Psalm 101. We have looked at the first two verses
the last couple of weeks. And we might finish
the whole thing tonight. We might just go all
in. We'll see if we can make it through it. Psalm
101. This is a Psalm of David. We don't really
know exactly when he wrote it. It is suggested
by some that it may have been toward the end
of David's life. It doesn't really matter too
much when he wrote it. But if you were wondering,
we really, really don't know exactly when it
was written. Psalm 101. We'll pray, then we'll
get started. God, we come to you tonight. We
thank you for the freedom we have to study your
word. We thank you for being good to us. I pray
that your Holy Spirit would be among us tonight,
God, that you would help us to focus on you,
to be free of the distractions and the worries
and the aggravations and the stresses and the
things that we just encounter in our life. God,
maybe there are just some things in our spirit
and our attitudes and our hearts that just aren't
right. And I pray, dear Lord, that you would
just help us to... grow in you tonight, that
we would repent of those things, that you just
bring healing to our hearts, to our souls, that
you would just help us to rejoice in you tonight.
I pray that you just bless these words as we
read them, that it would be what we need to hear.
And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
The first couple of verses that we looked at
of this psalm really... are kind of the main
point of the psalm and that is it's really a
psalm of integrity that david is saying that
he's a man of integrity that he praises the lord
that he is a man that is serving the lord and
following the lord and wants to live in obedience
to the lord and that's what we see in the first
two verses and and as a result of being a man
of integrity What we see in the last few verses
is David's desire to separate himself from evil,
to not associate with evil people, to not associate
with those who are disobedient to God. And that's
what we see starting in verse 3. He says, I will
not set anything worthless before my eyes. I
hate the practice of transgression. It will not
cling to me. A devious heart will be far from
me. I will not be involved with evil. So if we
are seeking to be men and women of integrity,
and if we desire to be like David, as he was
in the first couple of verses, then what are
some things that we need to do? How do we need
to go about that? Well, David tells us here.
He says at the end of that fourth verse, I will
not be involved with evil. Now, if we want to
be men and women who are obedient to God, then
it's best for us to flee from evil and to try
to avoid putting ourselves in situations where
we may be around temptations and around evil
that may cause us to live in a way that is disobedient
to what God calls us to. Perhaps there are times
that we are in conversations or disputes or having
arguments with somebody else and maybe... Boy,
that evil is right on our tongue, a word that
we are about to say. And maybe we need to take
a step back. Maybe we need to clench our lips
extra tight. There are plenty of opportunities
for us to do evil in our life, but we're better
off if we flee from that evil and we try to get
away from that temptation. And sometimes we may,
but like David, sometimes we do not. Now we talked
about David being a man of integrity. To be a
man or a woman of integrity does not mean that
we are perfect. We are not perfect. The idea
that someone could be perfect and some would
hold that view when it talks about perfection
or men and women of integrity, Job being a good
example. I don't believe for a second the scripture
is implying that David thought that he was perfect
or that it is implied that Job was perfect. They
certainly sin. David had temptation that he gave
in to. He saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof.
What should he have done? He should have turned
his head away and went about his business. But
that temptation was there. And instead of fleeing
from that evil, he gave in to that temptation.
Now that doesn't mean that David wasn't a godly
man. The scripture says he was a man after God's
own heart. Even men and women who seek to do
God's will, who may ultimately be men and women
of integrity, it doesn't mean that there is not
some sin in our life. But the real question is,
is there a pattern of sin? Is there continual
sin? Or is there a heart that we are grieved
by our sin? Godly grief leads to repentance.
Godly grief is good grief. There is such a thing
as good grief. If you don't believe me, ask Charlie
Brown. He knows it. Lucy tells him all the time,
good grief, Charlie Brown. The Bible says godly
grief leads to repentance. And so even when we
do sin, and we will, how do we respond to that?
If we respond to that with repentance and a broken
heart, as David did, then it doesn't mean that
we can't be men and women of integrity. It just
means that we have sinned. But David also recognizes,
and his goal and his desire is, God, I want to
please you and live in obedience to you. And
even David, if indeed this was written at the
end of his life, he knew that he had fallen short,
but there's still that desire. that he wants
to live in obedience to God and separate himself
from that evil. And that should be our desire
too. Not that we seek to live a perfect life
and then we just are devastated and say, woe
is me, I've sinned, it's over for me. Well, no,
there's grace and there's repentance, praise
the Lord. But we don't want to live in our sin.
And if we want to seek to be men and women of
integrity, we have to flee from that. He says,
In verse 3, backtracking a little bit, I will
not set anything worthless before my eyes. Okay,
well that's good instruction. If we want to be
men and women of integrity, he says I'm not going
to set anything worthless before my eyes, anything
sinful before my eyes, anything that my eye will
seek and look at and focus on more than it will
focus on God. So what's in our vision? What's
before us? What do we see? Do we see the will
of God? Is that what we see clearly? Is that
what we desire? Is that what we look for? Is
that what we look to? Or are there worthless
things in our life, worthless things before our
eyes? He says, I hate the practice of transgression.
Do we hate sin? Maybe we do sometimes. We hate
other people's sin. It's easy for us to see other
people that are living in sin, and boy, we hate
that sin. That is so evil. But do we hate our
sin? Well, maybe sometimes we do. And maybe we
don't. If we hated it enough, we probably wouldn't
keep doing it. But there's something that's tempting
about saying, there's something that seems really
good about that. It's just the same way when
Adam and Eve were in the garden and the devil
came to them. There was something tempting that
tempted them, that seemed good about what he
was offering. Now, God had given the command,
don't eat from the tree. And the devil comes
in and he says, hey, you need to eat from this
tree, you know. Eat from it. You're going to
be like God. There's something appealing in our
sin that we think is going to satisfy us or make
us feel better. And so we have to be careful.
Our sin is appealing. If it wasn't appealing,
we wouldn't give in to it. But sometimes we do.
But David says here, I hate the practice of transgression.
I hate those evil things. I hate that sin. He
says, it will not cling to me. Now, one good
way for us to have sin not cling to us is, as
I've already said, to keep our distance. The
closer we run with the wrong crowd, the closer
we run with things that are a temptation, the
more likely we are to give in to those things.
It's easy for us to look at other people and
say, I don't know how they could do that. Well,
I know because they're human. And guess what?
So are you. And so we never want to let our guard
down and say, I would never do something like
that, whatever it may be. Maybe we wouldn't.
I hope we wouldn't. But they may have said the
same thing in their life. And then all of a sudden
they did something they said they would never
do. So we have to be on guard and not get ourselves
in those situations. Don't put ourselves in the
midst of those temptations, whatever they may
be. And he says, I hate these things. They will
not cling to me. I thought about plastic wrap.
Everybody's used that before to cover some food
up, right? You get it off the roll, and man,
you got to be real careful with that stuff, right?
You got to tear it just right, because if you
tear it too quick, man, it's going to suck to
your arm, or it's going to suck up on itself,
and then you got two foot of... plastic wrap
and you got to rip it off and throw it away and
if you go by too close to anything else along
the way it'll suck to the refrigerator or suck
to something else and it's real staticky and
anything it goes by it wants to cling to and
that's kind of how sin is in our life if we if
we get too close to that it wants to cling to
us it wants to wrap itself up all around us so
david says i'm going to keep my distance so that
sin does not cling to me He says in verse 5,
No one who acts deceitfully will live in my palace.
No one who tells lies will remain in my presence.
Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of
the land, eliminating all evildoers from the
Lord's city. Now this is some pretty strong language
to close out the verse here. Not only does he
say he wants to be a man of integrity and he
wants to stay away from sin and evil, but also
he says, look, I'm going to destroy anybody who's
living this way. Anybody in the kingdom, anybody
that's in my palace, I don't want evildoers around
me. Now, my translation here says destroy. Your
translations may say something a little different.
To silence those, maybe yours says something
along those lines. The Hebrew words that are
used there have different meanings. And it could
literally mean that he's going to destroy them.
And as the king, he has the ability and the authority
to do that. If there's somebody in the kingdom
that is doing something that is not right, that
is breaking the law, that is sinful, David has
the authority. If he desires to destroy them,
he could do that as the king. And it could mean
that, but it could mean something a little less
drastic. It could just mean... I'm going to banish
them from the kingdom. Not by death, but I'm
going to get them out of here. I'm going to separate
them from the rest of us. I'm going to silence
them. I'm not going to allow them to speak. Ever
how he is going to deal with it, the point is
this. He is going to deal with those who are
sinners. He says, I want to be a man of integrity.
I want to stand for God. And everybody else in
the kingdom should desire to stand for God too.
And I'm not going to put up with any junk from
anyone else. And so he says in the last verse,
Every morning I will destroy all the wicked in
the land, eliminating all evildoers from the
Lord's city. So David is getting serious with
evildoers. He's getting serious with sin. Not
just his sin, but that of the whole kingdom.
Because he wants to be a leader who's going to
lead people. toward God and toward obedience
to God. So what about us when we look at this
psalm? Short psalm. What about us? Are we men
and women of integrity? Do we rejoice in the
Lord and His faithful love and His grace and
His mercy and His justice? Are we like David
and rejoice in the Lord? Or are we those maybe
who have not separated ourselves from evil? But
maybe our eyes are on things that are worthless.
Maybe we do walk a path that's been a little
too close to those temptations and those sins
that are ever before us. And maybe some of those
things have clinged to us. Maybe we are those
that David is talking about. Maybe we are living
in our evil deeds. Well, praise the Lord, God
is good. Just as David had committed great sin,
committed adultery, committed murder to cover
it up, I mean, that's pretty bad. That's about
as bad as it gets. But even still, there was
grace for David. And even still, at the end of
his life, he's considered a man of integrity.
And that should be our desire. Maybe there's
sins in our life right now. Maybe there's sins
in our past. Well, David tells us what to do,
and that is we humble ourselves before God, and
we ask him to forgive us, and we repent. That's
what David did after his sinfulness. And God
hears those prayers. And God can restore us.
And even though we've made bad choices and walked
our own path, and even though maybe there's sin
even today that clings to us, Jesus Christ can
rip that off and forgive us of that sin. And
the only way that we can be men and women of
integrity is by walking in the ways of the Lord.
Let's pray. God, we come to you. We thank you
for these good and simple words. And I pray.
that our desire and our heart would be that of
David. That whatever sins may be in our past
or may be even in our present, dear Lord, that
we would turn from those things, that we would
repent of those things, dear Lord. That we wouldn't
desire to keep living in sin, but that we would
desire to live in accordance to your will. That
we would be those tonight, God, that would rejoice
in you. That we would seek to be men and women
of integrity. Whatever sin may be before us tonight,
God, I pray that you would free us from it. I
pray that if there's anything that may tempt
us, anything that we know is a weakness, that
we may watch ourselves. That we may watch where
we go and watch what we see and watch what we
say, dear Lord. To try to avoid those situations,
God. we may be tempted to fall into sin. God,
I pray that you free us from those things, help
us to have the strength to avoid those things,
and lead us not into temptation, but God, deliver
us from evil. And I ask these things in Jesus'
name. Amen.