Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1230
“I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when will You come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” Psalm 101:2.
THE 100th Psalm is perhaps the best known song of praise in the Word of God. To sing the “Old Hundredth” has been a habit of worshippers from generation to generation—the custom of every succeeding age as it is still our custom. “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all you lands.” Now, it is somewhat significant that the 101st, which immediately follows it, should be such a practical Psalm—all about how a man should walk in his house, how he should put away sin from his very eyes and keep himself from evil companionship. What does it seem to teach us but this, that the best praise is purity and that the best music in the world is holiness?
If we would extol the Lord, the best way to do it is to labor to keep His mind before us and to walk in His commandments. The sweetest sounds that ever came from the heaving bellows or the organ pipes can never have so much melody in them as a life that is tuned to the example of Christ! If we obey, we praise. He sings best who works best for God. There is no praise that excels that which is like the praise of angels, “who do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word.”
I suppose that this Psalm was written by David about the time when he was invested with regal authority and took the reins of government in his hands. Three times, you will remember, he was anointed king. First, in the house of his father, Jesse the Bethlemite, when, “Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren” (1 Sam. 16:13). Secondly, at Hebron, when, “The men of Judah came and there they anointed him king over the house of Judah” (2 Sam. 2:4). And thirdly, when all the elders of Israel came to the king 7 V years afterwards, “And David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel” (2 Sam. 5:3).
With the solemn responsibilities of government in view he sat himself down and considered how he would behave himself when he should come to the throne. And this was the resolution which he passed and labored, by the Grace of God, to carry out. It has been well said that in this Psalm David was merry and wise. He was merry, for he said, “I will sing of mercy and judgment.” And he repeated his resolution to sing by saying, “Unto You, O Lord, will I sing.” Such merriment as that were well for all of us to cultivate! We cannot sing too much when we sing unto the Lord! And, provided that the songs are the songs of Zion, the more of them we sing and the merrier we are in singing them, the better.
But he was merry and wise, for, having spiritual merriment, he also sought to have spiritual holiness. And so he passed this resolution—“I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.” Our meditation, then, will be of a practical character, and it will divide itself thus. First, in the text we have a comprehensive resolution—“I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.” Then, as if he were amazed at his resolve, feeling how much he had resolved to do and how little power he had to do it, we have, in the second place, a devout ejaculation—“O when will You come unto me?” But, still being firmly set upon his first hallowed resolution, he returns to it, again, and that leads us, in the third place, to notice a particular application of his resolution. He applies it to his own domestic household life—“I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.”
May God the Holy Spirit, who alone can make us practically holy, help us, now, while we consider the holy resolutions before us.
I. WHAT A COMPREHENSIVE RESOLUTION THIS IS! “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.” With a full knowledge of all the care and circumspection it entailed on himself—and with as clear an apprehension of all the risks of popularity it involved among his subjects—this was David’s deliberate choice. Influenced by the Grace of God he, like his son Solomon after him, chose wisdom as the principal thing and accounted the fear of the Lord as the choicest safeguard.
Many a young man, if he were about to be promoted to a throne, would say, “I will behave myself grandly. In the dignified position to which I am about to be lifted up, I will be every inch a king. I will make them know how stately is my bearing, how sovereign is my word, how nobly I can play my part, how well a crown befits my head. There shall be no Shah or Sultan more dignified than I.”
David might have chosen an empty conceit, but he did better, he elected a discreet conduct. He said not, “I will behave myself grandly,” but, “I will behave myself wisely.” There are many, too, who, having David’s opportunity, would have said, “I will have a merry time of it! Once let me mount to Israel’s throne, I will give myself up to the full indulgence of every passion. There shall be nothing that my soul shall lust for but what my hand shall grasp. Let me have horses and chariots in abundance! Give me singing men and singing women. I will get myself all manner of the delights of the flesh with whatever enjoyments I can devise. I will behave myself right joyously when once I come into power.”