This psalm is titled as a prayer of David who claims he prays with integrity. David apparently has spent sleepless nights evaluating himself since he claims here he has been proven innocent by the Lord’s probing, examining and testing of his heart at night. David is under distress it appears for having stood faithful to God’s ways and true to God’s words, instead of having compromised his righteousness by accepting bribes and following the words of men.

Now that the situation has become difficult and men have complicated life, David turns confidently to the Lord for vindication. David asks that God show him “the wonders of your great love!” The word translated “love” here is the covenant love or the covenant faithfulness the Lord had promised to Israel. David has confidently obeyed the Lord, so he now confidently asks his covenant partner for divine deliverance.

David asks the Lord for vindication from those who have misrepresented or lied about David. He asks the Lord “may your eyes see what is right” instead seeing the twisted image David’s adversaries present of David. David knows that men can mislead other men by publicly slandering David, but the attacks of wicked men who assail David have no bearing on the Lord’s opinion. Thus, David asks the Lord to show his covenant faithfulness and “keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.”

As the seeds of rebellion against the church began to spread in the 1400’s the Roman Catholic Church turned to physical force, intimidation and torture to crush the heretics by establishing the Spanish Inquisition in 1478. This system had begun back in 1184 when the Pope required all bishops to question their people concerning their faith and to excommunicate those in disagreement. By 1229 many of the “heretics” had accessed the Scriptures, so the Dominican friars where charged with using force to find and punish these “heretics.” If civil authorities stood in the way they were stripped of their power and excommunicated. In 1252 Pope Innocent IV authorized the use of torture to secure a confession of heresy or to get information.

In Spain King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella asked to become the inquisitors in Spain so that they could insure God’s blessing on their nation. Of course, many Jews and Muslims in Spain converted to Christianity at this time. The legendary Dominican friar named Tomas de Torquemada was named Inquisitor General in Spain. The intimidation was so successful that Protestantism never took hold in Spain. The effect is still visible in Spain and countries Spain influenced in the new word today.