Psalm 26 A Prayer for the End-Time Judgement of God
A Psalm of David.
1 Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in Yahweh; I shall not slip. 2 Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart.
“‘Judge me, O Lord’- That is, determine in regard to my case whether I am truly thy friend, or whether the evidences of my piety are genuine. The psalmist asks an examination of his own case; he brings the matter before God for Him to decide; he submits the facts in regard to himself to God, so that He may pronounce upon them whether they constitute evidence of real piety.” (Albert Barnes) However: “It should be considered that this Psalm could never have been written unless it had been preceded by Psalms 25. It was only once the question of forgiveness had been settled that the Psalmist could speak like this. For in this Psalm he approaches God with the confidence of a forgiven sinner.” (Peter Pett)
It is a bold act to call on God for judgment, but: "It is Job's cry from his first utterance until his ‘words are ended;’ and here we find David taking it up and re-echoing it. Man longs to hear the sentence of acquittal from the great Judge. Like Job, David asserts his ‘integrity,’ and in the same qualified sense. He is sincere in his endeavours to do right. Yet still he needs mercy and redemption (see verses 3 and 11).” (Pulpit Comm)
3 For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth. 4 I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, nor will I go in with hypocrites. 5 I have hated the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked. 6 I will wash my hands in innocence; so I will go about Your altar, O Lord, 7 that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Your wondrous works. 8 Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells.
“‘For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes.’ The psalmist now enters upon an enumeration of the points of conduct on which his confidence in his integrity rests... First of all, he keeps God's loving-kindness, or mercy ( חֶסֶד), ever before his eyes—reflects on it, meditates on it, presents it to his thought—continually. ‘And I have walked in thy truth.’ Secondly, he walks—he has always walked—in God s truth. God's Law is the truth (Psalms 119:42); and walking in God's truth is walking in the Law which he has given to men; as Hitzig, Maurer, and others have seen... ‘I have not sat with vain persons. ‘Thirdly, he has not sat with vain persons; literally, with men of vanity; i.e. he has not consorted (Psalms 1:1) with light and frivolous persons—those whose hearts are set upon vain and worthless things (Psalms 24:4 Neither will I go in with dissemblers. Nor will he go in with dissemblers, i.e. hypocrites. He has neither thrown in his lot with the light, vain persons who make no pretence to religion, nor with the pretenders, who ‘have the form of godliness, but deny the power thereof’ (2 Timothy 3:5).” (Pulpit Commentaries)
9 Do not gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, 10 in whose hands is a sinister scheme, and whose right hand is full of bribes. 11 But as for me, I will walk in my integrity; redeem me and be merciful to me. 12 My foot stands in an even place, in the congregations I will bless Yahweh.
David then prays “that he may not have his final lot with the workers of iniquity, Psalm 26:9-10 ;”(Adam Clarke)— whose end is destruction. “‘But as for me, I will walk in my integrity,’ I am determined to persevere until the end. Therefore, “‘redeem me and be merciful to me. My foot stands in an even place, that Solid Foundation— “in a wide and safe space, where his enemies can no longer hinder him or bring destruction upon him. ‘In the congregations will I bless the Lord,’ publicly pouring out his thanksgiving to God for his salvation.” (Paul E. Kretzmann)— in the congregations [of the saints spiritually militant, even those triumphant] I will bless Yahweh.’ This is perhaps worship after the Judgment.
“Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” (Exodus 31:16–17)