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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 17:1 - 17:1
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צֶדֶק is the accusative of the object: the righteousness, intended by the suppliant, is his own (Psa 17:15). He knows that he is not merely righteous in his relation to man, but also in his relation to God. In all such assertions of pious self-consciousness, that which is intended is a righteousness of life which has its ground in the righteousness of faith. True, Hupfeld is of opinion, that under the Old Testament nothing was known either of righteousness which is by faith or of a righteousness belonging to another and imputed. But if this were true, then Paul was in gross error and Christianity is built upon the sand. But the truth, that faith is the ultimate ground of righteousness, is expressed in Gen 15:6, and at other turning-points in the course of the history of redemption; and the truth, that the righteousness which avails before God is a gift of grace is, for instance, a thought distinctly marked out in the expression of Jeremiah צִדְקֵנוּ ה, “the Lord our righteousness.” The Old Testament conception, it is true, looks more to the phenomena than to the root of the matter (ist mehr phänomenell als wurzelhaft), is (so to speak) more Jacobic than Pauline; but the righteousness of life of the Old Testament and that of the New have one and the same basis, viz., in the grace of God, the Redeemer, towards sinful man, who in himself is altogether wanting in righteousness before God (Psa 143:2). Thus there is no self-righteousness, in David's praying that the righteousness, which in him is persecuted and cries for help, may be heard. For, on the one hand, in his personal relation to Saul, he knows himself to be free from any ungrateful thoughts of usurpation, and on the other, in his personal relation to God free from מִרְמָה, i.e., self-delusion and hypocrisy. The shrill cry for help, רִנָּה, which he raises, is such as may be heard and answered, because they are not lips of deceit with which he prays. The actual fact is manifest לִפְנֵי יהוה, therefore may his right go forth מִלְּפָנָיו, - just what does happen, by its being publicly proclaimed and openly maintained - from Him, for His eyes, the eyes of Him who knoweth the hearts (Psa 11:4), behold מֵישָׁרִים (as in Psa 58:2; Psa 75:3 = בְּמישׁרים, Psa 9:9, and many other passages), in uprightness, i.e., in accordance with the facts of the case and without partiality. מישׁרים might also be an accusative of the object (cf. 1Ch 29:17), but the usage of the language much more strongly favours the adverbial rendering, which is made still more natural by the confirmatory relation in which Psa 17:2 stands to Psa 17:2.