Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
The Lord shall judge the people - Expressing his confident belief that God would interpose, and that his judgment would not much longer be delayed. The proposition is a general one - that God would see that justice would be done to all people; and on this ground the psalmist pleads that He would now interpose and defend him from his enemies.
Judge me, O Lord - That is, in my present circumstances. Interpose to do justice to my cause, and to vindicate me from these false accusations.
According to my righteousness - In this particular case, for to that the proper laws of interpretation require us to confine this. He does not say that he wished his own righteousness to be made the basis of judgment in determining his eternal welfare, or that he depended on his own righteousness for salvation - for that is not the point in question; but he felt that his was, in this case, a righteous cause; that he was not guilty of the charge alleged against him; that he was an injured, wronged, and calumniated man; and he prayed that God would "vindicate" him from these charges, and defend him from those who were unjustly persecuting him. With all our sense of personal unworthiness in the matter of salvation, it is not improper, when we are wronged, to pray that God would interpose and vindicate us in that particular case, according to our innocence of the charges alleged against us.
And according to mine integrity that is in me - Hebrew, "my perfection." That is, his perfection in "this" case; his entire freedom from the charges brought against him; his absolute innocence in respect to the points under consideration. A man may be conscious of "perfect" innocence in respect to a particular matter, and yet have a deep sense of his "general" unworthiness, and of the fact that he is a sinner against God. That I am innocent of a particular act charged on me does not Proverbs that I am guiltless altogether; that I should allege that, and insist on that, and pray to God to vindicate me in that, does not Proverbs that I depend on that for the salvation of my soul, or that I claim absolute perfection before him.
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