Friday, June 13, 2014

Psalm 101

 Person After God's Own Heart


A Psalm of David, A Profession of Uprightness
 1    I will sing of lovingkindness and justice, to You, O Lord, I will sing praises.
 2    I will give heed to the blameless way.  
             When will You come to me?  I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.
 3    I will set no worthless thing before my eye,  I hate the 1work of those who fall away—
         it shall not fasten its grip on me.
 4   A perverse heart shall depart from me, I will know no evil.
                                               

 5   Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy—
         No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.
 6   My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me—
         He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me.
 7   He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house;
     He who speaks falsehood  shall not maintain his position before me.
             8   Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land
                      so as to cut off from the city of the Lord all those who do iniquity.
 
 
 David
Was A Man After God’s Own Heart
 
Do we wonder what this means?  Is it attainable?
Because David was a man of war, he committed adultery and murder—yet God loved him after His own heart... 
 
The heart of a man is the well-spring of his soul.  What influences us from the outside is what turns our heart to do evil.  Be careful what you allow to influence you. The devil knows we have human weaknessHe will use what we see and what we hear to influence our choices.  God allows it—to test our faithfulness to Him.    

David Sought After God
David had absolute faith in God.  David loved God’s law.  He wrote down many of his prayers in the form of song [psalms] during troubling times in his life.   David repeatedly mentioned how much he loved God’s perfect Word. We find a beautiful example of this in Psalm 119:47-48:
     “For I delight in your commands because I love them. I lift up my hands to your
      commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.”
It is not hard to see his complete adoration for God’s Word. He mentions that he “meditates” on God’s statutes. God granted David understanding and wisdom through daily meditation.

David was truly thankful
      “I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, O LORD, proclaiming aloud
        your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds” (Psalm 26:6-7).
David’s life had seasons of great peace and prosperity as well as times of fear and despair. But through all of the seasons in his life, he never forgot to thank the Lord for everything that he had. It is truly one of his finest characteristics.
      "Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him;
        bless his name!" (Psalm 100:4).  As followers of Jesus Christ, we too should always follow David’s lead of offering praise through thanksgiving to our Lord on a daily basis. 

David’s prayer of repentance to God:
     “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your
      abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
      and  cleanse me from my sin!" (Psalm 51:1-2).
David demonstrated his faith on a daily basis which pleased the Lord. Throughout his life his faith would be tested on a grand scale and in the final analysis he passed most of the tests. David also loved God’s law and he sought to follow it as best he could. He spent many days meditating on it and trying to apply it to his own life. He knew that God’s law had the power to change lives if it was followed to the letter.
 
 An important character trait that David exhibited was that he had the attitude of gratitude—and was very thankful for his life. He had all sorts of trouble, come his way but David thanked God every day no matter what the circumstances. And David was truly repentant. Let us not forget that he was a man just like us who sinned on a regular basis. But, despite his sin, he always loved God and sought to repent of those sins. He is a role model for all of us who need to repent earnestly. David was indeed a man after God’s own heart.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment