The Magistrate's Vow and the Father's Heart Text: Psalm 101:1-2
Introduction: Public Justice Begins at Home
We live in an age that has completely lost its nerve, and consequently, its mind. Our civic discourse is a shrieking cacophony of demands for justice, but the justice demanded is a sentimental, therapeutic counterfeit. It is a justice disconnected from righteousness, a mercy detached from truth. Modern man wants the fruit of a Christian social order, things like fairness and compassion, but he has deliberately poisoned the root. He wants a government that reflects goodness, but he practices wickedness in the supposed privacy of his own home. He wants the king to be righteous, but he himself is a petty tyrant over his own household.
Psalm 101 is a magistrate's psalm. It is a king's solemn vow before God, a declaration of how he intends to govern. David, newly established on the throne, understands that his public administration of justice is inextricably linked to his private integrity. He knows that the scepter he wields over Israel will be either righteous or ruinous depending on the rule he maintains over his own heart and his own house. This is a lesson our own magistrates have forgotten, if they ever learned it at all. They believe they can maintain a public persona of respectability while their private lives are a sty of corruption, deceit, and godlessness. They are fools. The rot always starts at home, and it always works its way out.
This psalm is a frontal assault on the modern, secular lie that a man's private life has no bearing on his public duties. David understood that what he did "within my house" was the foundation for all he would do in "the city of the Lord." For a Christian, there is no sacred/secular divide. All of life is to be lived Coram Deo, before the face of God. Your checkbook is religious. Your internet browser history is religious. The way you speak to your wife and children is profoundly religious. And for a man in authority, whether a king, a pastor, a business owner, or a father, this principle is magnified. You cannot export a culture of righteousness that you have not first cultivated in your own heart and home.
In these first two verses, David lays the foundation for his entire rule. He establishes the theme, which is God's own character, and he establishes the location of his primary obedience, which is his own house. This is where all true reformation begins.
The Text
I will sing of lovingkindness and justice,
To You, O Yahweh, I will sing praises.
I will consider the way of the blameless.
When will You come to me?
I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.
(Psalm 101:1-2 LSB)
The Royal Anthem (v. 1)
David begins his reign not with a political manifesto, but with a song of worship. The first duty of a godly ruler is doxology.
"I will sing of lovingkindness and justice, To You, O Yahweh, I will sing praises." (Psalm 101:1)
The theme of his song, and therefore the theme of his reign, is "lovingkindness and justice." The Hebrew here is hesed and mishpat. These two attributes are the twin pillars of God's own government. Hesed is covenant loyalty, steadfast love, mercy, and grace. Mishpat is justice, righteousness, and judgment. They are not in conflict; they are two sides of the same coin of God's holy character. God's justice is never unloving, and His love is never unjust.
Our world tries to pit these two against each other. The progressive left champions a sentimental "love" that tolerates all manner of sin, which is not love at all but a cruel indifference. The reactionary right can sometimes champion a harsh "justice" that is devoid of mercy and grace. But a godly ruler, a godly father, must sing of both. He must know when to extend grace and when to execute judgment. And he can only do this if his eyes are fixed on the one true King, Yahweh. David says his song is "To You, O Yahweh." He is not singing to the people to win their votes. He is not posturing. He is declaring before the God who anointed him that he intends to model his reign after God's own character.
This is the foundation of all true authority. Authority is not ultimately derived from the consent of the governed, or from raw power, or from tradition. True authority is derived from and accountable to the living God. When a ruler forgets this, he becomes a tyrant. When a father forgets this, his home becomes a place of bitterness and rebellion. David starts where every leader must start: with his face toward God, singing of the very character he is called to emulate.
The Personal Resolution (v. 2)
From the high theme of worship, David moves immediately to the practical application in his own life. His theology must become biography.
"I will consider the way of the blameless. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart." (Psalm 101:2)
First, he says, "I will consider the way of the blameless." The word "consider" means to give careful attention to, to ponder, to act with prudence. The "way of the blameless" is the path of integrity, the life that is whole and sound before God. David is not claiming to be sinless. "Blameless" in Scripture does not mean perfection; it means that when you do sin, you deal with it. You confess it, you forsake it, you make restitution. It means your heart is fundamentally oriented toward obedience. David is resolving to make this his life's study. He will not govern by polls or pragmatism; he will govern by the plumb line of God's Word.
This resolution immediately gives way to a cry of longing: "When will You come to me?" This is not a cry of doubt, but of dependent desire. David knows that he cannot walk this blameless way in his own strength. He can make all the resolutions in the world, but without the presence and power of God, they are just hot air. A king who knows he needs God is a safe king. A father who knows he is helpless without God's grace is a father his children can trust. This is the heart of a man after God's own heart: a fierce determination to obey, coupled with a humble recognition of his utter dependence on God to do it.
And where does this high-minded resolution take root? "I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart." Right here is the linchpin of the entire psalm. Before David can clean up the courts of Jerusalem, he must ensure his own house is in order. Integrity begins at home. It is easy to put on a show in public, to be one man in the church pew and another in the living room. But your wife and children know the real you. They know if your heart is whole, or if it is divided. David vows that his private walk will match his public vow. The word for integrity, tom, means wholeness or completeness. He is saying, "There will be one David. The David who sings praises to Yahweh in the tabernacle will be the same David who deals with his family behind closed doors."
This is a staggering commitment. And we know from the subsequent biblical narrative that David failed, at times, spectacularly. His sin with Bathsheba and his failure to discipline his sons brought chaos and bloodshed into his own house and kingdom. But this psalm remains the standard. It is the ideal, and his failures do not negate the rightness of the vow. Rather, they show us our desperate need for a greater David, a King who could not and did not fail.
The Greater David's Perfect Walk
This psalm is David's vow, but it is ultimately Christ's biography. David desired to walk in the way of the blameless, but Jesus Christ is the way of the blameless. David sang of hesed and mishpat; Jesus embodied them perfectly. At the cross, the lovingkindness and justice of God met in a blazing, glorious display. God's justice against sin was satisfied, and His lovingkindness to sinners was unleashed.
David cried out, "When will You come to me?" And in the fullness of time, God did come. He came in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us. Jesus is the answer to David's prayer.
And Jesus walked with perfect integrity, not just in His own house, but in His Father's house. He came to do the will of His Father, and He did it completely. Where David, the father of his household, failed, Christ, the head of His household, the church, succeeded. He is the perfect King who establishes a kingdom of righteousness. He is the perfect Father who raises up sons and daughters in holiness.
Because of this, the vow of Psalm 101 is now our vow, but it is a vow we make in Christ. We resolve to walk in integrity within our own homes, not in our own strength, but in the power of the one who has already walked this way perfectly for us. We men, as husbands and fathers, are the magistrates of our own little kingdoms. We are to sing of lovingkindness and justice to our families. We are to show mercy and enforce discipline. We are to study the way of the blameless and cry out for God to be with us. And we are to do it all with a whole heart, knowing that our private faithfulness is the foundation of any public usefulness we might ever have. Your home is the proving ground. Govern it well, in the fear of God, for the glory of the true King, the Lord Jesus Christ.