Psalm 101

"¹ I will sing of your love and justice, Lord.
I will praise you with songs.
² I will be careful to live a blameless life—
when will you come to help me?
I will lead a life of integrity
in my own home.
³ I will refuse to look at
anything vile and vulgar.
I hate all who deal crookedly;
I will have nothing to do with them.
⁴ I will reject perverse ideas
and stay away from every evil.
⁵ I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors.
I will not endure conceit and pride.

^"6 I will search for faithful people
to be my companions.
Only those who are above reproach
will be allowed to serve me.
⁷ I will not allow deceivers to serve in my house,
and liars will not stay in my presence.
⁸ My daily task will be to ferret out the wicked
and free the city of the Lord from their grip."

 

 

 

Wow.

This is how I picked the Psalm of the Day today. I thought, hmm. I like the number 101.
And, extreme conviction is what I get.

I started reading this like a checklist, and I don't get very far. Sing songs of love and justice? Check. Live a blameless life? Um, well, not so much. I do a lot of things that look pretty good, and I haven't done anything too blatantly "bad", but blameless in not a word I would use to describe myself. I was lazy this morning and prideful later on. I do have some pretty incredible, Godly friends, but they aren't above reproach either.

After thinking about this for a while, I had to remind myself that the psalms are poetry, not checklists. And, these actions should flow from a heart of love. I am in love with God right now. I want to spend time with Him, and I want my life to be blameless because I'm tired of everything that distracts me from Him. I don't want to I look at things that are vile and vulgar because I want my eyes to be fixed on Christ. I long for the company of people who have the same fire because they encourage me.

I am forever indebted to Christ. His sacrifice makes me blameless. I can stand on that, even when nothing else makes sense.

<After thinking about this some today, I have a couple more thoughts to add. When we look at Christianity like a checklist, we can get caught up in the dos and don'ts. When we look at Christianity like poetry, we get caught up in the love and beauty of it all.>