Psalms 101

4,5. The men of all people shall enter the gates of His temple with thanksgiving and the courts of His temple with praise, in order to join in the worship of the Church, which—a creation of Jehovah for the good of the whole earth—is gathered around this temple and has it as the place of its worship. The pilgrimage of all peoples to the holy mountain is the Old Testament way of expressing the hope of the conversion of all peoples to the God of revelation and the close union of all with the people of this God. His temple is open to them all. They may enter into it; and, if they do so, they have great things to look for. For the God of revelation and His grace and faithfulness endure forever. The grace of God is the liberality, and His faithfulness the constancy of His love. D.

His mercy is everlasting. The everlasting, unchangeable mercy of God is the first motive of our turning to Him and of our continuing steadfast in His covenant, and it shall be the subject of unceasing praise in eternity. As the Lord is good and His mercy everlasting, so the full perfection of these attributes in a perfect state will call forth praise unwearied from hearts that never faint. W. Wilson.—

The summons to praise, in public, in His earthly courts, is based most appropriately on His goodness, which no human words can adequately express; on His everlasting mercy, and on His truth; i.e., faithfulness to His promises, which endureth age after age in unwaning strength, always reliable; never failing. C.

We can wish the reader nothing more beatific in this life than to have found and fully brought into feeling the practical significance of this eternal act or fact of God, which we call the Christian Trinity. Nowhere else do the bonds of limitation burst away as here. Nowhere else does the soul launch upon immensity as here; nowhere fill her burning censer with the eternal fires of God, as when she sings:

“One inexplicably three, One in simplest unity.”

Who that has been able, in some frame of holy longing after God, to clear the petty shackles of logic and the paltry quibbles of a world-wise speculation, committing his soul up freely to the inspiring impulse of this Divine mystery as it is celebrated in some grand doxology of Christian worship, and has so been lifted into conscious fellowship with the great celestial minds, in their higher ranges of beatitude and their shining tiers of glory, has not known it as being at once the deepest, highest, widest, most enkindling, and most practical of all practical truths? Bushnell.

1. I WILL sing of mercy and judgment: Unto thee, O LORD, will I sing praises. 2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way: Oh when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. 3 I will set no base thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; It shall not cleave unto me. 4 A froward heart shall depart from me: I will know no evil thing.

5. Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I destroy: Him that hath an high look and a proud heart will I not 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 minister unto me. 7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: He that speaketh falsehood shall not be established before mine eyes.

8. Morning by morning will I destroy all the wicked of the land ;

To cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the LORD.

THIS Psalm has been styled “the godly purposes and resolves of a king.” It opens with the joyful contemplation of God’s mercy and justice as kingly virtues, in their measure and degree to be manifested in earthly kings. It then records the king’s pious resolve to keep his own heart and life unspotted, and to remove from him all that might lead him astray. Yet scarcely has he uttered the resolve when, reflecting on all that such a resolve implies, he breaks forth in the earnest cry that God Himself would come to him and take up His dwelling with him, giving him grace to walk in “a perfect way.” Thus having consecrated himself and his house, he declares further how he will provide for the purity of his court. With jealous care he will exclude those who are the bane of king’s houses, the slanderer, the proud, the deceitful, the liar. None but the faithful; none but those who, like himself, walk in a perfect (i.e., blameless) way, shall be admitted to places of honor and trust about his person. Finally, the work of zealous reformation shall extend to his capital, the city of Jehovah, and to the utmost borders of the land, that he may see realized under his sway the great ideal, “Ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” All this falls in admirably with the early part of David’s reign, and the words are just what we might expect from one who came to the throne with a heart so true to his God. P.—One who begins his reign with thoughts and resolutions such as these may well look for a happy termination of it, and nothing shows us more clearly the true nobleness of David’s soul than this short Psalm. It is the spontaneous, inartificial expression of feelings long restrained; feelings and purposes, however, which form in themselves a whole, and which therefore naturally, and without effort, appear as a whole in the Psalm, and give it the unity which it possesses. Ewald.

This is the Psalm which the old expositors used to designate “The Mirror for Magistrates;” and an excellent mirror it is. It would mightily accelerate the coming of the time when every nation shall be Christ’s possession, and every capital a “City of the Lord,” if all magistrates could be persuaded to dress themselves by it every time they go forth to perform the functions of their godlike office. W. Binnie.

This Psalm has been appropriately called “The Householder’s Psalm;” and assuredly if every master of a family would regulate his household by these rules of the conscientious Psalmist, there would be a far greater amount, not merely of domestic happiness and comfort, but of fulfilment of the serious and responsible duties which devolve on the respective members of a household. Bouchier.

1. God’s providences concerning His people are commonly mixed—mercy and judgment; God has set the one over against the other and appointed them April days, showers and sunshine. Whatever our outward condition is, whether joyful or sorrowful, still we must give glory to God and sing praises to Him; neither the laughter of a prosperous condition, nor the tears of an afflicted condition, must put us out of tune for sacred songs. H.—The severity of God is tempered by His goodness; and His goodness, like the bow in the cloud, is brightened by the background of severity. Alike in nature, in the Bible, and in Providence, the awful and the gentle, the severe and the gracious, are blended together. J. P. T.

The pillars of the state are mercy and judgment. The throne of the King is borne up by them, as Solomon’s was with lions of ivory on each side. Therefore, as in one place it is said that “the throne is established by justice” (Prov. 16 : 12); so in another that it is “upheld by mercy” (Prov. 20 : 28); justice being as the bones and sinews in the body politic, and mercy as the veins and arteries. They are the two hands of action, the two eyes of virtue, and the two wings of honor. G. Hakewell.

Mercy and judgment are the two sides of the Divine character as it is revealed by God and apprehended by men. They are the two attributes which lie over against each other, for conflict or in harmony, according to the conditions in which they are exercised, or the point from which they are viewed. They intimate that God is merciful and that God is just. On the one hand, both these attributes are ascribed to Him throughout the Scriptures; on the other hand, both are more or less clearly mirrored in the human conscience. The subject of the song is not one or the other, but both united. Their nature, as manifested to men, is essentially determined by their union. Neither mercy nor justice alone and apart could become the theme of praise in the lips of men. We could not sing them separately. Their union takes place in Christ crucified. In Him the promises of God are Yea and Amen. In the Substitute mercy and justice meet. Christ is the unspeakable gift; God is love. The design and effect of the sacrifice of Jesus is that God may be just, and the Justifier of him who believeth on Jesus. Arnot.

What a beautifully woven web of judgment and mercy does every man’s secret history in his way through the wilderness of life to the land of promise, present! and how good, and how wholesome, and how kindly, and how gracious is this blessed intermingling of both! How do we need the judgment to keep us humble and watchful and pure! and how do we need the mercy to keep us hopeful, and to nerve our efforts, and to stir our hearts, and to sustain us in patience amid life’s battle and struggle and disappointment and vexation! Oh, how good it is for us, that we should thus, therefore, have the rod and staff together, the rod to chasten, and the staff to solace and sustain! How good it is for us that we should have to “sing of mercy and judgment!” And yet, what is judgment itself, but mercy with a sterner aspect? And what are the chidings of judgment, but the sterner tones of the voice of a Father’s love? For even judgment is one of the “all things” that “work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose.” Hugh Stowell.

Of mercy and judgment. And who among us has not the same mingled strain to utter? Who can say that His mercies have not been tempered with the gentle but solemn reminders of judgment at God’s hand? Our very proverbs tell us of this: no day without its cloud; no rose without its thorn. And who can say, on the other hand, that His judgments have not been most tenderly mixed with mercies? Our song may well, then, be of mercy and judgment; of His dealings toward us who, when He blesses, also chastises, lest we should forget Him; who, when He chastises, also blesses, lest we should distrust Him. Arnold.

How few our miseries to the number of our mercies; how far have our blessings exceeded our afflictions; our nights of sleep, those of wakefulness; our hours of health, those of sickness; our many gains, the few losses we have suffered? For every blow, how many blessings! and even when He smote with one hand, did not a gracious God hold up with the other? Who has not to sing much more of mercies than of judgments? Is there ever a month, a week, a day, an hour, a moment, a single moment, when from Thy blessed and bountiful hand, O God! mercies are not falling in showers, thick as the rain-drops that shimmer in sunlight on the water, or as the snow-flakes that fill the wintry air! Guthrie.

To bless God for mercies is the way to increase them; to bless Him for miseries is the way to remove them. No good lives so long as that which is thankfully improved; no evil dies so soon as that which is patiently endured. Dyer.

2. After propounding as his theme the mercy and justice of the Lord, the Psalmist announces his determination to be blameless in his own walk (vs. 2-4), and so to exercise his power over others as to favor the godly and drive out the wicked (vs. 5-8). A.

2. I will behave myself wisely. The first thing he vows touching himself is wise behavior; prudence, not sapience; not wise contemplation, but wise action. It is not wise thoughts, or wise speaking, or wise writing, or wise gesture and countenance, will serve the turn, but wise behavior; the former are graceful, but the other needful. Hakewell.

“O when wilt Thou come unto me?” an ejaculation, but not an interruption. He feels the need not merely of Divine help, but also of the Divine presence, that so he may be instructed and sanctified and made fit for the discharge of his high vocation. S.—It bursts forth from the heart, moved and stirred to its inmost centre, as it thinks of all the height and depth of that resolve to “walk in a perfect way.” How shall a frail son of man keep his integrity? The task is too great for his own strength, honest and sincere as the resolution is, and therefore he cries, “When wilt Thou come unto me?” come to be my abiding guest, come not only to dwell in Zion, in Thy tabernacle, but with me Thy servant, in my house and in my heart (compare John 14: 23), giving me the strength and the grace that I need? P.—“O when wilt thou come unto me?” involves the prayer, Grant me fresh manifestations of favor. Come near to me to dwell with me and to aid me in maintaining the life of devoted service to Thee which I now solemnly purpose. C.

I will walk within my house. Much, though not all of the power of godliness lies within doors. It is in vain to talk of holiness if we can bring no letters testimonial from our holy walking with our relations. It is sad when they that have reason to know us best, by their daily converse with us, do speak least for our godliness! David knew very well how near this part of a saint’s duty lies to the very heart of godliness; and, therefore, when he makes his solemn vow to walk holily before God, he instanceth this as one stage wherein he might eminently discover the graciousness of his spirit; “I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” Gurnall.—With a perfect heart; literally, “in the integrity of my heart.” So “a perfect way” might be rendered “the way of integrity.” P.

I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. Piety must begin at home. Our first duties are those within our own abode. We must have a perfect heart at home, or we cannot keep a perfect way abroad. Notice that these words are a part of a song, and that there is no music like the harmony of a gracious life, no Psalm so sweet as the daily practice of holiness. S.—In Christendom the family is a different and a more beautiful thing than it was in David’s time. Each father of a family can, by God’s help, say, with David, that he will walk in his house with a perfect heart. To every head of a household has been committed a great power of influencing those about him for good. Influence them in some way he certainly will; if not for good, then for evil. H. P. L.

3. I will not allow myself to look on any wickedness lest the sight of the eye should bring temptation to my soul. I hate the doing of unrighteousness; it shall find no sympathy in me. My heart shall not cleave to it. I hate the doing, and [by implication] the spirit of apostasy from God. C.—Deviations from truth, from integrity, from that Divine law by which he rules himself, shall not “cleave” to him. Temptations to such a course may beset him. The whisper might come: policy requires this course; craft must be met by craft; power is given to be used; kings are above law, and the like. But he refuses to listen to the whisper. P.

That religion is not real which does not claim for its dominion daily life and common duties. To serve the Lord in sincerity and truth, we must serve Him in those posts of occupation He has assigned us here below. The merchant must serve Him in the way he transacts his business, and the merchant’s clerk in the way he keeps his employer’s books and watches for his employer’s interest. The scholar must serve the Lord in the intensity with which he applies his mind, and in the thoroughness with which he conquers his subject or achieves his task. The workingman must serve the Lord by striving to be the most accomplished in all his craft, the fastest, the most solid, the most finished hand in all that field of labor; and the man who undertakes a learned profession should grudge no study and spare no pains till he has reached professional optimism, and made it every man’s interest who wants the best assistance or the best advice, to take it from the Christian physician, the Christian lawyer, or the Christian teacher. Our true life is our daily life. Hamilton.

4,5. He is full of a stern exclusiveness, of a noble intolerance, not against theological error, not against uncourtly manners, not against political insubordination, but against the proud heart, the high look, the secret slanderer, the deceitful worker, the teller of lies. These are the outlaws from King David’s court; these are the rebels and heretics whom he would not suffer to dwell in his house or tarry in his sight. Stanley.

4. A froward heart shall depart from me. He refers both to himself and to those round about him; he would neither be crooked in heart himself, nor employ persons of evil character in his house. He who begins with his own heart begins at the fountain-head, and is not likely to tolerate evil companions. S.

5. Having declared what his own course of life should be, he now describes the conduct which he should require in his confidential servants. Here again the statement is both negative and positive, but in this case beginning with the former. A.—“Privity slandereeth,” literally, he that tongueth his neighbor secretly. “Will I not suffer,” is properly, “him I cannot,” i.e., cannot live with, cannot bear about me. C.

In slander the listener is almost as bad as the speaker. The only true thing is to shut your ears the moment you begin to hear from any one an evil report of another. The person has no right to tell it to you, and you have no right to hear it. Courtesy requires that we be patient listeners, even to dull and prosy talkers; but even courtesy may not require us to listen to evil reports about a neighbor. J. R. M.—Slander cannot make the subject of it either better or worse; it may represent us in a false light, or place a likeness of us in a bad light, but we are the same. Not so the slanderer; for calumny always makes the calumniator worse, but never the calumniated. Colton.

6. Those who are not faithful to God will not be likely to be faithful to men; if we are faithful ourselves, we shall not care to have those about us who cannot speak the truth or fulfil their promises; we shall not be satisfied until all the members of our family are upright in character. S.

6,7. The home must be safe. It must be a sanctuary, where there is nothing to hurt or destroy. It is a great and life-long benefit when

life’s outset is passed in an atmosphere of truth and openness, and nothing is more disastrous than that system of false threatening and coercion which makes its little victims both incredulous and superstitious, both cowardly and cunning. Be yourself fair, candid, evenly-minded, making it easy to others to tell the truth, listening to both sides of the story, and careful to judge righteous judgment. And keep out all that has the opposite tendency. Whether as the servants who abide or the acquaintances who visit, let your eyes be on the excellent of the land, and the immoral and irreverent exclude as you would exclude contagion. And although

life should not be all regulation any more than a park should all be paling, yet like the fence which surrounds the little tree, like the hoops which hold the staves together, good rules create good habits; the regular hours, the family prayer, the timely return at night, the collective upgoing to the house of God. Hamilton.