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Daily Devotion: Psalm 101:1-2

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Psalm 101:1-2   "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."

"I will sing of mercy and judgment."  This gives the impression that David is rejoicing and very thankful in His relationship with the Lord.  How could David gladly sing of judgment?  When we think of judgement, we usually relate it to negative results from our negative actions. But the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians_11:31, "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." In other words, if we make the right decisions (proper judgement), we would not receive the negative results. In verses two and three of this Psalm, he speaks of judgement in his own actions. He speaks of proper behaviour when no one else is around. He speaks of his own attitude when no one else is around. I will do these things "within my own house."  

If we can practice doing these things within our own houses when no one else is around, then it becomes a part of us and we can "behave (ourselves) in a perfect way."  Does this mean that we become perfect, without flaw? I believe our perfection, without flaw, will take place when we enter heaven's glory. As long as we are on this earth, we will never be perfect in that sense. But the word, perfect, in Scriptures means to be mature.  We grow to maturity in the natural sense and we must grow to maturity (Biblical perfection) in our spiritual walk with the Lord.

How do we grow to spiritual maturity? First, we are born of the Spirit of God by His sovereign grace. Being born of the Spirit, we now have the ability and desire to walk with the Lord. Our walk with Him consists of prayer, reading and studying the Bible, and seeking to apply the Word of God to our lives.  I say we "seek to apply" because we all fail. We all make mistakes. We all transgress either by committing sinful actions or not doing what we know to be the right thing. This is where David says, "Not only will I sing unto the Lord  of judgment, but I will sing of His MERCY!"  I love the mercy of God, don't you?  The Word of God teaches us, "It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Using Paul's instruction of judging ourselves, aren't you thankful that the Lord's mercy comes new to us every morning? This is the day which the Lord hath made and this day is filled with God's mercy. We do ourselves a great injustice if we fail to realize how great is our God and how great is His mercy and how great is His faithfulness.  I would much rather depend upon Him than my own inability to walk perfectly in this life. But at the same time, because of His mercy and faithfulness to me, I want to use this day to do better (make better decisions) than I did yesterday.

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