431. Symbolical Hand Washing

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Psalm 26:66I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord: (Psalm 26:6). I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord.
There were several occasions on which the Jews were accustomed to wash their hands in connection with religious rites. The Psalmist may have had one or all of these in mind when he uttered the text. See also Psalm 73:1313Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. (Psalm 73:13).
1. There was the washing required of the priests in the service of the tabernacle and temple. The brazen laver was made for this purpose. See Exodus 40:30-3230And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water there, to wash withal. 31And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat: 32When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the Lord commanded Moses. (Exodus 40:30‑32). It is said to have been customary for the priests, when they had bound the sacrifice to the horns of the altar to march around it, after they had washed their hands. Thus David says, “So will I compass thine altar, O Lord.”
2. The Jews were also accustomed to wash their hands before engaging in prayer. Paul is thought to refer to this in the expression “holy hands” in 1 Timothy 2:88I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. (1 Timothy 2:8).
3. There were certain ceremonies directed to be observed in cases of murder where the murderer was unknown. The elders of the city nearest to which the body of the murdered man was found were directed to strike off a heifer’s head, and then it is commanded that they “shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley: and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it” (Deut. 21: 6-7). This was considered a most solemn asseveration on their part of their innocence in the matter. Pilate, though a Gentile, had probably lived long enough among the Jews to understand this custom, and is, therefore, supposed to refer to it when, on the demand of the people that Barabbas be freed and Jesus crucified, “he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it” (Matt. 27:2424When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. (Matthew 27:24)). The custom is said to have been Gentile as well as Jewish; but this is denied. See Bloomfield, Greek Testament, see Matthew 27:2424When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. (Matthew 27:24).
Since David desires in this text to symbolize inward purity by outward washing, any one of these customs may serve for illustration.