Do the Psalms Contain Self-Righteous Boasting? (Psalms 7, 17, and 26)

This text is a part of the Tough Passages sequence.

Hearken to the Passages

The Apparently “Self-Righteous” Passages in Psalms

Various psalms embrace professions of innocence, and these professions are usually not informal however outstanding within the songs. The allegedly harmless social gathering is the actual worshiper (Psalms 7; 17; 26), the king (Psalm 18), and the entire group (Psalm 44). These passages can strike the reader as foolish (“I’m a sufferer of circumstance!”), as self-deceiving (opposite to Prov. 20:9; Eccles. 7:20, 29), as portraying an unattainable degree of perfection, or as one thing extra sinister—a sort of repulsive bombast and self-promotion (e.g., Luke 18:9–14).¹

A greater strategy is to start with the that means of such phrases as “righteous” within the Psalter. When utilized to members of Israel, the phrases “righteous” and “righteousness” can be utilized in a number of methods.² First, the phrases will be utilized to the entire individuals, who’ve the covenantal revelation of the righteous Creator (Hab. 1:13), versus the Gentiles, who don’t. Second, it may be utilized to these members of the individuals who embrace the covenant from the center, who’ve honest religion and search to please the Lord of their conduct and character (Deut. 6:25; 24:13; Isa. 1:21, 26; 5:7; Hab. 2:4; Zeph. 2:3; Mal. 3:3). This second utilization seems typically within the Psalms (e.g., Pss. 7:8; 37:16–17), which additionally clarify that these “righteous” are individuals who readily confess their sins (Ps. 32:11). A 3rd utilization is for individuals among the many trustworthy who’re particularly noteworthy for his or her wholesome function locally and are subsequently worthy of honor and imitation ( king, Ps. 18:20, 24; peculiar folks, Pss. 37:30; 112:3–4, 6, 9). And at last, the phrases will be utilized to the harmless social gathering in a dispute (e.g., Gen. 38:26; 44:16 [“clear” = “make righteous”]; Ex. 23:7; Deut. 25:1) and hardly claims ethical perfection.

We will additionally discover the complementary phenomenon with unfavorable phrases, akin to “depraved,” “sinner,” and “idiot.” These phrases can denote those that are usually not God’s individuals, the untrue inside Israel, or these whose impiety results in distinctively evil conduct.

We discern which sense is current in a given textual content by the use of the contrasts in view. As C. S. Lewis put it, “The very best clue is to ask oneself in every occasion what’s the implied reverse.”³ Additional, completely different psalms deal with completely different oppositions. For instance, a few of these are particular person laments, nicely fitted to a worshiping congregation with a member beneath risk from “enemies” utilizing false accusations to hurt the trustworthy individual (Psalms 7; 17; 26). In these circumstances “we want subsequently on no account assume that the Psalmists are deceived or mendacity after they assert that, as towards their explicit enemies at some explicit second, they’re fully in the correct.”⁴ To make use of these psalms in such cases permits the congregation to rally round its unjustly accused brethren and in addition reinforces its dedication to like the virtues and hate the vices depicted in these texts and to honor those that show these virtues.

Psalm 18, against this, is very concerning the excellent for the Davidic kingship. A congregation may use it to foster the group’s shared craving that its king would embody these beliefs, which might result in prayer that the present king would certainly embody them. Christians profess that Jesus, as the last word inheritor of David, does in reality embody the beliefs and is subsequently worthy of admiration and imitation (John 13:15–16; 1 Cor. 11:1; Eph. 5:1; 1 Thess. 1:6; Phil. 2:5).

It bears repeating: to make use of these psalms nicely requires cautious and daring pastoral management. Self-identification as an harmless sufferer is neither wholesome nor invited!

Psalm 7

O Lord my God, if I’ve carried out this,
   if there’s flawed in my fingers,
if I’ve repaid my good friend with evil
   or plundered my enemy with out trigger,
let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
   and let him trample my life to the bottom
   and lay my glory within the mud. (Ps. 7:3–5)

Psalm 7 is a person lament from David. The title refers to an in any other case unknown incident within the lifetime of David on which a person of Benjamin (the tribe of Saul) mentioned some “phrases”; from the content material of the psalm we could infer that these phrases had been slanderous. Therefore the state of affairs reveals us how you can perceive the claims of innocence right here (Ps. 7:3–4, 8): the innocence is relative to the accusations being made, quite than absolute. Therefore this psalm gives a car by which individuals could name to God for assist when they’re unfairly criticized or persecuted.

The primary motion of the psalm professes the singer’s innocence: the individual singing this in good religion claims to not have betrayed the belief that ought to bind the individuals of God collectively.

Observe how the final expression in Psalm 7:3 (“flawed in my fingers”) finds nearer clarification in verse 4 (“repaid my good friend with evil,” “plundered my enemy with out trigger”). That’s, the precise wrongdoing in view considerations the social connections between the guy members of God’s individuals. The Sinai covenant established Israel as (ideally, anyhow) God’s new humanity, whose relationships are to indicate forth true humanness for all of the Gentiles to see. Therefore typically in each the Psalms and the Prophets the sins denounced are “social,” for the ethic assumed all through the Bible prizes a peaceable and loving group.

This psalm is suited just for these circumstances by which the hazard stems from the malice of the persecutors, not from the wrongdoing of the individual in bother. Thus verse 5 gives a prayer of self-malediction: “If I’m responsible of the issues of which I’m accused, then let my enemy succeed.” An individual who can’t make the declare of verses 3–4 in good religion ought not sing this! Therefore this serves as an implicit warning that those that commit the evils listed right here ought, quite than utilizing this psalm to ask for God’s assist, to start with confession of sin (i.e., a special tune, akin to Psalm 6).

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Psalm 17

You’ve tried my coronary heart, you might have visited me by night time,
   you might have examined me, and you will discover nothing;
   I’ve purposed that my mouth is not going to transgress.
With regard to the works of man, by the phrase of your lips
   I’ve averted the methods of the violent.
My steps have held quick to your paths;
   my ft haven’t slipped. (Ps. 17:3-5)

Like Psalm 7, this psalm gives a prayer for supporting members of the trustworthy who face persecution within the type of false accusations.

Professions of innocence akin to we discover right here, and in Psalms 7; 17; 26, can bother delicate Christians. C. S. Lewis properly observes an essential distinction “between the conviction that one is in the correct [about the particular issue of the accusations] and the conviction that one is ‘righteous.’”⁵ Lewis, nevertheless, was unsure that the psalmists themselves all the time protect this distinction. I definitely assist Lewis’s non secular concern to guard Christians towards self-righteousness, however I don’t assume he has seen the actual psalms within the correct gentle. First, Lewis himself rightly noticed that the Psalms are songs for worship,⁶ however he didn’t constantly apply that remark in his discussions. Since they’re songs, they’re used beneath the pastoral steerage of the personnel who select them, each within the non secular context of all of the others.

A pastorally clever type of prayer for such circumstances should each warning the trustworthy to make sure they are surely harmless and in addition warn the untrue of what awaits them except they repent — and this tune does simply that. Additional, in professing innocence it reinforces the sentiments of approval for the sort of social relationships for which God referred to as Israel from the beginning.

Certainly, by the way in which this psalm closes, it equips the trustworthy to belief God of their trials, able to await their very own everlasting reward for his or her full and last vindication (and therefore it strengthens them to withstand the temptation to forfeit that vindication by turning to unfaithfulness).

Psalm 26

I don’t sit with males of falsehood,
   nor do I consort with hypocrites.
I hate the meeting of evildoers,
   and I cannot sit with the depraved.
I wash my fingers in innocence
   and go round your altar, O LORD,
proclaiming thanksgiving aloud,
   and telling all of your wondrous deeds.
O LORD, I really like the habitation of your home
   and the place the place your glory dwells. (Ps. 26:4–8)

Some have taken the claims of innocence right here as a sort of self-righteous boasting, however, as already argued on Psalm 7 and Psalm 17, this can be a mistake. First, the point out of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness (Ps. 26:3), a transparent echo of Exodus 34:6, reveals that divine grace is the inspiration for holy dwelling. Second, the references to worship in God’s home (Ps. 26:6–8) point out that the covenantal technique of grace, with their deal with atonement and forgiveness, are in view. And third, singing this psalm serves to allow worshipers an increasing number of to love and embrace the best of trustworthy covenant membership—but it surely doesn’t make reaching that excellent a precondition for true worship.

Like Psalm 7 and Psalm 17, this psalm has worshipers singing to profess integrity of their lives; just like the case for these psalms, it might be a straightforward mistake to suppose that that is self-righteous braggadocio. Pastoral knowledge would have been referred to as for on the a part of the clergymen arranging and main the worship.

But in addition like Psalm 7 and Psalm 17, one essential perform of singing a tune like this one is to set the virtues as the best towards which the trustworthy will extra readily give themselves the extra truthfully they sing the phrases. The integrity that it praises covers each observable deeds and one’s invisible inside life, actions and emotions.

An analogous state of affairs faces Christians as they learn, say, 1 John, with its varied phrases for real believers (those that maintain God’s phrase, abide in God, have been born of God, and so forth.), and its number of expressions for what they do (stroll as Jesus walked, confess their sins, love their brethren, take heed to the apostles, and so forth.).⁷ In depth discussions have contemplated what these assertions in 1 John imply, however definitely they don’t declare sinless perfection, as 1 John 1:9; 2:1 clarify. Higher is the concept that the statements utilizing the current type of the verb describe the prevailing practices of the trustworthy—as over towards explicit lapses, for which the aorist can be regular. Nonetheless, I feel that, in view of the disputative context (a bunch of false lecturers have left; 1 John 2:18–19), the writer’s objectives acknowledge that those that stay true to the apostles have to be regrounded of their identification. They have to be taught to say, “That is what we do.”

It will most likely be going too far to see the violations of the accepted lifestyle within the Psalms and in 1 John as disqualifications for membership; quite, the grace of God units an individual on the trail of faithfulness by equipping her or him with the right likes and dislikes. The affirmations of optimistic virtues allow the congregation to really feel their very own approval of these virtues, and the denunciations of vices allow them to really feel their very own disapproval of these vices.

That is the life Christians admire, that is the sort of individuals we need to be. That is our graciously given identification, and as a physique we assist and nourish in each other the aspiration to be good as we concurrently create a secure atmosphere for individuals who are usually not but excellent at being good.

This text by C. John Collins and is customized from ESV Expository Commentary: Psalms–Song of Solomon (Volume 5).

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