Who Are the Righteous Mentioned Throughout the Psalms?

The Lord Watches Over and Guides the Righteous

We meet “the congregation of the righteous” and are promised that the Lord “knows the way of the righteous” right at the start of the Psalter (Ps. 1:5–6). But who are they? We will never make friends with the Psalms, let alone begin to enjoy and appropriate them in our devotions, until we know. They appear again and again, especially in book 1 (Pss. 1–41), often in contrast to “the wicked.”¹ The purpose of this essay is to explore (1) who they are and (2) how their righteousness is connected with the righteousness of Christ.

So many promises are attached to these people. Not only does the covenant Lord watch over their way and guide their steps (Ps. 1:6), he blesses and protects them (Ps. 5:12), he is with them and terrifies their enemies (Ps. 14:5), he surrounds them with steadfast love (Ps. 32:10–11), he watches them with his eyes and listens for their cries with his ears (Ps. 34:15–17), he upholds them (Ps 37:17), and he gives them the new creation, which is the fulfillment of the promised land (Ps. 37:29), so that they will flourish in his presence forever (Ps. 92:12–13). These people—and it is important to remember that these were real flesh-and-blood people—are showered with blessing. It matters deeply to know who they are, not least so that you and I can make sure we belong among them, inherit their promises, and sing their psalms.

Two large and closely related problems raise their heads. First, we struggle to know what to make of it when psalmists claim to be righteous, sometimes in quite strong terms. For example, the prayer “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness / and according to the integrity that is in me” (Ps. 7:8) rather alarms us. What if the Lord did judge me according to my righteousness? He would find it severely wanting. Dare I pray this?

The Psalms

Christopher Ash

In this comprehensive, 4-volume commentary, Christopher Ash provides a thorough treatment of all 150 Psalms, examining each chapter’s significance to David and the other psalmists, to Jesus during his earthly ministry, and to the church of Christ in every age.

Second, we have to grapple with the apparent contradiction that the psalmists who claim to possess righteousness also admit that it is impossible to be righteous before God (e.g., “Enter not into judgment with your servant, / for no one living is righteous before you,” Ps. 143:2). How can both be true at the same time? How can I possess righteousness if I have no righteousness?

There is a simple, superficially attractive, and yet deeply problematic “solution.” This is to conclude that claims to righteousness in the Psalms are actually professions of self-righteousness that anticipate the later self-righteousness of the Pharisees so roundly condemned by the Lord Jesus (e.g., Luke 18:9–14).²

This answer is unsatisfactory, first, because it supposes that some of the words of the psalmists are flawed expressions of a sinful attitude. Many do think this to be the case, as also with the prayers for the punishment of the wicked (the so-called but misnamed “imprecations”).³ But we have no warrant to suppose that the Psalms contain a mixture of truth and error (unlike the speeches of Job’s three comforters, of whom God explicitly tells us that their words are not entirely trustworthy, Job 42:7).

This “solution” is also unsatisfactory because it does not reflect the portrayal of the righteous in the Psalms themselves. While it would be possible to “read back” New Testament expositions of righteousness, especially in the apostle Paul, I focus here on building up a picture from the Psalms themselves. I do this under seven heads, before considering how these people compare with those accounted righteous by grace under the new covenant.

The subheadings that follow are based on a fairly comprehensive study of the word groups “righteous” and “righteousness” in the Psalms. There are more than 120 verses in which one or more of these terms occur, in fifty-nine different psalms. A full study would consider each of these in context.

The questions we are asking are “Who are these people?” and “What are their longings, their pleasures, their hopes, and their fears?”

As we consider them, it is worth remembering that a word study of “righteous” or “righteousness”⁴ misses the parallel descriptions in which these people are often referred to as “upright” or “upright of heart,” meaning straightforwardly moral in their lives (e.g., Pss. 11:7; 32:10, 11; 33:1; 36:10; 37:37; 94:15; 97:11); as “blameless,” having integrity, the opposite of hypocrisy (e.g., Pss. 15:2; 18:25; 37:18, 37; 64:4; 101:2, 6; 119:1); and, on one occasion, as “the living” (Ps. 69:28), since they live in the sight of God. These are all the same people, whose prayers and praises are expressed in the Psalms and whose contours are there delineated.

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The Righteous: Their Delight

At the heart of the question lies the heart of the righteous. In what, or in whom, do they most deeply delight? Had they been incipient Pharisees, the answer would have been, for each one, “I delight in myself. I thank God that I am who I am. I praise myself. And I want others to praise me.”

That the praise and delight of the righteous is focused intensely on the covenant Lord gives perhaps the clearest indication that they belong to this covenant Lord by grace. Repeatedly we are told that their joy and exultation are found in the Lord (e.g., Pss. 33:1; 64:10; 68:3; 97:12). It is the covenant Lord who energizes them and delights their hearts.

The Righteous: Their Desire

Closely tied to the delight of the righteous is the question of their desire, their hope, their longing, their aspiration. What do they hope for? The answer, which follows necessarily, logically, and experientially from their delight, is that they desire to see the face of the covenant Lord God. Nothing is more precious to them than to have the face (the personal, beneficent presence) of the Lord turned toward them, both in this life (in part) and in eternity (in full). This is a most precious promise (e.g., Ps. 11:7). Not to have it is the most painful experience on earth (e.g., Pss. 13:1–2; 88:14). Him they seek (Pss. 24:6; 27:8–9), and for him they thirst (e.g., Pss. 42:1–2; 143:6–7). Far from being satisfied in themselves and with themselves, their desire is passionately and intensely directed upward to the Lord.

The Righteous: Their Repentance

The third facet of the righteous to which I want to draw our attention is of a rather different kind: their penitence. Far from being self-confident, the truly righteous person knows deeply his or her own sinfulness and urgent need of repentance. As Christoph Barth notes, “It is the righteous who confess their unrighteousness before God; only the godless man refuses to do this, because he regards himself as righteous.”⁵

We see this most clearly in Psalm 32, in which David celebrates and tells the story of how he rediscovers the blessing of confession of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. At the end of the psalm, he exhorts all who walk this way of repentance, “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous” (Ps. 32:11). This “congregation of the righteous” (Ps. 1:5) consists of men and women who have learned, and continue to learn, the necessity and the blessing of confession and repentance. Here in anticipation we see the tax collector, rather than the Pharisee, of Jesus’s parable (Luke 18:9–14). We see this spirit again at the start of Psalm 143, in which David leads those who have no natural righteousness (Ps. 143:2) in pleading for covenant mercy (Ps. 143:1), that God in his righteousness will answer him, and them, with steadfast love (Ps. 143:8).

Psalms without Christ are like law without gospel.

The Righteous: Their Refuge

The fourth facet is perhaps the one that most clearly indicates the presence of faith or trust. It asks and answers the question “Whither or to whom do the righteous flee when under pressure or threat?”

Again and again, we hear and see the righteous fleeing to the covenant Lord as their refuge, the only safe place in the face of the assaults of their enemies and ultimately in the face of the righteous judgment of God. To him they cry for help in troubles, and he delivers them (Ps. 34:15, 17, 19, 21). They commit their way to him, trust in him, confident that he will bring into the open the righteousness (or vindication) that he will give them (e.g., Ps. 37:5–6). For him they wait and hope (e.g., Ps. 37:7), for he “is their stronghold in the time of trouble” (Ps. 37:39). They cast their burden on him, trusting that “he will never permit / the righteous to be moved” (Ps. 55:22). Repeatedly they take refuge in him (e.g., Ps. 64:10). One of the psalms where we see this most intensely is Psalm 71 (e.g., Ps. 71:2–3, 15–16, 19, 24).

The Righteous: Their Life

A sketch of the righteous in the Psalms would be woefully incomplete if it did not mention their visible life. I have deliberately held discussion of this theme until now because their life is the fruit, not the root, of their existence as believers in the covenant God. It would be a mistake to begin with a consideration of their lives of right living. Nevertheless, their lives are inseparable from their identity and closely tied to their blessing and assurance. The covenant Lord does not give to his King and people a righteousness of status simply that they may enjoy it while continuing to live evil lives, for he “is righteous” and “loves righteous deeds” (Ps. 11:7; cf. Ps. 33:5). It is very clear (e.g., in Pss. 15; 24) that authentic righteousness of life is the necessary marker of the genuine Messiah and of his people. Jesus is the fulfillment of Psalms 15 and Psalm 24, as he is of all the descriptions of human righteousness in the Psalms.

Those who are truly righteous—by virtue of being members of the covenant people under the King, their covenant head—and who are genuinely righteous—because they trust the covenant promises (fulfilled in Christ)—will live upright, blameless, and righteous lives. Perhaps the clearest exposition of this truth in the Psalms is in Psalm 111 and Psalm 112. Psalm 111 celebrates the righteousness of the covenant Lord. Then Psalm 112 (with close echoes) declares a blessing on those who exhibit those same qualities in the generosity (cf. Ps. 37:21) and righteousness of their lives.6 These people act and speak (cf. Ps. 37:30) in ways that demonstrate the fruit of their hearts of faith. Paul will later call this “the obedience of faith” (e.g., Rom. 1:5; 16:26), and the letter of James will expound it forcefully.

Conclusion: Righteousness in the Psalms and New Covenant Righteousness

If we ask, “Are the righteous in the Psalms the same as those who are righteous by grace alone through faith alone under the new covenant?” the answer must be “Yes and no.” Overwhelmingly, the answer is “Yes!” We who are new covenant believers, belonging to Christ, share with them their delight in God, their desire to see the face of God, their penitence, their fleeing to God for refuge from both troubles and judgment, their assurance of forgiveness because of their covenant head, and the outworking of their faith in righteousness of life, and we also experience the presence in our world, as in theirs, of hostility to Christ and his people (cf. John 15:18–16:4).

But there is, I think, one significant difference between these righteous old covenant believers and believers in Christ under the new covenant. It is this: under the new covenant we enjoy a deeper assurance and the riches of a definitively cleansed conscience, and this is a blessing known only in anticipation and shadow under the old covenant (see Heb. 8–10).⁶

So when we come across the righteous in the Psalms, as we do in more than a third of the Psalms, we recognize in them people who trusted in the Christ to come. By believing and living in the obedience of faith in the covenant promises, they believed implicitly in the Christ who would fulfill those promises. They did not know as clearly as we do the fullness of that magnificent Christ or the grandeur of those gospel promises. But that aside, we recognize in them people very like us today in Christ. This transforms the way we read the Psalms.

The dynamic of law and gospel is an important part of the substructure of my reading of the Psalms. Psalms without Christ are like law without gospel. Only Christ renders the Psalms a source of gospel-shaped comfort, gospel-shaped prayers, and gospel-shaped praises.

This article is adapted from The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary (Volume 1, Introduction: Christ and the Psalms) by Christopher Ash.

Christopher Ash is writer in residence at Tyndale House in Cambridge. He previously served as a pastor and church planter and as the director of the Proclamation Trust Cornhill Training Course in London. He and his wife, Carolyn, are members of a church in Cambridge, and they have four children and numerous grandchildren.

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