Psalm 101 this evening. Psalm 101, 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 privately slandereth his
neighbor, him will I cut off. Him that hath an high look and
a proud heart will I not 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. Chapter divisions are a consideration
for preachers and important to you because we want to see the
big picture in a chapter. We want to see the natural divisions,
the outline that's there. so we can break God's truth down
into thoughts that we can understand and we can consider for a while
and then move on to the next one. Our minds are limited and
so that's important. And then of course individual
words are important also but the chapter division here in
this chapter is verse one and then everything else. And it's
clearly so because you see in verses two through eight David
talking about what I will do, I will do. Now he talks about
what he will do in verse one also, but it's different. It
doesn't have to do with his behavior, his walk, his life, his work. It just has to do with singing
unto God and what he's going to sing about. It's distinctly
separate from the rest of the chapter for a good reason. All the rest of the Psalm deals
with the believer's resolve. David said, here's what I'm going
to do. And verse 1 declares the believer's hope. So the title
of the message tonight is the Believer's Resolve and Hope. Believed to have been written
by David just upon God finally bringing him to the throne of
Israel. You remember God had anointed him as just a young
lad. to be king over Israel, but it
was years later before he actually ascended to the throne. By God's
deliberate design and decree and purpose, it was that way.
He went through much, much trouble and trial. Picture Christ in
that regard, because our Lord Jesus Christ was born king, but
he didn't ascend and sit on the throne of glory until he went
through much tribulation. He had to be the man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief, and had to suffer and die on the
cross for his people. to redeem them from their sins
before he could ascend to the throne. And so David's a picture
of him in that. But finally, God in his prominence is raising
David to the throne of Israel. And you can see why David would
say these things at this particular time. He's about to take on great
responsibility. We see in it his determination
to be a good king. A God-honoring steward of the
authority that God had entrusted him with and anointed him for.
Verse one, though, is the song of David's heart at this same
time. This is so beautiful to me. He
has a song in his heart at this time of being on the brink of,
as I said, great responsibility before God to lead his people
in a godly way and a strong and powerful and wise leadership. And then he has some things that
he resolves to do and be as king. But this song of his heart, this
is very important, this distinction, because whatever we may resolve
to do and whatever we may resolve to be, our hope is not in what
we do or what we are. I want to honor Christ in this
world. And I can understand this language of David in anything
that we do, can't you? But my salvation and my security
do not depend upon my success in that endeavor. Whatever it
is, the very reason that I want to honor Christ in my life, in
my deeds, in my person, is because He is Himself my salvation. He is Himself my security. Verse
one talks about singing. Singing comes from the heart.
What we sing about is what really matters to us. This is a song
that David wrote. And what we write, what we sing
that comes from our heart, that's what's important to us, what's
dear to us. We know what King David sang about all through
these songs that he wrote. He sang about Christ. He sang
to Christ. And this is important because
like David, I want to be perfect. What's your goal? To be kind
of better, a little bit better? I want to do everything right,
don't you? Why would you have less of a
goal than that? I want to do everything right. I want to make
every decision of mine be the right one. And the word is complete,
whole. I want to be... I want to honor the Lord Jesus
in this world. But what is perfection? Have
you ever thought about that? What's the standard? Quite simply, and David knew
this, and we know this, don't we? What he's really saying is,
I want to be like Christ. Isn't that it? That's what perfection
is. I want to be like Him. What else
could it mean? What other standard are you going
to look to? Who else would you put on that kind of a pedestal?
Who do you want to be like? There's only one perfect, and
that's Him. There's only one way to even
know what perfect is, and that's to know Him. And by the way,
there's only one way to be perfect, and that's in Him. Not by our
imitation of Him, but we do want to imitate Him. We want to be
like Him. In my own behavior, I want to
be perfect, because that's what honors Him. Only the Lord Jesus
Christ ever honored God. I want to be like that. That's
a good goal. That's a good thing to want to
be. I want to be like Him. I know that I can't be perfect,
but I resolve to be anyway. Like Paul said in Romans chapter
7, he said, I cannot do the things that I would, but they're still
the things that I would. I want to be what I'm not. I would worship God as he's worthy
to be worshipped. How to perform that, I find not,
as Paul put it in Romans 7, that's how he said it. How to perform
that, which I would, I find not. Me too, Paul. But I would do
that, wouldn't you? Don't you want to worship him
like he's worthy to be worshipped? That's what David's saying here.
I would be perfect, I would be complete. And of course he's
saying ultimately, he understood the only way you can be like
Christ is to be in Christ, truly. But also we want to imitate him
in our life, we want to be followers of our Lord in all that we do.
He says in verse 2, I will behave myself wisely. Don't you want
to do that? I know some people that don't.
They don't care. They just want to feed their
lust. They don't care whether it's the right thing or not.
I know some people like that. I don't want to be one of those
people. I don't. By God's grace, I do not want
to be one of those people. Our Lord said to us in Matthew
10, 16, Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. He was sending David. Like a
sheep among wolves, being king of Israel. You talk about the
hot seat. Everybody in the world wanted
to kill Israel. That knew who they were. And
he's the head Israel. All of a sudden. And people within
his own country, people within his own family were gunning for
him. Sheep among wolves now. Be ye
therefore wise as serpents. Don't be a fool. Don't be gullible. Don't be carried about with every
wind. Don't be persuadable. Paul said, I'm persuaded. I'm not persuadable. Be ye therefore wise as serpents
and heartless as dove. I want to obey that, don't you?
I want to obey that. But when I sing, I'm not going
to sing about my wisdom or what passes for wisdom in my case.
The song of my heart will never be my sad attempts at perfection. What are you going to sing about,
Chris? What are you gonna sing about David? I'm gonna sing of
the mercy of God in Christ. That's what I'm gonna sing about
You see that you see the chapter division here you see We have
a resolve now This is my determination but bless God we have a song
too It's not about me. It's not about what I do. It's
not about what I am. It's about God. I and how he
can be just and still have mercy on sinners. I'm gonna sing of my savior,
shedding his precious blood that he might wash my sins away in
his own precious, sin atoning, life giving blood. He's the song of my heart. I
want to honor him now. I want to serve him. I want to
do so perfectly. I resolve, by God's grace, to
walk worthy of the calling wherewith you call. Didn't Paul exhort
us to that? But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. I resolve to do, but never, never,
Lord, let us glory in what we do. We know that it falls so
far short. It's not worth singing about,
but you are. Your precious blood worth singing about. Your mercy
is worth singing about. God said, I will have mercy. And David said, I'm going to
sing about it. You see that? And what God did
about that was he said, I'm going to have mercy. What did he do
about it? He sent his only begotten son into this world, that we
might live through him, 1 John 4 now. Oh, may he give us grace, may
he give us the heart, may he give us a voice to sing of his
mercy. After I have resolved and done
my very best, my hope will still be the mercy of God in Christ. And I will have to sing of his
mercy toward me in all of my very best that I've done. When
I've done my best, I need his mercy and I'll still be delighted
in it by his grace. I would be like him. Oh, to be like the blessed redeemer. I would behave myself wisely. I sure would. Solomon exhorts
us to that, doesn't he? He said, hearken to my word,
apply your hearts to wisdom. My son, I want to do that. I sure do. And I know that's
grace. But even as I resolve and endeavor
to be what I should and do what I should, my heart's cry unto
him is in verse two, as David said, oh my God, when wilt thou
come unto me? You see that in verse two. When
will you come to me? I don't want to be weary and
well doing. This is his exhortation into my soul in Galatians 6 9.
Let us not be weary and well doing for in due season we shall
reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all, especially unto them who are of the household
of faith. Isn't that what David's saying? I want to be right and
just and merciful myself, and I want to lead your people in
a right way. I want there to be true justice
in the land. The proud and the haughty and the deceitful, I
don't want to have anything to do with them. I'm not going to
oppress the people in order to please somebody that benefits
me. I'm going to do this right. I'm determined to do this right. Don't be weary in that. Let's
be that in this world. I want to be tireless in his
service. I want to be. I want to be strong
and steadfast in his ministry. I want to be a faithful and constant
steward of his grace in this world. But yet my sin weary soul
cries with David here. Oh Lord, come and get me. Come
and be with me. Come and bless me. In everything
that he does now, David is saying here, don't leave me alone. Come
to me. I've never seen that anywhere
else in the scripture, those words. Oh Lord, when will you
come to me? Come to me. That ought to be
our prayer constantly. Friend of sinners, we say, come
to me. Friend of the helpless, have
mercy on me. Thy presence, the only thing
needful I see. Friend of the friendless, have
mercy, come to me. What a beautiful prayer that
is. Lord, come where I am. I need you every single hour. I want to be these things, and
I know it's not gonna happen unless you're with me. I can
do all things through Christ which strengthens me, but Lord,
if you're not going with me, I don't wanna go. I don't wanna
go. Come to me, my comfort. Come
to me, my hope. You who are the only true lover
of my son, come to me. This is the cry of my heart and
was David's. How about you? Lord, you've entrusted us with
a great stewardship. All of us now. Paul wrote in
1 Timothy 111, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed
God, which was committed to my trust. If you know the gospel,
the gospel is committed to your trust. And he said, in the next
verse, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me.
He enabled me to receive it. He enabled me to understand that
blessed gospel, that glorious gospel of the blessed God. He
enabled me to lay hold of Christ in that gospel. He's enabled
me to speak it. He's enabled me to be a witness
of him. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me,
for he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. That's
every one of us now. We're ministers to our children,
to our families, to this world. God has committed this trust
to us. And upon that great brink of
responsibility, we ought to stand there and say, oh God, then I'm
going to need you with me. Come to me. And may this be the
song of my heart. Thank you for your mercy. And
thank you for your judgment. As I resolve to be everything
I need to be and do everything that I ought to do, Be with me
and give me the song about you. You've included us in your ministry,
you've given us a work to do, and we don't shy from it, do
we? We don't want to neglect it. But Lord, don't leave us
to ourselves in it. Come to us. I love the Great
Commission, don't you? You know what my favorite part
of it is? You do, don't you? He said, you
go and preach. And everybody that will hear
you, I'll save them. And everybody that won't hear
you, I will damn them. And lo, I will be with you always. That's my favorite part right
there. We going into this world as sheep among wolf. We're going
in this world with the greatest responsibility ever laid upon
the shoulders of a mortal man. We're going into this world with
that which Paul said, of which he said, who is sufficient for
these things? And so we take hold of that promise. Lo, I am with you always. And
we say, Lord, sure enough, be with us. Come where we are. Use
us for your glory. And may it be your glory, never
us, not unto us. Thank you for including us. Didn't
that what he said right there where we just read? I thank Christ
Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me and counted me faithful and
put me into his ministry. Thank you, Lord, for that. Now
give me the strength I need. And let me never sing of my exploits
or my experiences, whatever they are, but let me keep on singing
of your mercy and your judgment. Even when our Lord Jesus Christ
did battle in the garden of Gethsemane, the angels of the Lord came and
ministered unto him. Lord, don't leave us. Verse three,
he said, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. I hate
the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. Do
you see how perfectly appropriate that is for us to consider when
we think about this ministry that our Lord Jesus Christ has
put us into? Don't let us set any wicked thing
before our eyes, Lord. In your ministry, we would not
desire any personal gain. Don't let that dictate our methods. And so many do in the service
of this world's religion. Those that turn aside. We don't
want to be like them. Those that turn aside from your
pure and holy gospel. We don't want to have anything
to do with them. They always want us to have something to
do with them. We're not going to have anything to do with them.
We shake them off from us. Like Paul, we would not use enticing
words of man's wisdom. And to use the word that David
did here, we hate the very idea of deceiving anybody. We hate
the idea of that. of turning aside or deceiving.
We know that it's by your grace that it's that way, but we sure
enough hate it. Like David said here, we don't
want anything to do with that, don't want any part in that.
To turn aside is to preach anything but Christ. We've seen that in
the book of 1 John. Paul said, we preach Christ and
Him crucified. And you know what else he said?
If anybody comes preaching any other gospel than the one that
we preach to you, let him be accursed. That's how we feel
about it. You see how that verse applies
to the ministry so beautifully? That's 1 Corinthians 1.23 and
Galatians 1.8 where I quoted Paul just then. And the rest
of this psalm now is David renouncing every wicked way. We read it.
You saw. He said the deceitful and proud.
I don't want to have anything to do with him. I'm not going
to listen to him. And you know as king, they were knocking on his
door every day. Let's work this to our advantage.
Who cares what's good for the people? Let's work something
out here. Let's make a deal to our mutual benefit. You know
how politics are. David said, I'm not going to
listen to him. Every wicked way, every wicked person, a man of
political authority like David was a target of those who would
influence him for their good, but for evil. And David mentions
the proud and deceitful and promises not to give them any consideration.
as leader of Israel. His desire was to rule with integrity
and honesty and humility. Oh, for a man like that to rule
over us. But David's song, now, his song
was of the mercy of God, the precious blood. You know, he
knew something about the mercy seat, didn't he? The mercy seat
where atonement for sin was made by the blood of a burnt offering.
the blood of a sacrifice unto God that he would accept. And
he said, I'm going to sing you something else. You thought I
forgot about it, didn't you? I'm going to sing about judgment
too. I'm going to sing of your mercy. I'm going to sing of your
judgment. The word here, often the word, especially in the New
Testament, the word judgment has to do with the one who decides
a matter. And this is similar, but this
word here is justice. It is the character in which
the matter is decided. It's going to be decided in a
just way, the right way, according to God. And David again expresses
his desire to himself as king over God's people. Great responsibility. He wanted to execute perfect
justice. He said, I won't tolerate any
deceit. I'm not going to enter into collusion
with the deceitful and proud that would want to influence
my decisions and decrees as king. All those that serve under me,
verse six, did you see that? Even the ones that I choose to
serve me in this, in this kingdom, they're going to be faithful
and they're going to be honest, or they're not going to serve me.
They're not going to be rulers in this kingdom. He said, I'm
going to do everything in my power and everything in my understanding
that you've given me to make sure that true justice is served
justice as God defines it. But when I sing, I'm going to
sing of your justice, not mine. I'm going to sing of divine justice,
not justice in Israel, except for God's justice in Israel.
You know, there's a very popular song. that I've known since I
was a kid is called, I Did It My Way. That's gotta be the worst
song ever written. That's a horrible song. But it
expresses man's anti-Christ attitude very well, doesn't it? I did
it my way. David didn't sing, I did it my
way. And this is the important point
here. David did not even sing, I did it God's way. He didn't
sing about Him doing anything. He sang of God's way. Not I did
it, God. He sang of God's justice, God's
judgment, the way God does things. That's the subject of our song.
Not me, anything. He simply sang of God, His mercy,
and the way God does things. That's what that word judgment
is. It's how God does things. That's the subject of our song.
And may we go through this whole life singing about that. You
know, a song, it's a song of joy. To sing of His judgment
is to rejoice in it, to be glad of it, and to want other people
to hear about it in the best possible way. We put a melody
to it and we play an instrument. We make a big deal out of it
because it is a big deal. God is mercy and perfect justice. And it's interesting to sing
of these two things together. Because in man's way of things,
these two can't be reconciled. You think about it for a second.
Mercy implies a crime, right? You don't need mercy unless you've
committed a crime of some kind. Well, if you've committed a crime,
then mercy is precluded. Because if a crime is committed,
justice must be done. And if there's no punishment
for the crime, that's an injustice. If a crime is committed and there
must be, if mercy is at play here, then it is an injustice not to
punish that crime. But God, in his infinite wisdom,
is able to be just and merciful. In Christ, he can and does punish
our sin, my sin, your sin, to the fullest measure, to pour
out all of his wrath upon my sin, against my sin, to the fullest
measure. And at the same time, he freely
pardons us of all of our sin. Our iniquity is laid on Christ
Christ bears the guilt and the shame and all of the penalty
of it and we go free but not just free Not just free we didn't
just escape hell here We are made in this complete transfer
the very righteousness of God in him Not just free of punishment,
but blessed with every blessing that God has Mercy and judgment
What a song This is the subject of the song
of the redeemed heart. That's what David said in his
other song. More than one of them, I believe.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. Because God,
though perfectly and strictly and uncompromisingly just in
his judgment, yet has mercy on sinners in Christ. What a song. To sing of his mercies
is to sing of his son. I don't know why, but this song
came to my mind when I was thinking about singing of Christ. This
is one of my favorite songs. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Because that's me in every respect.
Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin, I am.
Thou art full of truth and grace. We sing of Christ. And did you
notice in the song, too, he said, I'm going to sing to you, Lord.
I'm going to sing of your mercy and judgment. I'm going to sing
it to you. When we sing together in the worship of God, we're
not singing to one another. Even when somebody stands up here,
it may look like they're singing to you because you're out there
and they're looking at you and singing. We get a blessing from
that. When somebody sings a true gospel
song, because you see, we sing the same thing we preach. What's
the gospel message? Mercy and judgment. how God can
have mercy on sinners in Christ, and the way God does things.
That's our message. It's also the subject of our
song. And we sing it to Him for His
glory, because we love Him, as we talked about recently in another
song, because we love Him. If you sing a song to somebody,
that's a special thing, isn't it? That's a special thing. And
this is our song. This is our song. Thou, O Christ,
art all I want. Lord, help us to be faithful.
You see the two divisions here. I want to be faithful. I want
to be a good steward of God's grace. He's entrusted us with
His gospel, and He counted us faithful, put us into His ministry,
and I want to be worthy of that calling by His grace. I want
to walk worthy of the calling wherewith he's called me. But
Lord also, help us to sing of him whose precious blood washes
away all of our unfaithfulness. Because in all of our faithfulness,
we're unfaithful. When we've done everything that
God has commanded us to do, what does the scripture say about
Unprofitable servants. So I do want to be faithful.
But thank God for mercy. To the unfaithful. Because that's
me. And I want to sing about that.
And I like the way God does things. By His grace, I like it. From
His throne. He sits in judgment upon this
whole universe and everybody in it. And I'm glad. That's a song in my heart. Lord, come to us. That's our
prayer also, Lord. David said, oh Lord, when will
you come to me? When? Come to us when we preach. Come to us while we worship,
while we try to worship. Come to us in our homes. come
to us on our jobs and inspire us to honor you in every place
we find ourselves and everything we find ourselves doing. You
see, David's hope and resolve. May ours be the same. Let's pray.