Psalm 17:1-7
Relying on God's Goodness

Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry;
give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.
From you let my vindication come;
let your eyes see the right.

If you try my heart, if you visit me by night,
if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me;
my mouth does not transgress.

As for what others do,
by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent.
My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped.

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me, hear my words.
Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.

New Revised Standard Version

To our ways of thinking, this psalm sounds surprisingly arrogant! David, to whom this Psalm is attributed, claims to have no wickedness, to always speak the truth, to have never strayed from the path, and therefore, he deserves God's power to vindicate himself against his accusers. He practically dares God to find anything wrong in his life! No one could bear such scrutiny, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). As for King David, we know him too well to find his life faultless -- or to believe this is what he meant.

So on what grounds would David consider himself without transgression or wickedness? There is only one way, and that is through the cleansing that comes from God. David in Psalm 51:7 asks God to wash his sinful self and make him "whiter than snow." We use that Old Testament imagery to sing of how Jesus cleanses us, and this is the same power and result David knew centuries before. In other words, David is writing that God will find him pure and faultless because it is God's power that forgave him of those sins.

Since David is forgiven, David must live expressing an attitude of victory and God-given holiness just as we see in this psalm! God did not forgive and cleanse David just for David to withdraw from life and obsess on his guilt. We know rejecting sin is hard, but we know that putting guilt behind us can be even harder. How could David even look at his beautiful wife Bathsheba without being reminded of his sin in coveting her, having adultery with her, and arranging the murder of her husband? But as David overcame his guilt, God blessed their union with a son, Solomon, who would be the greatest king Israel ever had.

So, in between the lines of this Psalm we have forgiveness of sins and victory over guilt, so that we can live a richly blessed life given to us by God. But there is one more key to David's attitude that we cannot overlook!

David slides in the phrase "by the word of Your lips" as the explanation for how he has done what he has done. It is only by David's constant reliance on God that he has avoided the ways of the violent and his feet have stayed steady on the path. Once God made David clean, it was God's guidance that kept David in the right ways.

This is seen more clearly seen in the last part of this passage. David is still praying for rescue from adversaries, but we can find out nothing in this passage about those enemies! David isn't concerned about them. God had saved the shepherd boy from bears and lions, God had saved the young man from Goliath and King Saul, and no matter what the nature of these adversaries, they were no match for God -- so David's prayer is focused on God! That is the victorious living God wants for us.

We must place our confidence, like David, on the goodness and nearness of God, for our victory in this life and the next will only come from how we rely on God and how we place our faith in God.