1 Hear me, Lord, my plea is just;
    listen to my cry.
Hear my prayer –
    it does not rise from deceitful lips.
2 Let my vindication come from you;
    may your eyes see what is right.

3 Though you probe my heart,
    though you examine me at night and test me,
you will find that I have planned no evil;
    my mouth has not transgressed.
4 Though people tried to bribe me,
    I have kept myself from the ways of the violent
    through what your lips have commanded.
5 My steps have held to your paths;
    my feet have not stumbled.

6 I call on you, my God, for you will answer me;
    turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.
7 Show me the wonders of your great love,
    you who save by your right hand
    those who take refuge in you from their foes.
8 Keep me as the apple of your eye;
    hide me in the shadow of your wings
9 from the wicked who are out to destroy me,
    from my mortal enemies who surround me.

10 They close up their callous hearts,
    and their mouths speak with arrogance.
11 They have tracked me down, they now surround me,
    with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground.
12 They are like a lion hungry for prey,
    like a fierce lion crouching in cover.

13 Rise up, Lord, confront them, bring them down;
    with your sword rescue me from the wicked.
14 By your hand save me from such people, Lord,
    from those of this world whose reward is in this life.
May what you have stored up for the wicked fill their bellies;
    may their children gorge themselves on it,
    and may there be leftovers for their little ones.

15 As for me, I shall be vindicated and shall see your face;
    when I awake, I shall be satisfied with seeing your likeness. NIVUK

‘The language of prayer is forged in the crucible of trouble…The human condition teeters on the edge of disaster. Human beings are in trouble most of the time. Those who don’t know they are in trouble are in the worst trouble. Prayer is the language of the people who are in trouble and know it, and who believe or hope that God can get them out.’ Eugene Peterson

This psalm opens and closes with the idea of ‘vindication’. At the outset David prays for his vindication, and at the end he is sure of it. He has the conviction that his prayer will be answered.

It seems that David was not only in danger, but was also being falsely accused at the time he wrote this psalm. However he was confident of his integrity – that he was not guilty as charged -because he was ‘Bible man’. God’s Word had kept him on the right path; prevented him from veering to the left or the right. He had followed God’s revealed way.

I’m not trying to get my way
    in the world’s way.
I’m trying to get your way,
    your Word’s way.
I’m staying on your trail;
    I’m putting one foot
In front of the other.
    I’m not giving up (vv.4,5 The Message)

The keeping power of Scripture is referenced elsewhere. For example, ps.119: 9,11:

”How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word…I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

Someone observed, ‘This Book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this Book,’

(Just after writing this piece, I read an article by James Mumford, about his experience in a ’12 step programme’. I thought these words were relevant to the above. See what you think: ‘This may not be true of all therapy, but the therapeutic intervention I experienced as a patient in a psychiatric hospital I found profoundly demoralizing. Being told by a psychologist that “values are subjective” made me feel worse, and left me more depressed. Why? Because in the grip of depression, the only things I knew to be true about the world were certain orienting convictions about right and wrong – that abuse is always wicked, and goodness not merely a matter of perspective. But these were convictions my psychologist was inadvertently contesting when he – with all the authority of his credentials – informed me that morality is merely “externally imposed by society.” He was taking a sledgehammer to my moral compass; I was left reeling, bereft of coordinates, consigned to the position of those the psalmist speaks about: “There be many that say, Who will shew us any good?” (Psalm 4:6).”)