The Righteousness That Grasps Grace Text: Psalm 18:20-24
Introduction: Two Kinds of Righteousness
We live in an age that is allergic to moral absolutes, unless, of course, they are the new, ever-shifting moral absolutes of the secular religion. But when it comes to the things of God, our generation is deeply uncomfortable with the kind of language we find in our text today. When modern evangelicals read a passage like this, where David speaks of his own righteousness, his own cleanness of hands, his own blamelessness, they tend to get nervous. It sounds suspiciously like boasting. It sounds like works-righteousness. It sounds like something a Pharisee would say, not a man after God's own heart. And so, we are tempted to either skip over it quickly, or to explain it away as some kind of hyperbole, or perhaps to say that David is only speaking prophetically of Christ.
Now, it is certainly true that this psalm, like all the psalms, finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ, the truly blameless man. But to leave it there is to rob the text of its immediate meaning and its practical application to us. David is not simply ventriloquizing for Jesus here. He is speaking about his own life, his own conduct, and God's faithful response to it. So how do we make sense of this? Has David forgotten about Psalm 51? Has he forgotten his own sin with Bathsheba, his own deceit, his own desperate need for grace?
Not at all. The key to understanding this, and many other passages like it, is to recognize that the Bible speaks of two kinds of righteousness. The first is what theologians call imputed righteousness, or positional righteousness. This is the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ that is credited to our account by faith alone. It is an alien righteousness, something that is not our own, but is given to us as a free gift. This is the righteousness that justifies us, the righteousness that makes us right with God and secures our eternal salvation. On this score, we are all like David, who confessed, "Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you" (Psalm 143:2). Apart from Christ's imputed righteousness, we have nothing to plead.
But the Bible also speaks of a second kind of righteousness. We can call this practical righteousness, or the righteousness of our walk. This is the fruit of the first kind of righteousness. It is the evidence of our justification. It is the real, tangible, observable obedience that flows from a heart that has been regenerated by the Spirit of God. This righteousness is not perfect, but it is genuine. It is the difference between a man who is walking in the ways of the Lord and a man who is walking in open rebellion. It is this second kind of righteousness that David is talking about in our text. And it is this kind of righteousness that God sees, that God rewards, and that we are commanded to pursue.
The Text
Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, And have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me, And I did not put away His statutes from me. I was also blameless with Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore Yahweh has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands before His eyes.
(Psalm 18:20-24 LSB)
The Principle of Recompense (v. 20)
David begins by laying out a foundational principle of God's government of the world.
"Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me." (Psalm 18:20)
Notice the direct correlation. God's action, His reward, is tied to David's action, his righteousness. The word "recompensed" means to repay, to give back in like kind. This is the principle of the harvest: you reap what you sow. This is not karma, which is a cold, impersonal law of the universe. This is the personal, covenantal dealing of a Father with His son. God is not a vending machine where we insert a coin of righteousness and get a blessing. But He is a faithful God who has established a world with moral consequences. He notices obedience. He rewards faithfulness.
What is this "righteousness" David speaks of? In the immediate context of Psalm 18, it is his righteousness in comparison to his enemies, particularly Saul. Saul was hunting David to kill him. David, on two separate occasions, had Saul's life in his hands and refused to touch the Lord's anointed. David's hands were "clean" of the blood of his king. He conducted himself with integrity and faith, while Saul was driven by paranoia and rebellion. In this specific conflict, David was in the right, and Saul was in the wrong. And David is testifying that God saw this and acted upon it. God delivered David and brought Saul's kingdom to an end. This was a temporal reward for temporal, practical righteousness.
This should be an encouragement to us. When you are in a conflict, when you are being slandered or mistreated, the most important thing is not winning the argument in the moment. The most important thing is maintaining clean hands and a righteous cause before God. He is the judge. He sees. And in His time, He will bring the recompense. He will vindicate His people.
The Path of Obedience (v. 21-22)
In the next two verses, David describes what this practical righteousness looks like. It is a life oriented around the Word of God.
"For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, And have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me, And I did not put away His statutes from me." (Psalm 18:21-22 LSB)
To "keep the ways of Yahweh" means to walk in the paths He has laid out in His law. It's a covenantal term. God has revealed how His people are to live, and David has made it his life's aim to follow that path. This is not a claim of sinless perfection. The key phrase is "have not wickedly departed." The word "wickedly" here points to a deliberate, high-handed, apostate rebellion. David is saying, "I have sinned, yes. I have stumbled. But I have not thrown off your yoke. I have not renounced your kingship over me. My fundamental loyalty has remained with you."
There is a world of difference between a believer who sins and repents, and an unbeliever who sins and continues in it as a way of life. The believer hates his sin and fights against it. The unbeliever loves his sin and makes excuses for it. David is testifying that his heart's orientation has been toward God and His law.
He says, "all His judgments were before me." This means he lived with an awareness of God's Word. It was his constant reference point, his map, his guide. He didn't hide the Bible on a shelf. He didn't treat God's statutes as an inconvenient obstacle to be gotten around. He set them "before" him. This is the mark of a regenerate heart. The unregenerate man wants to get God's law out of his sight. The believer, like the author of Psalm 119, delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night. This is the path of practical righteousness: a life lived consciously under the authority and guidance of the revealed Word of God.
Blameless, Not Sinless (v. 23)
This next verse is perhaps the most challenging for our modern ears, but it is crucial.
"I was also blameless with Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity." (Psalm 18:23 LSB)
To be "blameless" does not mean to be sinless. Noah was blameless in his generation. Abraham was commanded to be blameless. Zechariah and Elizabeth were blameless. It means to be wholehearted, to be a person of integrity. It means that there is no major, unconfessed, cherished sin that characterizes your life. It means your life is "of a piece." Your public profession and your private life are in basic alignment.
And notice the second phrase, which explains the first: "And I kept myself from my iniquity." This is a fascinating statement. It implies a specific, bespoke temptation. Each of us has a particular sin that is our "iniquity," our besetting sin, the one that has our name on it. For one man it might be anger. For another, lust. For another, greed or envy. David is saying that he was actively on guard against his own particular area of weakness. He knew where he was vulnerable, and he set a watch there.
This is a vital part of practical righteousness. It is not enough to have a general, vague desire to be good. We must be specific. We must know ourselves. Where are you most likely to fall? What is "your iniquity"? To be blameless is to be engaged in that specific battle, and by God's grace, to be keeping yourself from it. David is not claiming he never sinned. He is claiming that he fought the good fight against the sin that most easily entangled him.
The Divine Verdict (v. 24)
David concludes this section by restating the principle with which he began, but with an important addition.
"Therefore Yahweh has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands before His eyes." (Psalm 18:24 LSB)
He repeats the truth that God rewards practical righteousness. But he adds the crucial phrase, "before His eyes." This is the standard that matters. It is not about keeping up appearances before men. It is not about cultivating a reputation for piety. It is about living with integrity in the sight of God, who sees the heart. The Pharisees were experts at maintaining clean hands before men, but inwardly they were full of filth. David's concern is with what God sees.
This is both a terrifying and a comforting thought. It is terrifying because we know that nothing is hidden from Him. Every lazy thought, every selfish motive, every hidden sin is laid bare before His eyes. This should drive us to our knees in repentance. But it is also comforting, because it means that our sincere, though imperfect, efforts at obedience are also seen by Him. The world may not notice. Other Christians may misunderstand your motives. But God sees. He sees the battle you fight against your iniquity. He sees your desire to keep His ways. He sees your fumbling attempts to walk in righteousness. And He is a God who rewards it, not because our righteousness earns anything, but because He is a gracious Father who delights to bless the obedience of His children.
Righteousness by Faith Alone
So how does all this fit together? David, the adulterer and murderer, is claiming to be righteous and blameless. And God agrees with him. How can this be?
It can only be because David's practical righteousness was the fruit of a deeper, foundational righteousness that he received by faith. David was a man who trusted God's promises. He believed God. And like Abraham, that faith was counted to him as righteousness. He was justified by faith alone. And because he was justified, the Holy Spirit was at work in him, enabling him to produce the fruit of practical righteousness.
His practical righteousness was not the root of his salvation, but the fruit of it. And God, in His grace, looks at the fruit that His own Spirit has produced in us, and He is pleased to reward it. This is the glorious mystery of the gospel. We are saved by a righteousness that is not our own, the imputed righteousness of Christ. But this free gift is not a license to be lazy or disobedient. It is the very engine of our obedience. Because we are declared righteous, we are then empowered to walk in righteousness.
This is why we must not be embarrassed by texts like this. We should not be afraid to pursue and to expect the blessings of practical righteousness. God deals with His children according to their walk. If we walk in disobedience, we can expect His fatherly discipline. If we walk in faithfulness, keeping His ways and fighting our iniquity, we can expect His fatherly blessing and reward. This does not earn our salvation, but it is the evidence of it. It is the way we enjoy the benefits of the salvation that Christ has already won for us.
Therefore, let us not be content with a merely positional righteousness. Let us, like David, set God's judgments before us. Let us know what "our iniquity" is and keep ourselves from it. And let us walk with clean hands and a pure heart, not in our own strength, but in the strength that God supplies, looking to Him who sees all things and who faithfully recompenses His children "before His eyes."