21 “The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
23 For all his rules were before me,
and from his statutes I did not turn aside.
24 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt.
25 And the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness in his sight.
26 “With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
27 with the purified you deal purely,
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
28 You save a humble people,
but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
29 For you are my lamp, O LORD,
and my God lightens my darkness.
30 For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
31 This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
Comment: The Bible presents God as dealing with people on two levels which, if we want to, we can see as opposite and both can’t be true – yet they are. There is the level of mankind’s ‘original sin’ which (if we are honest with ourselves we know from personal experience!) has broken the relationship of Father Creator with His creation. ‘There is none righteous no not one’ has lead to the Easter story , whereby the relationship can be restored. On the other hand all people in the sight of God are put, because of their own choices, into ‘good or righteous’ or ‘evil or enemies’. David, the adulterer and murderer must say if honest that he did fall into the category ‘there is none righteous not one’. On the other hand basically he did seek to do the will of God as he understood it, and he sought to obey the law as had been given by God through Moses. We all need to come to Jesus in repentance and accept His freely offered salvation to restore our relationship with God. But at this lower level of good or bad people we have to make our choice and God deals with us according to our choices. So yes, in this sense, David was righteous!
Prayer: May I be honest to and maturely loving of my fellow people with whom I brush shoulders.
As I read it! 