Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 18:20
The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
20. rewarded me ] Or, dealt with me, for the primary idea of the word is not that of recompence, although this lies in the context. Cp. Psa 13:6.
the cleanness of my hands ] = the innocence of my conduct. Cp. Psa 24:4, Psa 26:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
20 23. The language is inspired by the courage of a childlike simplicity. It is no vainglorious boasting of his own merits, but a testimony to the faithfulness of Jehovah to guard and reward His faithful servants. David does not lay claim to a sinless righteousness, but to single-hearted sincerity in his devotion to God. Compare his own testimony (1Sa 26:23), God’s testimony (1Ki 14:8), and the testimony of history (1Ki 11:4; 1Ki 15:5), to his essential integrity. Cp. Psa 7:8, Psa 17:3-4; and see Introd. p. lxxxvii f.
Is not this conscious rectitude, this “princely heart of innocence,” a clear indication that the Psalm was written before his great fall?
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness – That is, he saw that I did not deserve the treatment which I received from my enemies, and therefore he interposed to save me. Compare the note at Psa 17:3.
According to the cleanness of my hands – So far as my fellow-men are concerned. I have done them no wrong.
Hath he recompensed me – By rescuing me from the power of my enemies. It is not inconsistent with proper views of piety – with true humility before God – to feel and to say, that so far as our fellow-men are concerned, we have not deserved ill-treatment at their hands; and, when we are delivered from their power, it is not improper to say and to feel that the interposition in the case has been according to justice and to truth.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 18:20-27
The Lord reward me according to my righteousness.
Of the justice of Davids behaviour
I. Davids righteousness. Righteousness consists in rendering to all their due, and the revealed will of God is the standard of it (Deu 6:25). As we are under infinitely greater obligations to perform our duty to God than we can be under to perform any services to our fellow men, righteousness includes in it that piety which has God for its object, as well as the performance of those duties to which our neighbours have a right. Yet it is not seldom used to denote the rectitude of our dispositions and conduct to our fellow men, as godliness denotes right tempers and behaviour towards God. David laid it down as his settled purpose to walk in the law of the Lord, the great standard of righteousness, and through Divine mercy he was enabled to keep his resolution inviolable through the course of his life. He did not pretend to perfection. He referred all his actions to the glory of God; he loved His testimonies with his whole heart, and took pleasure in the habitation of His house. He made use of all his power to advance the honour of his God.
1. He behaved righteously towards King Saul, his first and great enemy. He was just to all his fellow subjects whilst he lived under the government of Saul. He acquired a high reputation for the prudence with which he managed all his affairs, and he would not have attained this honest fame if he had not abstained from all appearance of evil. We have no reason to form the least doubt of the care that David took, when he was an outlaw and a fugitive, to keep his followers from using any unwarrantable means for the supply of their wants, although they must often have been in extreme poverty. We have a testimonial from Nabals servants of the honesty of Davids men, and even of their generous care of Nabals substance, at a time when the ,good man was almost reduced to beggary. We have no reason to doubt of Davids rectitude of behaviour in all the dealings that he had with strangers. He had transactions in the time of his troubles with the king of Moab, to whom he committed the care of his father and mother when they could no longer dwell with safety at Bethlehem. We have no further account of any dealings with that prince, although we afterwards find him carrying on a bloody war with the Moabites. We have not the means of knowing whether the king of Moab had provoked this war by cruelty to Davids father and mother; but we can have no doubt that the cause of the war was just on Davids part. After the kind treatment which he received from the king of Gath, he took Gath out of the hands of the Philistines, but the Philistines themselves were the authors of the war. David in his government was a man of blood, but in his disposition he was a man of peace. A necessity was laid upon him to fight the battles of the Lord, and of the people of the Lord. When he was advanced to the throne of Israel it is testified of him that he did justice and judgment to all his people. He tells us (Psa 75:1-10; Psa 101:1-8) how he intended to govern his family and his kingdom, and doubtless, as far as human infirmity would permit, he kept his resolution. Gratitude may well be considered as an ingredient of justice. We owe returns of love and of the proper fruits of it to friends who love us, and who are glad to serve us according to the best of their abilities. Davids gratitude to his benefactors was a remarkable part of his character. We find him sending presents of the spoils gained in battle to those places where he and his men were accustomed to haunt. When Saul was dead he was so far from expressing resentment against him, that he inquired whether there were any left of his family, that he might show them the kindness of God for Jonathans sake, And many years afterwards he showed that Jonathan was not forgotten by him, when he took care to secure Mephibosheth from the destruction brought upon the family of Saul, at the requisition of the Gibeonites. He was grateful for favours even to those heathens from whom he received any kindness. Nahash, king of the Ammonites, showed kindness on some occasions to David, perhaps rather from hatred to Saul than goodwill to the poor man whom Saul oppressed. Yet David showed kindness unto Hanun, the son of Nahash, for his fathers sake. Righteousness in a king will dispose him to an impartial execution of the laws against criminals. A wise king crusheth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them. But how was this consistent with the favour showed to Joab and to Absalom? Did he not know that God had forbidden any satisfaction to be taken for the life of a murderer? Yes, he knew it very well, and took measures even when he was dying that Joabs grey hairs should not come down to the grave without blood. It is perhaps impossible entirely to justify him for suffering that bloody man to live so long above the ground. Yet never was lenity to a criminal more excusable. Seldom has a prince or a nation been more indebted to a subject than David and his people were to Joab for brilliant services. And it appears to have been almost impracticable to bring to condign punishment a man so popular, and of such power in the army as Joab. David himself made this excuse for himself when he said, These men, the sons of Zerniah, are too strong for me. We may observe likewise that David was once indebted for his own life to Abishai, the brother of Joab, who seems to have had some share in the blood of Abner. He might with some appearance of reason think that he owed a life to the family of his sister Zeruiah, or that at least he might incline to the favourable side when plausible reasons could be advanced for their exculpation. We cannot pretend to vindicate his behaviour in the case of Uriah. But we cannot reprobate that part of his conduct in stronger language than David himself did. We may make the same observation concerning another instance of Davids procedure, which has given occasion to animadversions on his conduct; I mean the charge given to Solomon concerning Shimei. Behold thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. Now, therefore, hold him not guiltless, for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him, but his hoary head bring thou clown to the grave with blood. We might have observed that fidelity in performing engagements is an essential part of justice in which it cannot be supposed that David would be deficient. But how could David observe his promise and oath to Shimei if he brought down the hairs of Shimei with blood to the grave by the hands of Solomon? A man is no less accountable for what he commands to be done, than for what he does with his own hands. Can we reasonably suppose that David on his deathbed would commit an act of wickedness for which his memory might be detested by all who feared an oath? In fact, we find that the crime of cursing David at Mahanaim was not the ground of the sentence against Shimei, although the reason he had given by that crime to suspect his loyalty was the cause why he was laid under a prohibition of leaving Jerusalem under pain of death. But there is another reading of the last part of the charge equally agreeable to the words of the original, which clears the character of David from all blame, Neither bring down his grey hairs to the grave with blood; keep a strict eye over him as a man disaffected to my family; punish him for any new crime by which he may merit punishment, but let my oath be sacred, and bring not down his grey hairs to the grave with blood, for that crime which I sware by the Lord not to punish with death. Charity is essential to justice. There are duties which we owe to all men, by the second great commandment of the law, the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves. If David had not conscientiously observed this precept he could not have so often appealed to God, the Searcher of hearts, as the witness of his inviolable regard to these Divine testimonies, which were the light to his path and the lamp by which his feet were guided in the way of peace.
II. Gods regard to Davids righteousness in the deliverances granted to him from his enemies. Without all doubt, David ascribed all the rich favours he received from God to that sovereign and free mercy to which every saint of God must be infinitely indebted (Psa 86:11; Psa 116:4-5). He was sensible, like his father Jacob, that he was not worthy of the least of Gods mercies, and that there was no merit in the least of his works (Psa 138:2-3). But he knew at the same time that, through the infinite mercy of God, the good works of His people are accepted and rewarded by Him (Psa 11:6). Mercy and truth meet together in God, righteousness and peace kiss each other, and display their united glories in the administrations of His providence to His people. The Lord shows forth the exceeding riches of His grace in making them righteous, and when they are made righteous He shows both His grace and His justice in rewarding them according to their righteousness. There is so much sin mingled even with their good works that, if they were still under the law, they could not escape the condemnation at once of all their works, and of their persons likewise. But all their iniquities, and amongst other iniquities those which cleave to their holy things, are covered from Gods sight. Their good works, therefore, cannot but be well-pleasing to God, and richly rewarded by Him. He will never be unrighteous to forget any of their works or labours of love, and therefore those who follow after righteousness shall have a sure reward. But did not David glory in himself rather than in the Lord when he spoke of his own righteousness m such high terms. This question leads us–
III. To consider Davids consciousness of his own righteousness. He speaks with perfect assurance concerning the regard which God expressed to his righteousness. Is this the language of humility? It would indeed be very presumptuous to form and to express such a judgment concerning ourselves without searching our own hearts, without comparing them with the law of God, and without finding good evidence that our hearts are sound in Gods statutes. But in none of these particulars had David been negligent.
1. He had searched his heart as well as his ways. I thought, he says, upon my ways., and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies. He was far from thinking that his ways could be right unless his heart was right in the sight of God.
2. His standard by which be tried himself was the law of his God. He was fully sensible of the folly of trying himself by any other standard.
3. He found in his heart and ways an habitual conformity to the law of God. He was indeed constrained to acknowledge that in many things he had offended God. When he meditated on the admirable purity of the law he cried, Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Yet he could with confidence say that he had hoped for Gods salvation, and done His commandments. This conclusion he did not rashly form from the consideration of a few of his actions, or of the frame of his heart at some particular periods of his life. Many deceive themselves by forming a hasty judgment of themselves, founded on temporary impressions made upon their minds in some moments of seriousness, excited by some particular circumstance of providence, or by the transient influence of some Divine truths. He knew the deceitfulness of the heart of man, and that without Divine illumination he might easily deceive himself. He therefore referred himself to God, the Searcher of hearts, to preserve him from entertaining any false hopes of the goodness of his own condition (Psa 139:23-24).
IV. The assurance which David had of Gods respect to his own righteousness in the deliverances granted to him by His gracious providence. We must not place humility ill all affected ignorance of what is true, either concerning oar own personal righteousness or concerning Gods acceptance of it. Nothing could be more dangerous than the presumption that God is well pleased with us if our way or our heart is perverse before Him (Mic 3:10-12). Nothing could be more unbecoming in a Christian than the forgetfulness of his infinite obligations to that grace which has blotted out his innumerable transgressions. Yet it is desirable for every child of God to be well assured of the cleanness of his hands in Gods sight, and of the acceptance of his works as well as of his person. As it is our duty to pray to God for the acceptance of our services, it must be our duty likewise humbly and thankfully to acknowledge Gods righteousness and grace in His dealings with us. The riches of Divine mercy appear in the acceptance of our works, and in the consequent rewards bestowed on them, as well as in the acceptance of our persons. Were it not that our iniquities are hidden from Gods sight, such works as even Davids could not have been rewarded by that God who is of purer eyes than to behold evil. Go thy way, says Solomon, eat thy bread with cheerfulness, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works. If God does not accept our works, we can have no well-grounded pleasure in the bounties of His providence. On the whole learn–
1. The great advantage of walking in the ways of God. The Lord loveth him that followeth after righteousness. Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him. What reason have we to adore that plan of mercy which allows us to hope for Divine acceptance, and for the reward of our works done to please God, although they are so imperfect that we must daily seek from God the pardon of our iniquities.
2. Gods people ought patiently to hold on in the way of righteousness amidst the most discouraging dispensations of providence. David had, after all his dismal days, a new song put into his mouth to magnify the Lord.
3. When we obtain deliverances it is our duty to consider how we behaved under our troubles. Yet we still ought to bless God for deliverances hem trouble, although we should not dare to say that we have kept the way of God when we are under it.
4. Let us give praise to God for the great salvation wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ. The deliverances of David were salvations to all Israel. It is to be feared that many of us are totally destitute of righteousness. (G. Lawson.)
Justification by works
Why did God delight in David? The Psalmist declares that the ultimate reason was no arbitrary favouritism, but that God delighted in His servant because of his personal faith and character. David asserts the sincerity of his desire to please God; he asserts the uprightness of his conduct before God. The spirit of this appeal is far removed from Pharisaism; it is not an outburst of self-complacency and vain gloriousness, but the legitimate expression of conscious integrity. If the grace of God has done anything for us, why should we not simply and candidly realise and express the fact? Nothing succeeds like success, and we are ignoring a fountain of inspiration when we timidly shut our eyes to, the clear evidences of the victories of the inner life. To the glory of Gods grace let us honestly acknowledge to ourselves and others the growing dominion of righteousness in our soul.
1. God deals with us as we deal with Him. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me. God had dealt with him as he had dealt with God. He trusted God, and God delivered him; he loved God, and God delighted in him; he served God, and God honoured and blessed him. This is ever the great canon of the Divine rule. As we love God, He will love us. We love God, because He first loved us; but having known His love, there is a very true sense in which its proportion is henceforth determined by the measure of our reciprocation. As we trust God, He will succour us. A great faith sinks Alpine ranges to a plain, it crosses Atlantic depths dryshod. The lack of such faith entangles us in many embarrassments and miseries. As we serve God He will requite us. According to the measure of our love, faith, and service shall be our safety, strength, and bliss. Are any poor in joy, grace, power, and peace? Let them act more generously towards God.
2. God deals with us as we deal with one another (see Psa 18:25-26). The great truth taught in these verses is, that Gods dealing with us is regulated by our dealing with one another. This is the clear, hill teaching of the whole of revelation. How mistaken are those who imagine spiritual religion to be anti-social. It is a common complaint that religious faith is a weakening, impoverishing, disintegrating influence in social life: the love given to God is supposed to be subtracted from our love to humanity; the service rendered to the kingdom of God is considered as so much filched from the service of humanity. No mistake could be greater. God does not judge us apart from society, but strictly in and through our relation to it. As we deal with our brother the great Father deals with us. Some people are religious without being good; that is, they are not kind to their fellows, just, generous, truthful, helpful. This will not do. A true Christian is both religious and good. God does not test us by our ecclesiastical life, but by our social, human life. Social duty and spiritual prosperity are closely related. When we suffer stagnation of spiritual life we search for the reason in the neglect of Church fellowship or worship, the reading of Gods Word, or of the sacraments; but the reason will just as often be found in our failure to do justly and to love mercy in our social relation.
3. God deals with us as we deal with ourselves. I was also upright before Him. As we honour ourselves by keeping ourselves pure, God honours us by abundance of grace and peace. There is a true sense ill which He accepts us according to our own valuation. If we reverence our body, hallow our gifts, prize our fair name, esteem our time and influence as choice treasure, God follows up such self-respect by great spiritual enrichment and blessing. If we would realise the fulness of blessing we must respect ourselves and keep from iniquity. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Gods interpositions
I. As a vindication of his own character.
1. He–David–regarded his character as very excellent. Of that excellency he speaks in terms emphatic and strong. Can his language be justified? Not in an absolute sense. Morally, in the sight of God, David was very far from a perfect man. It can be justified in an average sense, and in an official sense.
2. David regarded his character as divinely influential. Was he right in supposing that God came to his deliverance on account of what he was in himself, or on account of what he had done to serve Him?
1. Individual character is known to God.
2. Individual character is interesting to God. Nothing in the universe touches the heart of the Great Father so much as the moral character of His children.
II. As an illustration of Gods manifestation. He rises to a view of the great principle with which God deals with all His moral creatures. As man is, so is God to him. This is true in two respects.
1. As a personal power. God treats man according to his character.
2. As a mental conception. Mans idea of God is his God, it is the deity, he worships. Man worships the God he has imaged to himself; and men have different images, according to the state of their own hearts. The revengeful man has a God of vengeance, the sectarian man has a God of sects, the capricious man has a capricious God, the selfish man has a greedy God, the despotic man has an arbitrary God, and the loving man has a loving God. Our moral nature rises and falls with our conception of God, for man must need assimilate himself to what he worships. Every man copies the God in whom he believes. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 20. The Lord rewarded me] David proceeds to give the reasons why God had so marvellously interposed in his behalf.
According to my righteousness] Instead of being an enemy to Saul, I was his friend. I dealt righteously with him while he dealt unrighteously with me.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As I had a just cause, and made it my care and business to deal righteously with God, and with Saul, and all others; so God (who hath engaged himself by his promise to suceour and reward them that are such) was graciously pleased to own me, and to plead my cause against my unrighteous enemies. And because I would not deliver myself from straits and miseries by unrighteous means, namely, by killing Saul, as I was advised to do, God was pleased to deliver me in a more honourable and effectual manner.
The cleanness of my hands, i.e. the innocency of my actions and carriage towards Saul, from whose blood I kept my hands pure.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20-24. The statements ofinnocence, righteousness, &c., refer, doubtless, to his personaland official conduct and his purposes, during all the trials to whichhe was subjected in Saul’s persecutions and Absalom’s rebellions, aswell as the various wars in which he had been engaged as the head anddefender of God’s Church and people.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness,…. Which, if applied to David, cannot be understood of his own personal righteousness, or of works of righteousness done by him, for these merit nothing at the hand of God; no reward, in strict justice, is due to them, or given to them: a man’s own righteousness is imperfect, and by the law of God is not accounted a righteousness; and it is unprofitable to God, is no gain to him, and so not rewardable by him; and were it perfect, it is but man’s duty, and what God has a prior right to, and so is not recompensed by him; though it is so far from being pure and perfect, that it is attended with much sin, and is no other than rags, and filthy ones, which can never recommend a person to God; it is what will not bear the sight of God, and can never be called cleanness in his eyesight: by it no man is justified before him; and though God does, indeed, reward the works of his people, which are fruits of his grace, yet the reward is not of debt, but of grace. This, therefore, must be understood of the righteousness of David’s cause, and of his innocence with respect to the things he was charged with by his enemies; of his righteousness towards Saul; and of “the cleanness of [his] hands”, in not defiling them with his blood, when it was in his power to take away his life; therefore God rewarded him by delivering him out of his hands, and setting him upon the throne, and causing his kingdom to flourish and prosper; for this respects temporal blessings, and not eternal glory and happiness; and is something that had been and was then enjoyed, and not anything future, or in another world: though it is best of all to apply it to Christ, and understand it of his righteousness, which he, as Mediator, has wrought out for his people; this is perfect, pure, and spotless, and entirely agreeable to the law of God; what will bear the sight of God, is satisfying to his justice, is well pleasing to him, and is what he accepts of, and imputes to them that believe in Christ, and by which they are justified from all things. Now, according to this righteousness, Christ in strict justice has been rewarded in his own person; as he had the work of man’s redemption assigned him, and he agreed to do it, he had a reward promised him, and which he claimed, when he had glorified his Father and finished his work; and which he received when he was set down at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honour, in consequence of his obedience, sufferings, and death; see Php 2:7; and he is rewarded in his members according to his righteousness, they being justified by it, and made heirs of eternal life on account of it, and are or will be glorified with him for evermore;
according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me; which signifies the same thing.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 18:21-24) On (like with the accusative not merely of the thing, but also of the person, e.g., 1Sa 24:18), or , vid., on Psa 7:5. , to observe = to keep, is used in the same way in Job 22:15. is a pregnant expression of the malitiosa desertio. “From God’s side,” i.e., in His judgment, would be contrary to the general usage of the language (for the in Job 4:17 has a different meaning) and would be but a chilling addition. On the poetical form , in pause , vid., Ew. 263, b. The fut. in Psa 18:23, close after the substantival clause Psa 18:23, is not intended of the habit in the past, but at the present time: he has not wickedly forsaken God, but ( = imo, sed) always has God’s commandments present before him as his rule of conduct, and has not put them far away out of his sight, in order to be able to sin with less compunction; and thus then ( fut. consec.) in relation ( , as in Deu 18:13, cf. 2Sa 23:5) to God he was , with his whole soul undividedly devoted to Him, and he guarded himself against his iniquity ( , from , Arab. ‘wa , to twist, pervert, cf. Arab. gwa , of error, delusion, self-enlightenment), i.e., not: against acquiescence in his in-dwelling sin, but: against iniquity becoming in any way his own; equivalent to (Dan 9:5), cf. = than that I should live, Jon 4:8. In this strophe, this Psalm strikes a cord that harmonises with Psa 17:1-15, after which it is therefore placed. We may compare David’s own testimony concerning himself in 1Sa 26:23., the testimony of God in 1Ki 14:8, and the testimony of history in 1Ki 15:5; 1Ki 11:4.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Devout Thanksgivings; Devout Confidence | |
20 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. 21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 22 For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. 23 I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. 24 Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. 25 With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright; 26 With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward. 27 For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks. 28 For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
Here, I. David reflects with comfort upon his own integrity, and rejoices in the testimony of his conscience that he had had his conversation in godly sincerity and not with fleshly wisdom, 2 Cor. i. 12. His deliverances were an evidence of this, and this was the great comfort of his deliverances. His enemies had misrepresented him, and perhaps, when his troubles continued long, he began to suspect himself; but, when God visibly took his part, he had both the credit and the comfort of his righteousness. 1. His deliverances cleared his innocency before men, and acquitted him from those crimes which he was falsely accused of. This he calls rewarding him according to his righteousness (Psa 18:20; Psa 18:24), that is, determining the controversy between him and his enemies, according to the justice of his cause and the cleanness of his hands, from that sedition, treason, and rebellion, with which he was charged. He had often appealed to God concerning his innocency; and now God had given judgment upon the appeal (as he always will) according to equity. 2. They confirmed the testimony of his own conscience for him, which he here reviews with a great deal of pleasure, v. 21-23. His own heart knows, and is ready to attest it, (1.) That he had kept firmly to his duty, and had not departed, not wickedly, not wilfully departed, from his God. Those that forsake the ways of the Lord do, in effect, depart from their God, and it is a wicked thing to do so. But though we are conscious to ourselves of many a stumble, and many a false step taken, yet if we recover ourselves by repentance, and go on in the way of our duty, it shall not be construed into a departure, for it is not a wicked departure, from our God. (2.) That he had kept his eye upon the rule of God’s commands (v. 22): “All his judgments were before me; and I had a respect to them all, despised none as little, disliked none as hard, but made it my care and business to conform to them all. His statutes I did not put away from me, out of my sight, out of my mind, but kept my eye always upon them, and did not as those who, because they would quit the ways of the Lord, desire not the knowledge of those ways.” (3.) That he had kept himself from his iniquity, and thereby had approved himself upright before God. Constant care to abstain from that sin, whatever it be, which most easily besets us, and to mortify the habit of it, will be a good evidence for us that we are upright before God. As David’s deliverances cleared his integrity, so did the exaltation of Christ clear his, and for ever roll away the reproach that was cast upon him; and therefore he is said to be justified in the Spirit, 1 Tim. iii. 16.
II. He takes occasion thence to lay down the rules of God’s government and judgment, that we may know not only what God expects from us, but what we may expect from him, Psa 18:25; Psa 18:26. 1. Those that show mercy to others (even they need mercy, and cannot depend upon the merit, no, not of their works of mercy) shall find mercy with God, Matt. v. 7. 2. Those that are faithful to their covenants with God, and the relations wherein they stand to him, shall find him all that to them which he has promised to be. Wherever God finds an upright man, he will be found an upright God. 3. Those that serve God with a pure conscience shall find that the words of the Lord are pure words, very sure to be depended on and very sweet to be delight in. 4. Those that resist God, and walk contrary to him, shall find that he will resist them, and walk contrary to them, Lev 26:21; Lev 26:24.
III. Hence he speaks comfort to the humble (“Thou wilt save the afflicted people, that are wronged and bear it patiently”), terror to the proud (“Thou wilt bring down high looks, that aim high, and look with scorn and disdain upon the poor and pious”), and encouragement to himself–“Thou wilt light my candle, that is, thou wilt revive and comfort my sorrowful spirit, and not leave me melancholy; thou wilt recover me out of my troubles and restore me to peace and prosperity; thou wilt make my honour bright, which is now eclipsed; thou wilt guide my way, and make it plain before me, that I may avoid the snares laid for me; thou wilt light my candle to work by, and give me an opportunity of serving thee and the interests of thy kingdom among men.”
Let those that walk in darkness, and labour under many discouragements in singing these verses, encourage themselves that God himself will be a light to them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
David’s Reward
Verses 20-31:
Verses 20, 21 relate David’s experience of answered prayer and rewards from the Lord, in spite of his perils and trials. He asserted that the Lord had amply rewarded and vindicated him on the righteous basis of his personal conduct, according to the directions of the righteous laws of God. He certified that he had kept (in) the ways of the Lord, not departing from God, to the right hand or to the left, Jos 1:5-9; 2Sa 22:21; Pro 18:10; Isa 49:4; Isa 62:11; Mat 6:4; 1Co 3:8. Tho David had on occasion grievously sinned against God, he had not departed from Him, in the sense of renouncing Him. He repeatedly returned and found mercy, 1Jn 1:8-9.
Verses 22, 23 add that David kept the judgments of the Lord before him and did not renounce his statutes, as a standard of right and wrong, even when he did or had done evil. He remained upright in attitude toward the Lord, continually guarding himself from his natural impulses toward lawlessness in both moral and ethical ways. His eyes repeatedly falling on the law of the Lord kept him from wandering too far away from God, Psa 119:176. David witnessed that he was upright with the Lord, came directly to Him for help and forgiveness with his sins and problems, Gen 17:1; Deu 18:13; 1Ki 14:8; He acknowledged repeatedly that he needed God’s help to subdue corruption from breaking out in his own life, Psa 17:4; 1Sa 24:4-7; 1Sa 26:23-24.
Verse 24 states that in view of David’s attitude of reverence for God and His law the “Lord recompensed” or repaid him for his upright behavior and righteous deeds that he did in the sight of the Lord, Jas 1:22. See also Rth 2:12; 1Sa 26:23; Mat 10:41-42; 2Th 1:6-10.
Verses 25, 26 declare that to those who show mercy, God will respond in showing or returning mercy toward them, 1Ki 8;32; Mat 5:7. To the upright man, the one who stands up for truth and right, as a hero, God will sustain him, in or through all his trials or testings, as He did Joseph, Moses, Job, David, Daniel, the three Hebrew children and Paul through all his testings, to an heroic end, 2Ti 4:7-8. With the pure God shows Himself as pure, God responds to man in blessings or curses as man responds to the word and will of God in his choices and conduct of life, Lev 26:23-24; Deuteronomy ch. 32.
Verse 27 witnesses that God will save, deliver, or liberate the oppressed and the afflicted people, but He will also bring down or dethrone the proud, the haughty, and the one with an high look or looks, 2Ti 3:12; Luk 18:14.
Verses 28, 29 continues to exalt, extol the Lord, David said, “Thou who lightest my candle” or lamp, dost give me hope and prosperity, as promised and expressed Jos 1:8-9; Job 18:5-6; Job 21:17. God’s past blessings on David and the righteous gave David a basis of faith and hope for the Lord’s enlightening his darkness in the future. For by the Lord, He had run or stormed through a troop of soldiers, overcome them in the past, by the strength of the Lord; He had leaped over, surmounted the walls, barriers of his enemies. In such assurance of Divine help he faced the future, Php_4:14; 2Co 2:14.
Verse 30 concludes that the way of God is perfect, even as He is perfect in nature, character, and all His deeds, Deu 32:4; Dan 4:37; Rom 12:2; Rev 15:3; Mat 5:48. The word of the Lord is declared to be tried or tested, true, accurate, trustworthy, from the beginning, Psa 12:6; Psa 119:160; Pro 30:5. It is a buckler, trustworthy support to all those who trust in and lean on the Lord, Pro 3:3-5.
Verse 31 asks just who is God, save (except) the Lord, the Jehovah or who is a rock hiding place, or true found action and support for men, except the trinitarian or living God? The inferred answer is that none other truly exists, Exo 20:1; 1Co 8:5-6; Eph 4:6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
20. Jehovah rewarded me. David might seem at first sight to contradict himself; for, while a little before he declared that all the blessings which he possessed were to be traced to the good pleasure of God, he now boasts that God rendered to him a just recompense. But if we remember for what purpose he connects these commendations of his own integrity with the good pleasure of God, it will be easy to reconcile these apparently conflicting statements. He has before declared that God was the sole author and originator of the hope of coming to the kingdom which he entertained, and that he had not been elevated to it by the suffrages of men, nor had he rushed forward to it through the mere impulse of his own mind, but accepted it because such was the will of God. Now he adds, in the second place, that he had yielded faithful obedience to God, and had never turned aside from his will. Both these things were necessary; first, that God should previously show his favor freely towards David, in choosing him to be king; and next, that David, on the other hand, should, with an obedient spirit, and a pure conscience, receive the kingdom which God thus freely gave him; and farther, that whatever the wicked might attempt, with the view of overthrowing or shaking his faith, he should nevertheless continue to adhere to the direct course of his calling. Thus, then, we see that these two statements, so far from disagreeing with each other, admirably harmonise. David here represents God as if the president (411) of a combat, under whose authority and conduct he had been brought forth to engage in the combats. Now that depended upon election, in other words, upon this, that God having embraced him with his favor, had created him king. He adds in the verses which immediately follow, that he had faithfully performed the duties of the charge and office committed to him even to the uttermost. It is not, therefore, wonderful if God maintained and protected David, and even showed, by manifest miracles, that he was the defender of his own champion, (412) whom he had, of his own free choice, admitted to the combat, and who he saw had performed his duty with all fidelity. We ought not, however, to think that David, for the sake of obtaining praise among men, has here purposely indulged in the language of vain boasting; we ought rather to view the Holy Spirit as intending by the mouth of David to teach us the profitable doctrine, that the aid of God will never fail us, provided we follow our calling, keep ourselves within the limits which it prescribes, and undertake nothing without the command or warrant of God. At the same time, let this truth be deeply fixed in our minds, that we can only begin an upright course of life when God of his good pleasure adopts us into his family, and in effectually calling, anticipates us by his grace, without which neither we nor any creature would give him an opportunity of bestowing this blessing upon us. (413)
There, however, still remains one question. If God rendered to David a just recompense, it may be said, does it not seem, when he shows himself liberal towards his people, that he is so in proportion as each of them has deserved? I answer, When the Scripture uses the word reward or recompense, it is not to show that God owes us any thing, and it is therefore a groundless and false conclusion to infer from this that there is any merit or worth in works. God, as a just judge, rewards every man according to his works, but he does it in such a manner, as to show that all men are indebted to him, while he himself is under obligation to no one. The reason is not only that which St Augustine has assigned, namely, that God finds no righteousness in us to recompense, except what he himself has freely given us, but also because, forgiving the blemishes and imperfections which cleave to our works, he imputes to us for righteousness that which he might justly reject. If, therefore, none of our works please God, unless the sin which mingles with them is pardoned, it follows, that the recompense which he bestows on account of them proceeds not from our merit, but from his free and undeserved grace. We ought, however, to attend to the special reason why David here speaks of God rewarding him according to his righteousness. He does not presumptuously thrust himself into the presence of God, trusting to or depending upon his own obedience to the law as the ground of his justification; but knowing that God approved the affection of his heart, and wishing to defend and acquit himself from the false and wicked calumnies of his enemies, he makes God himself the judge of his cause. We know how unjustly and shamefully he had been loaded with false accusations, and yet these calumnies did not so much bear against the honor and name of David as against the welfare and estate of the whole Church in common. It was indeed mere private spite which stirred up Saul, and drove him into fury against David, and it was to please the king that all other men were so rancorous against an innocent individual, and broke forth so outrageously against him; but Satan, there is no doubt, had a prime agency in exciting these formidable assaults upon the kingdom of David, and by them he endeavored to accomplish his ruin, because in the person of this one man God had placed, and, as it were, shut up the hope of the salvation of the whole people. This is the reason why David labors so carefully and so earnestly to show and to maintain the righteousness of his cause. When he presents and defends himself before the judgment-seat of God against his enemies, the question is not concerning the whole course of his life, but only respecting one certain cause, or a particular point. We ought, therefore, to attend to the precise subject of his discourse, and what he here debates. The state of the matter is this: His adversaries charged him with many crimes; first, of rebellion and treason, accusing him of having revolted from the king his father-in-law; in the second place, of plunder and robbery, as if, like a robber, he had taken possession of the kingdom; thirdly, of sedition, as if he had thrown the kingdom into confusion when it enjoyed tranquillity; and, lastly, of cruelty and many flagitious actions, as if he had been the cause of murders, and had prosecuted his conspiracy by many dangerous means and unlawful artifices. David, in opposition to these accusations, with the view of maintaining his innocence before God, protests and affirms that he had acted uprightly and sincerely in this matter, inasmuch as he attempted nothing without the command or warrant of God; and whatever hostile attempts his enemies made against him, he nevertheless always kept himself within the bounds prescribed by the Divine Law. It would be absurd to draw from this the inference that God is merciful to men according as he judges them to be worthy of his favor. Here the object in view is only to show the goodness of a particular cause, and to maintain it in opposition to wicked calumniators; and not to bring into examination the whole life of a man, that he may obtain favor, and be pronounced righteous before God. In short, David concludes from the effect and the issue, that his cause was approved of by God, not that one victory is always and necessarily the sign of a good cause, but because God, by evident tokens of his assistance, showed that he was on the side of David.
(411) Agonotheta. Calvin alludes to the ancient games and combats of Greece, the presidents of which were called Agonothetee.
(412) ArMeta. Those who exercised themselves with the view of contending for the prizes in the Grecian games and combats were called AtMetce.
(413) “ Sans que nous ne creature quelconque luy en donnions” occasion. — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20-23) for this protestation of innocence comp. Psalms 7, 17 and Job, passim. Self-righteous pride and vindication of ones character under calumny are very different things. If taken of the nation at large, comp. Num. 23:21. Here, also, the text in Samuel offers one or two trifling variations from ours.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. According to my righteousness Psa 18:20-26 seem to date the psalm before David’s great sin. But he specially appeals to his righteousness as relating to the causes of his wars, for which he had given no provocation. In this his history vindicates him. The frank and positive character of David is here brought out. If he has sinned, his confessions and repentance are open and hearty. If he has acted uprightly, he stands firm in his innocence.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
David’s Gives The Explanation For His Triumph ( Psa 18:20-24 ).
David’s explanation for YHWH’s intervention on his behalf is simple. His attitude had been right towards God. He had been faithful to YHWH and His covenant. He had walked in YHWH’s ways and had sought to please Him, not in order to earn His favour, but because he looked to YHWH as his life, and was ready to do His will, and maintained his life in cleanliness through the God provided means. It is only if we walk rightly as David sought to do that we can have the same confidence towards God that he had.
This was not boasting. It was indicative of a quiet confidence in God. He knew where his heart lay. There may be times when we are perplexed and overburdened by sin, but the man of God knows whether his heart is set right to seek to please God. He may sometimes regrettably fail, but he knows the intentions of his own heart. He loves God and wants to please Him.
Psa 18:20-24
‘YHWH has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.
For I have kept the ways of YHWH,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.’
For all his ordinances were before me,
And I put not away his statutes from me.
I was also perfect with him,
And I kept myself from my iniquity.
Therefore has YHWH recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.’
His words are not boasting, but a solid declaration of trust and faith. He had been YHWH’s man from the beginning, brought up to faith by a godly father, and he had lived out that faith in uprightness and truth. Now he is receiving his reward. This central theme is vital to his whole message. It is only those who would be righteous who can depend on God’s deliverance. In Psa 18:50 the Psalm is applied to all Davidic kings who will follow him. But the indication is that if they are to enjoy the blessings, they too must be righteous like David. And when the greater David came, He would triumph because He was wholly righteous.
‘YHWH has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of YHWH, and have not wickedly departed from my God.’ David has no doubt in his heart that he has always sought to please God, because he loves Him. There may have been the momentary failure, but such was an aberration, and he sought forgiveness then with strong crying and tears. And it was because of such a life, lived out in honesty and right living, that he was certain that YHWH would reward and recompense him as a forgiven and repentant sinner. God is always good to His own if their hearts are right, weak and failing though they may sometimes be.
He was not saying that he had never sinned. Indeed he had good cause to know that he had. But when he had sinned he would come to God in repentant faith, and offer the appropriate sacrifices, and make the appropriate cleansing. Thus was he kept righteous and clean before Him. He did not linger with sin. He dealt with it straight away. ‘If we walk in the light as He is in the light — the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin’ (1Jn 1:7).
‘And have not wickedly departed from my God.’ Note the ‘my God’. David’s personal faith shines through. He had ‘kept the ways of YHWH’. To have departed from Him would to David have been the utmost wickedness. That was the final evidence of his character.
‘For all his ordinances were before me, and I put not away his statutes from me. I was also perfect with him, and I kept myself from my iniquity.’ David had loved God’s Instruction (Torah, Law). He had kept His ordinances before his eyes, he had clung to His statutes, not putting them from him, he had studied His word, he had meditated on His Instruction (Torah) day and night (Psa 1:2). And he had sought to live out all His teachings fully and do what was right, and keep from all that would displease God. And we must remember that this was God’s testimony of him too, that his heart was right before Him (1Sa 16:7). By ‘perfect’ he does not mean literally so, but wholehearted and true.
‘Therefore YHWH recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.’ So, confident that his heart had been right towards God, he repeats boldly what he had said in Psa 18:20. YHWH rewarded and recompensed him because he walked rightly before Him, kept his hands clean from sin, and kept himself spiritually clean in His eyes, utilising the means that God had provided. He had not been perfect, but he had been true.
How important it was that the singers recognise this. Their hope too must lie in the fact of their righteous response to God. They too must recognise that God required them to be wholly righteous. It was only then that they could share David’s experiences of blessing.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 18:20. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness In this and the five following verses, David declares his own integrity, and that he had not departed from, but conscientiously observed, the precepts and commands which God had given him by the law of Moses; and that therefore God, in the deliverance which he had vouchsafed him, and peaceably establishing him on the throne of Israel, had testified his approbation of him, and abundantly rewarded him. His behaviour to Saul was exemplary; and there is no instance in this period of his life that can be alleged against him, in which he violated the known precepts of religion and virtue, enjoined by that constitution which he was under; and therefore, conscious of his integrity, thus far, he glories and rejoices, that God, who was witness to it, had thus bountifully rewarded it.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
If there was no other passage in this Psalm to imply that David delivered this song of praise under the spirit of prophecy, in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, than what these verses contain, what is here said would be enough to determine the point. For David, in no part of his life, ever could make use of such expressions. It would be straining the language too far, to suppose that he meant to say such things of himself, considered in his being kept from idolatry, and his attachment to the true God of Israel. Clean hands, free from sin, and no wicked departures from God, would even then be too strong expressions, consistent with the many sins of David’s life. But reading these blessed truths in reference to Jesus, oh! what very delightful features do they give of him and his pure nature, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Heb 7:26 . Neither is this all. For the recompense of this holiness and obedience of Jesus, we are interested in so very highly, that everyone would be very cautious how he parted with a single portion respecting Christ, his glorious Surety, to adorn David with what never could belong to him.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 18:20 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
Ver. 20. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness ] viz. The righteousness of my cause; and my freedom from such crimes of disloyalty and ambition, wherewith mine enemies charged me, as if pricked on by my pride I sought the kingdom. As also, according to mine honest desire and endeavour in all things else to keep a good conscience, void of offence toward God and men. This, though God’s own work, and a debt most due to him, yet he is pleased graciously to reward.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 18:20-24
20The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
21For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
22For all His ordinances were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.
23I was also blameless with Him,
And I kept myself from my iniquity.
24Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.
Psa 18:20-24 Notice the inclusio of Psa 18:20 compared to Psa 18:24. This strophe should not be understood as the psalmist claiming sinlessness or perfection. Theologically he is asserting his blamelessness (see Special Topic: Blameless, Innocent, Guiltless, Without Reproach).
Notice the parallelism of each pair.
1. according to my righteousness
2. according to the cleanness of my hands
3. I have kept the ways of the Lord
4. I have not wickedly departed from my God
5. all His ordinances were before me (for #5 and #6 see Special Topic: Terms for God’s Revelation )
6. I did not put away His statutes from me
7. I was blameless with Him
8. I kept myself from my iniquity
SPECIAL TOPIC: BLAMELESS, INNOCENT, GUILTLESS, WITHOUT REPROACH
Psa 18:20 He has recompensed me This verb (BDB 996, KB 1427) is repeated at the close of the strophe (cf. Psa 18:24). There are consequences for unbelief, but, thank God, there are benefits for a faithful follower! These are spelled out in the next strophe (Psa 18:25-29).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
rewarded: Psa 58:11, 1Sa 24:17, 1Sa 24:20, Pro 11:18, Isa 49:4, Isa 62:11, Mat 6:4, 1Co 3:8
cleanness: Psa 18:24, Psa 7:3, Psa 24:4, Psa 26:6, 1Sa 24:11-13, Heb 7:26
Reciprocal: 1Sa 2:30 – I will honour 1Sa 20:1 – What have 1Sa 24:19 – the Lord 1Sa 26:23 – render 2Sa 22:21 – rewarded 1Ki 3:6 – according 1Ki 8:39 – give to every man 2Ch 6:30 – render Job 23:11 – My foot Job 27:6 – I hold fast Job 33:26 – he will Psa 7:8 – according Psa 17:1 – Hear Psa 25:21 – General Psa 35:24 – Judge Psa 101:3 – set Psa 119:121 – I have Isa 38:3 – Remember Eze 18:22 – in his 1Th 2:10 – how Heb 5:7 – and Jam 4:8 – Cleanse
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 18:20-24. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness Commentators have been much perplexed, says Dr. Horne, to account for these unlimited claims to righteousness made by David, and that long after the matter of Uriah, and toward the close of life. Certain, indeed, it is, adds he, that the expressions considered as Davids must be confined, either to his steadfast adherence to the true worship, in opposition to idolatry, or to his innocence with regard to some particular crimes falsely alleged against him by his adversaries. But if the Psalm be prophetical, and sung by the victorious monarch in the person of King Messiah, then do the verses now before us no less exactly than beautifully delineate that all- perfect righteousness wrought by the Redeemer, in consequence of which he obtained deliverance for himself and his people. Most commentators, however, are, and have always been, of opinion, that David spoke here in his own person, and not in the person of the Messiah, to whom no part of the Psalm, upon a fair construction, except the last two verses, appears to have any reference. But as, by rewarding and recompensing him, David chiefly meant the Lords delivering him from Saul and his other enemies that then were, and exalting him to the throne of Judah and Israel; so he must of necessity be understood as speaking principally of his righteousness, and the cleanness of his hands, prior to that period. And, certainly, in that former part of his life, no instance can be alleged against him, as Dr. Dodd observes, in which he violated the known precepts of religion and virtue, enjoined by that constitution he was under; and therefore, conscious of his integrity thus far, he might justly glory and rejoice that God, who was a witness to it, had thus bountifully rewarded it. And, as to his great sin in the matter of Uriah, wherein he highly offended and greatly dishonoured God, and for which God chastised him for many years, by various calamities, his repentance for that dreadful crime, or rather, for that complication of crimes, was so sincere, and the fruits and proofs of it were so manifest, that God was pleased to remove the judgments by which he had corrected him, and to deliver him from his rebellious son Absalom and his party, and from all the other enemies that rose up against him. Many learned men, however, are of opinion that David did not compose this Psalm after his sin in the matter of Uriah, much less in his old age, but rather in his younger days upon his deliverance from Saul, and the other enemies who persecuted him in Sauls days, and opposed his advancement to the crown. This, they suppose, appears from the title of the Psalm, compared with 2Sa 22:1. Dr. Delaney thinks he wrote the greater part of it soon after the deliverance he obtained from Sauls messengers, when they were sent to his house to take him, and when he was let down by Michal out of the window, and escaped over the garden or city-wall: and he thinks the 29th verse refers to this escape, and is a proof that he penned the Psalm on that occasion. But Dr. Dodd, and many others think it was composed some time after he was put in peaceable possession of the kingdom, and had introduced the ark into Jerusalem. If either of these opinions be correct, he wrote the Psalm before his fall, and while his character was quite unblemished. But be this as it may, if he wrote it even after that unhappy event, it must also have been written after his repentance, and after he was become a new creature in heart and life: and it does not appear, on a candid examination of the particulars included in the account which he here gives of the uprightness of his conduct, that there is any clause or expression contained in it which will not admit of a fair and easy interpretation, in perfect consistency with his real character, according to the delineation which the inspired writers of his history have given of it. The following short explication of the passage, chiefly taken from Bishop Patricks paraphrase, it is thought, makes this evident.
The Lord rewarded me, &c. The Lord knew that I was unjustly persecuted, and therefore rewarded me according to the integrity and purity of my actions, as I was never guilty of that whereof they accused me. For (Psa 18:21) I have kept the ways of the Lord I never took any unlawful courses for my deliverance; and have not wickedly departed from my God But when Saul, my great enemy, (who maliciously and unweariedly sought my life,) fell into my hands, and I had it in my power and was urged to kill him, I would not do it, because he was the Lords anointed: nor did I ever injure him or his party. For (Psa 18:22) all his (Gods) judgments were before me, &c. I laid his precepts before me as the rule of my actions, and did not put them away, or bid them, as it were, stand aside. I was also (Psa 18:23) upright before him I chose rather to suffer any thing than lose my integrity; and I kept myself from mine iniquity How unjustly soever my enemies dealt with me, I would not imitate them, but though I could not hinder their iniquity, I kept myself from that, which, if I had committed it, would have been mine; guarding especially against that sin to which I was most inclined or tempted. Therefore (Psa 18:24) hath the Lord recompensed me, &c. He who administers all things with the greatest justice and the greatest goodness heard my prayer, and dealt with me according to my innocent intentions, which would not suffer me to act unmercifully or unjustly toward Saul in any respect, much less to defile my hands with his blood.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
18:20 The LORD rewarded me according to my {q} righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
(q) David was sure of his righteous cause and good behaviour toward Saul and his enemies and therefore was assured of God’s favour and deliverance.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
As God had promised to bless those of His people who walked in obedience to His will (Deuteronomy 28), so he blessed David who followed the Lord faithfully. By recounting his own righteousness David was not implying that he merited God’s favor simply because of his good works. He was showing God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises to Israel. These verses would have encouraged the Israelites to follow David’s example of righteous behavior so they, too, would experience God’s favor (cf. 2Ti 4:6-8).
". . . David could quite properly use this language within a limited frame of reference, [but] the Messiah could use it absolutely; and the psalm is ultimately Messianic . . ." [Note: Kidner, p. 93.]