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Where is the City of the LORD?
Psalm 101
Andy Nagahara
0 Of David. A psalm.
1 I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise.
2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life– when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart.
3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.
4 Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.
5 Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.
6 My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me.
7 No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.
8 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.
1. Is this a hypocritical song? (1-6)
0 Of David. A psalm.
1 I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise.
2 I will be careful to lead a blameless life– when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart.
3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.
4 Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.
6 My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me.
2. Is this a nationalistic song? (7, 8)
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
3. The reason we can also sing this song
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Summary
This song, attributed to David, seems almost too virtuous, given the story of his life. It also seems somewhat nationalistic, regarding “our country” and “our people” as the only one that is righteous. In David’s time, many people actually thought this way. Jesus breathed new life into this psalm. Jesus focused on our hearts. We are the city of the LORD, the house of God. He proclaims this over us despite knowing all of our shortcomings.
For Discussion
- Where is the city of the LORD?
- Why are we qualified to sing this song?