Psalm 17 opens with the heading "A prayer of David" (Tefillah LeDavid), and it is one of the psalms in which King David asks the Holy One, Blessed be He, to look upon his righteousness and rescue him from his enemies. The Malbim divides this prayer into three parts: the first part, in which David recounts his righteousness - how he guarded himself from all sin in thought, speech, and action; the second part, in which he laments his enemies and persecutors; and the third part, which deals with his spiritual bliss. These three parts are already alluded to in the opening verse, and from there the psalm elaborates in detail. In this lesson, we will study the opening verses and the description of David's righteousness.
תְּפִלָּה לְדָוִד: שִׁמְעָה יְהֹוָה צֶדֶק, הַקְשִׁיבָה רִנָּתִי, הַאֲזִינָה תְפִלָּתִי בְּלֹא שִׂפְתֵי מִרְמָה. - A prayer of David: Hear, Hashem, what is just; attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer from lips without deceit.
The three expressions in the verse correspond to the three parts of the prayer. "Hear, Hashem, what is just" (shim'ah Hashem tzedek) - hear, Hashem, my righteousness, and see how righteous I am in my conduct; this corresponds to the first part. "Attend to my cry" (hakshivah rinnati) - corresponds to the second part, in which David laments his enemies. "Rinnah," the Malbim explains, denotes a cry, and it can be a cry of joy or an outcry of weeping and groaning. Here it refers to a cry of weeping and groaning: Hashem, the enemies are pursuing me, attend to my cry to rescue me from them. "Give ear to my prayer" (ha'azinah tefillati) - corresponds to the third part, which speaks of David's spiritual bliss.
One might wonder: David comes here and recounts his righteousness, which might seem like arrogance, as if proclaiming, "I am righteous!" To this he concludes, "from lips without deceit" (belo siftei mirmah) - my prayer comes from a whole heart and trust in Hashem. I do not pray out of a desire to boast or show off; rather, my lips speak absolute truth.
In his lexical commentary (Be'ur HaMilot), the Malbim explains the distinction between these three expressions, as he elucidates in several places. The progression is that initially a person attends (hakshavah) - and attending is generally from afar; next, one gives ear (ha'azanah) - where he applies his mind more; and finally, one hears (shemi'ah) - which is genuine hearing, where he focuses and absorbs the words with complete attentiveness. In ordinary speech, we tend to view "attending" or "giving ear" as deeper than mere "hearing," since in everyday language "I heard, I heard" sounds superficial. Yet the Malbim explains that this is not so: hakshavah is from a distance, ha'azanah is applying the mind, and shemi'ah is true connection, hearing up close.
Consequently, when Scripture addresses three distinct matters, the primary subject receives the term of hearing (shemi'ah), the secondary subject receives the term of giving ear (ha'azanah), and the most ancillary receives the term of attending (hakshavah). Notice, then, the order in the verse: the primary focus in David's eyes was to recount his righteousness, and therefore, "Hear, Hashem, what is just" - shemi'ah, from up close, the primary matter. Next is the prayer concerning his enemies - "attend to my cry" (hakshivah rinnati), where rinnah is an outcry, as in "Arise, cry out in the night" (Eichah 2:19). And in the final stage, "give ear to my prayer" (ha'azinah tefillati), which is further still.
מִלְּפָנֶיךָ מִשְׁפָּטִי יֵצֵא, עֵינֶיךָ תֶּחֱזֶינָה מֵישָׁרִים. - Let my judgment come forth from Your presence; let Your eyes behold equity.
Here David begins to recount his righteousness, which is the first part corresponding to "Hear, Hashem, what is just." Even though people pass perverted judgment upon me - judging me unfavorably and finding all sorts of flaws and shortcomings in me - You, Hashem, know how clearly my judgment proves my righteousness. "Let Your eyes behold equity": You do not view things as they do, who look upon me with crooked, distorted judgment. You see uprightly, and since Your eyes behold equity, my verdict will emerge from before You as just and righteous.
Radak and other commentators explain this entire psalm as one that David recited in the wake of the sin of Bat Sheva. We will not follow this approach the entire way, but we will mention it from time to time. Radak cites in the name of his father that David is asking here of the Holy One, Blessed be He, "From before You let my judgment issue forth" - that the judgment that is supposed to be before You should depart from You, meaning do not judge it at all: do not put me on trial. "May Your eyes behold equity" - may Your eyes gaze upon the upright deeds I performed all my days, and not upon the sin and iniquity in the matter of Bat Sheva, and judge me according to the majority of my merits rather than from looking at this sin and flaw.
בָּחַנְתָּ לִבִּי פָּקַדְתָּ לַּיְלָה, צְרַפְתַּנִי בַל תִּמְצָא, זַמֹּתִי בַּל יַעֲבֹר פִּי. - You have probed my heart, You visited by night; You have refined me and found nothing; what I purposed does not cross my mouth.
The Malbim does not link this verse to the incident of Bat Sheva at all. According to his approach, David continues to detail his righteousness, here with regard to not sinning in thought: "You have probed my heart" - the heart refers to the thoughts of the heart. And when did You probe? "You visited by night" - the night is the time of thoughts; You probed my heart and visited by night, and found that I do not entertain improper thoughts at night.
"You refined me and found nothing" - refining is the removal of dross from silver and gold. The Malbim emphasizes that refining always follows examination, as in the phrase "Examine me... refine my reins": after examining an object, one then refines, purifies, and cleanses it. Thus: You refined me and found nothing. Why? "My thoughts do not exceed my mouth" - You did not find in me that I devised anything improper to come out of my mouth. There are things a person does not utter with his mouth but contemplates in his mind; David says: With me, even such a thought, one unfit to be spoken, I did not entertain even in my heart.
There is a saying: What the wise man thinks, the fool speaks. A person enters a place, sees something that looks odd to him, and has a criticism - but he tells himself: What am I, the state comptroller? Why should I make comments? Then a thoughtless person comes along and asks aloud: Why is it like this? That is not nice. What the wise man thinks, the fool speaks. But King David says: With me, I did not even think the negative thought in my mind. Examine me, refine me - and You will not find that I devised in my head anything that could not come out of my mouth. Whatever does not leave my mouth did not cross my mind either. This is a very high level of purity of heart.
Regarding the expression "zamoti" (I devised), the Malbim explains the distinction between thinking and devising: thought is generally more superficial, whereas devising is a deeper, more calculated thought; and most often the term "to devise" refers to a negative thought, to an evil matter. Therefore David says: You will not find in me any scheming - a negative and evil thought - anything that does not cross my mouth.
Radak explains the verse along the same lines of the incident of Bat Sheva: On that night You examined my heart and inspected it to see if I was worthy; You refined me - and what did You find? Dross. "You refined me and found nothing" - You did not find in me anything good or praiseworthy, for I stumbled in that very matter in which You tested me. And regarding this David says, "What I purposed, would that it had not passed my mouth" - would that what I thought to say had never left my mouth.
The meaning of this is: In Psalm 26 it states, "Examine me, Hashem, and test me." Chazal teach that David said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Why do people say "the God of Abraham" but do not say "the God of David"? The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: Abraham, I tested him with ten trials and he was found whole. David said: Please Hashem, examine me and test me; test me as well. Hashem said to him: I will test you, and I will even reveal to you with what - unlike with Abraham - your test will be with illicit relations. And afterward came the episode of Bat Sheva, as is well known. David regrets this and says: "What I purposed, would that it had not passed my mouth" - what I thought back then, that Hashem could test me as well, alas, why did I utter it? Would that I had never spoken it, for I said "test me" and in the end I stumbled.
Rashi also explains along this line, though he makes a precise observation: It is written "bal ya'avor pi" (shall not pass my mouth) and not "bal avar pi" (did not pass my mouth), implying that David is speaking of the future - if such a thought should ever arise in my mind and heart in the future, I will not utter it from my mouth again. This is the meaning of "bal ya'avor pi": referring to the future, and not to what occurred in the past.
לִפְעֻלּוֹת אָדָם בִּדְבַר שְׂפָתֶיךָ, אֲנִי שָׁמַרְתִּי אָרְחוֹת פָּרִיץ. - As for the deeds of man, by the word of Your lips, I have kept away from the paths of the lawless.
Maggidim have quipped homiletically about this verse regarding people who constantly chase fashions: "I have observed the ways of Paris" - always on the lookout for what was brought to him from Paris. But what is the literal meaning? The Malbim explains that the preceding clause, "You tested my heart, You visited by night, You refined me and found nothing," extends to our verse as well: "You tested" applies to "the deeds of man"; "You visited" applies to "by the word of Your lips"; and "You refined me and found nothing" applies to "I have kept away from the paths of the lawless."
In other words, after David stated that even after thorough examination no sin in thought would be found within him, he adds: examine human actions as well - which are deeds - and You will see that I did not sin even in deed. And which deeds? Those about which You investigated and warned by the word of Your lips not to perform, referring to the warnings of the Torah, the positive and negative commandments written within it, for the lips of Hashem are, as it were, that which the Torah commands. "You refined me and found nothing" - refine me, Master of the Universe, and You will find no sin in me, for "I have kept away from the paths of the lawless" - I was careful not to follow the ways of the lawless, those who breach boundaries and act contrary to the Torah. Therefore, examine and see that all my actions and deeds conform to the word of Your lips, according to what You commanded in the Torah, and I took care not to walk in paths that breach the boundaries.
תָּמֹךְ אֲשֻׁרַי בְּמַעְגְּלוֹתֶיךָ, בַּל נָמוֹטּוּ פְעָמָי. - Support my steps in Your tracks, that my footsteps may not falter.
The Malbim explains here, as well as in other places, that a ma'agal (circuit or track) is always a roundabout route. There is a straight road, and there is a circuitous route - going around to reach a specific destination. Sometimes one must deviate from the straight path onto a roundabout path, taking a detour through which alone the destination can be reached. By way of analogy: sometimes there is an obstacle in the road, and there is no choice but to take a detour.
And what is the lesson? In spiritual conduct, the Malbim says, there are times when one must deviate from the direct path. The direct path is the way of mercy, humility, and modesty, which is what the Torah demands of a person; that is the paved, direct highway. But sometimes one must take a detour: to act with harshness, pride, or boldness - the very opposite of mercy, humility, and modesty.
For example, toward wicked people who provoke Hashem, there is no place for mercy. Shmuel cut Agag to pieces and fed his flesh to the birds of prey. Surely today there would be many delicate souls raising objections to this - yet Shmuel was the prophet of Hashem, and Chazal said of him, "Moshe and Aharon among His priests, and Shmuel among those who call upon His name," second only to them in his level of prophecy. Showing mercy to the cruel is, in truth, cruelty toward the merciful. We saw what occurred with Shaul when he showed mercy to Amalek: as a result, we encountered Amalek again in a second edition in Megillat Esther, and later in a third edition in Nuremberg, Germany. It turns out, then, that when a person shows mercy to those who do not deserve mercy, he is not following the direct path; sometimes one must not walk in the straight path of mercy, but rather along the detour, which is the very path that leads to the true destination.
Or as another example, the Malbim notes, sometimes one must act contrary to the commandments of the Torah as an emergency measure (hora'at sha'ah), such as Eliyahu on Mount Carmel, who offered sacrifices there even though it fell under the prohibition of offering outside the Temple - and this was an emergency decree. Therefore David pleads: "Support my steps in Your tracks" - when I must deviate from the direct road, support me and help me, "that my footsteps may not falter," so that even then all my actions will be purely for the sake of Heaven. Consequently, whatever I did was entirely because You supported my steps; You guide my deeds so that they are righteous and upright within Your circuitous tracks.
When a person acts strictly according to the written law, he knows that the deed is valid and correct. But when he does not act according to what is written, saying instead: here harshness is required for the sake of Heaven - there is immense danger: what if you are not acting properly? And then what are you left with? Sheer cruelty. As discussed in the past, an aveirah lishmah (a transgression for the sake of Heaven) is an extremely dangerous matter. Why did Chazal speak of an aveirah lishmah only in earlier generations, whereas in recent generations we no longer encounter such an idea? Because when a person performs a mitzvah, even if it was not done purely for the sake of Heaven, he has still performed a mitzvah. What did you do? You put on tefillin. You fulfilled a mitzvah; your intention was not purely for the sake of Heaven, but nonetheless it remains a mitzvah. But when a person commits a transgression, if it was not purely for the sake of Heaven, completely free of any self-gratification, it can never be considered a mitzvah. The act will be deemed a mitzvah only if it is absolute in its purity of intention, and if that purity is lacking, one is left with nothing but a sin.
Therefore King David says: I needed support for my steps, to align myself with the proper path precisely within Your tracks - specifically on those occasions when it was necessary to detour from the straightforward path and act with harshness, boldness, or a lack of humility. And even then You guarded me, "that my footsteps may not falter" - my steps did not stumble; rather, I was privileged that You truly preserved my way, and even in those circumstances, I walked along the proper path.
The opening verses of the psalm lay out the three components of David's prayer - his righteousness, his distress over his enemies, and his spiritual well-being - ranking them with the terms of hearing, attending, and listening according to their degree of importance. From there, David recounts his righteousness: pure from sin in thought ("You have tested my heart, You visited by night"), pure from sin in speech ("my thought does not transgress my mouth" - meaning that not even a thought unfitting to be uttered crossed his mind), and pure from sin in deed ("Concerning the deeds of men, by the word of Your lips... I have guarded against the paths of the violent"). Finally, he asks for divine assistance even during those times when one must deviate from the straightforward path and take a circuitous route - acting with severity toward the wicked or through a temporary ruling (hora'at sha'ah) - where the danger is greatest. Therefore, he says, "Hold my steps fast in Your tracks, that my footsteps do not slip": that everything be done purely for the sake of Heaven, in the proper way.