Psalms 101

Praise The Lord

David writes here that he will praise the Lord for His lovingkindness, justice and blameless way.

Lovingkindness

This means that God’s love is faithful. It endures our shortcomings and reproofs us to righteousness. God loves us just where we are, but loves us too much to keep us there. God’s love will never run out.

David recognizes this because he gives God reason to stop loving him. He commits adultery and murder and tries to cover it up. If this could qualify for the removal of God’s love it certainly would. But God sends Nathan to confront David’s sin. It is an act of God’s lovingkindness to get David back on the right path of reigning Israel in a Godly way.

God will do the same with us. When we have sin in our lives, God does not stop loving us, but will get us back on the right path. He will do this with the Holy Spirit or circumstances. Just as Nathan confronted David about his sin, so the Holy Spirit will confront us about our sin through conviction. When we become desensitized to the Holy Spirit God will often let the natural consequences of our sin move us back onto the right path. God’s lovingkindness in our lives causes us to persevere for kingdom purposes.

Justice

This word means judgement. David praises God for his judgement because it is always right. God always has all the information to judge correctly. Not only does he know the facts of the case, but he also knows the intent of the heart perfectly.

Another aspect of God’s judgement is His perfection. There is nothing sinful about God that could thwart the accuracy of His judgement. We do not have a judge that can judge as righteously as God because they do not have all the information nor are they perfect.

Blameless Way

David says he will give heed to the blameless way. David is acknowledging God as the moral law giver. He says he will give heed to it. This means that he not only recognizes it, but will live in accordance to it.

Personal Commitments

Walk in Integrity

David commits to walk in the integrity of his heart. This means that He will submit and commit himself to the ways of the Lord. He will also make sure that his household does the same thing.

In order for him to do this, He will need to know the commands of the Lord and teach them to his household. David is very well aware of the 10 commandments as well the instructions the Lord gave him to rule.

David would often turn to the Lord before taking action. He would seek the Lord’s will and then take action based on the guidance of the Lord.

We too need to walk in integrity. God has given us plenty of instruction in His word. We should study it and live by it. Also, we should consult the Lord when we come to crossroads in our life. Once he guides us we should walk in obedience to His instruction.

Set no worthless thing before his eyes

David mentions two worthless things that he will not let happen. People falling away is the first thing. He knows the tragedy of falling away from the Lord because he experienced it in his own life with Bathsheba. He knew that his closeness with the Lord was necessary as well as those he affiliated with.

David needed to surround himself with genuine followers of God. He did not need superficial followers of God. They needed to prove themselves by being faithful to God and not fall away from Him. David says he will not allow it to fasten its grip on him. This means he will not allow people that are not following God influence his life

We too need to surround ourselves with Christ followers. We typically become like those we let hang around us and let influence us. We need to be intentional in who we let be our friends.

The second worthless thing David mentions is a perverse heart. David knew that a key to following God was a pure heart.

Psalm 51:10–13 NASB95

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.

Psalm 139:23–24 NASB95

Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

This involves self-examination. David desired a pure heart. In order for this to happen he needed to repent of the perverse ways in his heart.

We too should have a desire for a pure heart. We must do the difficult task of allowing the Lord to bring the perverseness of our hearts to our attention so we can repent.

Know no evil

David calls out slandering and arrogance as two evils that He will destroy and not endure. Slander is lying about someone to destroy their character. David says he will destroy a person that does this.

We must be careful regarding gossip because it often involves slander. We must not discuss negative things about people to others. We should seek reconciliation with the person that we are tempted to gossip about. Slandering a person never turns out good.

Arrogance is the second evil David calls out. A prideful heart is a dangerous heart. It is always self-seeking as well as others-destroying. Proverbs 16:18

Proverbs 16:18 NASB95

Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.

Godly Rule

David makes two distinct ways that he is going to rule. He will only allow faithful people to dwell with him and destroy all the wicked. The people that show themselves faithful to the Lord, David will allow to rule with him. Those that practice deceit will not even dwell in his house. He will not have anything to do with them. Those that speak falsehoods will lose their positions of leadership.

David says he will destroy evil every morning so that no evil will dwell in the city. This is a matter of eradicating evil. We must do this in our own hearts as well as our households.