2025 08/17 Psalm 18:20-30; My Righteousness; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20250817_psalm-18_20-30.mp3
We’ve been looking at some of the Psalms over the summer months, deepening our prayer life as we learn to pray from this God-inspired prayer book of the Bible. Last week we began to look at Psalm 18, the third longest Psalm, and we looked at the first 19 verses. This Psalm is adapted from David’s song in 2 Samuel 22 to be used in public worship. The pre-script reads:
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who
addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when
the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and
from the hand of Saul. He said:
Psalm 18 divides into three main sections; verses 1-19 record David’s prayer to YHWH and describe in graphic imagery God coming down to rescue. Verses 20-30 describe the righteous character of the one who takes refuge in the Lord, and the perfect character of God who consistently responds to us who hide ourselves in him. Verses 31-50 celebrate YHWH’s faithfulness to his Anointed, whom he equips and establishes to rule the nations.
Psalm 18:1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;
5 the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
7 Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
9 He bowed the heavens and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew;
he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
thick clouds dark with water.
12 Out of the brightness before him
hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
14 And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
15 Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
16 He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
17 He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
Reason For the LORD’s Delight
This first section begins with ‘I love you O LORD, my strength,’ then recounts David’s prayer, and in graphic imagery YHWH God coming down to rescue, and concludes with ‘he rescued me, because he delighted in me’. Why is David so confident that the Lord delighted in him? One reason we could give is that this was written ‘on the day when the Lord delivered him from all his enemies. That was the practical evidence of God’s favor toward him. But he gives the theological reason in the next five verses:
Psalm 18:20 The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his rules were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
23 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from my guilt.
24 So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
Why did YHWH God delight in David? ‘According to my righteousness, …the cleanness of my hands, …I have kept his ways, …I was blameless before him.’ The pre-script places this ‘when the Lord delivered David from all his enemies’, and 2 Samuel 22 comes toward the end of David’s life, years after David’s adultery with Bathsheba, and his murder of her husband Uriah; that was back in 2 Samuel 11. My righteousness, the cleanness of my hands? Because of this, some scholars have conjectured that 2 Samuel 22 must have written earlier in David’s life, before his sin with Bathsheba, and it was inserted later at this point in the narrative. But is this necessary? Is it conceivable that David the adulterer, David the murderer, king David who selfishly abused his power could have possibly written these verses? Is it possible that he actually believed what he wrote? Did he really feel that he was righteous before God, that his hands were clean?
To help us understand what is going on here, let’s put this in the broader context of what David wrote, and in the context of what the rest of the Bible teaches.
We looked at Psalm 14 just a few weeks ago. In it David says:
Psalm 14:2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
David understood the universal depravity of mankind. None seek God, none do good. Not even one. Paul quotes this Psalm in Romans 3 to establish that both Jew and non-Jew together stand guilty before God.
Romans 3:9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
David understood no one does good, none is righteous, no not one. He says in Psalm 143:2
Psalm 143:2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
No one living is righteous before God. So (143:1) David prays and pleads for mercy, not what he deserves. And then he prays (143:10) for the Lord to teach him to do his will, to lead him by his Spirit.
Forgiven, Covered, Not Counted Against
In Psalm 32, David rejoices;
Psalm 32:1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
David doesn’t claim to be sinless, without transgression or iniquity. He says blessed, happy is the sinner who is forgiven, whose sin is covered, Blessed is the sinner against whom YHWH God will not count his sins. Paul quotes Psalm 32 in Romans 4 to show us that David understood the crediting of righteousness apart from works;
Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
In Psalm 32 David speaks negatively, of our sin not being counted against us. Paul looks at the positive side of this, that the ungodly one who believes in Jesus is counted righteous in Christ.
David’s own personal experience was behind this. He said:
Psalm 32:3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. — Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. — Selah
Psalm 51 is his prayer of confession. And that’s where his holy joy came from; he was blessed because he didn’t deceitfully hide; he acknowledged his sin, he confessed, and he was forgiven. David no longer attempted to cover up his own sin, instead he acknowledged it. He came into agreement with God about his sin, that it is indeed an offense against the Holy God. When he stopped covering up his sin, God covered it. The Lord no longer counted it against him. In faith he cried out to God for mercy, and God counted him as righteous. This is the good news Paul points to in Romans 3 after establishing the sinfulness of mankind;
Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
God’s righteousness, not man’s righteousness. It is by grace – undeserved. It is a gift, given freely to all who believe. It is an infinitely costly gift, purchased with the blood of the only Son of God.
The prophet Isaiah speaks of this crediting of righteousness in relation to the suffering servant of YHWH in Isaiah 53
Isaiah 53:11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
The sin-bearing suffering of the righteous one makes many to be accounted righteous. Paul puts it succinctly in 2 Corinthians 5:21
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Two Ways To Read; David and the Greater David
There are two ways to read the Psalms. We can look at it from the perspective of what David experienced, what David meant by it. We can also look at it prophetically, that David was speaking beyond himself of the greater David, the Anointed Messiah, who fulfilled his words in way David never could.
This is how David the adulterer, David the murderer could sing these lines; not because he was righteous in himself, but because he confessed his sins and was forgiven and counted righteous by faith. He was given a gift, and he boldly owned it. He received the gift of God’s righteousness, and it became his. He put it on and wore it around, and could sing of the Messiah’s righteousness which now clothed him:
Psalm 18:20 The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his rules were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
23 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from my guilt.
24 So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
This is not self-righteousness, this is gospel righteousness, this is Christ’s righteousness credited to the believer.
The LORD’s Perfect Character
In the next three verses, he moves from looking at the gift of righteousness to celebrating the character of God who gives this righteousness.
Psalm 18:25 With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
26 with the purified you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
27 For you save a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.
Here is another clue that we are on the right track; David understands that the Lord crushes the proud but rescues the humble. If he were boasting in his own righteousness, he would be aligning with the proud, and could anticipate no salvation. But if he knows his righteousness is not his own, he is humbly rejoicing in the gift of righteousness he has been given, and celebrating the good giver.
God is merciful, blameless, pure, yet he is also just; he struggles against the perverse and crooked. A merciful person is someone who understands mercy; who is able both to humbly receive it and to extend it to others.
Psalm 18:28 For it is you who light my lamp;
the LORD my God lightens my darkness.
29 For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
David does not claim to be light; in himself his lamp is extinguished and he is darkness. It is YHWH God who ignites him and illumines his darkness, gives him strength to do the humanly impossible.
God’s Way and YHWH’s Word
This section ends with a celebration of the character of God.
30 This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
God’s way and his word are perfect and true. He has integrity, he is who he says he is, and he does what he says he will do. And, as David learned, when he ran to him in confession rather than away from him attempting to conceal and hide his sins, when he ran to God as a refuge, he experienced God as a covering, a shield of righteousness that protected him from the consequences of his own sins. He is the one in whom the Lord delights.
Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
