I WILL BE CAREFUL TO LEAD A BLAMELESS LIFE
Psalm 101
“I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it. The perverse of heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with what is evil.”
In Ephesians 4 and 5, Paul tells us very clearly that two actions complete the move towards God: reject evil and embrace good. It is not one or the other but both.
In David’s psalm that proclaims his resolve to lead a life that pleases God, David begins with the heart. He wants to make sure that the things that God detests, he detests as well, and the things that God loves he will surround himself with them. He then moves on to his environment, his household, his associations, his heroes and even his nation.
In our day and age, this is a very difficult thing because media and entertainment are besotted with evil disguised in attractive narratives. We are persuaded to understand and sympathise with those who, in the cold light of day, are vile, faithless, perverse and evil. We are manipulated to such anger and hatred that we can feel the joyful release when the villain finally gets their just desserts. We are exposed to plots where lying and cheating, lustful behaviour and manipulation, deception and slander, violence and revenge, are ultimately rewarded. Many cultural endeavours—whether song, story, ideas and perspectives—often try to overturn moral norms that we instinctively accept.
All the more these days we need a clear resolve to honour and embrace into our lives goodness and godliness and reject the perverse and evil. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether we, together with those we love and are responsible to raise, do so with a clear resolve or we blissfully continue to swim with the sharks.
“My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me.”