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Psalm 143:2
Don’t enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous.
1A Psalm by David. Hear my prayer, LORD. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me.
2Don’t enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no man living is righteous.
3For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
4Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate.
Notice
David calls himself “your servant” even as he asks to be spared judgment, exposing the gap between belonging to God and claiming righteousness before him.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What do you notice about David calling himself God's servant while asking to be spared judgment?
Write on thisWhere, if anywhere, do you measure your righteousness against others rather than before God?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 14:3They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.Both psalms include everyone in their verdict: no living person is righteous before God, and no one does good.
1 John 1:8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.David includes himself among those lacking righteousness before God; John warns that claiming to have no sin is self-deception.
Psalm 130:3If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?Both prayers face the prospect of God's judgment and acknowledge that no one could stand before him on a sinless record.
Ecclesiastes 7:20Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and doesn’t sin.Both texts speak of all humanity: no living person is righteous before God, and no one does good without sin.
Galatians 2:16yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified …David says no living person is righteous before God; Paul says no flesh is justified by works of the law.
1 Corinthians 4:4For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord.Both locate judgment with the Lord, leaving human claims to righteousness subject to his verdict.
Job 25:4How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?Job's passage asks how a human can be just with God; David declares that no living person is righteous in God's sight.
Romans 3:20Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.Both speak of a universal lack of righteous standing in God's sight; Romans names works of the law as unable to justify.
1 John 1:10If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.David acknowledges the absence of human righteousness before God; John warns that denying past sin contradicts God's word.
Job 15:14What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?Both passages question human claims to righteousness, with Job's passage asking how anyone born of a woman could be righteous.
Titus 3:5not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy …David asks to be spared judgment without claiming righteousness; Titus attributes salvation to God's mercy rather than human works of righteousness.
Job 14:3Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?Both speakers address God about being brought into judgment with him, expressing their vulnerability before his scrutiny.
Where this verse fits
Guilt and confession. wanting a steady prayer habit.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Even under an enemy's pursuit, David makes no claim to sinlessness. He turns to the God whose faithfulness and righteousness he has just appealed to.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).