Psalm 101:2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when will you come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. That which strikes us first in this psalm is that the qualifications for continuing in the household of David are to he moral qualifications. He does not say that he will make choice of the clever, or of the strong, or of the brave to he companions of his life. He, for his part, will live with the good, the faithful in the land, the perfect in the way. That which shall disqualify men from living with him is not want of ability or want of distinction, but want of loyalty to goodness and to God: "A froward heart shall depart from me; I will not know a wicked person." David needed all the help he could get from courage and from talent in his difficult position; but he made up his mind to reserve his highest favours for goodness. And next we observe that the qualifications for membership in David's household are chiefly negative. He is more careful to say who shall not than who shall enjoy the privilege. The sins of unfaithfulness, the froward heart, the privy slanderer of his neighbour, the man of proud look and high stomach, the worker of deceit, the teller of lies — these were to have no access in the house of David in Jerusalem. It seems to be a low because it is a negative standard; but people would not say so who have at all tried to act upon a like principle. Let us be sure that we could do as much before we criticize him. What, then, is David's hope? He hopes that with the coming of the sacred ark of Jerusalem — in other words, that with a nearer contact with the presence of God — he will be able to effect a great change. The restored sense of a sacred presence among them, the active works of the ministers and the sanctuary, the pervading atmosphere of worship and of praise, where everything suggested what God expected of His people and what was due to God from each and from all — these things would, in time, make the reformation which David had at heart easy and natural. In Christendom the family is a different and it is a more beautiful thing than it was in David's time. It is a return to nature, to the order of life clearly traced in nature, and at the bidding of the Restorer of our race. He reminds us that "at the beginning God made man, male and female," and that "for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh." More than one French writer has expressed the admiration felt by his countrymen — felt, at least, in their more judicial moments — for the family life of the middle classes in England, and of the English poor throughout the country districts. It is, indeed, one of the choicest blessings which God has bestowed upon our country. But we must admit that family life in England is threatened not only by the standing enemies of its happiness and well-being, such as a preference of club society to that of wife and children on the part of men, of a husband's personal extravagance or inconsiderateness, or cruelty, or worse. In conclusion, two lessons would seem to be suggested by this psalm of King David. Observe the order and methods of David's proceeding. He began by improving himself. "Oh, let me have understanding in the way of godliness. I will walk within my house with the perfect heart." No man can hope to influence others for good who is not taking pains with himself. No man to whom eternity, sin, prayer, are not real, can hope to get others to think seriously about them. No man who is not endeavouring to rule his own temper, his own tongue, his own life by the law of Jesus Christ can hope to make that law a rule of the life of others, however much younger, however much less instructed they may be than himself. And next the improvement of the family can only be procured by religious as distinct from moral — merely moral influences. David does not expect to do much with the sinister elements of his motley household until the return of the sacred Ark to Jerusalem. There is one mark of the household in which God is known and loved, which is too often wanting in our day, I mean the practice of family prayer. Depend upon it, the worth of every practice of the kind can only be measured by its effect during a long period of time. Family prayers, though occupying only a few minutes, do make a great difference to any household at the end of a year. (Canon Liddon.) Parallel Verses KJV: I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. |
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