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Introduction

The most likely occasion for the composition of this psalm is shortly after the death of Saul, when it looked likely that David was going to ascend the throne. This is a psalm that declares what he wanted his administration to look like—he is talking about the kind of behavior that will get a man excluded from his court, and what kind of loyal and upright behavior will result in preferment. Another possible occasion for this psalm is when David was about to become the king of a unified Israel, but the import would be the same.

Older commentators called this psalm “The Mirror for Magistrates.” A prince needs to understand the importance of character as he picks his courtiers, and as he selects his cabinet. What kind of people gather around the center of power will determine if it will be a righteous or an unrighteous power.

Bringing the stakes down a notch, another name for the psalm has been “The Householder’s Psalm,” but the principle is the same. How are employers to make their decisions? What kind of servants do you have? What kind of employees?

The Text

“A Psalm of David. I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. 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 set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person. Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: Him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. 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 serve me. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; That I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord” (Psalm 101).

Summary of the Text

The psalm begins on the right pitch exactly (v. 1). I will sing. Of what? Of mercy and judgment both together (v. 1). Mercy and judgment call for music. The psalmist vows that he will walk uprightly, and does this because he wants God to come to him. And this vow begins where it ought to—“within my house” (v. 2). He resolves not to contemplate anything worthless (v. 3), not to be entertained by what is vile, and he hates the contagions of treachery (v. 3). He refuses to be friends with the headstrong and willful (v. 4). A forward person is obstinately inclined toward disobedience; he has a mind like a corkscrew. David has nothing to do with such men. He also refuses to deal in slanders, meaning that he will not receive them (v. 5). Arrogant eyes he will not tolerate (v. 5). By contrast, he is on the lookout for faithful men, and recruits them to join in the work around him (v. 6). He has a low tolerance for liars as well (v. 7). Having begun with his own house, we see that his final goal is the cleansing of the city of God (v. 8).

How a Throne is Established

When David came to the throne, one of his first thoughts was how he could show mercy to the household of his adversary Saul (2 Sam. 9). This is not inconsistent with righteousness—it isrighteousness. “Mercy and truth are met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:10). A new regime, new management, a new order, should start off on the right foot, and the right foot is mercy. But you can’t walk anywhere without the left foot, and the left foot is righteousness, justice, integrity.

Notice how in Scripture a throne is established by mercy, and how it is also established by righteousness.

“Mercy and truth preserve the king: And his throne is upholden by mercy” (Prov. 20:28).

“It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: For the throne is established by righteousness” (Prov. 16:12).

It is not possible to walk in a biblical integrity without both.

And Holiness Sings

We generally understand that holiness is good, that it is straight, that it is righteous, that it is spotless, and so on. But we also must understand that holiness is musical. Holiness sings. Holiness is happy.

Holiness that does not overflow musically is not holiness at all, but rather severity. Proud men are generally hard men, and strictness is often confused with the holy. But holiness is happy, and so it is that holiness overflows in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Notice the first verse here again. “I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing” (Ps. 101:1).

But not all that sings is holy. Music that is not holy and happy is simply a gold ring in a pig’s snout. Paul compares high theological pretensions without love to precisely this—jangling and discordant music (1 Cor. 13:1), which means that such music must be a really bad thing in God’s sight.

Holiness at Home

There are few things worse than “holiness” abroad that will not (or cannot) maintain the façade while at home. This has been a problem in every era, but it is particularly a problem in ours, when people have started to think that God will judge us by what we decide to present to the public with our Facebook profile. “I will walk within my house with a perfect heart” (v. 2). Are you the same person here at church as you are at home? Has a snarl at the kids ever been transformed into a sweet chirrup because you had to answer the phone? “If you kids don’t get your junk put away in about fifteen seconds, I am going to find the dullest butter knife in the drawer, and I am going to skin yo . . . brrring! brrring! . . . why, hello!”

Cut Them Off

If you are like most of us, you have probably received emails in the past from marooned Nigerian princes who are trying to unload unspecified but enormous amounts of gold bullion. And you wonder to yourself, why do they send these things out? And the answer is because some people answer them. Why are certain things for sale? Because there are buyers out there.

So Christians have a responsibility, not only to not slander, but to not listen to it. We have a responsibility not only to not tell lies, but also to not tolerate liars. If you walk with the wise, you will be wise. If you walk with the conceited, you will become conceited yourself (vv. 3-5, 7). If you listen to the snake tongues, after a point you will be the one with snake ears. Not only do you not have a responsibility to be friends with everyone, you actually have a responsibility to not be. In addition, you have a responsibility to not care what they might think about it, or what they might say about it to others.

What Walking Means

This psalm mentions the importance of walking several times. I will walk within my house with a perfect heart (v. 2). The one who walks perfectly is the man I will employ (v. 6). As one commentator has noted, walking includes the ideas of motion, progress, and moderation. Walking moves, and is not sitting, or lying, or standing. Walking progresses, meaning that it is distinguished from jumping jacks or hopping in place. And walking is moderate—it is not all in a lather to get there. Just one foot in front of the other.

And where shall we walk? In the light provided by the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).

So where do we walk? If we are following Him, we are always behind Him, and never in the dark. And if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and we are cleansed from all our sin (1 John 1:7). This in turn gives us something to sing about, and fellowship with others, whom we may sing with. And never forget that if we follow Christ, singing, this means that He is ahead of us, singing also. He is the preeminent singer. When we sing the right songs, with the right heart, and in the right demeanor, we are imitating Him.

“The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” (Zeph. 3:17).

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Introduction

True worship comes from true hearts, and true hearts are filled to overflowing with gladness. This gladness can be solemn, as it is at a wedding (solempne), or this gladness can be jubilant, as it is after a victorious battle. But the thing it must never be is sullen or surly or sulky. Who needs that kind of worship? Who needs thatkind of service? Not the Lord.

The Text

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lordwith gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lordhe is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lordis good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations” (Ps. 100:1-5).

Summary of the Text

This is a psalm of thanksgiving, praise and joy. All the tribes, all lands, are invited to join in with the joyful noise (v. 1). True service rendered to God is, of necessity, glad service rendered to God. We are supposed to come into His presence with singing, which is the indicator that we are supposed to do it with gladness (v. 2). We begin this service with knowledge—knowthat the Lord is God (v. 3). He is the one who has made us, and not we ourselves (v. 3). We are the sheep of His pasture (v. 3). As we come into His presence, we should do it with thanksgiving and praise (v. 4). We must be thankful to Him, and bless His name (v. 4). The Lord is truly good. His mercy is everlasting. His truth endures to all generations (v. 5).

Worship in Gladness

The word rendered as “serve” here in v. 1 has the sense of worship, which is what worship is. We are accustomed to those who treat praise and worship as synonyms, but they are not. Praise is a subset of worship, but worship is not a subset of praise. Worship is when we make ourselves available to God to do whatever He requires of us. Worship is service. Worship is to appear before the Lord in an obedient frame of mind. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice . . . which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1-2). When Isaiah catches a glimpse of the Lord, high and lifted up in the Temple, and his response is “Here am I, Lord, send me,” this is his worship.

We come to worship the Lord because He tells us to, but we must also worship the Lord in the way He tells us to. And here He summons us to come before His presence with thanksgiving, and with praise, and with singing, and with gladness.

For He Has Made Us (Again) 

We are to do so because we know that the Lord God is the one who has made us. It would be natural (and not wrong) to take this as gladness in the mere fact of our creation. We are creatures, and did not fashion ourselves. We did not make ourselves, or create ourselves. Of course not. But John Calvin interprets this place as talking about our re-creation in God’s regeneration of us. Because the psalmist follows it up immediately with the observation that we are the “sheep of his pasture,” Calvin assumes that this is talking about the gift of the new birth.

Thanksgiving Based on Knowledge

Because we know that the Lord is God, because we know that He is the one who has made us (or remade us), thereforewhat follows? What follows is a joyful noise, singing, gladness, thanksgiving, praise, and a blessing of His name. This knowledge is not a knowledge that simply uses the name Godas a placeholder, but rather understands the Godness of God.

We are not Stoics or fatalists. We know that God is ultimately and absolutely God, and that He is in utter control of all events. This includes the events that we naturally and spontaneously thank Him for, obviously, but it also includes those hard providences that we have difficulty processing.

When you enter His courts with gladness, all of you are carrying something. Each one of you brings something here with you to present to the Lord. If that is a bountiful thing, a good harvest thing, a great promotion thing, it is our delight to fulfill our duty in this. But a number of you are dealing with (or reeling under) hard circumstances. It may be a difficult diagnosis, or a straying loved one, or financial pressures, or end of life decisions, or hard duties, or an impossible person in your life, or a difficult boss, or any number of other possibilities. When you come into God’s courts, that is what you must carry in with you to present to Him, and you must do it with gladness.

“Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thess. 5:16–18).

“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20).

Gladness, Not Maneuvering

Gladness in all things, and for all things, is not maneuvering, or waffling, or noodling. It is growing up into a real maturity. Let me take a common stressor (finances) to illustrate what I mean.

Let us say that you consistently have too much month left at the end of your money. Financial pressure is a constant reality in your life. The temptation (when you are not leaning in the gladness direction) is to want, desire, and pray for extra money in order that the pressure might be relieved. Fourth grade is too much for you, and so you pray that a miracle might happen that will get you back into third grade. But more money would put you in seventh grade.

More money is additional weight, more responsibility. Our problem is that we ignore that part of it when we pray for more. We actually ask for more responsibility so that we might be allowed to be less responsible—which is absurd. It doesn’t work that way. Gladness grows you up. Mature Christians are the glad Christians. And poutiness is never a mature look.

Hesed Never Runs Out

We are Christians; we are followers of Christ. And Christ is Lord, and the Lord is good. For His mercy (hesed, lovingkindness) is everlasting. Everlasting means lasting forever. This is His truth, and His truth never runs out either. It endures to all generations. That was true when these words were written, and now thousands of years later, we are not ever close to the end of “all generations.” Christ is yesterday, today, and forever.

 

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Introduction

As we worship Jehovah for His infinite wisdom, right at the peak of our praises must be the recognition that His mercyto us is altogether holy. How He managed to do that is beyond all finite calculation. But fortunately, it is not beyond our ability to adore and praise.

The Text

“The Lordreigneth; let the people tremble: He sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved. The Lordis great in Zion; And he is high above all the people. Let them praise thy great and terrible name; For it is holy. The king’s strength also loveth judgment; Thou dost establish equity, Thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt ye the Lordour God, And worship at his footstool; For he is holy. Moses and Aaron among his priests, And Samuel among them that call upon his name; They called upon the Lord, and he answered them. He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: They kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them. Thou answeredst them, O Lordour God: Thou wast a God that forgavest them, Though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. Exalt the Lordour God, And worship at his holy hill; For the Lordour God is holy” (Psalm 99).

Summary of the Text

This psalm can be divided into three sections or strophes as well. Each one of those sections ends with exultation in the holiness of God. Holiness is therefore the three-fold refrain. His name is holy (v. 3). His judgments are holy (v. 5). His mercy is holy (v. 9). Because Jehovah reigns, His people tremble and the earth staggers (v. 1). He reigns from between the cherubim, which is where the mercy seat is (v. 1). The Lord is great in Zion, high over the people (v. 2). His name is great and terrible (v. 3), and is to be honored as holy. God is the king who loves judgment, who loves the justice of judgment (v. 4), and He establishes equity (v. 4). All of it is righteous (v. 4). Because He is like this, we must worship at His footstool, in front of the mercy seat, for He is holy (v. 5). He is the God who answers prayer, as He did for His priests, Moses and Aaron, and as He did for Samuel (v. 6). He spoke to them from the cloudy pillar, and they kept His testimonies and ordinances (v. 7). When God answers prayer, He makes a distinction between sinner and sin. He forgave them, but took vengeance on their inventions (v. 8). Because all of this is truth itself, we are to exalt the Lord, and worship at His holy hill—for He is holy (v. 9).

His Merciful Name is Terrible

This is a jubilant psalm, but the joy in it is not a frothy or lite kind of thing. The rejoicing people here tremble(v. 1). The name we are praising is a great and terrible name—with terriblehere being understood as that which means the kind of awe that causes earthquakes. The earth staggers (v. 1). It is a psalm that rejoices in forgiveness, but this is not a “boys will boys” kind of forgiveness. It is no gloss-over-it forgiveness. This is forgiveness that maintains the highest and holiest of standards. The king lovesjudgment and equity (v. 4). And after He has separated our sins from us, He takes vengeanceon them (v. 8).

Real Social Justice

A recent thing in Christian circles has been the cry for social justice. On one level there should be no problem with this—we see in our text that the king we serve lovesjudgment, and He establishesequity. He executesboth judgment and righteousness. How could we be against any of that? Biblically grounded, we are not. But we remember the warning the Lord gave us. “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24).

Before programs or hearings, or investigations, or reforms, before any of that, we must have definitions. What do we mean by justice? If it is not biblical justice, biblically defined, then it is nothing more than a secular pursuit of continued unholiness. And that is precisely what the current “social justice” fad is, a love of the unholy.

From the Cloudy Pillar

Not surprisingly, the merciful and most holy word comes to us from the awesome cloudy tower that accompanied Israel by day, and which was a tower of fire by night. This is where the word of forgiveness comes from.

“And the Lordwent before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people” (Ex. 13:21–22).

In the time of the new covenant, this blessing is for all the houses of Zion—which means you.

“And the Lordwill create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, And upon her assemblies, A cloud and smoke by day, And the shining of a flaming fire by night: For upon all the glory shall be a defence” (Is. 4:5).

Both Just and Justifier

So how is it possible for God to save us, and execute vengeance on our inventions? He sees that we keep His testimonies and ordinances, and He also sees how we fail to do so. How is this to be dealt with? The answer to this question—and when it comes to a man’s salvation, it isthequestion—is double imputation. God imputes the sin and wickedness of our guilt to Christ on the cross, and He imputes the absolute purity of Christ’s life to us.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

“To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).

And He does it from the pillar of cloud and fire, with the tabernacle beneath. And in that tabernacle, there is the Holy of Holies, containing the ark of the covenant. On top of that ark are two cherubim, facing each other, and between them is the mercy seat. And God dispenses His judgments from that place, the place where the blood was put, and which was the holiest place within the holiest place in all Israel. And that means your forgiveness is not a matter of divine indulgence. Your forgiveness, your new life, your cleansing, is holy.

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