Righteous Resolutions

When a man became King in Israel he was given a copy of The Law (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). He was told to:

Read it all the days of his life

Learn to fear God

Keep the commands written in it

This was for his own benefit and the benefit of Israel. This Psalm is written by David and it appears to be his response to the overwhelming task of ruling as King over God’s people. We shouldn’t be surprised that David would respond in this way. He was a man after God’s own heart. In this Psalm we are going to see his personal resolutions.

Illustration: Imagine how David might feel his first day as King. Us on the first day of a new job, being a parent.

How does this relate to us? It relates to us because his resolutions are not focused on policy or procedure. They are very simple and they are applicable to not only the King of Israel but to every child of God.

Illustration: Explain the joy and commitment that the new believer should experience.

When you are saved you become a child of the King. You are a citizen of the Kingdom. The first thing every Christian should receive is a Bible. They should:

Read it all the days of their life

Learn to fear God

Keep the commandments written in it

Secondly, they should recognize the great privilege and overwhelming responsibility of representing Christ. You are a Christian. Christ is in your name.

We are not on the throne like David was.

We are in Christ.

Being in Christ gives us even greater responsibility.

We know more than David did. We have seen Christ in the gospels.

We have more than David did. Bible, Spirit, gifts, etc.

What we see in this Psalm is a resolve to be faithful to the Lord. This resolve is revealed in the many times we see the phrase “I will”. David is determined to live for God. It is his heartbeat. It is what he wants more than anything.

Do we have that same resolve?

Are we determined to live for Christ?

I’m going to share with you four resolutions we need to make if we are going to faithfully live for Christ in this ungodly world.

1. A Resolve to Live a Righteous Life (1-3a)

A. He begins with worshipping our loving and just God (1).

I will sing of steadfast love and justice.

We become like that which we worship.

God is love. God loves us.

God is just. God will punish sin.

There must be a balance of these two in our life.

God is no more loving than He is just, He is no more just than He is loving.

We will be tempted to abandon one for the other.

Legalism will cause us to abandon the love of God.

We forget about forgiveness, mercy and grace.

Liberalism will cause us to abandon the justice of God.

We excuse sin and justify those who continue in it.

The perfect balance of God’s love and justice is demonstrated at the cross:

He loves sinners- He dies for them

He hates sin- He died because of it.

Is there a balance of this in my life?

Illustration: Father who marched daughter to front of church to stand in corner.

If we love correctly, we will: Be patient with sinners, pray for sinners, receive the repentant.

If we believe in the justice of God we will: warn people of sin, witness to the lost, discipline when necessary.

David would rule his kingdom with both justice and love and that is how all in the kingdom of God should rule themselves.

B. He will live with personal integrity (2).

I will ponder the way that is blameless.

There will be thoughtfulness when it comes to living. He will think about the way he behaves. He will be intentional in his righteous living.

I will walk with integrity of heart within my house.

This isn’t something he does only in public. This isn’t for show.

Spurgeon said of this verse:

Do you sing in the choir and sin in the chamber? Are you a saint abroad and a devil at home? For shame! What we are at home, that we are indeed!

Notice the phrase “Oh when will you come to me?” (2)

David doesn’t want to appear to be a godly man. He wants to be a godly man. You can’t be a godly man if God is not with you.

David knew you couldn’t be one thing in public and another in private if God were with you. In Psalm 15 he said:

Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

The Christian should resolve not only to appear to be a righteous person but to be a righteous person.

C. He will guard his eyes (3a).

I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.

He moves from within (his heart (2) to without (his eyes).

He will not even look at a worthless thing.

Hebrew for worthless is Belial. It speaks of a false god.

He recognized there were false gods. He would not set one before him or anything that was related to one.

There were kings who set idols up in the Temple. They did so in the name of diversity. David knew not to even look upon such things.

Lust always begins with a look.

Listen to me Americans. We ought to say In God we trust, not in gods we trust. There is nothing virtuous about polytheism.

You look at something long enough you begin to excuse it.

Drunkenness

Homosexuality

Profanity

It is the same with false religions.

I have no desire to see Islam’s star and crescent moon

I get no joy out of a statue of the Buddha.

I don’t want the Wiccan’s pentagram before my eyes.

Give me a cross! Remind me of God’s love!

Give me the Ten Commandments! Remind me of God’s justice!

Give me a dove! Remind me of God’s Spirit!

2. A Resolve to Separate from Sinful People (3b-5).

A. We ought to separate ourselves from those who abandon the faith (3b).

“Those who fall away” are reprobates, apostates. They have abandoned the faith they once claimed to have.

In David’s day it was people who left Judaism for the religion of the pagans. They worshipped the Baals. David said they would not convince him to follow them.

People fall away. I have seen it. It is heart breaking. I have seen people fall from the faith that I thought never would.

I loved them.

I couldn’t go with them. They will try and get you to follow. Misery loves company.

Deconstructionism is the latest fad. Our young people are being deceived. Jesus has given us a warning in the person of Judas. If you want to know where abandoning the faith leads you look at him. If you abandon the faith, you will be just like him.

B. We ought to separate ourselves from a perverse heart (4).

The context suggests a chasing away of a person with a perverse heart.

The KJV says “shall depart from me”.

The ESV says “shall be far from me”

I think David is saying he will separate himself from perverted people.

The Hebrew word includes what we would consider a definition of our English word “perverted”.

Please listen folks:

Stay far away from pornography and far away from sexually immoral people.

Images

Jokes

Language

Books

Movies

Nothing will corrupt you like perversion will.

If you are engaged in it stop now.

Destroy every page.

Remove every app.

Delete every photo/video

Every single time you look at pornography you have committed adultery in your heart.

C. We ought to separate ourselves from those who slander (5).

Notice the “haughty look and an arrogant heart” This is a description of those who slander. We slander people because we think too much of ourselves.

Notice the slander is “secret”. Who is it secret to? The one being slandered. It’s gossip when we would not speak it to their face. That’s why we gossip. We don’t have the guts to say it to their face.

Let’s think about the gossip for a moment:

They have no desire for the problem to be fixed. If they did, they would go to the person they are slandering.

They don’t care about the person they are slandering or else they would at least be quiet.

They don’t care about the damage they cause to the body through their slander.

They are proud people thinking only of themselves.

There are people who claim to be Christians but have no intention on solving problems only on creating them. If we are to live a life above reproach, we must separate ourselves from such people.

3. A Resolve to Surround Ourselves with Godly People (6).

A. Those who are faithful should be closest to us.

We are tempted to surround ourselves with people who:

Are like us- hobbies, interests, etc.

Can benefit us- promotion, help us

Talented- Can get the job done

David said he would look to the faithful.

My friends changed when I got saved. I lost most of them. I learned quickly if I wanted to live for God, I needed new friends. My new friends were nothing like my old ones.

The faithful may look different than you do.

The faithful may not be your age.

The faithful may have different interests than you.

This doesn’t mean we can’t have lost friends.

It means those closest to us should be faithful to the Lord. They should challenge us spiritually.

We should spend most of our time with those who are faithful to the Lord and His church.

B. We should be close enough to believers they can minister to us.

David had to be careful about those who were closest to him. Some wanted to kill him. His inner circle had to be faithful men.

Do you allow yourself to get close enough to believers they can minister to you? It’s our tendency to keep people at arm’s length. When God saves you he puts you in a church and one of the reasons is so people can minister to you.

It is humbling at times- a card, gift, meal.

It is encouraging at times- they lift your spirits.

It is difficult at times- they are pushing you to be and do more.

Godly people will not allow us to stay where we are. They will encourage us in our devotion to the Lord. When we resolve to surround ourselves with godly people we do ourselves a great spiritual service.

4. A Resolve to Protect Others from Ungodliness (7-8).

A. He will protect his own house from the ungodly (7).

No one who practices deceit

No one who utters lies

Not even one. He won’t tolerate it. Politics and deceit are synonymous in our day. David wouldn’t put up with it.

He might say “It’s not me, it’s them.”

But he knew he would be held responsible before the Lord if he didn’t deal with an ungodly cabinet. He couldn’t pass the buck. His entire house could suffer loss because he allowed ungodliness in his cabinet.

When we overlook sin, we underestimate the power of sin.

In politics one sinful man can ruin the entire administration.

In business one corrupt CEO can bring down the entire company

In a family one sinful person can tear the whole family apart.

In a church one sinful person can divide the congregation and hinder the work of the church for years to come.

Do you have that type of resolve in your home?

No one!

We don’t allow you to bring sin in the home because:

You are kin to us

You have us in your will

You have done much for us

There is too much to lose. Men I’m speaking to us especially. We are the gatekeepers.

B. He will remove the wicked from the land (8).

“Morning by morning” Kings listened to cases and made judgments in the morning (2 Samuel 15:2; Jeremiah 21:12).

David would make sure those who were guilty of crimes that required expulsion from the land would be removed. The wicked and the evildoers would find no safe haven in Jerusalem.

I wish we had leaders like that today! I’m afraid we may never see that in America again. The good news is Jesus is a greater ruler than David. When Jesus returns and sets up His kingdom every evil doer will be removed from the land. He will do what David, nor any politician can do. He will forever rid the world of sin.

In doing this the Lord is protecting His people. The wages of sin is death. Sin only leads to:

Loss

Hurt

Sorrow

Death

Will you be like David and resolve to live your life for the Lord?

You say I have tried, but I failed. So did David.

After he made these resolutions he would break some of them.

Adultery with Bathsheba

Murder of Uriah

I could go on.

The good news is he found forgiveness through repentance and faith. He returned to these resolutions. You can as well. I want to challenge you this morning to renew these resolutions if you need to.

Resolve to live a righteous life.

Resolve to be separated from sinful people.

Resolve to surround yourself with godly people.

Resolve to protect others from ungodliness.