Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
The verse voices David's troubled feeling that keeping his heart clean and his hands washed in innocence had been in vain while the wicked prospered and he himself stumbled. That sense of futility arises from looking at apparent injustice and concluding that faithfulness brings no benefit. The doubt is misplaced, for God had not separated Himself from him, but he had separated himself from God. Seeming unfairness in providence does not make purity and obedience pointless. The answer to the complaint is to choose to abide in Christ and to place the soul deliberately in God's keeping.
The verse voices David's troubled feeling that keeping his heart clean and his hands washed in innocence had been in vain while the wicked prospered and he himself stumbled. That sense of futility arises from looking at apparent injustice and concluding that faithfulness brings no benefit. The doubt is misplaced, for God had not separated Himself from him, but he had separated himself from God. Seeming unfairness in providence does not make purity and obedience pointless. The answer to the complaint is to choose to abide in Christ and to place the soul deliberately in God's keeping.