1 I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.
2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
4 A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.
5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.
7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.
8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.
Though we live in a dangerous world filled with treachery and deceit, by faith we commit to opposing wickedness and walking circumspectly.
You may feel like you are walking through a field of land mines. You wonder whom you can trust and how you will survive. The longer you live, the more you will learn that this is a dangerous world. Sometimes it is hard to know who to trust. Deceit and wickedness proliferate. Hypocrisy is everywhere, including in the human heart. If your own heart is untrustworthy, how in the world can you discern the hearts, intentions, and actions of others? With God’s help, you must find the people of God, the faithful of the land, in order that you may “dwell” together with them. This is a song of commitment to honesty, moral integrity, and godliness.
Verse 1. Mercy and judgment. Both are important, and both are real. Good men act justly in judgment and delight to show mercy. Since David is the author of the psalm, it is critical, in the right understanding of the psalm, to keep in mind that David is the King of Israel. Does David sing of God’s mercy and judgment or his own? David probably speaks of his own, but he knows that his mercy and judgment are only replicas of the Original.
It is also important to note that David is singing of both mercy and judgment. To say that God only acts in mercy would be to present Him in the wrong light, for He must respect His own standard of justice even when He is merciful. Both the Old and New Testaments present ONE God Who acts in both mercy and judgment. His fiery wrath against the ungodliness of men is mentioned in Romans 1:16ff, Acts 17, Hebrews 13, and the Book of Revelation. But we also read of His mercy towards His people as well as His common mercy manifest when He sends rain “upon the just and the unjust.”
David sings of mercy and judgment. If God is a God of mercy and judgment, then we will resonate with these elements of His divine nature, exalt in them, and reproduce them in our actions. This is the theme of the rest of the psalm.
Verses 2–3. David continues the psalm with a set of four personal resolutions.
1. I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.
2. I will walk in my house with a perfect heart.
3. I will set no wicked thing before my eyes.
4. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It will not cleave to me.
He commits himself to moral integrity first in his own heart and life and then in his family relationships. It is not uncommon for a man to act the “nice guy” in the public eye while living as a self-centered, immoral wretch before his family in his home. However, the true character of a man like this will eventually betray itself to his closest friends. His hypocrisies cannot be missed by those who know him best. That is why it is important that a man walks “in his house with a perfect heart.”
With David, the true believer will make the commitment to not “set any wicked thing before my eyes.” Does this contradict the Apostle Paul who finds all things lawful but not all things expedient? (1 Cor. 10:23) Of course, Paul refers to material things like food and drink in this passage. He is not encouraging any violation of the law of God (Rom. 6:1). The wicked thing David speaks of here in the Psalm would have to include idolatry, food offered to idols, and tempting influences that lead one into idolatry. Pornography, for example, leads many men into breaking God’s commandments. It is a tempting influence. It speaks favorably of the breaking of God’s laws. It encourages the shaming of one’s neighbors, training men to exalt in the immodesty and shame of women. It presents immodesty, harlotry, and other violations of God’s laws as something desirable and preferable. It invites a man into long-standing communion with the “unfruitful works of darkness.” These symbols are everywhere, and they are powerful; we need to be aware of their influence. In our culture, clothing styles, icons, pictures, magazines, stories, and movies are often used as symbols, much like food offered to idols was in Acts 15:29 and 1 Corinthians 8:9–11. For example, during the latter half of the 20th century, an American company dedicated to producing licentious materials used a “bunny” to portray a fornicating “playboy” lifestyle. The identification of the black silhouetted figure of a rabbit with fornication was unmistakable to most people in Western, English-speaking nations. Of course, God-fearing Christians were hesitant to sport this symbol in their homes or on their persons. It is not that the symbol is sinful in itself. There is nothing wrong with a picture of a rabbit. Yet Christians should not be naive. We must be cognizant of what these symbols represent in the minds of ourselves and others.
Finally, David testifies to his hatred for the work of those who “turn aside.” There will always be those whose walk proves to be false, wayward, and rebellious. They may be close relatives, friends, or neighbors. But as you watch them over the years, they swerve into this or that ditch. There is no keeping them on the straight and narrow because their hearts are fundamentally biased towards rebellion. Despite hundreds of hours of counseling, cajoling, warning, and rebuke, they are never convinced of truth and right. At length, godly families may have to separate from these influences in order to avoid taking on their habits of evil speaking, idolatry, or fornication. It may be wise to establish some boundaries and maintain some distance from these folks. When you see this rebellion within a family, it badly disrupts relationships especially when one part of the family is holding true to the Word of God. This is very common in the present day in the Western world, where tens of millions of people are right now in the process of apostasy against the Christian faith. Whole denominations are turning towards liberal humanist theologies or extremely destructive sins like homosexuality.
Yet from biblical records it is pretty clear that David himself did not “behave himself wisely in a perfect way.” He is not alone. Regrettably, every Christian will be inconsistent to his own commitments until he is in a glorified state. While we live in a sinful world, only a life of contrition and repentance will indicate the true direction of a man’s heart (reference Psalm 51). Spiritual maturity or “perfection” is the commitment of the heart of the godly man, and the important thing is that he lays out this commitment. If he never resolves anything in his heart, he will never press on to achieve it.
Verses 4–8. The remainder of the psalm follows the line of thinking contained in the fourth commitment in verse 3 (“I hate the work of them that turn aside; it will not cleave to me”).
David disassociates from men who “turn aside.” These men include the apostates, the divisive, or men who slander the reputations of their neighbors on the Internet or in other contexts. Disassociating from these men usually implies church discipline such as what Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 5. Though this process is painful and difficult, churches really have no choice in this. They must disassociate from people who make it their practice to defame others. Men and women who engage in slander are dangerous, and they upset the social order. Associations matter.
Verse 6 refers to the positive principle governing our associations. We must seek out the humble, faithful followers of Christ and associate with them. Wherever you live, whatever your station in life, you will always find the humble and the proud in and around your social situation. David’s instructions are simple: look out for men and women who readily confess their sins to each other and are not caught up in academic pride, the pride of economic status, or the pride of political position, and associate with them. Associate with those who are ever and always aware of their needy position before God. They will cry out for His salvation on a daily basis, and they will prefer others before themselves.
If you find yourself surrounded by pride, slander, and rebellion, where do you turn? The solution to this predicament is found in verse 6. Find a faithful man, and keep your eye on him. Find a man who has walked the pilgrim pathway for thirty long years. Find a man, who is still humble, calling upon God for his salvation. He may not be rich or successful as the world sees it, but he is loyal to his brothers after all these years. He willingly confesses his sin and repents when he has done wrong. He still looks out for the needs of the widow and orphan. Commit to this man as a brother, and you will find the church of Jesus Christ.
Besides the sin of pride, the sin of deception may be the most devastating. If a brother will not be honest with himself or others, he will never come to true repentance. His deception will lead him to destructive ends as is seen in the case of Judas Iscariot and Absalom in the Scriptures.
The final verse might be taken by some as a little “extreme,” since David commits to destroying all of the wicked in the land. Again, you should remember that David is a civil magistrate and is committed to God’s system of justice, and therefore he is committed to God’s definitions of right and wrong. Make no mistake; every time a murderer is put to death at the hands of the civil magistrate, the civil magistrate is destroying the wicked in the land. The word “destroy” may be interpreted “to cut off” or “to weaken” the influence of the wicked. Certainly, this should be the commitment of every influential leader in government, church, or business. Regardless of what happens in the higher positions of power, we want to see the powers of wickedness weakened in whatever purview God gives us—whether in home, business, or community. Hopefully, by the end of our lives we will look back at the small piece of the world in which we operated and find less wickedness and more righteousness!
Yet, it is not our responsibility to weed out every tare that grows among the wheat (Matt. 13:24–30). The Christian church does not believe in some sort of purifying Jihad, whereby all of the wicked are purged. Of course, murderers and rapists should be confined, executed, or extradited from a country here and there. But the major goal of the kingdom of God is not a political order whereby the sword is used liberally for every “sinner.”
David ends the psalm with a reference to church discipline. When there are clear instances of “leavening” sin in the church of Christ, Paul encourages faithful churches to purge out the old leaven (1 Cor. 5:6) and to separate from brothers who are characterized by fornication, covetousness, idolatry, drunkenness, and slander (1 Cor. 5:11). Paul’s commitment is the same as David’s in the Old Testament. He calls for an actively engaged church leadership that is committed to cutting off evildoers from the City of God.
1. Almost every word of this psalm has relevant application to our lives. All of us have fallen short of these particular commitments that David makes. Look back at verse 2. There is a quiet cry to God that He come to David’s aid as he makes these commitments. Certainly, we cannot keep these commitments without God’s aid, and cries of faith must always attend our commitments. For that matter, we cannot make a single commitment to do good without a constant reliance upon God for His grace to enable us.
2. The church is always beset by the proud, the deceptive, the slanderous, and the rebellious. There is no way to escape this inevitable challenge in a sinful world. Therefore, our leaders must be “on their game” all of the time. The church must be willing to disassociate or excommunicate as necessary, and the civil magistrate must not “use the sword in vain.”
3. The psalm has relevant application to the individual as well. All of us should be wise in the associations we choose to cultivate. But what does a person do if the church refuses to discipline a steadfastly proud and divisive man, and he remains in the fellowship? In such a case it would come across as odd or divisive if individuals within the church community exercised their own private excommunications. This sort of thing could result in a great deal of disorder in the church. Instead, you might moderate your associations with certain people. If you suspect a problem of pride in a brother, you have at least two options. You can overlook the problem, assume the best of your brother, and spend less time with him. Should you choose this approach, you opt for less relationship with him and thereby less obligation to his spiritual needs. Your second option is to get to know him better so that you can be in a position to correct him in the event that you find he is overcome by the sin of pride. Also, if you feel that you are spiritually immature in this area, it might be better to leave it up to an elder or one who is more qualified to correct the brother (Gal. 6:1).
Making verbal resolutions or statements of commitment may serve well as an element of our worship of God. In fact, public and private worship can be the best place to commit our wills to the service of God our King. If we are engaging mind, emotions, and will in congregational worship, we should never walk out of the service with anything less than a renewed commitment to walk in obedience to our Lord. Otherwise, the worship service is nothing but empty words and emotions that may have felt good at the time but really did nothing to change the direction of our lives. God wants obedience more than sacrifice (1 Sam. 15:22) and our service more than empty promises (Matt. 21:28–32).
1. What are the four resolutions David makes in the psalm?
2. How did David fail to behave himself in a perfect way? How does this reconcile with his commitment to do so?
3. What are the sins David uses to characterize the wicked man?
4. What is the duty of the civil magistrate in respect to the wicked?
5. What is the duty of church government in respect to the wicked?
1. What are idols, symbols, pictures, or images that we might avoid bringing into our homes? Are there certain Internet websites we might avoid, for example?
2. How do we choose our associations? Are there times in which we should leave a church because of the associations?
3. Is life still dangerous for us? Do we live in a world of rebellion, deceit, slander, and pride? How might we get caught up in these things? Are we caught up in them now?