Psalms 101

THE HALLOWING OF FAMILY LIFE

‘When wilt Thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.’

Psalms 101:2

David’s subject in this psalm is the ordering and hallowing of family life by bringing it under the influences and sanctions of religion.

I. That which strikes us first of all in this psalm is that the qualifications for continuing in the household of David are to be moral qualifications.—That which shall disqualify men from living with him is not want of ability or want of distinction, but want of loyalty to goodness and to God.

II. The qualifications for membership in David’s house are chiefly negative.—He is more careful to say who shall not than who shall enjoy the privilege. David hopes that with the coming of the sacred ark to Jerusalem—in other words, that with a nearer contact with the presence of God—he will be able to effect a great change. If people are not to be expelled, they must be improved; they must be converted. The restored sense of a sacred presence among them, the active works of the ministers and the sanctuary, the pervading atmosphere of worship and praise—these things would in time make the reformation which David had at heart easy and natural.

III. 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.

Two lessons would seem to be suggested by this psalm of King David. (1) Observe the order and method of David’s proceeding. He began by improving himself. (2) The improvement of the family can only be procured by religious, as distinct from merely moral, influences.

—Canon Liddon.

Illustration

‘Probably David wrote this psalm when he had but recently ascended the throne of Israel. “When wilt thou come unto me?” is the utterance of his longing to see the Ark brought up to Jerusalem. It is clear, therefore, that he was standing on the threshold of his reign. The land was full of the disasters produced by Saul’s misrule, but before the king put his hand to reform them he felt that his own house must be adjusted according to the highest ideals. The psalm divides itself into two parts (2–4; 5–8). In the first he sets before himself the narrow thorny way of perfectness. For an Oriental monarch there are many temptations to do base things, and to favour evil persons, especially when they lend themselves to work out schemes of private aggrandisement; hut David resolved to walk in his house with absolute integrity. Note the stress laid upon the perfect way and the perfect heart. These make a froward heart impossible.’