AIN. I have done judgment and justice leave me not to mine oppressors.
This part of the long psalm opens with a man who has kept to what is just and right, and who is still in the grip of people stronger than he is. Two questions follow: how can anyone point to his own record before God, and what is he asking God to do about his oppressors?
The section opens with a man hemmed in by hostile power. One writer notes how that pressure works on him — it does not drive him away from God's word but further into it.
There are three points in this section. He is fully in the presence of the power of evil. His eyes are on Jehovah Himself. The force of evil, in its moral character, only bound him more and more to God's word and testimonies. This is the effect of nearness to God. His presence keeps the heart free and confident, and keeps alive the sense of how valuable the word is.
The opening words are a statement about his own behaviour. Commentators are careful about how far that claim reaches. It frees him to pray, but it is not what he rests his case on.
Sure of his own uprightness, the psalmist can look to God with a good conscience and ask Him not to abandon him: "do not leave me to my oppressors." But even while he appeals on the ground of his own integrity, it is to God Himself that the servant looks. God is the one who must vindicate him against pride and oppression, and not his own estimate of his righteousness (compare 1 Corinthians 4:4-5).
That reference to 1 Corinthians is worth following. Paul had the same clear conscience, and it still settled nothing.
Moreover Paul had a good conscience. One translation of the opening of verse 4 reads, "For I am conscious of nothing in myself; but I am not justified by this." How good it would be if we could each speak like that. How good if we were each so true to what we have learned of the mind of God that we were not aware of anything wrong in us. Yet even a Paul had to admit that this did not justify him, for the Lord will judge him — not by what he knew, but by what He Himself knows.
The trouble is not random. He is in their hands because he has kept the path he describes in the first half of the verse.
Yet he is in fact still among the enemies of God's way, who must therefore also be the enemies of His people. He seeks deliverance from them on the ground of that very righteousness. He has himself followed it, and so he prays that God will not leave him in the hand of his oppressors.
Under that pressure he has nowhere else to turn, so he keeps praying.
The believer is still surrounded by oppressors who seek his destruction. This keeps him in prayerful dependence on the One who alone can sustain him. He has consciously sought to act in justice and righteousness, and he asks God not to leave him to the will of his oppressors... Those who are proud are always seeking to oppress the godly, so their resource is in God alone.
What he asks for is bigger than his own rescue.
So he looks for Jehovah to act, not only on His servant's behalf but in vindication of His law.
There is one more step. He asks for more than a rescue sized to his trouble.
He appeals on the ground of righteousness to God's protection... When God delivered him, his heart would be free to obey. But he looked for more than deliverance, and for more than a rescue measured by the evil he was under. His heart had reached God, and he looked for God to deal with him according to His mercy.
- Pressure. Evil close at hand does not loosen his hold on God's word. Nearness to God keeps the heart free and makes the word more precious.
- Plea. A clear conscience frees him to ask. But he looks to God to vindicate him, not to his own estimate of his righteousness.
- Proof. Paul had the same clear conscience and said it did not justify him. The Lord judges by what He knows.
- Persecutors. Enemies of God's way are enemies of His people. The righteousness he followed is what put him in their hands, so God alone is his resource.
- Purpose. He asks God to act for His servant and for His law — and, beyond rescue, to deal with him in mercy.
Be surety for thy servant for good; let not the proud oppress me.
Here a man under pressure from proud enemies asks God to stand as his guarantee. Two questions follow: what does it mean for God to be a "surety," and why does a man who has just claimed to do what is right still need one?
One writer reads the whole psalm as the inner life of a faithful few in Israel who have God's law in their hearts while the pressure is still on them:
Other psalms speak by the Spirit of Christ about the circumstances surrounding the faithful remnant, who have that Spirit. This psalm speaks of their state. The Spirit of Christ in them expresses that state: the law written in their hearts, the judgments being carried out. So something here shows the Lord stepping in — but not yet final deliverance from the oppressor.
The stanza as a whole is summed up in a single sentence that explains why the prayer sounds so urgent:
In the midst of evil, ripe for judgment, the upright soul looks to God to secure its good.
The ESV asks God for "a pledge of good"; older translations read "be surety for your servant for good." A surety is someone who guarantees another person's debt. If the deal fails, the surety pays. The same word turns up later in the New Testament:
The Psalmist asks God to be surety for him for good, Ps. 119:122; and the Lord Jesus is made surety of a better testament, or covenant, than that made with Israel. Heb. 7:22. He is the powerful One who is certain to bring about, at the right time, all that is foretold of Him in carrying out the purpose of God.
Of that better covenant, another writer shows where the risk falls:
He has become the Surety of it. That is, He has accepted full responsibility for it and has gone bail for it, so that if anything went wrong the cost would fall on Him. That is of course a full guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong with it.
The verse before this one claims a clean record: "I have done what is just and right." Yet the prayer does not rest there:
The psalmist knows he has been upright, so he can pray with a good conscience that God will not abandon him: "do not leave me to my oppressors." But though he appeals to God on the ground of his own integrity, it is God Himself he looks to for vindication against pride and oppression — not his own estimate of his righteousness (cp. 1 Cor. 4:4-5).
He asks not just for rescue but for good. One writer reads the two halves of the verse as question and answer:
Can he count on God being his surety? Yes indeed! (v. 122), and the result of this is always good. Those who are proud are always seeking to oppress the godly, so their resource is in God alone.
Where the ESV says "insolent," older translations say "the proud." One writer defines that pride by contrast with the word "servant" in the same verse:
May He, the righteous One, be surety for good to one who is His servant, and not allow the oppression of the proud, who out of pride refuse the servant's place.
The prayer reaches past one man's safety:
So he looks for Jehovah to act, not only on His servant's behalf but to vindicate His law.
Proverbs warns against standing as surety for a stranger, because the cost can ruin you. That warning is what makes Christ's act stand out:
He became surety of a better Covenant (Hebrews 7:22). Solomon, who was both wealthy and wise, in his book of Proverbs, warns against suretyship. "Whoever puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer harm" (Proverbs 11:15). Still, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His matchless grace, took up our cause — and we were the strangers. He Himself took on our liabilities and paid our debts. The sorrows and sufferings of the Cross show us the price He had to pay for our Redemption.
- Pressure. The prayer comes from a man surrounded by evil that is ripe for judgment. The Lord has begun to act, but the oppressor is still there.
- Surety. A surety accepts full responsibility. If anything goes wrong, the cost falls on him, not on the one he stands for.
- Servant. The one who asks calls himself God's servant. The proud are proud because they refuse that place.
- Good. He appeals on the ground of his integrity, yet he leaves the verdict to God. The result of God's suretyship is always good.
- Christ. Hebrews 7:22 uses the same word of Jesus. He took up the cause of strangers, took on our liabilities, and paid our debts.