Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 7:8

"Jehovah ministereth judgment to the peoples: Judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness, and to mine integrity that is in me." — Psalms 7:8 (ASV)

The Lord shall judge the people - Expressing his confident belief that God would intervene, and that His judgment would not be delayed much longer. The proposition is a general one: that God would ensure justice is done to all people. On this ground, the psalmist pleads that He would now intervene and defend him from his enemies.

Judge me, O Lord - That is, in my present circumstances. Intervene to do justice to my cause, and to vindicate me from these false accusations.

According to my righteousness - This refers to this particular case, because proper laws of interpretation require us to confine this statement to that specific context. He does not say that he wanted his own righteousness to be the basis of judgment in determining his eternal welfare, or that he depended on his own righteousness for salvation—for that is not the point in question. Instead, he felt that his cause, in this case, was righteous. He knew he was not guilty of the charge alleged against him; he was an injured, wronged, and slandered man. Consequently, he prayed that God would vindicate him from these charges and defend him from those who were unjustly persecuting him.

With all our sense of personal unworthiness in the matter of salvation, it is not improper, when we are wronged, to pray that God would intervene and vindicate us in that particular case, according to our innocence of the charges alleged against us.

And according to mine integrity that is in me - Hebrew, "my perfection." This means his perfection in this case; his entire freedom from the charges brought against him; his absolute innocence regarding the points under consideration. A man may be conscious of perfect innocence regarding a particular matter and yet have a deep sense of his general unworthiness and of the fact that he is a sinner against God. That I am innocent of a particular act charged against me does not prove that I am guiltless altogether. That I should allege that, insist on it, and pray to God to vindicate me in that specific instance, does not prove that I depend on that for the salvation of my soul, or that I claim absolute perfection before Him.