I Will Walk with Integrity

 Psalm 101

 

8-19-2022

 

I Will Walk with Integrity

A Psalm of David.

 I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music.   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; 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.   A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.  Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy.  Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.  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.   No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.  Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land,                                               
cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.

 

As you read Psalm 101, you get a better understanding of why David is a man after God's heart.  David had experienced the steadfast love and justice of the Lord as a young boy taking care of his dad’s sheep.  I have no doubt that on those nights of David and the sheep, David made music and sang to the Lord.  But he also saw God’s hand when the lion and bear came to kill his sheep, that God gave him the ability to kill them.  David also learned the importance of going after the lamb that was lost and bringing it back to the fold. 

 

David longed for fellowship with the Lord, he was always seeking it and learning what God desired.  He understood that God's ways were Justice and integrity of heart, that God will not look on sin for His ways or pure.  David also learned that a man who slanders his neighbor secretly will also slander you when you are not around.

 

We like David have wicked people who are perverse hearts, we also see and hear of the deeds of the wicked.  Often they are people who desire to rule over others, they desire worthless things like wealth and power, with no desire for integrity, before God or man.

 

Is it not good advice for you and me to learn from David, like not set our eyes on worthless things?  Most of what the world tells us is important falls short of what God desires in us.  It is time to examine ourselves to make sure we have not become self-righteous, proud, and arrogant, that is a good definition of a Pharisee.  Now Pharisees were very religious people who saw themselves as good, but that was not how Jesus saw them.  

 

I have often found myself in a place of the proud and arrogant, but God, has a way of bringing His people to see themselves in a mirror, and He is called the Holy Spirit.  He has often allowed me to see myself as being Pharisee; in my thought life and the way I value others, many I do not know.  So, guard your heart, and seek to be a person of integrity.  Set your minds on things above not on worldly things.  And my brothers and sisters, you have that ability to do so or God would not have told you to do so.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice