Psalm 143
This Psalm swings back from discussing a human righteousness, over to God’s. David is looking for shelter, and is looking for it in God’s righteousness.
 1 O LORD, hear my prayer,
      listen to my cry for mercy;
      in your faithfulness and righteousness
      come to my relief.
Based on the context, God’s justice would seem the most likely aspect of God’s righteousness that David is referring to. However, that I’m starting to think of God’s zealousness for His honor as part of His righteousness, and in turn thinking of purity of relationship as the primary manifestation of that zealousness, the combination sheds some light on one of David’s primary concerns when makes his request.
 2 Do not bring your servant into judgment,
      for no one living is righteous before you.
David knows that only the righteous deserve to be in God’s presence. Only a person who is inherently righteous could be in God’s presence, because only a such a person could be in relationship with God without tainting His purity. It is why the definitions of righteousness we find for man are wrapped up in God’s crediting of righteousness to us. It is like saying that only someone pure can be with God, and so God has chosen to the purity within us, if any, and on those grounds let that part of us commune with Him. So when we believe, He credits us with righteousness. We are strive for purity in our relationship with Him (zealousness for God’s honor), He again credits us. When we obey, we live within the righteousness we have been credited. And yet, we are not entirely pure, not entirely righteous, not inherently righteous. And David knows this, and realizes that if we were unrighteousness on just one account, we are unrighteous in the whole. Yet, God will commune with us and protect us to the extent that we let Him… via belief, obedience, and purity. And as much David failed at those, He yet strives to succeed.
David knows He deserves judgement, and yet his actions bring him into God’s presence. However, he does not take this for granted. He must still ask for it. This isn’t because God only loves when we ask, but because a servant’s heart is purer than the presumptuous heart, which presumes upon God’s grace because He knows it’s there fore the asking… so why even ask? Because without the asking, there is no expression of belief in where you deserve to stand, no obedience in the command to prostrate yourself in your heart, and no purity of motivation. The presumptuous person sees God’s grace, lives in sin, and then just comes to God for more grace… “Well God, I’m back. Did you miss me? Heal me. It’s what you do, right?” Yikes. I admit to that temptation in my own life, and it is so wrong. David has it right, not because God wants us feeling lowly, but because we often need to be in that lowly place in order to keep our lives in perspective. And so David entrusts God with all that is wrong in his life, all that is too big for David to handle on his own, and that his kingship requires of him, yet he is just a mere man.
 3 The enemy pursues me,
      he crushes me to the ground;
      he makes me dwell in darkness
      like those long dead. 4 So my spirit grows faint within me;
      my heart within me is dismayed.
He closes in part with this:
 11 For your name’s sake, O LORD, preserve my life;
      in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.
It’s a prayer I’ve prayed in one form or another in my life, and we’re living in a time when I see my fellow man in this position where he/she is in trouble, and must now look to God to bring them out of it… but what God does for them will not be on account of their own righteous, for even their own righteous is God’s righteousness funneled through their belief, obedience, and purity… and even only to the extent they live out these things. And I guarantee that no one earns enough righteousness to truly be sheltered from their troubles… except perhaps for Jesus, who chose not to be covered even though He could have covered Himself, but instead looked to the Father, but only after He declared upon the cross that “it” was “finished”. So, only God’s righteousness can truly shelter us, and it will for those who ask.
I am actually a little excited about this season we are entering into as a nation… not because I like the direction. All of the personal debt, followed now by the national debt, and in the name of “recovery” if you can understand that, is one of the worst things a society can do… and yet it’s an opportunity for mankind to look to God for shelter from their enemies, from their circumstances, shelter in God’s righteousness. Without such hardship, there would be many people who would never truly understand how much God loves them, that He would comfort them during what should be the most uncomfortable of times. That can only come from God, and while I’m alarmed by the trouble people are in, I’m excited by the deliverance I will see and am starting to see… God’s deliverance for those who look for Him, despite what they (and others!) do to mess their lives up.