Psalm 26 - Judge Me, O LORD
A plea for God to test the heart and vindicate a life walked in integrity.
Psalm 26 opens with David asking the LORD to judge and examine him, confident he has walked in integrity and trusted in God, one of several trust-themed prayers gathered in this Psalms overview. He insists he has avoided vain persons, dissemblers, and the congregation of evildoers.
Do me justice, O Yahweh, For, I, in my blamelessness, have walked, and, in Yahweh, have I trusted, I will not waver.
Try me, O Yahweh, and prove me, Test my reins and my heart:—
For, thy lovingkindness, hath been before mine eyes, and I have walked to and fro in thy faithfulness;
I have not sat with men of deceit, nor, with dissemblers, would I enter;
I have hated the convocation of evil-doers, and, with lawless men, would I not sit;
I will bathe, in pureness, my hands,—so will I go in procession around thine altar, O Yahweh;
To sound aloud a song, and to recount all thy wonderful doings.
O Yahweh, I have loved the asylum of thy house, even the place of the habitation of thy glory!
Do not remove, with sinners, my soul, nor, with men of bloodshed, my life;
In whose hands is a plot, and, their right hand, is filled with a bribe.
But, I, in my blamelessness, will walk, Redeem me and show me favour.
My foot standeth in a level place, In the convocations, will I bless Yahweh.