Psalm 101-The Message
My theme song is God’s love and justice,
and I’m singing it right to you, God.
I’m finding my way down the road of right living,
but how long before you show up?
I’m doing the very best I can,
and I’m doing it at home, where it counts.
I refuse to take a second look
at corrupting people and degrading things.
I reject made-in-Canaan gods,
stay clear of contamination.
The crooked in heart keep their distance;
I refuse to shake hands with those who plan evil.
I put a gag on the gossip
who bad-mouths his neighbor;
I can’t stand
arrogance.
But I have my eye on salt-of-the-earth people—
they’re the ones I want working with me;
Men and women on the straight and narrow—
these are the ones I want at my side.
But no one who traffics in lies
gets a job with me; I have no patience with liars.
I’ve rounded up all the wicked like cattle
and herded them right out of the country.
I purged God’s city
of all who make a business of evil.
I decided to include this translation because it’s quite descriptive and I like the wording and verbiage it uses. This Psalm was written by King David as he made a vow to be a leader of integrity. He made a lot of statements of things he would and would not do as a leader of Israel. Now, we know David made some mistakes. He let his eyes wander and managed to hang out with some folks of questionable character. However, he always managed to give praise to the Lord and came humbly to Him to confess his sins. You’re probably thinking that was pretty hypocritical, but not really. David knew where his hope lied and had high expectations for himself…he just wasn’t quite able to meet them. That’s not hypocritical in my opinion…it’s human nature. I believe it is so easy for us to see the faults of David and say, “How could he be a man after God’s own heart, when he did things that were unholy?” If we take a moment to look back at our own lives, we will see that we have done unholy things , even in an attempt to be a person that is striving to be holy…separated and filled with the character mentioned in Psalm 101. Some of our choices my not be as bad as the person beside us, but if it goes against the Word of God, then it doesn’t matter on the scale of bad, badder, baddest.
Now, here’s where I sit and type the word grace. I am so thankful for grace. As David was writing this Psalm, I am pretty sure that he understood that as a king he may try to be all of those things, but he couldn’t measure up. But, there was a coming King…Jesus…that would check all the boxes in those 8 verses and more! He is the perfect King! He will round up all the evil soon and very soon! He is blameless and full of integrity! He is a King that we can look to and worship forevermore!
Leaders will fall short. We will fall short.
Jesus will NEVER fall short.
Look to Him. Focus your eyes on loving, serving and worshipping Him. Even when we fall short, we have a King that sees our heart and loves us in spite of ourselves. The kings of this world will let us down, but King Jesus will always be on the throne serving with integrity and justice!
