Read Psalm 101
Of David. A psalm.
1 I will sing of your love and justice;
to you, Lord, I will sing praise.
2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life—
when will you come to me?
I will conduct the affairs of my house
with a blameless heart.
3 I will not look with approval
on anything that is vile.
I hate what faithless people do;
I will have no part in it.
4 The perverse of heart shall be far from me;
I will have nothing to do with what is evil.
5 Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret,
I will put to silence;
whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart,
I will not tolerate.
6 My eyes will be on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
the one whose walk is blameless
will minister to me.
7 No one who practices deceit
will dwell in my house;
no one who speaks falsely
will stand in my presence.
8 Every morning I will put to silence
all the wicked in the land;
I will cut off every evildoer
from the city of the Lord.
Go Deeper
Psalm 101 was written by David. It is understood as a vow made as he assumed leadership of God’s people, but is also considered a vow of how he plans to lead his household. We understand David to be a man after God’s own heart. This psalm is a beautiful peek into his heart for God and his people. Whether it be in governance, the workforce or in our families, this psalm is packed with insights for any who have been placed in any kind of leadership position or position of influence and authority. Embrace this wisdom as we seek to steward the influence we have in our world faithfully.
David vows to bring glory and honor to the name of God and live blamelessly before Him. This highlights the importance of adopting God’s standards of holiness and righteousness as our benchmark. David knows following God is serious business. Reaching God’s high standard is not easy. Anything that misses the mark must be rejected. David leads others to reach God’s standard by rewarding obedience to God’s ways and promoting a culture of holiness and godliness among his followers.
Are we aware of how Satan works in this space? The way he goes about stealing, killing and destroying leaders can be hard to see coming. We may never see a thief, receive a death threat or have any part of our lives seemingly destroyed in an instant. However, we might begin to give ourselves a free pass on select sins (“Well, that’s not a big deal. I’m doing better than most people. Nobody’s perfect.”). We may not hold our followers to a high standard. Satan uses these kinds of thoughts and actions to keep us from meeting God’s standards of holiness and righteousness.
Through this psalm, we are reminded that leadership is a serious matter. When we take it seriously, we are careful to honor the Lord in any responsibility we have. Whether it seems like a trivial responsibility or one that holds extreme importance. Whatever positions we find ourselves in, we bring glory to God and order and peace to the spaces and people within our spheres of influence.
Questions
- What has God given you to steward to the glory of God? Have you recognized and accepted the responsibility to conduct yourself in a way that brings praise to God?
- An important responsibility within any leadership role is nurturing the culture around you. What impact does your influence have on your vocational or family culture?
- Take some time to write out your own vow to God in which you commit to using and stewarding your influence to honor God and his ways.
Keep Digging
The Bible is full of encouragement for us as we serve God in our families, schools, and workplaces. Here are some verses you can meditate on as you consider how you can honor God in those spaces today:
- Proverbs 3:5-12
- Colossians 3:23
- Romans 12:1 & 2
- Matthew 20:26-28
- Romans 12:3-8
- Philipians 2:3-4
2 responses to “Psalm 101”
Integrity
Doing the right thing even when no one is watching.
Sometimes life is hard. Ok, all the time life is hard. When you do the right things, with a right heart, mercy and truth have won. This Psalm sounds like David is trying to start his new kingship off on the right foot. Saul was a close person in David’s life. He wants to help all those that were under Saul’s leadership.
When we ask Jesus to be Lord of our life, we are to walk out this chapter. We are to sing, sing of what? We are to sing of mercy, judgement, and to walk uprightly within MY HOUSE. It starts at home. We are to resolve not to contemplate anything worthless or be entertained by what is vile, slanderous, willfully headstrong, arrogant eyes, and liars. We should be careful with our friendships and who we hang out with, the people in our lives have influence over our walk. Life or death is in the tongue. We are to WALK, as in move forward. So where do we walk? If we are following Jesus, we are always behind Him, and never in the dark. And if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and we are cleansed from all our sin (1 John 1:7)
God thank You for shema hearing. Thank You that I can hear with obedience to walk with integrity. God thank You for placing some Godly people into my life. Thank You for me walking, putting one foot in front of the other. God, I want to do right things and say right things. Life feels so topsy turvy. God help me to keep my eyes focused on You and Your word. God thank You for today, these minutes of this day, that You are where I look first for all thoughts, actions and words. God thank You for Your hesed love. Thank You for the manna from Your word. Thank You that I can and will walk out what I am learning in Jesus name amen.
WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
“I will not look with approval
on anything that is vile” (v3).
Back in the day this verse was displayed on the top of our console TV. Now it would make a great screensaver for our phones and devices as a reminder that God’s standard of holiness should be our daily goal. Like a sleuth, where has deceit and evil crept into our hearts, homes, and work places that must be removed?