Does Psalm 18:20 Refer to David’s Imputed Righteousness?

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Grace in Focus

Episode: Does Psalm 18:20 Refer to David’s Imputed Righteousness?
Date: March 23, 2026
Hosts: Bob Wilkin, Ken Yates
Produced by: Grace Evangelical Society

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Episode Overview

This concise, focused episode addresses a listener question regarding Psalm 18:20 and its reference to righteousness. Specifically, Bob Wilkin and Ken Yates discuss whether David, in Psalm 18, is alluding to his own earned or experiential righteousness or if he is referring to a future, Messiah-imputed righteousness—an idea central to discussions about justification, sanctification, and Free Grace Theology.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Context and Listener Question

[01:22-03:28]

• Question from Listener Todd: Does David, when speaking of being rewarded “according to my righteousness” (Psalm 18:20-24), refer to a righteousness received from the future Messiah or to his own personal righteousness, despite his known sins?
• Background: Bob clarifies he authored a commentary on Psalm 18 and acknowledges the question’s complexity.

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The Superscript and Historical Context

[03:28-04:50]

• Superscript Significance:
  • Bob explains that the Psalm’s superscript sets context: David sang this psalm after being delivered from Saul and his enemies.
  • Quote (Bob, 04:38):
    “It was a psalm of David…on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul.”
• Interpretation:
  • Ken asserts the ‘reward’ in this context is David’s preservation from death—a very real, physical deliverance.

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Nature of “Righteousness” in Psalm 18

[05:19-06:24]

• Not Imputed Righteousness:
  • Ken and Bob agree David speaks of personal, practical righteous living, not an imputed righteousness from the Messiah.
  • Quote (Ken, 06:29):
    “What David is saying is that he was obedient to the Lord when these enemies were after him. And the Lord rewarded him for that.”
• Messiah’s Role:
  • The hosts discuss whether David’s righteousness results from the Messiah’s future work or strength, ultimately agreeing the passage reflects David’s real-time obedience.

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Old Testament Characters vs. New Testament Standards

[07:57-09:07]

• David’s Flaws and Timeline:
  • They clarify the events celebrated in Psalm 18 occurred before David’s later major sins (Bathsheba/Uriah).
  • Quote (Bob, 07:15):
    “He was a person that was flawed—before Bathsheba and Uriah.”
• Judging Biblical Characters:
  • Bob points out the danger of judging Old Testament saints by New Testament (and especially church leadership) standards.

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Broader Biblical Examples

[09:07-10:34]

• Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11):
  • Bob references judges in Hebrews 11 (Samson, Gideon, Jephthah, Barak), noting their significant flaws.
  • Quote (Bob, 09:49):
    “These guys are terrible human beings. Samson, man alive... it was only at his death that he really was victorious.”
• Lot as ‘Righteous’:
  • Peter calls Lot ‘righteous’ (2 Peter 2) despite his questionable actions in Genesis.

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Personal and Experiential Righteousness

[10:34-12:52]

• Righteous Yet Flawed:
  • Ken suggests Christians can consider themselves righteous in a practical sense, even while acknowledging flaws.
  • Quote (Ken, 08:59):
    “Can we believe that we are righteous in our experience and yet see flaws in our own lives? I think we can.”
• Divine Empowerment and Responsibility:
  • Bob affirms God both empowers and holds believers responsible for righteous or unrighteous living.
  • Quote (Bob, 11:48):
    “…he knows he is a person who’s living in a way that is pleasing to God. And that’s not hubris… the Holy Spirit has made it clear to him that he is righteous.”
• Eternal Rewards:
  • Ken hints at the idea that living righteously is not only rewarded in this life but may also point toward eternal rewards.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Psalm’s Context:
  “I think what he’s talking about in verses 20 and 24 is he was rewarded with his life. He could have and should have died at the hands of Saul…”
  — Bob Wilkin [04:50]

• Balancing Human Flaws with Righteous Living:
  “Otherwise, none of us would be able to say, I am spiritually minded. None of us could say, I am a mature believer.”
  — Ken Yates [08:59]

• Judging Old Testament Characters:
  “David couldn’t be a janitor in a church today with all his women…and again, it happened later than Psalm 18. But, okay, you committed murder, you took this guy’s wife, you did all these other things… No, you can’t be a leader in this church.”
  — Bob Wilkin [09:07]

• Reward for Righteous Living:
  “And the Lord, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, rewards those who live righteously.”
  — Ken Yates [12:46]

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Important Timestamps

• [01:22] — Listener question is introduced
• [03:28] — Discussion of Psalm 18’s superscript/context
• [06:29] — Distinction between personal righteousness and imputed righteousness
• [07:15] — Addressing David’s flaws and timing
• [09:42] — Discussion of Hebrews 11 “Hall of Faith” figures
• [10:34] — Lot called ‘righteous’ in the New Testament
• [11:48] — Summarizing David’s practical righteousness and God’s reward

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Conclusion

Summary:
David’s declaration of righteousness in Psalm 18:20 refers to his own real-time, experiential obedience during the period of persecution by Saul—not to a future, Messiah-imputed righteousness. The hosts clarify this distinction, explore the broader implications for understanding righteousness and reward in the Old and New Testaments, and caution listeners against applying present-day standards retroactively to biblical figures.

Final Word:
Living righteously brings God’s rewards both now and in eternity, and anyone—like David—can be called righteous based on faithful, obedient living, even with human flaws.

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Transcript

[A]

The following is a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society. Did anyone in the Old Testament ever say anything much about imputed righteousness? What about Psalm 18 with David? What is the recompense he's talking about and what is the righteousness? Hello, welcome to Grace and Focus. We're glad you're joining us today. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical society. Our website faithalone.org if you go there you will find out many things about us, including that we have a bookstore, a free online seminary and a subscription free magazine also called Grace in Focus. Right now we'd love you to go to that website and find out more about our national annual conference. It is coming up in May 18th through the 21st and we want to sincerely invite you to come and be with us as we explore our major topic, Believe in Christ for Life. We'll have many teaching sessions, lots of great fellowship, good food, recreation at a beautiful setting, Camp Copass in Denton, Texas. Oh, and there's also VBS for the kids. Get all the information you need, get signed up. Come and join us faithalone.org now with today's question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilken and Ken Yates.

[B]

Bob, we got a. This is kind of a different question, but let's look at this one. It's from Todd about Psalm chapter 18. He talks about verses 20 through 24, but I'm going to just read part of it. We won't read all of it, but in Psalm 18:20. And by the way, Bob wrote the commentary, the grace Old Testament commentary he wrote on this chapter.

[C]

I did the first. I believe it's 41 is the first book. Yeah, book two starts in 42. So I did one through 41 and frankly I don't remember what I wrote.

[B]

But we're going to put the hefe. We're going to put Bob on the spot here. He is the expert.

[C]

I am ready to. You know, I can always answer every Bible question because I can always say I don't know or you can make

[B]

up something or that's what I do. I just make it up.

[C]

I can be like a politician and just speak around the bush.

[B]

There you go. Well, in Psalm 18, verse 20, here's what David said. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands. He has recompensed me or paid me. And then he says in verse 21, for I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not acted wickedly. And then in verse 24 he repeats himself, therefore The Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight, and taught at asked a question, he says, I know that David believed in the future coming Messiah for eternal life, but he goes, in these verses, does he understand? Here's the question. The righteousness that David is talking about here, where he says, the Lord recompensed me or paid me, does he see this righteousness as coming from the future Messiah? He goes, it just seems strange to me in this passage that David is talking about being righteous when he sinned a lot.

[C]

Okay, good question. Excellent question, Todd. One thing I would begin is to look at the superscript. Now, in the English Bible, we call it superscript because it's before verse one and it's put up above it. In the Hebrew Bible, that's actually verse one. And there's some question as to whether the superscripts are inspired or not. Now, David did not write the superscript. All the superscripts, not every psalm has a superscript, but many of them do, were added by a later editor. But the fact that it was added by a later editor doesn't mean it's not inspired. The Holy Spirit can inspire the later editor as well as the original writer. For example, you wrote the commentary on Deuteronomy, chapter 34, almost certainly wasn't written by David, I mean, by Moses, because that's after Moses death. So probably Joshua picked up the pen and finished the book out. But whoever finished the book out did it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

[B]

Right.

[C]

So that it's part of Deuteronomy. Well, the same thing here. Now, in my view, I think probably the superscripts were inspired. And notice what this one is. Would you read this superscript?

[B]

Yeah, it says that it was a psalm of David. And more importantly, I think what you're getting at here is the words of this song. On the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and. And from the hand of Saul.

[C]

Okay, So I think what he's talking about in verses 20 and 24 is he was rewarded with his life. He could have and should have died at the hands of Saul and Saul's troops if God had not rescued him. And so that was one way in which God rewarded him. Now, I do think more broadly, he sees all of the blessings in his life as a result of God rewarding him.

[B]

Well, I like that context, though. I like the context here of that. He may be referring to his whole life in general, but he may have something very specific in mind.

[C]

Well, notice verse 17, he delivered me

[B]

from my strong enemy. And of course, if the King is after you, that's a strong enemy.

[C]

Right. And from those who hated me and those who were too mighty for me. So. But the question Todd is asking is not specifically, what's the background of this psalm.

[B]

Right.

[C]

He's not even asking, what does David mean about being rewarded. What he asks is David talking about his own personal righteousness? Or he doesn't use the word imputed, but he means the imputed righteousness of Christ.

[B]

He may also mean, does David mean that he lived righteously because of the Messiah's strength in him or something? Because he says, does he understand that his righteousness somehow comes from the Messiah?

[C]

Oh, I see. So he might see it as imputed, but he might see it as the Messiah strengthening him to be righteous.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Now we have to interpret not only Psalm 18, but we also have to interpret Todd.

[B]

Right. I'm going to say no, that what David is saying is that he was obedient to the Lord when these enemies were after him.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And the Lord rewarded him for that.

[C]

Okay. But let's go to Todd's other part of the question. Isn't it true that David had lots of flaws in his life? Now, this is before, if I remember correctly, this is long before David became king. And this is long before David commits adultery with Bathsheba. And this is long before he murders Uriah or has Uriah put in the hot front lines and gets killed. So Todd, I don't think we can go ahead to what he's going to do in the future and say we're going to call that against his account at this point.

[B]

But to be fair, but he was

[C]

a person that was flawed.

[B]

Sure, he was flawed before Bathsheba and Uriah.

[A]

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[C]

all the wives he had and all the children he had and how he didn't really raise his children well. And he had on top of that, you know, like Absalom, he didn't raise him well. And after Absalom he goes years without talking to Absalom, and then Absalom ends up rebelling and all kinds of problems in his life. Now, that's obviously later in his life, but some of the seeds of that were earlier. But here's the thing, and Todd, I think this is true for all of us. Can we believe that we are righteous in our experience and yet see flaws in our own lives? I think we can. Otherwise, none of us would be able to say, I am spiritually minded. None of us could say, I am a mature believer. There could be no elders in local churches because nobody would be convinced they met the standards of being an elder. Even if the people in the church said, yeah, yeah, we look at you and we see you meet those standards, they go, no, I refuse, because I don't believe it.

[B]

Two, we need to be careful of judging Old Testament characters by New Testament standards.

[C]

That's a good point.

[B]

Yeah. If we look at David, David couldn't be a janitor in a church today with all his women. And again, it happened later than Psalm 18. But, okay, you committed murder, you took this guy's wife, you did all these other things. No, you can't be a leader in this church. And so I think we need to be careful. And one of the things I base it upon is in Hebrews 11:32, it talks about four of the judges being in the hall of Faith. And when you look at those four guys, there's Samson, there's Gideon, there's Jephthah, and there's Barak.

[C]

Those first three are terrible. And wasn't Barak the one with Deborah? He was the one that abdicated rulership. So all four of those are terribly human.

[B]

Yeah, these guys are terrible human beings. Samson, man alive, you know, it was

[C]

only at his death that he really was victorious.

[B]

Right. And so do we look at someone like that and say, okay, well, he finished well, you know. He finished well. He did, yeah. But boy, you know, he took a lot.

[C]

He had a Delilah problem.

[B]

And not only Delilah, he marry a Philistine. And then he had another prostitute before Delilah. Then he meets Delilah and he's. He's going on it alone. Now, someone might say, well, that's because the nation of Israel wasn't backing him. And okay, but again, as we look at someone like David, I mean, yeah, if I judge David by today's standards, I would not say he was a man after God's own heart.

[C]

Well, not only that, Peter calls lot righteous in Second Peter two. And yet when you read Genesis, Lot doesn't come across as sounding too righteous

[B]

if we didn't have what Peter said about Lot, I know the Lordship people would say lot's burning in hell. Right. Because he loves Sodom. He didn't want to leave Sodom. He gets drunk and gets two of his daughters pregnant.

[C]

I mean, well, of course, now, as you've said to me before, he didn't willfully get drunk and he didn't willfully get his daughters pregnant. That really counts on them.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And in terms of Sodom, even though it appears in the Old Testament that he was comfortable there, according to Peter, which is correct.

[B]

Right.

[C]

His soul was tormented night and day by the wickedness around him.

[B]

Right.

[C]

So that you can sometimes get the wrong impression because the Old Testament doesn't come right out and say that.

[B]

Right. And so to get to Todd's question, let's just summarize in the little bit of time we have left. I would just summarize. And since you're the expert on this, since you wrote it, the commentary, would you agree with this that he's just saying that in this particular situation, God rewarded him because he what, trusted in him when he was faced with these enemies?

[C]

Yeah. And he was a righteous person. In other words, he knows he is a person who's living in a way that is pleasing to God. And that's not hubris. He knows that that's the case. God has revealed it to him. I mean, here he's writing in scripture, Right. This is inspired scripture. He says this so he's not making something up. The Holy Spirit has made it clear to him that he is righteous. Now, if you want to ask what Todd meant by because of Messiah, obviously it is clear. It's because God empowers him and enables him. But it's also true that God is willing and able to empower every believer and that some are righteous and some are not. And so there is some sense in which the believer living righteously has some responsibility for doing that. And the believer who lives unrighteously has responsibility for doing that.

[B]

And the Lord, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, rewards those who live righteously. And that's what David wants to do.

[C]

And I think there's even a hint here of eternal rewards.

[B]

Well, thanks for the question, Todd. We appreciate you. And remember, keep grace in focus.

[A]

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