Conflict can be the perfect incubator for self-righteousness. If you are in a fight—with a neighbor, fellow church member, friend, spouse—it is easy to let their faults cancel yours. A sense of victimhood, true or false, tempts us to write-off our own responsibilities. In Jesus' words we "see the speck that is in [our] brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in [our] own eye?" (Matt. 7:3).
This is not to deny the reality of oppression. In a fallen world there are real victims and actual oppressors. There are times when you truly are the injured party. But even then you may not stop testing your own heart.
In this last of the penitential psalms David is an actual victim. He has a just cause to appeal to God to deliver him from his enemies and destroy his adversaries (9, 12). And in his trouble he shows us how to resist making a self-righteous plea for justice. In fact he starts with his own unrighteousness. So Psalm 143 is a much-needed guide for how believing sinners should cry for God's help.
