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.