The Commitments of Our King
Psalm 101,
I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O Lord, I will make music.
2 I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;
3 I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
4 A perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.
5 Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
I will not endure.
6 I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
shall minister to me.
7 No one who practices deceit
shall dwell in my house;
no one who utters lies
shall continue before my eyes.
8 Morning by morning I will destroy
all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers
from the city of the Lord.
Hey, this morning I do wanna talk about your life, but it’s gonna take us a few minutes to get there. That’s because, first, I need to spend some time explaining how we approach a psalm like Psalm 101. I’m gonna try to explain this the best I can, but try to track with me.
Psalm 101 is one of those psalms that can only be fully understood when we see where it’s placed in the Book of Psalms as whole. At its most basic level, Psalm 101 is David declaring his commitments as king. He makes fourteen “I will” or “I shall” statements that are meant to lay out the kind of kingdom he intends to lead. This is how a kingdom will look when it’s ruled by a king devoted to steadfast love and justice (which he mentions in verse 1).
The problem, though, is that we know David did not live up to this vision.
All we gotta do is read 2 Samuel Chapter 11 and we find David doing what he said he would not — and not doing what he said he would. So there’s a tension built into this psalm from the start. If David is preaching this, but David failed to practice it, then what do we do with Psalm 101?
Well, this is where we need to consider where the psalm is placed.
Remember, in Psalms 93–100 — this section right before Psalm 101 — it’s been all about the reign of the Lord. Sometimes these psalms are called the ‘enthronement psalms’ or the ‘theocratic psalms’ because they’re about the Lord coming to rule.
And as we’ve seen: what’s really in view is the Second Coming of Christ. These psalms have been pointing to the consummation of Christ’s kingdom — and that’s our hope. Our hope through these psalms is final reign and rule of Christ. And that’s the hope we bring to Psalm 101.
Now, notice the superscript of Psalm 101 — those small caps words right above verse 1. They tell us that this is a “Psalm of David.” And it’s the first Psalm of David since way back in Psalm 86. There’s been a long stretch of psalms where David is not mentioned at all, and then suddenly, in the context of the Messiah’s kingdom, the voice of David emerges again.
But here’s the thing: This is not the voice of David whose reign ended in failure; this is the voice of David’s son whose reign will come in the future.
Psalm 101 is ultimately the voice of the greater David — this is the voice of Christ! — and he’s describing what it will be like in his kingdom.
Psalm 101 gives us a window into the commitments of Jesus when he reigns over the New Jerusalem. And that’s how we read Psalm 101!
But now the question is: What does this have to do with my life?
If this psalm is about Jesus, how does it apply to us?
The answer is that, as Christians, we are the servants of Jesus.
One day we’re gonna gladly live in his kingdom, and until that day, for now, Jesus teaches us to pray:
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
In other words, we want the values of his future kingdom to shape our lives in the present. We want the commitments of our King to shape our commitments as his servants — and that’s where I want to focus this morning.
If you’re still with me, here’s the plan: I want to show you four commitments of Christ that we as Christians should make our own.
1. Find your footing in faithful paradox.
Look again at verse 1. The King says:
“I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O Lord, I will make music.
2 I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?”
Three things are happening here:
First, in verse 1, he says he will sing and make music. This is glad-hearted worship.
Second, in verse 2, he says he will ponder the way that is blameless, or you could say the “way of integrity.” (The word for “blameless” and “integrity” in verse 2 are the same Hebrew word.) This is something the King ponders. He gives his attention to it. We could call this careful observation.
Third, he says to God, “Oh when will you come to me?” And this line might be easy to miss, but it’s important. It’s a statement of yearning. It’s like the King has this longing in his heart that wells up and overflows, and typically in the psalms this would be a prayer for deliverance. So we could call this sorrowful longing.
So put the three together: glad-hearted worship, careful observation, sorrowful longing.
These are three commitments that don’t seem to go together. Sometimes they might even seem at odds with each other. And yet, here they are, stacked on top of each other in the first two verses.
Because, look: this is the Christian life. So much of what we’re called to is a paradox. It’s rejoicing and weeping, celebration and study, freedom and discipline. We’re called to party with the best wine and to thirst for God like a deer pants for flowing streams. And so we gotta learn to live here, in the paradox.
Which means, we have to resist the temptation to over-emphasize the parts that come easiest to us or that we just prefer the most.
For some of us, it might be easy to gravitate toward celebration, but you have a hard time reflecting. Others of us might be super heady — we love study — but don’t know how to rejoice. Some of us might sing loud, but our hearts don’t really long for the new creation of steadfast love and justice.
The King here embraces all three, and so should we. Don’t flatten out the Christian life. Lean into all three of these commitments and learn to live there. Find your footing in faithful paradox.
2. Walk with integrity of heart in your home.
I’ll never forget when I was a junior in college, I went to my theology class one morning, and my professor, Pete Schemm, started the class with a devotional from Psalm 101. He started reading the psalm and got to verse 2: “I will walk with integrity of heart within my house.”
He stopped right here, looked up at the class, and said:
“One day you should be able to say this.”
I remember this moment because I knew he was right, and I knew he knew the context he was speaking into. See, at this time, many of my classmates and I had been deeply influenced by the gospel-centered movement, and those were good days. We listened to a lot of Tim Keller (and it was all good).
I had my own experience of a gospel awakening. I swore off legalism for good, and was convinced that salvation was profoundly by grace alone. And I still believe all of that. But at that same time, back then, there was also a little strand of antinomianism that went around. There were some college kids who cared more about ‘not being legalistic’ than they did about believing the gospel … and of course, we all thought we were smart. And so Dr. Schemm read Psalm 101 and said what he said and it stuck with me. I wanted to be able to say this when I grew up: I will walk with integrity of heart within my house.
Notice the three layers here:
First, Layer One is “integrity” which, again, is also the idea of being blameless. This is the word that was used to describe Job in Job Chapter 1. It does not mean sinless perfection, but it means you’re real. You’re not fake, and you’re not a scoundrel. You’re a sincere person who is honest before God and man.
Layer Two: Notice that it’s “integrity of heart.” And the heart makes it clear that this is not about how you appear. It’s not about what others think about you. But this is about who you are from your inner most being. This is who you know yourself to be when nobody else is watching but God.
Layer Three: The King adds integrity of heart within my house. This is your home. This is when you are with the people closest to you who see sides of you nobody else sees. Men, this is who you are when it’s just your wife and your kids. Is who you are there congruent with who you appear to be in other places?
Now I’m saying the word congruent, not identical.
I realize that none of y’all break the cabinet doors in my kitchen every other day. But if you did, I want my kids to recognize me in how I’d respond. This is about being the same person wherever you are, starting at home. “Integrity of heart within my house” — and if that feels like a burden to you because of past failures, don’t let it be that. Rest in the forgiveness and freedom you have in Christ, and make this your ambition. It is a worthy goal, especially for us men.
There is not a better gift you could give your family or your community than this. Aspire to it. Pray for it. Make this commitment of your King be your own: walk with integrity of heart within your home.
3. Set boundaries on what you allow into your life.
This is verses 3–4. And notice here that the commitments turn negative. The King mentions three things that he will not do: First, he will not set before his eyes anything that is worthless. Second, he will not let the work of those who fall away cling to him. Third, verse 4, he will not know evil.
We could call these boundaries. The King is building a wall against three entry points into his life. It has to do with: where he looks, with whom he associates, and what he knows.
And look, we say a lot about all three of these, but for the sake of time, I’m just gonna focus on this first one: on where he looks. I think this boundary comes first on purpose. The King says:
“I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.”
The Hebrew word for “worthless” is the word “Belial” — which means worthlessness or wickedness — but the word is often used as a proper noun.
It’s meant to be the personification of evil. That’s the way we see it in the New Testament. In 2 Corinthians 6, the apostle Paul uses this word to refer to Satan himself. It’s 2 Corinthians 6:15 — Paul is teaching that believers should not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, and to make his point he says:
“What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?
Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
What accord has Christ with Belial?”
It’s a rhetorical question. The answer’s none! There’s an obvious boundary here — and Paul is saying that “Because this is true of Christ, it should be true of Christians.” Don’t partner with Satan. That’s what’s at stake when it comes to what you set before your eyes. Anything that is worthless, Belial, of Satan — don’t look at it. Just don’t look.
And the idea of looking is important. We see this in the storyline of Scripture. Looking is about perception that leads to desire that leads to behavior.
That’s how it started in Genesis 3. Before Eve ate the forbidden fruit … Genesis 3:6 … She “saw” it and perceived it as “good” and then she “took” it.
It went exact the same way for David in 2 Samuel 11. “It happened, late one afternoon …” He “saw” a woman (from the rooftop of his house), perceived her as “good/beautiful”, and then he “took” her.
The same three Hebrew words used in Genesis 3 are used in 2 Samuel 11 — saw, good, took. It starts with seeing. That’s why I think this comes first here in verse 3.
Your eyes are the window of your heart (where you desire), and so if you don’t want it in your heart, don’t set it before your eyes.
Set that boundary first. And then that has an effect on the company you keep and the things that occupy your mind. Our King is committed to this, and we should be too. Set boundaries on what you allow into your life.
4. Love the local church.
Now how in the world do I get that? … Let me show you …
Let me read verses 5–8 again:
Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
I will not endure.
6 I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
shall minister to me.
7 No one who practices deceit
shall dwell in my house;
no one who utters lies
shall continue before my eyes.
8 Morning by morning I will destroy
all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers
from the city of the Lord.
All of a sudden this becomes one of those Don’t-try-this-at-home psalms. What is going on here? And how are we supposed to apply this to our lives?
Well, in verse 5 the King goes from talking about his personal commitments to talking about policy commitments. He describes what it will look like in his kingdom, and who’s gonna be in it. This is a kingdom ruled by steadfast love and justice — the faithful are saved; the wicked are judged.
And Jesus talks this way about the coming New Jerusalem. This is in Revelation 22, the last chapter in the whole Bible:
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” (vv. 14–15)
In other words, in the New Jerusalem — the heavenly city that Jesus is bringing here — some people get to be in the city, and others don’t.
Just a fact. The future, final kingdom of Christ is not for everybody … and we know this: heaven is only for those Jesus died for … That’s what it means to have your robes washed in Revelation 22!
It means Jesus died for you and you trust him and he’s forgiven you for all your sins and you are blameless in him. Heaven is for you. That future city under the reign of Christ is for you.
That’s what verses 5–8 are pointing to. Jesus is committed to building that kingdom and bringing it here. But get this: until the day Jesus brings his kingdom here, he’s already gathering its citizens now. The embassy of that future kingdom in this world is the local church. That’s who we are. We are a little truth-telling outpost here of the kingdom of Christ.
Just like Jesus is the head of his kingdom, Jesus is the head of his church. And if you’re gonna be involved with his kingdom in the future, be involved with his church today. But don’t just be involved with the local church — love the local church.
Love the local church, not because she’s perfect, but because she’s precious to our King.
In North Carolina, where I’m from, you only need a state-issued license plate for the back of your vehicle. You don’t need one for the front, which means: That little spot on the front of vehicles becomes an opportunity for people to put all kinds of tacky messaging. You just put your own plate there — it’s like a bumper sticker, but it’s more official because it’s on the front.
And look, my late Mema had her own plate on the front of her car. This was her message of choice. She had a plate that said: “Not perfect, but forgiven.”
That’s the first thing you saw anywhere my Mema went. And for the longest time it bothered me because my Mema was a godly woman. She really walked with Jesus, and I thought, people are gonna see that sign on her car and think she’s a terrible person. They’re gonna think: What kind of excuse is that lady making? That grandma must be a crook …
But then I realized that she was profoundly right, and that message wasn’t about her, it was about the church. She had been part of the local church for decades, long enough to know that the church is not perfect … but we are forgiven. We are loved by our King. I hope you know that. Our King loves his church, and we should too.
Look, I know that some of us have church-hurt in our background.
People in the church, leaders in the church, have done wrong and it’s caused a lot of pain, and even to this day, you have some resistance to the church. I get it. I just want you to know, one day Jesus is gonna make his church radiant, but he loves his church now, imperfect as she is, and he wants you to love her too.
This is one of his commitments.
Psalm 101 shows us four commitments of Christ that we as Christians should make our own:
Find your footing in faithful paradox.
Walk with integrity of heart within your home.
Set boundaries on what you allow into your life.
Love the local church.
And that what brings us to the Table.
The Table
Hey, if you’re here this morning and you’re not a Christian, I want to invite you now to believe in Jesus. Turn from your sin and trust in Jesus, and he will save you. You can do that right now.
The Lord’s Table is a ritual for a Christians — we come here together each week to remember the death of Jesus for us and give him thanks. Brothers and sisters, for all who trust in Jesus, let us eat and drink and rest in the salvation of our King.
