Psalms 26 - Introduction

This Psalm is the appeal of conscious integrity for recognition and vindication. The Psalmist calls upon Jehovah to do him justice, pleading the integrity of his life, and offering himself to the searching scrutiny of the All-knowing, upon whose lovingkindness and faithfulness he grounds his confidence (Psalms 26:1). He has shunned and will shun the society of the godless, and strives to prepare himself duly for the worship of the sanctuary which is his delight (Psalms 26:4). And therefore he prays that he may not share the premature fate of the wicked, and declaring his purpose to live hereafter as heretofore in his integrity, concludes with a trustful assurance that his prayer is answered, and a resolution of public thanksgiving (Psalms 26:8).

This Psalm is linked to Psalms 25, by several resemblances of thought and expression. Compare the professions of integrity in Psalms 26:1; Psalms 26:11with Psalms 25:21, and of trust in Psalms 26:1 with Psalms 25:2; the prayer for deliverance and grace in Psalms 26:11 with Psalms 25:16; Psalms 25:21-22; the sense of God's loving-kindness and faithfulness in Psalms 26:3 with Psalms 25:5-7; Psalms 25:10. On the other hand, the confessions of sin and prayers for pardon which are a marked feature of Psalms 25 are absent. The Psalmist is contrasting his own sincerity and innocence with the hypocrisy and violence of those whose fate he deprecates, rather than measuring his own defects by the standard of God's holiness.

There are no sufficient grounds for assigning the Psalm to a particular period of David's life, such as Saul's persecution or Absalom's rebellion. More suggestive is Ewald's acute conjecture that it and Psalms 28 were written in a time of national calamity, probably a pestilence (cp. Psalms 28:1), which seemed likely to sweep away righteous and wicked in a common judgement, though his supposition that Josiah was the author is a mere speculation. The Psalmist prays that Jehovah would distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, and save him from sharing the fate of the wicked by a premature death. Yet in the face of the danger his confidence in God is unshaken.