Psalm 26:3

For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) For thy lovingkindness . . .—God’s favour was before him as an encouragement, and God’s truth formed the rule of his life.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

26:9 David, in this psalm, appeals to God touching his integrity. - David here, by the Spirit of prophecy, speaks of himself as a type of Christ, of whom what he here says of his spotless innocence was fully and eminently true, and of Christ only, and to Him we may apply it. We are complete in him. The man that walks in his integrity, yet trusting wholly in the grace of God, is in a state of acceptance, according to the covenant of which Jesus was the Mediator, in virtue of his spotless obedience even unto death. This man desires to have his inmost soul searched and proved by the Lord. He is aware of the deceitfulness of his own heart; he desires to detect and mortify every sin; and he longs to be satisfied of his being a true believer, and to practise the holy commands of God. Great care to avoid bad company, is both a good evidence of our integrity, and a good means to keep us in it. Hypocrites and dissemblers may be found attending on God's ordinances; but it is a good sign of sincerity, if we attend upon them, as the psalmist here tells us he did, in the exercise of repentance and conscientious obedience. He feels his ground firm under him; and, as he delights in blessing the Lord with his congregations on earth, he trusts that shortly he shall join the great assembly in heaven, in singing praises to God and to the Lamb for evermore.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes - Thy favor or friendship is constantly before me, in the sense that it is the object of my desire. I wish to secure it; I long to know whether I have sufficient evidence that it is mine. This is a reason why he desires that God would search him. The favor or the friendship of God was an object of intense desire with him. He had evidence upon which he relied, and which seemed to him to be satisfactory, that God was his friend. But the object was so great, the matter was so important, the danger of self-deception was so imminent, that he did not dare to trust his own judgment, and he prayed that God would search him. The thought here is, that it was a steady purpose of his life to secure the favor of God. His eye was never turned from this. It was always before Him.

And I have walked in thy truth - I have embraced the truth; I have regulated my life by the truth. This is the first thing to which he refers. He was certain that this had been his aim. Compare the notes at 3 John 1:4. See also 2 Kings 20:3. One of the first characteristics of piety is a desire to know what is true, and to live in accordance with the truth. The psalmist was conscious that he had "arrived" at this, and that he had endeavored to make it a ruling principle in his conduct. Whether he had done this, or whether he had deceived himself in the matter, was what he now wished to submit to the all-searching eye of God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. As often, the ground of prayer for present help is former favor.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I dare appeal to thee with this confidence, because thou knowest that I have a true and deep sense of thy loving-kindness to me upon mine heart, by which I have been obliged, and in a manner constrained, to love and obey thee, and in all things to approve any heart and ways to thee, and to abstain from all such evil practices as mine enemies charge me with, whereby I should have forfeited thy loving-kindness, which I prize more than life, Psalm 63:3, and exposed myself to thy just displeasure. My experience of and trust in thy goodness doth fully satisfy and support me, that I neither do nor need to use any indirect or irregular courses for my relief.

In thy truth, i.e. according to thy word, which is oft called truth, as Psalm 119:142,151Jo 17:17,19; believing its promises, and observing its precepts and directions; and not according to the course of the world, as it follows.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes,.... The special lovingkindness of God, shown in the choice of him in Christ, in the provision of a Saviour for him, and in the effectual calling of him; which lovingkindness is unmerited, free, and sovereign, is from everlasting and to everlasting; it is better than life, excellent beyond expression, and marvellous: and this may be said to be "before his eyes"; because it was now in sight; he had a comfortable view of interest in it, and was persuaded nothing should separate him from it; it was upon his heart, shed abroad in it, and he was affected with it; it was in his mind, and in his thoughts, and they were employed about it; he had it in remembrance, and was comfortably refreshed with it: and this he mentions as the reason of his laying his cause before the Lord, as the ground of his trust in him, and why he desired to be examined, proved, and tried by him;

and I have walked in thy truth; by faith in Christ, who is the truth of all promises, prophecies, types, and figures; in the word of truth, by abiding by it, and walking according to it; and in the truth of worship, in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord; and to walk herein he used himself to, and was constant in, as the word (s) signifies: and nothing more engages to walk on in Christ, as he has been received and to walk as becomes his Gospel, and in all holy conversation and godliness, than the love of God manifested to the soul; this being set continually before our eyes encourages faith and hope, and influences a holy life and cheerful obedience to the will of God.

(s) "ambulavi indesinenter et sedulo", Gejerus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

For thy {c} lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth.

(c) He shows what stayed him, that he did not recompense evil for evil.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. The ground of the prayers in Psalm 26:1-2. He can pray for a favourable judgement, and submit himself to this scrutiny, because he knows God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness. They are the object of his constant meditation, the daily experience of his life. Cp. Psalm 16:8; Psalm 25:10, note.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes. The psalmist now enters upon an enumeration of the points of conduct on which his confidence in his integrity rests. They are six - three positive and three negative. First of all, he keeps God's loving-kindness, or mercy (חֶסֶד), ever before his eyes - reflects on it, meditates on it, presents it to his thought - continually. And I have walked in thy truth. Secondly, he walks - he has always walked - in God s truth. God's Law is the truth (Psalm 119:42); and walking in God's truth is walking in the Law which he has given to men; as Hitzig, Maurer, and others have seen. Hengstenberg's exposition, "I have constantly thought upon thy faithfulness," cannot be admitted. Psalm 26:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Psalm 26:3 tells how confidently and cheerfully he would set himself in the light of God. God's grace or loving-kindness is the mark on which his eye is fixed, the desire of his eye, and he walks in God's truth. חסד is the divine love, condescending to His creatures, and more especially to sinners (Psalm 25:7), in unmerited kindness; אמת is the truth with which God adheres to and carries out the determination of His love and the word of His promise. This lovingkindness of God has been always hitherto the model of his life, this truth of God the determining line and the boundary of his walk.