Psalm 17 · a question people ask
"You have tried me, and found nothing" (17:3). Is the psalmist saying he has never sinned?
The psalm doesn't say that. It asks for a verdict: the psalmist prays, "Let my sentence come out of your presence" (17:2), and says of himself, "I have resolved that my mouth shall not disobey" (17:3), "I have kept myself from the ways of the violent" (17:4), and "My steps have held fast to your paths" (17:5). His prayer, he says, "doesn’t go out of deceitful lips" (17:1). Another psalm asks, "If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?" (Psalm 130:3); in Hebrew its kept is the verb of Psalm 17:4's kept (tap Keep). Psalm 7's notes ask the same question of "Judge me, LORD, according to my righteousness" (Psalm 7:8), and set it beside Psalm 51:3; these notes don't repeat them. Both kinds of prayer are in the book of Psalms, and these notes don't choose how they fit together.
The verses
“A Prayer by David. Hear, LORD, my righteous plea. Give ear to my prayer that doesn’t go out of deceitful lips. Let my sentence come out of your presence. Let your eyes look on equity. You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not disobey. As for the deeds of men, by the word of your lips, I have kept myself from the ways of the violent. My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped.”
“If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?”
“The LORD administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, LORD, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.”
“For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.”