PSALM 101 - The King's Pledge

Introduction

This morning we pick up our Summer Psalms series once again—for the next ten weeks we will work our way through “the hymnbook of the church”; just as you have in the pew in front of you a book of hymns that we sing together, arranged by topic, so the Book of Psalms is actually a collection of 150 individual songs; unlike the rest of the Bible, Psalms is not actually divided up into “chapters”; each psalm is its own song that has been collected and arranged by various divinely-inspired editors and authors.

It’s good for us to take a bit of a refresher on the Psalms as we start each new series. The Book of Psalms as we know it here in the Scriptures was edited and compiled sometime before the remnant of the Kingdom of Judah returned from their exile in Babylon and Persia. (Very likely Ezra the priest was involved in compiling and arranging the psalms the way we have them presented to us in the Bible).

I referred to the Psalms as the “hymnbook” of God’s people because that helps us remember that this collection of songs really were compiled and arranged with a specific goal in mind. There are five “books” of songs within the entire Psalter (think of the whole book as a five-movement “cantata”), and each one of them has a theme that the compilers wanted to convey to the people returning to the land after their seventy-year exile.

The best way to understand the theme of the Psalter is to consider the message of the first two psalms—the “introductory songs” of the book. Psalm 1 tells us the definition of blessedness: “Blessed is the man who...” There is a contrast between true blessedness of the man who fears God, and the man who wants to be blessed apart from God. The one is planted and established by the river, the other dries up and is blown away—the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly will perish” (v. 6).

Psalm 2 adds to this understanding of blessedness, in that we see that YHWH reigns over both; He has determined the destiny of the righteous and the wicked, and true blessedness will always take refuge in YHWH. These are the fundamental themes that are woven in one way or another through every single psalm:

YHWH reigns

YHWH has determined the destiny of the righteous and the wicked. Therefore,

TAKE REFUGE IN YHWH

Our psalm this morning is found in the fourth book of psalms, which cover Psalm 90-Psalm 106. The five divisions of the psalter were intended to tell a specific story to the captives coming back from exile. The first book, covering Psalms 1-41 are mostly psalms of David, and are meant to describe the blessedness of the kingdom promised to David and his descendants. Book II, Psalms 42-72 describe the extending and growth of David’s kingdom to the nations—the promise of God’s reign spreading across all the earth. Then in Book III, Psalms 73-89 there is a dark turn; the psalms in that section sing about how the kingdom has been shaken, the Temple has been destroyed, the people go into captivity and mourn—it looks as though the promise YHWH made to David has failed.

The psalms arranged here in Book IV are songs of hope again in YHWH-that His promises have not failed; there is a turn back to the foundations, back to the original promises of blessedness of the man—or the nation that puts their hope in YHWH. Here in Psalm 101 we have one of only two psalms in the entire section attributed to David—this was probably written by David when he first arrived in Jerusalem as King, as a way of declaring the character and nature of what his kingdom was going to look like and how it was going to operate. Ezra (or whoever was compiling these psalms) put this psalm here in Book IV as a way of establishing the “Back to the foundations” nature of this section: As the people were returning to Jerusalem from the 70-year exile, this psalm from David was a reminder that their prosperity and success and protection would come from making YHWH their refuge and making His righteousness their delight!

We read Psalm 1 as part of our worship earlier; keep that psalm in mind as we read Psalm 101, and the parallels jump right out at you:

Psalm 101 LSB

I will sing of lovingkindness and justice, To You, O Yahweh, I will sing praises. I will consider the way of the blameless. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. I will set no vile thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. A crooked heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil. Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure. My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may abide with me; He who walks in the way of the blameless is the one who will minister to me. He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who speaks lies shall not be established before my eyes. Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, To cut off from the city of Yahweh all the workers of iniquity.

David wrote this psalm in order to declare what kind of king he was going to be—what kind of government he was going to establish. Think of it—a government that has no room for liars or deceitful schemers, a government that will watch over the faithful and have only righteous advisers! No wonder some of the older commentaries called this psalm “A Mirror For Magistrates”—God’s standards for righteous rulers.

God’s Word tells us that there are three fundamental authorities—three fundamental governments that He has ordained for this world: There is the government of the magistrate (presidents, congresses, state and local offices), the government of the church (elders, deacons), and the most fundamental and essential government of all, the government of the home.

And since today is Fathers’ Day, what better application can we put this psalm to than to consider what it teaches us about the homes that we are to establish as Christians? And so especially to you dads this morning—but to all of you as you look at the household you live in—

Give yourself to BUILDING a HOME that is UPRIGHT before God

As David sought to govern the Kingdom of Israel according to God’s standards of righteousness so you, fathers, are called to govern your home according to His righteous and faithful standards. Look with me at the first two verses—like any house, its strength and stability begins with the foundation. Dad, you are by God’s design the foundation of your household. He has placed you as the cornerstone of your home—the way your heart goes is the way the entire household will go. And so the very first place to begin in building a home that is upright before God is to start with

I. A HEART of integrity (Psalm 101:1-2)

Psalm 101:1–2 LSB

I will sing of lovingkindness and justice, To You, O Yahweh, I will sing praises. I will consider the way of the blameless. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.

The very first thing David pledges is that he will walk in integrity; some translations will say “upright” or “perfect”. See here in the opening verses of this psalm that a home that is upright before God is led by a father who

Delights in MERCIFUL JUSTICE (v. 1; cp. Micah 6:8)

The NIV translation kind of puts some extra eggs in the custard, as it were adding the word “your” to the first half Verse 1, “I will sing of Your love and justice”, referring to God. While of course God is loving and just, the idea here is specifically that the king’s heart (the dad’s heart) is to have a deep delight in being just and merciful! You are to have a heart for justice—seeing to it that the right prevails. The word for mercy here is the word for God’s steadfast covenant lovingkindness, hesed—you are to have a delight in the covenantal faithful love of God toward your family as well.

Far too many children grew up in a household that was very good at one of those qualities, and the results are uniformly disastrous. A father that is full of nothing but mercy and kindness and warm fuzzy permissiveness is a father who is crippling his children by letting them grow up without boundaries or correction; but a father who wakes up every morning determined to do his best impression of Judge Dredd is scarring his children in a different direction.

God’s call is for kings and fathers to execute loving justice, to be full of fair mercy:

Micah 6:8 LSB

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does Yahweh require of you But to do justice, to love lovingkindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

Remember when David first came to his throne in Jerusalem the very first thing he did was to find a way to show mercy to the family of Saul, the king who had tried so often to murder him—there is no way to govern a kingdom or a home without doing justice while loving mercy.

A father who is seeking to build a home that is upright before God delights in merciful justice, and in Verse 2 we are shown that he

Strives for PERSONAL HOLINESS (v. 2)

Psalm 101:2 LSB

I will consider the way of the blameless. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.

When David says he will consider the way of the blameless, he’s not saying the way we might say we will consider buying a new car or consider switching from AT&T to Verizon. He is not contemplating the pros and cons of blamelessness; he is giving deep attention to something that he is working to cultivate in his life. He is investigating, he is studying, he is immersing himself in what it means to walk in the way of the blameless man. Uprightness and righteousness are his careful pursuit.

The 18th Century pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards famously published a list of Resolutions that he started keeping when he was a teenager; with resolutions such as:

19. Resolved, never to do anything that I should be afraid to do if I expected it would not be above an hour before I should hear the last trump.

37. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent, what sin I have committed, and wherein I have denied myself; also to inquire so at the end of every week, month, and year. (Dec. 22 & 26, 1722)

25. Resolved, to examine carefully and constantly what that one thing in me is that causes me in the least to doubt the love of God; and so direct all my forces against it.

Edwards, J., & Nichols, S. J. (2001). Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions: And Advice to Young Converts (p. 22). P&R Publishing.

If you would build a home that is upright before God, fathers, it begins with your own heart of integrity before God.

In Verse 2 David says that he will walk “within his house” in the integrity of his heart. As he delights in merciful justice and strives for personal holiness, it begins to have an effect on the palace life; the king’s household is downstream from the king’s heart; it will reflect his life and his delights. And so in Verses 3-5 we move from a heart of integrity to

II. A HOUSEHOLD of integrity (Psalm 101:3-5)

Psalm 101:3–5 LSB

I will set no vile thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. A crooked heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil. Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure.

Here is what a home that is upright before God looks like: You’ve heard the old saying, “Home is where the heart is”? I want to suggest to you from Psalm 101 that

Home is WHAT your heart LOVES

David says that he loves the mercy and justice of God—which means that his household will therefore be filled with the mercy and justice of God. And a household filled with the love of justice will hate crooked, dishonest hearts. A household filled with the love of mercy will reject haughtiness and arrogance.

Fathers, you set the tone in your home, and the rest of the family follows. If you sit around the dinner table at the end of the day running down your co-workers and passing your arrogant judgment on them to your family, you are revealing that your arrogant heart loves haughty looks. If the screens in your home are setting vile things before your eyes, if you are consuming the sludge of entertainment providers who have turned away from the true, beautiful and good and base their stories in lies, ugliness and corruption, you are revealing what kind of heart you have.

But you are called to so much more than this! When your heart is turned to delight in God; when you set yourself to delight in merciful justice and lead your household to love it as well, then

Home is WHERE the LIGHT is

You are called to create a refuge from that darkness, not let it into your home! Your home is the haven from the storms of a rebellious world; it is a citadel on a hill keeping the darkness out; it is Helm’s Deep against the raging orc-hordes of filth and corruption and hatred of God!

Your home is to be the place where slander and crooked hearts and arrogance and pride have no place. You may work in a job where that slander and crookedness and godless attitudes and worldviews run rampant, but you don’t track it into the house with you!

Psalm 101:3 LSB

I will set no vile thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.

Home is where you can go to be rid of all of that dirt; the place where you can rest easy and not be constantly on your guard against slander and scheming and foul language and nasty attitudes. A household of integrity is your refuge and fortress, where you are strengthened and refreshed and nourished so that you can go out into this world with

III. A WALK of integrity (Psalm 101:6-8)

As David makes his pledge that he will rule according to God’s standards, he commits to a heart of integrity, which then flows outward to his household. And then that integrity flows out from that household into his kingdom!

Psalm 101:6–8 LSB

My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may abide with me; He who walks in the way of the blameless is the one who will minister to me. He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who speaks lies shall not be established before my eyes. Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, To cut off from the city of Yahweh all the workers of iniquity.

To walk implies that you are headed somewhere. That you are going towards one thing and away from the other. A walk of integrity means first of all that you are walking

Away from the DARKNESS of LIES (vv. 7-8)

David makes it very clear in Verses 7-8 what will happen to liars under his rule:

Psalm 101:7–8 LSB

He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who speaks lies shall not be established before my eyes. Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, To cut off from the city of Yahweh all the workers of iniquity.

It is not enough to say that you will never tell lies or speak slander against someone else—a walk of integrity means that you will not listen to it either! When a gossip wants to tell you about all the dirt they have on someone, your duty is to stop it in its tracks. A walk of integrity means that you will not lie about someone; it also means that you will not listen to lies. Because over time, the lies and the slander and deceit will begin to corrode your heart; to desensitize you to that darkness. And so a walk of integrity will be relentless in pushing back against that slander and deceit—and you do that by walking

Towards the LIGHT of TRUTH (v. 6)

An upright walk is not just about what you are leaning against; it is just as much about what you are leaning into:

Psalm 101:6 LSB

My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may abide with me; He who walks in the way of the blameless is the one who will minister to me.

You can’t help but hear echoes of Psalm 1 here in this verse, as David alludes to the “walk” of the blessed man:

Psalm 1:1–3 LSB

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, And in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

The blessed man walks towards his delight—his delight is in the Law of YHWH. His delight is to be rooted and grounded in that Law; to be refreshed by it daily and to be fruitful in it! David adds in Psalm 101 that he will be refreshed not only by his being planted by the rivers of God’s righteousness, but that he will seek to fill his court with the same kind of men—the one who is blameless will minister to (advise, counsel, guide) him!

Mark it well, Christian—the integrity of your walk in this world will be marked by two things: Who you walk past, and who you walk with. You will have to walk around and through and past a lot of rough stuff in this world: Coworkers or classmates or neighbors (or even family members) who fit the description of Psalm 1:1—rogues and scoundrels, scoffers, blasphemers or fools. But it is the ones you walk with—the ones you trust, the ones you look up to, the ones whose good opinion you cherish—that will demonstrate where your heart lies. Jesus promises in John 8:12

John 8:12 LSB

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

And it is only when you are walking in the Light of Christ, belonging to Him by the New Birth that He has granted you, that you can walk in such a way as to bring that Light to the darkness around you! When you are planted by the rivers of His truth and grace and light, you are able to reach out to that co-worker, that sibling, that classmate that is lost in darkness and draw them into His light.

And so, brothers, the home that you are building is the forward operating base for the Kingdom of God’s expansion into the darkness of this present hour. Commit yourself to building a home that is upright before God. Seek first of all that heart of integrity that delights in loving justice—delight to show mercy, delight to stand firm on the truth of God’s Word. dive into it, set a high bar for yourself; strive to grow in holiness and godly joy—let your family see you not only set the standard of God’s righteousness in Christ, but let them see you love that standard!

Set the example for your family of what hard work for the Kingdom looks like. Show of hands—how many of you men have come home after an honest day’s work and had your wife stop you at the door and make you leave your clothes outside before you came in? “You’re not stepping foot in this house with those jeans!!” (And maybe had to wind up throwing them out?)

In the same way, there is a lot of spiritual dirt that you are called to be exposed to every day—the dirt of blasphemy and cursing and animosity and slander and betrayal and anger and deceit of a shop or school or office. Brothers, just as there is no shame in coming home after working all day in the physical dirt, so there is no shame in spending the day immersed in spiritual dirt as long as it doesn’t cling to you when you get home!

Psalm 101:3 LSB

I will set no vile thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.

So make it your practice to do the same thing with the spiritual dirt that you’ve been working in—take it off before you get home. Spend that drive home confessing where you need to, repenting of whatever anger or frustration or bitterness has crept into your heart during the day. Cry out for the cleansing blood of Christ to wash you clean so that you don’t track that dirt into your home—make that home your refuge, the citadel that is a respite from the dirt and heat and scratch and churn of the dark world all around you. And teach your sons to do the same.

Brothers, look to your walk in this world—look to who you are walking with. Because a walk of integrity in this world will never be a walk of isolation; it is not enough just to avoid the wrong neighborhoods; it is not enough just to make sure you are not walking in the counsel of the ungodly—be sure that “he who walks in the way of the blameless is the one who will minister to you”. Look around you here in this room—these are your brothers. These are the men who will speak truth into your life; the men you can trust to have your back; the men who will walk with you and abide with you. So do not walk past these men. Walk with them as they walk in the light of Christ, and you will never walk in darkness.

And to you who have never come to Christ for the New Birth He promises, understand this: Home is what your heart loves. A heart that loves God and belongs to Him through repentance and faith will flow downstream into a home that loves God and belongs to Him through repentance and faith. But a heart that loves itself, a heart that does not love the light of Christ but loves the darkness of the world around it will come to be a dwelling place of darkness.

This is not something that can be debated; it is the way God fashioned the world that a father’s impact on a home is enormous. Whether a father who is a tyrant or a father who is a silent lump on the couch staring at his phone, a father who will suddenly blow up in rage or a father who just doesn’t seem to care about anything, a father who runs around on his wife or a father who just disappears—all of them have an indelible impact on their families for the rest of their lives.

There are a lot of you in this room who know this firsthand; there are a lot of men who know that they have been that kind of man. Whether you suffered under a father like that and it has left a crippling mark on you or whether you have been (or know that you are) a father like that, then there is such Good News for you this morning!

It is never too late to have the kind of home described in this psalm! Because Jesus Christ left His home in Heaven—the sinless, perfect and eternal Creator God in human flesh—and came down here to rub shoulders with the dirtiest, filthiest, most vile sinners there could ever be—all of the selfishness and lust and drunkenness and abdication and hatred and animosity and bitterness and rebellion of this whole world. And then He presented Himself to His infinitely righteous and holy Father, covered in all of that dirt, and His Father punished Him for all of it.

Jesus Christ went to that Cross, covered in your filth and died your death under the wrath of God that you had earned. He went down into the grave that should have been yours and left all your sin down there! He rose again on the third day so that you might have a brand new start in Him!

All of that past hurt and guilt and sin and broken home and ugly fatherhood and abdication and abuse and loneliness and fear and deceit and bitterness can be washed away from you forever! You DO NOT HAVE TO CONTINUE IN IT. It can end right here, it can end right now when you come to Jesus in repentance from all of it. And He has promised to renew you completely as His child:

John 1:12–13 LSB

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

This is what awaits you today; why wait any longer? Come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Ephesians 3:20–21 LSB

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

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