The Righteous Man's Appeal: Text: Psalm 17:1-5
Introduction: Prayer as a Lawsuit
We live in a sentimental age, which means our approach to prayer is frequently sentimental. We think of prayer as a pious wish, a quiet moment of introspection, or a desperate, formless cry into the void. But biblical prayer, particularly as we see it in the Psalms, is something far more robust, far more structured, and far more confrontational. It is often a legal proceeding. The man of God does not come before the Lord as a beggar pleading for a handout from a moody tyrant. He comes as a plaintiff, with a case to make, appealing to the Supreme Court of the universe, and he argues his case on the basis of the Judge's own published and binding legal opinions.
This is what David is doing in Psalm 17. He is in trouble, surrounded by enemies, and he is bringing a lawsuit before God. He is not claiming sinless perfection, which is a popish absurdity. Rather, he is claiming covenantal integrity. He is arguing that in the matter at hand, his cause is righteous, his heart is sincere, and his life has been tested and found to be, in its basic trajectory, faithful. This is not the prayer of a self-righteous Pharisee; it is the prayer of a man who understands covenant. God has made promises to the righteous, and He has promised to judge the wicked. David is simply taking God at His word and asking Him to act accordingly.
Our generation has lost this kind of prayer because we have lost a robust understanding of God's justice. We are squeamish about it. We want a God who is all mercy and no judgment, which is to say we want a God who is not God at all. But David knows that God's mercy and God's justice are not at odds. God's mercy is revealed when He vindicates the righteous and brings justice upon those who persecute them. This psalm teaches us the conditions of a righteous appeal, the source of true vindication, and the kind of life that can approach the bench of Heaven with confidence.
The Text
A Prayer of David.
Hear a righteous cause, O Yahweh, give heed to my cry of lamentation;
Give ear to my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips.
May my judgment come from Your presence;
May Your eyes behold what is upright.
You have tested my heart;
You have visited me by night;
You have tried me and You find nothing;
I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
As for the deeds of men, by the word of Your lips
I have kept from the paths of the violent.
My steps have held fast to Your paths.
My footsteps have not stumbled.
(Psalm 17:1-5 LSB)
The Conditions of the Appeal (v. 1)
David begins by laying out the grounds for his case. There are three conditions that must be met if God is to hear him.
"Hear a righteous cause, O Yahweh, give heed to my cry of lamentation; Give ear to my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips." (Psalm 17:1)
First, the cause must be righteous. David doesn't say, "Hear me because I am David," or "Hear me because I am in a tough spot." He says, "Hear a righteous cause." The foundation of the appeal is objective justice. We cannot come to God asking Him to bless our sin or vindicate our foolishness. If we are in the wrong, our prayer is not for vindication but for forgiveness. But when our cause aligns with God's revealed will, we can and must appeal to Him to act. This presupposes that we know what a righteous cause is, which means we must be men and women of the Book.
Second, the cry must be earnest. This is a "cry of lamentation." The Hebrew is rinnah, a ringing, piercing cry. This is not a dispassionate legal brief. This is a man whose heart is fully engaged. True theology is never cold. It is doxological. It is passionate. David is in real trouble, and his prayer is not a sterile formality. It is a desperate, heartfelt shout to his covenant Lord. God is not interested in the prayers of those who are merely going through the motions.
Third, the lips must be sincere. The prayer cannot be "from deceitful lips." Hypocrisy nullifies the appeal. God is not fooled by outward displays of piety that mask a corrupt heart. David is asserting that his words match his heart. He is not saying one thing in prayer and living another way in the world. This is a profound challenge to all of us. Does the life we live back up the prayers we pray? Or do our actions make liars of our lips?
The Source of Vindication (v. 2)
Having established the grounds of his appeal, David now states where he expects his verdict to come from.
"May my judgment come from Your presence; May Your eyes behold what is upright." (Psalm 17:2 LSB)
David wants nothing to do with the court of public opinion. He is not interested in the judgment of his enemies, and he is not even ultimately concerned with the judgment of his friends. He appeals to the highest court, the only one whose verdict is final and absolutely just. "Let my judgment come from Your presence."
This is the mark of a man with a clear conscience. The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. The wicked man fears the presence of God. The righteous man, even when he is a sinner who has been forgiven, longs for it. He knows that God's eyes are the only ones that see things as they truly are. "May Your eyes behold what is upright." David is confident that if God, the perfect Judge, examines the evidence, He will rule in his favor. This is not arrogance; it is profound faith. It is faith in the character of God as a just Judge, and it is a testimony to a life lived in light of that reality.
The Evidence of Integrity (v. 3)
David now presents his evidence. He opens up his life for divine examination, pointing to three areas where he has been tested.
"You have tested my heart; You have visited me by night; You have tried me and You find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress." (Psalm 17:3 LSB)
First, God has tested his heart. The heart, in Scripture, is the wellspring of life, the seat of the will and affections. David says that God has conducted a deep, internal examination. Second, God has visited him "by night." The night is the time of solitude, of vulnerability, when the masks come off and the secret thoughts arise. David is saying, "You have seen me when no one else was looking. You know my private life."
Third, God has "tried" him and found nothing. The word for "tried" is the word for refining metal in a furnace. This is a staggering claim. Is David claiming to be sinless? Not for a moment. This is the same David who would later cry out in Psalm 51, "Against you, you only, have I sinned." The key is to understand what he means by "nothing." In the context of this specific accusation from his enemies, and regarding the fundamental loyalty of his heart, God has found no treachery, no rebellion, no hypocrisy. The fire has burned away the dross, but the substance that remains is genuine gold.
And the proof of this internal integrity is external control. "I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress." The heart's condition is always revealed by the tongue. A man who has determined to govern his speech has set a guard over his soul. This is not a passive state; it is an active "purpose," a settled act of the will, enabled by the grace of God.
The Standard and the Testimony (v. 4-5)
Finally, David points to the standard that has governed his actions and the resulting stability of his walk.
"As for the deeds of men, by the word of Your lips I have kept from the paths of the violent. My steps have held fast to Your paths. My footsteps have not stumbled." (Psalm 17:4-5 LSB)
The world has its way of doing things, the "deeds of men," which often lead down "the paths of the violent." These are the paths of coercion, manipulation, and brute force. How did David avoid them? Not by his own innate goodness or superior wisdom. He did it "by the word of Your lips." The Scriptures were his guide, his map through the moral wilderness of the world. God's Word is the only reliable standard for navigating life. Everything else is a path to destruction.
Because he has followed God's map, his journey has been secure. "My steps have held fast to Your paths." The picture is of a man gripping the path, refusing to be dislodged. This is not a picture of a casual stroll but of determined perseverance. The result is that his "footsteps have not stumbled." This does not mean he never tripped. It means he never fell off the path. His trajectory, his course, his direction has been unwavering. He has not abandoned the way of righteousness for the way of the violent.
The Gospel in the Lawsuit
As we read this psalm, we have to ask ourselves how a fallen sinner can possibly pray this way. And the answer is that, in the ultimate sense, he cannot. This is a Christ-haunted prayer. The only man who could pray this psalm with complete and absolute integrity, from the first word to the last, is the Lord Jesus Christ. His cause was perfectly righteous. His cry from the cross was the most earnest in history. His lips were utterly without deceit. He was tested in the wilderness and in the garden, visited by the darkest of nights, and the Father found nothing amiss in Him. His entire life was governed by the word of His Father's lips, and His steps never once stumbled from the path.
So what does this mean for us? It means that we can only pray this prayer because we are in Him. Our standing before the court of heaven is not based on our tested integrity, but on His. When God's judgment comes forth from His presence for us, it is the verdict of "righteous," not because our footsteps have never stumbled, but because we are clothed in the righteousness of the One who never stumbled.
But this does not make the psalm irrelevant to our experience. It becomes the blueprint for our sanctification. Justification is not the end of the story; it is the beginning. Because we have been declared righteous in Christ, we are now called and empowered to live righteously. We strive to have a righteous cause. We cry out to God earnestly. We purpose in our hearts to have lips free from deceit. We do this, not to earn our verdict, but to live out the verdict that has already been rendered in our favor through the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore, we can come to God with a holy boldness. We can ask Him to examine our hearts, not because we are perfect, but because we are His. We can ask Him to keep our feet from stumbling, knowing that our ultimate security rests in the finished work of our Savior, who walked the path perfectly for us.