Declare me not guilty, O Lord my God, for you give justice. Don’t let my enemies laugh about me in my troubles.
Parallel translations
- WEB Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me.
- KJV Judge me, O LORD my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.
- BSB Vindicate me by Your righteousness, O LORD my God, and do not let them gloat over me.
- NKJV Vindicate me, O Lord my God, according to Your righteousness; And let them not rejoice over me.
- NASB Judge me, Lord my God, according to Your righteousness, And do not let them rejoice over me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David asks to be vindicated according to God's righteousness, not his own merit, and that his enemies not gloat. He rests his case on God's just character.
Overview
David's plea 'Vindicate me... according to your righteousness' grounds his hope in God's perfect justice rather than personal worthiness. He wants his foes denied the satisfaction of triumphing over him. Ultimately believers are vindicated not by their own righteousness but by the righteousness of Christ credited to them (2 Corinthians 5:21), the only sure ground before a holy God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 43:1Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.
- Ps 26:1By David. Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering.
- Ps 7:8Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.
- Ps 35:19Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes.
- 2 Th 1:6Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,
- Job 20:5that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?
- Ps 18:20–24Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.
- 1 Pet 2:22who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 35:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.