◄ Psalm 17:2 ►
May my vindication come from Your presence; may Your eyes see what is right.
Study Bible
May my vindication
The phrase "May my vindication" is a plea for justice and righteousness. The Hebrew word for "vindication" here is "mishpat," which often refers to judgment or justice. In the context of the Psalms, it reflects a deep yearning for God’s righteous judgment to prevail. The psalmist, David, is seeking divine intervention to affirm his integrity and righteousness. This plea is not just for personal justification but also for the establishment of God’s justice on earth. It is a reminder that true justice comes from God alone, and believers are encouraged to trust in His perfect judgment.

come from Your presence/b>The phrase "come from Your presence" emphasizes the source of true justice and vindication. The Hebrew word for "presence" is "paneh," which literally means "face." This suggests a personal and intimate encounter with God. David is not seeking vindication from human courts or opinions but from the very presence of God. This highlights the importance of seeking God’s approval above all else. In a conservative Christian perspective, this underscores the belief that God is omnipresent and omniscient, fully aware of our circumstances and the condition of our hearts. It is a call to live righteously, knowing that God’s presence is the ultimate source of truth and justice.

let Your eyes
The phrase "let Your eyes" invokes the image of God’s all-seeing nature. In Hebrew, the word for "eyes" is "ayin," which often symbolizes perception and understanding. This is a request for God to look upon the situation with His divine insight. It reassures believers that nothing escapes God’s notice, and He is fully aware of the injustices and struggles they face. This is a comforting reminder that God’s vision is perfect, and He sees beyond the surface to the heart of the matter.

see what is right
The phrase "see what is right" is a plea for God to recognize and affirm righteousness. The Hebrew word for "right" is "yashar," which means straight or upright. David is asking God to discern and acknowledge his integrity and the justness of his cause. This reflects a deep trust in God’s moral standards and His ability to distinguish right from wrong. For conservative Christians, this is an encouragement to pursue righteousness and integrity, trusting that God will ultimately recognize and reward those who live according to His will. It is a call to align one’s life with God’s standards, knowing that His judgment is true and just.

Persons / Places / Events
1. David
The author of Psalm 17, David is seeking God's justice and vindication. He is often seen as a man after God's own heart, who frequently turned to God in times of trouble.

2. God
The ultimate judge and source of justice. David appeals to God’s presence and righteousness for his vindication.

3. Enemies of David
Though not directly mentioned in this verse, the context of the Psalm suggests that David is surrounded by adversaries and is seeking divine intervention against them.
Teaching Points
Divine Vindication
Trust in God for justice rather than seeking personal revenge.

Recognize that true vindication comes from God’s presence and His righteous judgment.

God’s Omniscience
God sees all things and knows the truth of every situation.

Live with integrity, knowing that God’s eyes see what is right.

Prayer for Justice
Approach God in prayer when facing injustice, asking for His righteous intervention.

Cultivate a heart that seeks God’s will and justice above personal desires.

Righteous Living
Strive to live a life that aligns with God’s standards, trusting that He will see and honor your righteousness.

Reflect on your actions and motives, ensuring they are pleasing to God.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does David’s request for vindication in Psalm 17:2 reflect his relationship with God?

2. In what ways can we apply the principle of seeking God’s vindication rather than taking matters into our own hands?

3. How does understanding God’s omniscience and righteousness influence our response to injustice?

4. What are some practical steps we can take to ensure our lives align with God’s standards of righteousness?

5. How can we use prayer as a tool to seek God’s justice in our personal lives and in the world around us?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Psalm 26:1
David similarly asks for vindication, emphasizing his trust in the Lord and his integrity.

1 Samuel 24:12
David refrains from taking vengeance on Saul, trusting God to judge between them and vindicate him.

Proverbs 21:2
Highlights that while every way of a man is right in his own eyes, the Lord weighs the heart, connecting to the theme of divine justice and righteousness.
Sermons
The Prayer of the RighteousC. Short Psalm 17:1-5
The Righteousness of God's DealingW. Forsyth Psalm 17:1-15
The Saint's Appeal from the Wrongs of Earth to the Righteous One on the ThroneC. Clemance Psalm 17:1-15
People
David, Psalmist, Saul
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Behold, Equal, Equity, Forth, Judge, Judgment, Presence, Regard, Sentence, Uprightly, Vindication
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 17:1-2

     5360   justice, God

Library
The Two Awakings
'I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.' --PSALM xvii. 15. 'As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image.'--PSALM lxxiii. 20. Both of these Psalms are occupied with that standing puzzle to Old Testament worthies--the good fortune of bad men, and the bad fortune of good ones. The former recounts the personal calamities of David, its author. The latter gives us the picture of the perplexity of Asaph its writer, when he 'saw the prosperity …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Hope of Future Bliss
In looking at this passage to-night, we shall notice first of all, the spirit of it; secondly, the matter of it; and then, thirdly, we shall close by speaking of the contrast which is implied in it. I. First, then, the SPIRIT OF THIS UTTERANCE, for I always love to look at the spirit in which a man writes, or the spirit in which he preaches; in fact, there is vastly more in that than in the words he uses. Now, what should you think is the spirit of these words? "As for me, I will behold thy face …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

Mysterious visits.
AN ADDRESS TO A LITTLE COMPANY AT THE COMMUNION TABLE AT MENTONE."Thou hast visited me in the night."--Psalm xvii. 3. MYSTERIOUS VISITS. IT is a theme for wonder that the glorious God should visit sinful man. "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" A divine visit is a joy to be treasured whenever we are favoured with it. David speaks of it with great solemnity. The Psalmist was not content barely to speak of it; but he wrote it down in plain terms, …
Charles Hadden Spurgeon—Till He Come

Out of the Deep of Fear and Anxiety.
My heart is disquieted within me. Tearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and an horrible dread hath overwhelmed me.--Ps. lv. 4. Thou hast proved and visited my heart in the night season--Ps. xvii. 3. Nevertheless though I am sometimes afraid, yet put I my trust in Thee.--Ps. lv. 3. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?--Ps. xxvii. 1. I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fear.--Ps. …
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep

His Journey to South Russia.
1853. The call which John Yeardley had received to visit the German colonies in South Russia, and which had lain for a long time dormant, now revived. A friend who had watched with regret his unsuccessful attempts on former journeys to enter that jealous country, and who augured from the political changes which had taken place that permission might probably now be obtained, brought the subject again under his notice. The admonition was timely and effectual. After carefully pondering the matter--with, …
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel

My God Will Hear Me
"Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you. Blessed are all they that wait for Him. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when He shall hear it, He will answer thee."--ISA. xxx. 18, 19. "The Lord will hear when I call upon Him."--PS. iv. 3. "I have called upon Thee, for Thou wilt hear me, O God!"--PS. xvii. 6. "I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me."--MIC. vii. 7. The power of prayer rests in the faith …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

How a Desolate Man Ought to Commit Himself into the Hands of God
O Lord, Holy Father, be Thou blessed now and evermore; because as Thou wilt so it is done, and what Thou doest is good. Let Thy servant rejoice in Thee, not in himself, nor in any other; because Thou alone art the true joy, Thou art my hope and my crown, Thou art my joy and my honour, O Lord. What hath Thy servant, which he received not from Thee, even without merit of his own? Thine are all things which Thou hast given, and which Thou hast made. I am poor and in misery even from my youth up,(1) …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Twelfth Sunday after Trinity Gospel Transcends Law.
Text: 2 Corinthians 3, 4-11. 4 And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward: 5 not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 7 But if the ministration of death, written, and engraven on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look stedfastly upon …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Seasonable Counsel: Or, Advice to Sufferers.
BY JOHN BUNYAN. London: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1684. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. THIS valuable treatise was first published in a pocket volume in 1684, and has only been reprinted in Whitfield's edition of Bunyan's works, 2 vols. folio, 1767. No man could have been better qualified to give advice to sufferers for righteousness' sake, than John Bunyan: and this work is exclusively devoted to that object. Shut up in a noisome jail, under the iron hand of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

An Exhortation to Love God
1. An exhortation. Let me earnestly persuade all who bear the name of Christians to become lovers of God. "O love the Lord, all ye his saints" (Psalm xxxi. 23). There are but few that love God: many give Him hypocritical kisses, but few love Him. It is not so easy to love God as most imagine. The affection of love is natural, but the grace is not. Men are by nature haters of God (Rom. i. 30). The wicked would flee from God; they would neither be under His rules, nor within His reach. They fear God, …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

The Resemblance Between the Old Testament and the New.
1. Introduction, showing the necessity of proving the similarity of both dispensations in opposition to Servetus and the Anabaptists. 2. This similarity in general. Both covenants truly one, though differently administered. Three things in which they entirely agree. 3. First general similarity, or agreement--viz. that the Old Testament, equally with the New, extended its promises beyond the present life, and held out a sure hope of immortality. Reason for this resemblance. Objection answered. 4. …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Second Sunday Before Lent
Text: Second Corinthians 11, 19-33; 12, 1-9. 19 For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves. 20 For ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he taketh you captive, if he exalteth himself, if he smiteth you on the face. 21 I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. 22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Blessed Privilege of Seeing God Explained
They shall see God. Matthew 5:8 These words are linked to the former and they are a great incentive to heart-purity. The pure heart shall see the pure God. There is a double sight which the saints have of God. 1 In this life; that is, spiritually by the eye of faith. Faith sees God's glorious attributes in the glass of his Word. Faith beholds him showing forth himself through the lattice of his ordinances. Thus Moses saw him who was invisible (Hebrews 11:27). Believers see God's glory as it were …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Departure from Ireland. Death and Burial at Clairvaux.
[Sidenote: 1148, May (?)] 67. (30). Being asked once, in what place, if a choice were given him, he would prefer to spend his last day--for on this subject the brothers used to ask one another what place each would select for himself--he hesitated, and made no reply. But when they insisted, he said, "If I take my departure hence[821] I shall do so nowhere more gladly than whence I may rise together with our Apostle"[822]--he referred to St. Patrick; "but if it behoves me to make a pilgrimage, and …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
Psalm 17:2 NIV
Psalm 17:2 NLT
Psalm 17:2 ESV
Psalm 17:2 NASB
Psalm 17:2 KJV

Psalm 17:2 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Psalm 17:1
Top of Page
Top of Page