I will sing of [steadfast] lovingkindness and justice;To You, O Lord, I will sing praises. I will behave wisely and follow the way of integrity.When will You come to me?I will walk in my house in integrity and with a blameless heart. I will set no worthless or wicked thing before my eyes.I hate the practice of those who fall away [from the right path];It will not grasp hold of me. A perverse heart shall depart from me;I will not tolerate evil. Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will silence;The one who has a haughty look and a proud (arrogant) heart I will not tolerate. My eyes will be on the faithful (honorable) of the land, that they may dwell with me;He who walks blamelessly is the one who will minister to and serve me. He who practices deceit will not dwell in my house;He who tells lies and half-truths will not continue [to remain] in my presence. Morning after morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land,That I may cut off from the city of the Lord all those who do evil.

Psalm 101

On August 22, 1949, Time magazine reported on the rising popularity of a beautiful seventeen-year old actress whose career to that date had involved her playing roles of youthful innocence.

The interview revealed her inner world as far different from the screen images she had portrayed. “She pretends to no more learning than she needs,” wrote Time, “reads little besides movie magazines, hates school, loves ice cream sodas, convertibles, swimming pools, and admires big strong men.”

Asked about her future in movies, she gasped excitedly, “What I’d really like to play is a monster-a hellion.”

As her life evolved, she went from one big strong man to another and had opportunity to play the hellion role she coveted as a teen. Her name? Elizabeth Taylor.

Life does sometimes give you what you ask for.

In Psalm 101, David sets forth wonderful ideals by which he proposed to live.

The psalm forces this question upon us personally: “Am I living in the humdrum of day-to-day without good aspirations for my conduct or with a clean heart filled with noble goals?

George Wood

As Psalm 101 opens, we are reminded that when we choose to live rightly, we have inner freedom and God puts a song in our hearts. However, when we act outside God’s will, morally or ethically, you substitute self-fulfillment for true love and we justify wrong conduct by saying, “I’m the exception.” On the other hand, when we walk in the sunlight of God’s will we can sing unhindered praise to God of love and justice.(verse 1).

In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, when we find him focusing upon God in His holy temple, he is immediately drawn by God to turn his attention to his own personal standard of conduct. Psalm 101 provides this same movement- one serving a moral God forces them to consider their own code of behavior: “I will be careful to lead a blameless life.”(verse 2).

In this psalm, David’s expressed desire to live nobly includes five pinpointed applications we can use every day. If we relegate our spiritual lives to broad generalizations rather than focusing on exact instances of conduct and attitude,we do poorly.

David’s applications begin with the statement, “In my[own] house.” Let us begin by asking: “What kind of a person will I be in my own house?” David’s response and hopefully ours is: “I will walk in my house with blameless heart”(verse 2). Our real identity is not found in public, but in our own homes. Who are we there? Are we faithful, considerate, cheerful, seeking to serve rather than being served, loving rather than waiting to be loved?

Application two: “Before my eyes.” David purposes to set no “vile thing” before his eyes. What about us? What movies, books, magazines, internet sites, or live events do we permit in our field of view? If we let our eye-gate fall into disrepair, the enemy will storm our lives and wreak havoc on our inside. We must choose carefully what we look at lest our walk with the Lord becomes diluted.

Application three: “Deeds of faithless men I hate.” As Christians we are usually very uncomfortable with the word “hate.” After all, we reason, Jesus taught us to love. But Psalm 101 calls us not to hate people- just their deeds- “the deeds of faithless men”(verse 3). Who are these faithless people? The following sign was found posted in a restaurant: “He was as good as his word, and his word wasn’t any good.” How about us?

Application four: “Far from me.” In this psalm, David not only disavows the deeds of the faithless, but he also pledges to keep far away from people with perverse hearts. Who are these people? They are those whose twisted thinking calls good evil and evil good. They twist words to say, “The end justifies the means.” There’s no doubt we will stay thousands of miles from such attitudes if we make our decisions by asking truthfully this question: “What would Jesus do?”

Application five: “Slanders….put to silence.” What kinds of speech do we allow in our presence? In Psalm 101, David acts to protect the character of others by not allowing gossip or character smearing to be spoken while he was in the room. He vows to not get caught up in the same attitudes as the proud(verse 5). Rather, he purposed to choose as his closest associates those whose lives were worthy of imitation(verse 6). We must understand that we are known by the company we keep- don’t develop a tolerance for liars(verse 7).

Most modern audiences would view verse 8 as intolerant behavior- certainly not their image of God’s way. Here in this psalm, we find David holding the responsibility of governing evildoers and rewarding those who do good. We might not run the government, but God does allow us to make decisions affecting ourselves and others. Whom have we allowed into our lives as influencers today? Have we kept our hearts so that we can recognize who or what is wicked? Are we willing to make the difficult choices to remove ourselves from situations or persons that being harm to our walk with God?

Psalm 101 reflects the best intentions of David. Although with Bathsheba and Uriah, he failed miserably, he did not permit that failure to finish him. He repented and made the decision for a fresh start by pursuing again noble ideals. We, as someone has said, might not get there when we reach for the stars, but at least we won’t end up with a handful of mud.

Dr. John Thompson