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Psalm 18:20
The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me.
18They came on me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support.
19He brought me out also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
20The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me.
21For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22For all his ordinances were before me. I didn’t put away his statutes from me.
Notice
The repeated link between righteousness and reward raises the question of how God regards human conduct, as David looks back on rescue from calamity.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What do the next two verses add to David’s claim about the cleanness of his hands?
Write on thisWhat would clean hands look like in one decision you face this week?
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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
James 4:8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.Both passages connect clean hands with a person’s relation to God; James urges cleansing, while David speaks of his hands as clean.
1 Samuel 2:30“Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever.’ But now the LORD …Both describe the LORD responding with favor to conduct that honors him.
Psalm 24:4He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.Both use clean hands to describe integrity, with Psalm 24 also naming a pure heart and freedom from deceit.
Job 22:30He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”Both link the cleanness of hands with deliverance, though the statement in Job belongs to Eliphaz’s speech and needs that context.
Psalm 58:11so that men shall say, “Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous. Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”Both name a reward for righteousness and attribute that moral reckoning to God.
Psalm 17:1A Prayer by David. Hear, LORD, my righteous plea. Give ear to my prayer that doesn’t go out of deceitful lips.David appeals to the LORD with a claim of integrity in both passages: clean hands here and lips free from deceit there.
Matthew 6:4so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.Both connect God’s reward with human conduct; Matthew names merciful deeds done in secret.
1 Corinthians 3:8Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.Both describe reward as corresponding to a person’s conduct, with Paul speaking of each worker’s labor.
Proverbs 11:18Wicked people earn deceitful wages, but one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.Both link righteousness with reward, while Proverbs pictures righteous conduct as sowing that leads to a harvest.
Isaiah 49:4But I said, “I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in vain for nothing; yet surely the justice due to me is with the LORD, and my reward with my …Both locate reward with the LORD, though David recounts recompense received and Isaiah speaks amid apparent fruitlessness.
Psalm 18:24Therefore the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.Both repeat the LORD’s reward according to righteousness and the cleanness of hands; verse 24 adds that God is the one who sees.
Hebrews 7:26For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;Both speak of moral purity, though Hebrews describes the high priest’s holiness without mentioning reward.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. temptation. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
David recounts a rescue already received; his words do not promise that every faithful act will bring swift relief. YHWH sees integrity and takes it into account.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 18:20. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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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).