The Psalm of Pious Resolutions
Psalms 101
March 14, 2021
I stole the title of this Psalm from Charles Spurgeon.
He noted that such a title might better help us remember its content.
It is a Psalm that I remember having a profound impact upon me
Back when we did our “Month of Stillness” many years ago.
In our quest to seek the Lord, I was certainly moved by verse 2,
“I will give heed to the blameless way. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.”
That is still a great reminder of the reality that
If we are a people who desire the presence of God in our lives
Then certainly we must understand
The commitment involved on our end.
Because I have been married 22 ½ years, and am now an expert I can tell you some of what I have learned.
• I enjoy watching a movie or sporting event or a television program at night, most of the time to fall asleep, but I’m not gonna lie, I like to watch it.
• Carrie on the other hand detests television, movies, sports on TV, and even the dust that lands on the television itself.
• Now, because I am a marriage expert, I’ve learned that when I come home and desire a conversation with my wife; that conversation will not happen if I turn on the TV at the same time.
Others have learned that conversations with people are hard to carry on
• If you the radio is turned up loud,
• Or the other person is buried in their phone,
• Or one person is trying to watch a movie.
I’m not saying there’s never a time for those types of things in your life, but we do understand that those are not things that necessarily build relationships with other people.
And then we come to God.
Can we really expect to have our relationship with God grow if there is never time set aside to build that relationship?
Are we really expecting God to break into our TV program with one of those “Emergency Broadcast System” interruptions and say,
“Pardon the interruption, please stand by for a message from the Lord.”
You get it.
If you want a closer and growing relationship with Jesus
Then you have to commit to it too.
Relationships run in both directions.
This Psalm has always inspired and even convicted me with that truth.
But more than just that,
The Psalm is actually the great resolution of a newly crowned King.
It is “A Psalm of David” as you notice in the sub-heading
And it is a Psalm that reveals the resolutions of David
• As to what kind of king he wants to be
• And how he plans on leading the nation.
And it is a lofty goal to say the least.
It certainly would fall in line with what we might call THE CHRISTIAN AMBITION.
2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”
Certainly in reading this Psalm we understand why David is called “A Man After God’s Own Heart”
That is certainly his attitude.
• He fears God
• He loves God
• He desires to please God
HE WANTS TO BE A GODLY KING
It sure would be nice if modern day politicians
Would adopt such passions as this ancient king of Israel.
These are commendable resolutions to say the least.
And in order to walk through the Psalm we are going to break them down into two main points.
#1 HIS PRIVATE CONVICTIONS
Psalms 101:1-4
These 4 verses have to do with David’s own PERSONAL COMMITMENTS
For his personal walk before the Lord.
And we understand that this has to happen first.
We all remember how Jesus scolded the Pharisees:
Matthew 23:25-26 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”
Any effort to put on a public persona of godliness
Without actually pursuing godliness in the heart
Is the worst of hypocrisy.
David was no such hypocrite.
He desired purity first in his private life
So that it might spread into his public ministry.
Let me break this first point down so that we might better grasp David’s convictions.
1) HIS FOCUS (1)
He begins with:
“I will sing of lovingkindness and justice”
OFTEN times when we mention those words we are speaking of them as SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTES OF THE LORD.
• “lovingkindness” being His CHECED or loyal covenantal love.
• “justice” being His propensity to always do what is right or just.
And while they are certainly attributes of God,
That is NOT how David speaks of them here.
Rather, David speaks of them as goals to be achieved.
David speaks of them as the standard to which he hopes to attain.
• Because they are God’s attributes, David wants them to be his attributes.
• Because they are said of God, David wants them to be said of him.
David wants to be a loyal king.
He wants to be committed and loyal to God’s covenant.
And David wants to be a just king.
He wants to walk in God’s justice and goodness and rightness.
It’s as if he starts off his reign by announcing,
“May my reign be a reign of loyalty to God and justice to all men.”
It is a high mark and high ambition for any in a position of leadership.
David continues “To You, O LORD, I will sing praises.”
This is the focus of David’s reign.
He desires his reign to be a loyal and just reign
So that it might be glorifying to God.
• God is the object of his reign
• God is the motive of his reign
• God is the beneficiary of his reign
That is David’s goal; that is David’s focus.
He longs for his reign to be one of loyalty, justice, and glory to God.
2) HIS DEVOTION (2)
We might say that this is David’s
BLUEPRINT for how he plans on obtaining that goal.
“I will give heed to the blameless way. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.”
This has nothing to do with David’s outward persona
Or his public reputation.
This is all about David’s heart before the Lord.
David outlines his goal and it is “the blameless way”
David’s goal and objective is to walk in such a way
As to be blameless before God.
He doesn’t want to offend God in any way.
WHY?
Because he longs for the presence of God in his life.
Note the “When will you come to me?”
David longed for God’s presence.
• We remember David’s strong desire to bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem.
But David also understood that God was offended by sin
And any hope of fellowship with God
Must be accompanied by a blameless life.
After all, David also wrote:
Psalms 15 “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the LORD; He swears to his own hurt and does not change; He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.”
David understood the required character to abide with God, why should that character be any different if we desire God to abide with us?
David was focused on being blameless before God.
And this included the strictest commitments to purity.
“I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.”
Someone once said, “Character is who you are when no one is looking.”
It does no good to come to church and sing “How Great Thou Art”
If I go home and look at pornography in my closet.
It is hypocrisy to put forth a pious attitude in church
if I’m a devil to live with at home.
Again you remember the Pharisees.
• Those men with lengthened tassels and broadened phylacteries…
• Those men who sat themselves in the seat of Moses…
• Those men who prayed on the street corner…
• Those men who neglected their appearance when they fasted…
And yet at the same time
• They devoured widow’s houses…
• They loved the approval of men…
• They were lovers of money…
• They kept people out of the kingdom of God…
David was no Pharisee.
He did not desire a public life of piety without a private one first.
He was committed even in the privacy of his home
Where no one but God was watching.
That was his devotion
3) HIS DISCERNMENT (3)
Here you see that David understood that
There were forces working against him in his quest for holiness.
There was an invisible force that lurked behind every tree
That sought to trip him and see him stumble into sin.
David understood what many believers today have failed to understand.
1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
• David knew he was being hunted
• David knew there were traps set everywhere
He knew that success in his efforts to be blameless
Would require a strict commitment
To guarding what he put into his mind.
“I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;”
“worthless” is BEL-E-YAH-AL
It speaks of what is wicked, ungodly, or unprofitable.
Paul used a form of the word in 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 6:14-15 “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?”
We are talking about things that have nothing in common with Christ.
There is absolutely no benefit to them in life.
Their only purpose is to pull us away from Christ.
David said, “I’ll have nothing to do with that.”
WHY?
“I hate the work of those who fall away;”
That would be the very opposite of CHECED (loyalty)
David says, “I’m not going to even look at the vile things of this world because all they do is pull people away from God and I hate it when people fall away from God.”
“It shall not fasten its grip on me.”
So David sees that there is a constant battle raging
Which seeks to sever him from his pious goals
And David has a plan for defeating it.
David says, “I’ll stay away from everything impure and godless so that I will never join those who fall away.”
In some ways it’s applying the instruction of Jesus
Who taught us to pray that we would not enter into temptation.
Well that was David.
I’m going to avoid temptation with everything I have.
His Focus, His Devotion, His Discernment
4) HIS EXPECTATION (4)
This is what David EXPECTS TO ACHIEVE
If he faithfully maintains the blueprint he lines out in the first 3 verses.
“A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil.”
We remember:
Psalms 1:1-3 “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. 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.”
That is the truth that David is seeking to apply.
• I’m going to focus on holiness…
• I’m going to devote myself to walking in integrity in all aspects of my life…
• I will stay away from those things which tempt me and pull me away…
• And the end result is that “I will know no evil”
So those are David’s Private Convictions
That is his personal life
#2 HIS PUBLIC COMMITMENTS
Psalms 101:5-8
After getting the log out of his own eye,
David’s next objective will be to remove the specs from Israel.
As King he understand his calling.
Romans 13:3-4 “For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.”
1 Peter 2:13-14 “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.”
• It is actually one of the few legitimate functions of the civil authorities.
• They are given the sword by God for the purpose of punishing evil.
Well, David seems to understand that.
Here is the new platform of his administration.
1) INTOLERANCE FOR THOSE WHO OFFEND GOD (5)
“Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.”
We quickly recognize on that list things that God hates.
Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.”
Psalms 50:20-21 “You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son. “These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.”
And who could ever forget that “God is opposed to the proud”.
Could David really be considered a faithful king
If he condoned the things God hated?
David’s calling is to punish evildoers
And David says that is precisely what he is going to do.
He will have an intolerance for the things that God hates.
2) DEVOTION TO THOSE WHO LOVE THE LORD (6)
Here is a verse for every young man or young woman.
Find someone who lives this life correctly
And watch them and listen to them.
This verse might be a summation
Of the entire message of the book of Proverbs.
“My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me.”
David was not going to listen to the wicked who have wicked desires,
But his refusal to listen was NOT DUE to some sort of pride
Where he wouldn’t listen to anyone.
David was more than happy to listen to those who are “faithful”
David sought a blameless life and so he is eager to listen to blameless people.
This is the way to ascend in David’s administration.
• If you want to be removed, then just do the things God hates.
• If you want to gain the ear of the king, then maintain a faithful and blameless lifestyle.
This is David’s public commitment.
These will be foundations of his reign.
3) REMOVAL OF THOSE WHO ARE PHONY (7)
Of course when you put out the memo that you are going to remove the wicked and listen to the godly then it only stands to reason that
INSTANTLY PEOPLE ARE GOING TO START ACTING MORE GODLY.
But what David knew is that for some it will only be an act.
They will try to deceive him in hypocrisy.
And David says, when I find that person out, he has to leave.
“He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me.”
If I find out that you are not living a life of integrity
In your private life then you will lose your position.
I’m not in the business of listening to or taking advice from frauds.
I want the pure in heart.
I want those who are truly seeking to walk in the fear of the Lord.
4) COMMITMENT TO PRODUCE A RIGHTEOUS CITY (8)
He understands that the wicked are like weeds.
They continually return and continually have to be dealt with.
And so David says:
“Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, So as to cut off from the city of the LORD all those who do iniquity.”
• He’s gonna spray the weeds…
• He’s gonna hoe the weeds…
• He’s gonna burn the weeds…
His goal is to have a weed free lawn.
I’m going to be a righteous king who rules in righteousness
And produces for the glory of God a righteous city.
Those are DAVID’S PIOUS RESOLUTIONS.
It’s pretty impressive.
But you’re already picking up on the problem.
DAVID NEVER LIVED UP TO THEM.
I mean the GLARING ONE is in verse 3.
(3) “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;”
Of course we read:
2 Samuel 11:1-4 “Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.”
That certainly doesn’t sound like “the blameless way”
That David was seeking.
David spoke of the integrity of his house and yet we know his house was filled with issues.
• We have Amon who raped his half-sister (Absalom’s sister)
• David never addressed it.
• We have Absalom who led an insurrection
Not exactly a home life to be proud of.
We could talk about him and his righteous and upright administration, but we all remember Joab.
He was the general for David that continually shed blood
And pulled underhanded schemes.
Remember him murdering Abner?
2 Samuel 3:26-30 “When Joab came out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the well of Sirah; but David did not know it. So when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the middle of the gate to speak with him privately, and there he struck him in the belly so that he died on account of the blood of Asahel his brother. Afterward when David heard it, he said, “I and my kingdom are innocent before the LORD forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner. “May it fall on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house; and may there not fail from the house of Joab one who has a discharge, or who is a leper, or who takes hold of a distaff, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread.” So Joab and Abishai his brother killed Abner because he had put their brother Asahel to death in the battle at Gibeon.”
David never dealt with Joab.
Instead, on his deathbed he told Solomon to do it.
1 Kings 2:5-6 “Now you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed; he also shed the blood of war in peace. And he put the blood of war on his belt about his waist, and on his sandals on his feet. “So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.”
That’s not exactly great conviction.
David spoke big that he would cut off the deceitful and remove the wicked and the arrogant.
• Yet, when Absalom was killed for all those things
• He wept so greatly that Joab rebuked him for wishing that Absalom had lived
and all his army had perished.
Or another big day in David’s life.
2 Samuel 24:1-4 “Now again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” The king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and register the people, that I may know the number of the people.” But Joab said to the king, ” Now may the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to register the people of Israel.”
That is clearly the kind of ARROGANCE
That David wasn’t going to condone or put up with.
Now, my PURPOSE HERE IS NOT label David a liar or a phony, not at all.
• David was a man of faith.
• David loved God.
• David strived to please God.
BUT DAVID FAILED.
This is the reason I borrowed Spurgeon’s title for the Psalm.
I like the title: “The Psalm of Pious Resolutions”
I especially like the word here “resolution”
It makes us think of our culture and the propensity to make
“New Years Resolutions”
The problem with 99% of those is what?
• No one ever keeps them.
• Most resolutions have to do with diet and exercise and very few last even a month.
• It only takes a couple of weeks before we run into the flesh and we are conquered.
And that is why we must read Psalms 101 with a gospel perspective.
In the first 4 verses David outlined his blueprint for personal holiness.
• It was to seek the blameless way
• It was to walk in integrity in his house
• It was to keep all worthless things out of his sight
• And then he would know no evil.
In short,
If I can keep all those vile things out of my bubble, then I’ll be holy.
But there is a drastic problem in that.
SIN IS ALREADY IN THE BUBBLE!
Matthew 15:19-20 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. “These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”
• Sin is not an external problem that you must hide from.
• Sin is an internal problem that you must be cured of.
And when the objective for curing sin is to work harder
Or strive more then there is always failure.
And for this I would remind you again
Of the great struggle that Paul gives us.
Romans 7:14-24 “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”
I’m telling you David could have wrote that!
• And again, you all know I’m a huge fan of John MacArthur and RC Sproul and they both disagree with me here.
• They say Romans 7 is a spiritually mature man who grieves his ongoing sin.
I DISAGREE.
This is Paul, who when confronted with sinfulness
(regenerated to a heart that sought God),
Gave it his best effort to never do it again.
Paul, like David, wrote down his pious resolutions
And went out with the best of intentions.
BUT HE FAILED
WHY?
Because the Old Covenant always fails!
Hebrews 7:18-19 “For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”
Paul would go on to say it too:
Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
When men took a list of the things God hates and said, “I will work like a dog to never do those things, they all failed miserably.”
Now, that doesn’t mean that David was lost.
• David did love God.
• David looked to Christ.
• David was a man of faith.
But the point to be made is that
Pious commitments were impossible in his own strength.
Where do we find the strength for those types of commitments?
THE HOLY SPIRIT!
Romans 8:5-14 “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
There you notice that all the things David desired were correct.
• Paul even tells us that we are under obligation to put to death the deeds of the body.
• We labor and strive for that.
But we do it with the power that the Holy Spirit provides.
Psalms 101 is a Psalm of perfect passion and limited power.
For David to write that Psalm under the Old Covenant was a futile dream.
But for us to read it under the New Covenant
It becomes a glowing example of the Christian ambition.
We should all sing Psalms 101!
This should be our cry!
But we do it with the strength and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit
Who sets us free from the Law of sin and of death.
We do it with the power He provides!
But this is the goal!
2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”
