Psalm 18:20-24

The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all His judgments were before me,
and I did not put away His statutes from me.
I was also blameless before Him,
and I kept myself from my iniquity.
Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.

I always had a problem with psalms like this. God's gonna pay me for all the good I do.

Uh, then I'm toast.

Pastor could explain and explain and explain. And I could understand, but my heart would still set up shields at words like these from Psalm 18. He could explain that it's talking about Christ. He could explain that it's talking about the New Man of faith in me. But still .....

And today I noticed something. "MY iniquity." Look at that: "I kept myself from MY iniquity." Think about that! If I have iniquity, if it is part of me, how do I keep myself from it? "I kept myself from my elbow"? "I kept myself from my eating"? How would that work anyhow? It's altogether different from keeping myself from my house or my car or my toothbrushing.

And with the admission that I have iniquity, that sheds some light on "my righteousness" and "blameslessness" and "keeping His judgments before me." Maybe, just maybe, there's a both/and goin' on there?

This is the name by which He will be called:
The Lord Is Our Righteousness.

If you toss Jeremiah into the mix, maybe "rewarded me according to my righteousness" could be understood as "rewarded me according to my Jesus." And maybe "according to the cleanness of my hands" would be that He recompenses "according to my baptism."