Righteousness - Psalm 18
 20 The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
      according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
 21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD;
      I have not done evil by turning from my God.
 22 All his laws are before me;
      I have not turned away from his decrees.
 23 I have been blameless before him
      and have kept myself from sin.
 24 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
      according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
Â
These are the same kinds of verses we have been seeing about righteousness in the Psalms. They describe God rescuing David from the clutch of his enemies, using conditions one might recognize these days as a scene from 3.9 billion years ago. The conditions were absolutely horrible and would kill any man. But, God navigated these conditions like they were nothing (an angel riding the cherubim on the clouds) and rescued David from the clutches of death and destruction. (I realize there was no death, and no life 3.9 billion years ago, but the vivid imagery really makes the point for me)
Afterwards, David does a few things in this Psalm that we haven’t seen in the previous Psalms.
As described in the verses above, David not only describes his righteousness, but the extent of it: He has not sinned against God. I do not take this to mean he was perfect, but he has remained believing and obedient to the extent possible… and God has done the rest.
The next thing David does is to describe how God’s righteousness looks to the world:
 25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
      to the blameless you show yourself blameless, 26 to the pure you show yourself pure,
      but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
It reflects a few things. First, how we see God is colored by where we’re at in life. Second, I find it interest that God will show himself shrewd to the crooked. I’m not sure what to make of this, but honestly I’m not surprised. It seems to go hand in hand with hardening Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus… though I realize it isn’t the same thing. But what they have in common is that God deals with based on where we’re at, and in terms we can understand. God’s smarter than us, tougher than us, more clever than, and he’s more loving than us, more loyal than us, and more blameless. This isn’t an argument of course for all religions, but shows an insight into God that reveals more depth than I think most Christians (including myself) give God credit for.
David then describes his victories. He describes how the world gives him credit for them, telling how it was all because of God. God rescued him, and won his victory for him. To the world, it makes David look brave and wonderful, but it was all God. It’s interesting that when we boast in God, many times we’re boasting that God chose us, as if it’s some reflection on how great wonderful we are. David is careful not to do that. David is not great and wonderful… he simply believes God and does his best to be obedient. God sees in turn sees David as righteousness, and takes care of him… not that David earned this and God owes. Remember, we’ve said that it was through God’s mercy that David even had the chance to believe or obey, so David didn’t prompt God’s love… he just responded to it. And then God did what he’d planned to do all along… after David was in a place to appreciate it without arrogance or pride. And David shares this with us, that we might do the same thing. It is my prayer that today, I will.