Living in Righteousness

STUDY: #869-CHURCH IN THE HOUSES FROM: SEPTEMBER 1 – 7, 2015

Topic: "Living in Righteousness" Psalms 101: 1-5

We never praise the Lord better than when we live righteously, doing the things that are pleasant to His sight. This psalm is a mirror of righteousness for our lives. It is an excellent mirror. This Psalm is full of an exclusivity of rigidity; it is not kind at all to those who do not live righteously. This is how the Lord presents this here in His word through his servant David. He reveals a noble intolerance against the proud heart, against the haughty look and the secret slander. The psalmist denounces the deceitful schemer, the manufacturer of lies. These are the individuals that because of lack of righteousness David wants to exclude from his court; these are the rebels and heretics whom he does not want to tolerate at his home or lay his eyes on them. David always received from God two things: judgment and mercy. He loved God and loved the Lord’s justice and righteousness. Psalm begins saying in Vs. 1 "I will sing of your love and justice ..." These are two very important things in God's dealings with man. We should bless the Lord as much as for the JUDGMENT WITH WHICH HE DISCIPLINES OUR SIN as well as THE MERCY WITH WHICH HE FORGIVES IT. There is as much love in the strokes of His hand as there are in the kisses of His mouth! Oh, how beautiful this mercy is in times of anguish and tribulation! This mercy of which is spoken here in the first part of the song of the prophet extends even further and unfolds in clemency, kindness and compassion. Could there be any child of God that seeing the varied history of his heart is not able to see the goodness and severity following him throughout his path? Did he ever have to drink a cup so bitter that he could not also say: "The mercy was here"? Did he ever get bad news without getting the good news later that could have counteracted the previous news that relieved him? David says: I will understand the way of perfection when you come to me ("I will be careful to lead a blameless life, when will you come to me?" Psalms 101:2). His presence brings us wisdom and holiness. It is that far from God we find ourselves far from safety. If God is with us, very close, we will not be wrong. By being very close to Him we cannot be mistaken or disobey. Being in Him, seeking Him closely, we will not break our good conduct. He is perfect and powerful to keep us from falling; we will be far from doing wrong and disobeying. "In the integrity of my heart I will walk within my house." What is your behavior in your home, your behavior in relation to your family? Are you a singer in the church choir and later go home and sin? Are you a saint away from home and a devil at home? What a shame! What we are at home is WHAT WE TRULY ARE! No one whose home is a scene of disputes can be a true believer or a saint. One who has money to spend among his friends outside his house and has no money for his family is a bad husband. It is easier for many men to walk with a perfect heart in the church or in the world than among their own families. There are many who are meek as lambs when they are with others, but when they are at their home they are like bees, like tigers! They are very different outside than they are inside the house in which they live. That is why David says he would walk upon his house with integrity of heart. David establishes here the difference between the righteous and the crooked.

“I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me” Psalms 101: 3. Those who do not walk uprightly before God cannot stand before my eyes, said the Psalmist. I cannot have flatterers surrounding me. If it were so they would like rats and moths in the king’s court. I detest the work of those who stray. Today we understand, like David, that those who do not walk uprightly cannot be near us or can we follow them in any way, nor in person or on television or on the Internet. It is as if David said: I am determined against them, I am decided and I’m strong. Not that I see them with indifference, but with contempt and loathing. The hatred of sin is a good sentinel (a soldier that guards) at the door of virtue. Nothing will cling to me. I don’t want anything pertaining to them to stick to me; they will not be near me. The devil himself or his instruments on this earth can present something bad to our eyes, but we are the ones who decide whether we accept it or not. If a man puts bad things before his eyes or lets others do it, this is nothing else then to sin with purpose, it is a will to sin or be sold to sin. "Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil” Psalms 101: 4. These are the clever people who squirm in their actions in different forms and ways that there is no truth and honor in them; such you cannot trust. They must be far from us. "Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put him to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure him" Psalms 101: 5. Those who underhanded (when the person behaves with dissimulation and malice to not show their true intentions) deform their fellowman will be exterminated. There are people who may occupy high places and are considered trusted men but some of them are wicked, men without righteousness, without justice or honor. I will not acknowledge them! I detest so much the lack of righteousness that I will not suffer for the haughty (those who believe they’re most important) with a vain heart (proud, conceited, arrogant). I cannot tolerate them; I cannot stand them. David did not unite with crooked men. This is the confrontation and struggle of good against evil. The fight for the perseverance of righteousness and to please God not allowing anyone to harm or contaminate. It is to love God and to love His truth and righteousness; that is why evil is abhorred, the evilness of those who live contrary, who live without integrity is abhorred. Amen.