falsehoods. David’s response is to turn to the Lord and ask Him to judge him as to whether there is merit and justice in the hostility and accusations of those who oppose him. He is not, therefore, declaring a universal and perpetual holiness when he declares that he has done nothing wrong. Rather, he is asserting that with respect to the slander and accusations he faces, he is innocent. He is separating himself from wicked men and their conspiracies and is asking God to vindicate him before them.
In this light our text makes perfect sense. It also means that immediately the text is helpful and applicable to the saints. If we are living as God’s people in this world, we will be confronted with many enemies. These are people whose hatred and rejection of the God of the Scriptures is particularly acute: therefore, they will oppose the people of God in every way they can find. This will range from sarcasm and mockery to more aggressive and even violent actions. Our Lord made it perfectly clear that this is an ordinary or “normal” state of affairs. If they hated the Son, they will also hate His people.
As we are confronted with this reality—and every faithful and true Christian faces this from time to time—we are to follow David’s example, and lift our voices to the Lord, even using the words and prayers of this Psalm. We forswear responding in kind. We relinquish private vengeance. We remember that He has said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” But we make our complaint to the court of God Himself. We ask Him to test and judge our hearts and lives as to whether the charges and accusations of our enemies are true. We ask Him to rise up to deal with those who oppress and afflict us without cause. We seek His judgement in our behalf.
With David we pray, “Rise up, O Lord, confront them, bring them down; rescue me from the wicked by your sword. O Lord, by your hand save me from such men, from men of this world whose reward is in this life.” (Psalm 17: 13,14)
It is a sad indictment upon the Church that many have forgotten how to pray in this way—if they ever knew how. Many are fixated with giving no offence at all: these have forgotten that friendship with the world is enmity towards God. Others believe they are called to love their enemies, and mistakenly think that this means that they must not regard them as enemies at all. They have not understood that laying aside private vengeance, and not returning evil for evil, but instead giving a cup of cold water to those who hate and oppose us is not at all inconsistent with appealing our case to the Lord and asking Him to enter into judgment in our stead and on our behalf. This is what is meant by the Church Militant.
In fact, if we forswear private vengeance, and do not at the same time appeal to God, seeking His deliverance and vindication, we have become tolerant towards evil. We have become milksops. We have ceased to be jealous for the Name of God.
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