Monday
PSALM 101: 1-3a
- Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. Read the text until you can understand what it says. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.
- “I will sing of your love and justice.” Why think about love and justice when you think about God? What is it about God’s love and God’s justice that you appreciate?
- “I will be careful to lead a blameless life.” What comes to mind when you think of leading a blameless life: to avoid doing wrong or to increase doing good?
- “I will not look with approval on anything that is vile.” What are some things you know God hates but may be attractive to you?
- When will you come to me? Worship and life is to be fully integrated. God does not respond to empty words of praise. The God you worship must be the One you resolve to emulate. How do you fare in this department?
- Write down a prayer in response.
Tuesday
PSALM 101: 1-3a
- Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.
- Read the passage. Review the answers/thoughts you wrote down yesterday. Is there anything that you need to respond to?
- Review the past day. What concerns/joys/events occupy your heart?
- Write down a prayer in response.
Wednesday
PSALM 101: 3b-5
- Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. Read the text until you can understand what it says. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.
- David focuses on these specific sins:
- Faithless people and what they do;
- The perverse of heart;
- Those who slander their neighbour in secret;
- Those with haughty eyes and a proud heart;
For each one, how would you describe the heart of such people and the things they do?
- I hate; I will have no part in; I will have nothing to do with; I will put to silence; I will not tolerate. Why does David so strongly reject the above? Do you feel strongly against sin?
- Look over the descriptions you gave in question 2. Do you need to examine yourself in any of these areas before the Lord?
- Write down a prayer in response.
Thursday
PSALM 101: 3b-5
- Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.
- Read the passage. Review the answers/thoughts you wrote down yesterday. Is there anything that you need to respond to?
- Review the past day. What concerns/joys/events occupy your heart?
- Write down a prayer in response.
Friday
PSALM 101: 6-8
- Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. Read the text until you can understand what it says. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.
- “My eyes will be on the faithful.” David chooses to surround himself with faithful people. Who will you trust to be your faithful companions in your journey with God? Are you likewise a faithful companion?
- “The one whose walk is blameless will minister to me.” David chooses to surround himself with righteous people. Do you value people who are good, or do they bore you? What are the types of people you choose to surround yourself with?
- “No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house”. There are those who as companions will be toxic to your efforts to embrace God in your life. You may not be able to avoid them in your life but they will not be those you trust to guide, influence and support you. Jesus teaches us to pray: Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. Keep this prayer in your heart.
- “Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land.” Silencing them in my head, in my thoughts, to make space for good and do away with evil. To think of doing good things instead of wallowing in wicked thoughts. The righteous life requires hard discipline, daily choosing and life-long commitment. Yet righteousness is of God and truly precious. Will you choose what is truly valuable and beautiful for yourself?
- Write down a prayer in response.
Saturday
PSALM 101: 6-8
- Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.
- Read the passage. Review the answers/thoughts you wrote down yesterday. Is there anything that you need to respond to?
- Review the past day. What concerns/joys/events occupy your heart?
- Write down a prayer in response.
Sunday
TRUE WORSHIP
The psalm begins in worship: “I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise.” and ends with a resolute promise to oppose evil: “Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the Lord.”
Jesus teaches that “true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” There must be integrity in worship and when we glorify God for his love and justice with our lips, we must let love and justice be glorified in our lives.
This is a poem after all and we must not take David’s words literally; that he is going around silencing the slanderers and refusing someone guilty of deceit entry into his house. These are expressions of disdain, disgust and rejection against sin in general; and the embrace of the righteous. But they are anchored in his life and all that surrounds him; and not airy-fairy concepts and notions. As he sings of God’s love and justice he resolves that his life will be a song of love and justice.
What song does your life sing?
- Take time to be quiet, until you can focus on being in the presence of God. If you have any initial thoughts, write them down.
- Review the answers/thoughts you wrote down in the past week. What conclusion can you draw from the passages of Scripture you have been considering? Is there anything that you need to respond to?
- Read the short sharing above. Does it add anything to your conclusion?
- Review the past week. What concerns/joys/events occupy your heart?
- Write down a prayer in response.