Thought for the day – Psalm 101

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Psalm 101

1 Of David. A psalm.

I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise.

2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life—when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart. 3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they shall not cling to me. 4 Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil. 5 Whoever slanders his neighbour in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.

6 My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me. 7 No-one who practises deceit will dwell in my house; no-one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.  8 Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.

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Psalm 101 – Negatives and positives?

(Verse 1) In this psalm, David, known as the ‘sweet palmist of Israel’, announces his personal intention to sing ‘to You, O LORD’. The reason is to praise God. The truths about God that move David to praise Him now are God’s ‘love and justice’. Justice without love would sentence all to Hell to be punished forever for the mountain of sins committed against God in our lifetimes, whether long or short. Hebrews 9:27 states clearly that, ‘man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.’ The only possible verdict must be ‘Guilty’ – just as charged. Romans 1:18 adds that, God’s wrath is ‘revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.’  But love without justice would ignore God’s holiness, that hates and judges sin, and would welcome the contaminant of sin into Heaven, like welcoming the Covid 19 virus into a hospital. But Jesus ‘Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree [the cross]’, so when we receive Christ in our hearts we are ‘healed’ from our sins. By the Holy Spirit now in us, we start to ‘live for righteousness’. Does that describe you and your own experience of Jesus?

(Verses 2-5) Such a real step of repenting for your sins and submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ makes you desire to live for the Lord ‘a blameless life’. You know you always need the privilege of having God with you. He alone can come afresh to you each day and enable you to ‘walk’ with a ‘blameless heart’. That affects all areas of your life, so you can please God, and as a result, know His daily blessings. Decide not to look at any ‘vile thing’ –including filth, pornography and ungodly television, as well as what you read. Hate the sinful deeds of men with no faith. Do not allow yourself to get too close to them, but do meet with and show forth Christ to them. Also stay as far away in your very closest relationships as you can from those who are of a ‘perverse heart’ (meaning so sinful as to be foolish) and any form of ‘evil’. Do not allow unfair slandering of others in secret. Simply refuse to listen and say so, and why. Resist sinful pride (first, in your own heart) and do not encourage it in others either.

(Verses 6-8) From all the above and from verses 7 and 8, you can see that to be negative about sinful things is positive in seeking to please God. Reject lying to endorse truth. Do not swear or blaspheme to encourage good and godly speech. Say ‘No’ to theft (of small or big things) and you promote honesty. King David plans to oppose deceit and lies. He also aims to apply those standards in how he rules others. But he seeks close fellowship and friendship with those who are the Lord’s and try to live blamelessly and faithfully to the LORD. Let us seek to do the same!