Honest To God
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Honest To God
Honest To God
A Psalm of David.
1 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.
I served a church where 2 families, who knew each other all their adult lives, would worship in the same building but would not speak to each other.
(I loved and still love those people to this day.)
I served a church where one couple hid tens of thousands of dollars from ALL of the other congregation in a shoebox under their bed. They also received a very large inheritance on behalf of the church and chose the organ and had It delivered to the church without anyone knowing it. All while having a very similar relationship as that other church where 2 families hated each other,. Actually, it was just 2 members of the family. The chair of the board and the lay leader.
(And I loved and still love those people to this day.)
I served 2 churches at the same time where no one did anything exciting.
(And I love those people to this day).
I served a church where my predecessor loaded the congregation with full on lies, without having ever met me, in order to preserve her belovedness in the congregation. I made it one of my best congregations and had a great time with those folks anyway.
And I love those people to this day.
I served a church where there were just simple jealousies andpettiness in general among a few members. It made life difficult at times, but we got on with it.
(I love those people to this day).
King David wants to be a king of justice, who honors God in his life as king. In the book of Deuteronomy 17.14-20, God had instructed priests to give a copy of the law to the king so he could live righly and administer justice as Israels’ chief executive.
Jesus is the ideal of God’s just king. His qualities were of concern for integrity, justice, devotion. They are outlined for him in Isaiah 11.1-5
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
The same principal is to be outlined in the life of the believer in Christ, and particularly as leaders- as followers of Jesus Christ, our lives should conform to the standard that he has given us. consider Titus 1.6-9
6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,
8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
1 I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music.
King David is motivated by God’s love and justice. God’s love and justice is what motivates King David to want to do love and justice. Enough to sing about it- think the Psalms.
Remember Micah 6.8
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Remember Matt. 23.23
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
The way of God’s justice has influenced DAvid immensely. See Psalm 119.1
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!
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;
David, in calling for God to come to him, is declaring his devotion to God and his dependence on God.
The king declares his commitment to walk in integrity in his house, in his reign.
David’s blameless life would not start in public, it would be lived out in the privacy of his own 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.
He will have nothing to do with anything or anyone who is vile, or of belial.
The godly king will shun any evil . He will cultivate the mind, heart, and relationships that honor God and do not keep him from those objectives.
Unlike the 2nd verse, this speaks to his public life. His own life would be lived in integrity, and would begin to extend to those around him.... who worked in his palace government and home.
4 A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.
This king will not only shun evil- he will deal harshly with it.
5 Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.
This king is not concerned with how far can you go without committing sin- he’s concerned with how little you can do and commit sin.
He’s concerned with the heart of his kingdom, the heart of his people.
False testimony injures others. it injures their reputation and can affect a false verdict.
False witnesses were dealt with harshly.
7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.
15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Remember how the righteous are praised because of their truthful speech and their refusal to cast a slur on their fellow man, Psalm 15.2-3
2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;
3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
it is telling that greed, pride, and slander go hand in hand, and self-denial, love for others, and fidelity in the godly person go hand in hand.
This king cannot stand or tolerate evil people and will remove them from the kingdom.
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.
The king wants those who are faithful and blameless in the land. The Lord invites the holy to approach him, and so the king surrounds himself with the best, most capable , right living people in his kingdom.
7 No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.
no one in the kings inner circle will lack integrity. They will be upright, not deceptive or greedy.
remember Proverbs 29.12
12 If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.
8 Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.
In closing, just remember how the book of Psalms started.... Psalm 1.1
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
That is the ideal.
But remember, how could the king who sang this also be the king who did the following in 2 Samuel 11.2-5
2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.
3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.
5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Honesty About Who I Am Intensely Illuminates Who He Is
Honesty About Who I Am Intensely Illuminates Who He Is
17 I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.
pride was shattered- Nathan confronted him.
David’s lie was revealed, his pride was broken.
He needed love- the one place to find it was in god’s love.