The King's Response to God's Grace

The Meditation of David’s Heart

What is it that compels David to Sing and Make Music

Two Topics

Justice

Steadfast Love

Directed towards God

To sing and make music is a reaction to something

He is reacting to an understanding of God’s grace

If he is singing to God then it seems he is singing about God’s Steadfast Love and Justice

Steadfast Love

English Standard Version Chapter 34

4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty,

Steadfast love is steadfast

Steadfast love cannot be shaken

Steadfast love is slow anger

Steadfast love is merciful and gracious

Forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin

Justice

The Guilty must be punished

The guilty will not be cleared

What is the punishment for sin?

Who has sinned?

Everyone!

How can God show steadfast love and justice

How can God punish for sin yet show us steadfast love?

This is what Causes David to rejoice

It is God’s grace that inspires this Psalm

Firstly to sing and praise God

Secondly God’s grace fuels David’s desire to live in a certain way.

The remainder of this Psalm is David’s expression of how he is going to live and rule

But we must recognized that David does not say he will live in a certain way so that he can earn the Grace of God

Rather the reaction to God’s grace will always be to both praise him and to strive to live pleasing to him

In Verse 2 David Says that he will ponder the way that is blameless

Because of God’s grace David desires to live in a way that is pleasing to God

David love and appreciation of God means he would never want to be displeasing to this God that has done so much for him.

The Desire

“Oh when will you come to me?”

David strongly desires a closer more intimate relationship with God

VS 2b-8 are a reaction to his exalting in the Steadfast love of God and the justice of God.

Although David rejoices in what God has done and strives to live pleasing to God he is filled with a desire to be fully with God

This life is not his hope

The Walk

The remainder of this psalms looks at how David has desires to both live and to rule his nation as king

This can cause a little confusion for us

Who here has ever been or may become a king?

So what good does it do us to to learn about the priorities of a King?

It teaches us the priorities of our coming perfect King

But am i instructed to do some of these things VS8

no, but it should be our desire that our king would come and rule in this way

It may also be a warning to those living contrary to the Kings way that the true king will come and that this is how he will Rule.

His life

Integrity of Heart vs 2

To have inte

Concise Oxford English Dictionary Integrity

1 the quality of having strong moral principles.

2 the state of being whole.

Buildings and structures are also said to have integrity

Buildings and structures are also said to have integrity

A building with integrity is built solidly so that it will not fall or collapse

When any part of a building is broken or weak a building can loose its integrity

a weak foundation can cause the rest of the building to shift or sink and eventually break

the loss of any walls keeps the building from holding itself together

The roof is also important, a house that has lost its roof oftentimes the walls simply fall down inside.

To have a heart with integrity is to have no moral weak spots.

A weakness in one area will cause a total loss of integrity

The fact that a building has strong walls means nothing if the foundation is weak

So it is with a person that may do everything right yet except maybe for

lying

cheating on a test when no one was looking

Within my house

even within his privacy he would strive to walk with integrity

Integrity is not just when others are looking

Integrity is everywhere all the time

I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless

To maintain his integrity David know he must guard what goes into him

This got me thinking about movie ratings

We have this idea that as we get older we are more able to handle inappropriate content

David is an adult and a King.

yet he realizes that he will be affected by everything he looks upon and gives his attention

He knew that age and rank give no protection

When David says worthless he means anything that does not give God Glory

This is both things that are definitely bad and things that we may think are not good but not bad either

David does not wish for these worthless things to fill him

What we do put worthless things before us it is often the cause of a break in our integrity

and it was so with David

What started with a look led to adultery and murder

The work of those who fall away;

David is not impressed by anything done by those who are not living for God

Those who are trying to do great things out of human achievement

Today we could look at the work of

Athletes, Actors & actresses, musicians, the rich & famous, politicians and rulers, scientists, movie producers, successful businesspeople

Their works and accomplishments in this life ultimately mean nothing.

David says they will fall away.

David even says that he hates their works

Hate seems kinda strong

It is not too strong

These people are working and doing what they do to get Glory for themselves instead of Glory to God

David hates their works because it all stems from a rejection of God

What they do is not for God but against God

Just like the people wanted to build the tower of Babel to attain to God’s level of their own merit

Do we feel the same way as David?

A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.

To pervert something means to twist it or deform it

In the Garden Satan perverted God’s words

He did not completely change what God said but twisted it

A perverse heart twists things that are good to make them bad

I remember this happening in school a lot

Something innocent would be said and someone would find a way to twist it into meaning something quite naughty

A perverse heart, like Satan, changes the meaning of what people say

A perverse heart takes the good things God has given and uses them for evil

Drugs,

Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy

Slander is to speak against someone to hurt them

to make others not like that person

to damage their reputation

It comes out of a perverse heart

The slanderer typically lies or twists the truth to make someone look bad

On the contrary, as Christians we should do the opposite. Even if someone has done something bad we should try to minimize and cover the sin rather than Gossip

For David a slanderer was worse than a murderer

He vows to destroy those that slander in secret

Although David could not truly accomplish this the King that comes from Him shall.

Jesus will destroy those that slander

Satan being the the first and the father of those who slander

Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure

To be haughty and arrogant is to be prideful

to Think very highly of yourself

and naturally to think low of others and God

We are called to think little of ourselves and much of God

Christ will not endure the prideful and arrogant

I will look with favor on the faithful in the land

Although he promises to destroy those who slander and are arrogant

The faithful he promises his favor

To approve of them

That they may dwell with me;

To live with the king was the greatest privilege

It meant to be provided for by the King

The king had access to the best of the Land

Protected by the king

Fellowship with the king

To have a relationship with the king

He who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me

To minister to the king was to use your skills to serve him

this was a great honor

If you were a singer, what greater audience was there?

If you were a chef where better to cook

Regardless of your profession there is no greater honor than to use those skills for the King

Only the blameless would have that opportunity with David

Not the haughty and arrogant

Not those who slander others to make themselves look better

But the blameless and the faithful

To be faithful to Christ is to have the same promise from Christ

To live with him

To be provided by him with the best

To have a close relationship

to be protected from all evil

To minister to him

We will not just be sitting around

We will not be bored

Christ gives us the opportunity, now and then, to serve Him

to use the gifts and skills he gave us in the most noble and honorable way imaginable.

For service to THE KING OF KINGS and Lord of Lords

No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.

Deceit is any attempt to deceive

a deceitful person can say things that technically are true but in a way that they are deceiving people

What is understood is a lie

They get better at it

Every child has tried to deceive or lie at some point

They either turn away from it or practice and get better at it.

and of Course liers simply say that which is not true.