Psalm 101:1-3 - October 3, 2009

Ps 101:1-3 "I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise. 2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life — when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart. 3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing." NIV

Are you living carefully? Psalm 101:1-3 stands out as a powerful example of the personal decision that we are responsible to make concerning the condition of our hearts. David’s passion can be seen so clearly through the opening words of this Psalm. He makes a declaration of his commitment to purity before the Lord and then expresses the longing of his heart that is the driving force behind his decision: “when will you come to me?” God’s presence is David’s desire. His longing in life is to experience more of the Lord and it is this desire that drives him. It is this desire that moves his heart to make personal choices.
“I will sing of your love and justice…” Oh the revelation that David possesses of the person of God and it is this revelation that fuels his passions. As you read these opening words hear the passion of a heart crying out “Lord I want more of you!” Because there is a vision of more that compels him David is highly motivated in his personal life. Proverbs 29:18 identifies the impact of a life with no vision “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained,” NASU this is the opposite of David’s condition. David is burning with a vision of encountering God and as a result he is living a careful life.
This passage in Psalm 101 expresses David’s goal: “a blameless life.” These verses communicate the extent of this decision as he makes two very clear statements: “I will walk in my house with blameless heart. 3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing.” How do you live when no one is looking? It is such a powerful statement that David has set his heart to live with excellence even in the privacy of his own home. He is not content to live pure in front of the people and then embrace sin in his private moments. The second standard that David portrays in this passage is his commitment to steward his eyes. The eyes are a gate to the soul and what we set our eyes upon soon becomes the longing of our hearts. In a season of distraction it was this snare that captured David as he looked upon another man’s wife. Each one of us is called to be a steward of our hearts and to offer ourselves as a “living sacrifice, holy and acceptable” to the Lord as Ro. 12:1-2 says. Make a decision today to make intimacy with God the vision of your life and let every personal choice flow out of that decision to have more of the Lord!