“Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes.” -Psalm 26:9–10
The ESV translates the Hebrew expression “Do not sweep my soul away with sinners.” The KJV renders it “Gather not my soul with sinners.” The NIV translates it “Do not take away my soul along with sinners.” The idiom seems clear enough but depending on the translation we may picture one swept away by a giant flood water that gathers everything in its path. Or, it could be pictured as valuable wheat unwittingly gathered with the tares to be burned. However it is translated, David is clearly seeking to be distinguished from the evil men of his day. He does not want to suffer a common fate with these sinful men by being caught up with them when the Lord’s swift judgment gathers them to perdition.
These evildoers are characterized by their bloodthirstiness, their employment of evil devices, and their corruption of justice. Evil men justify murder in the securement of power because they see their cause as worthy, usually as necessary for advancing their agenda or ideology. Evil devices refers to their deceitful treacheries or underhanded political maneuvers, like leveraging the letter of the law to accomplish their goals (e.g., Shakespeare’s Shylock). Finally, as is still the case in our modern world, evil men find their power can be leveraged for personal financial gain. They are easily bribed, their verdicts swayed by those who are willing to line their pockets with filthy lucre.
Though David was a warrior and therefore a bloody man but he was not a bloodthirsty man (1 Chronicles 22:8). David’s own treachery in the matter of Uriah can be seen as an anti-type of the kind of men he did not want to be associated with (1 Kings 15:5). And David’s own integrity in matters of judgment are established by the word of the Lord, himself (1 Samuel 13:14).
Yet, for all his sins there must be some basis for his request for deliverance, a basis for his separation from sinners which exists apart from his own tainted righteousness.
“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” –Romans 3:20–25
Great word, very timely