Four features of true piety.
The psalmist has before him the fashioning of his future life; he records his purpose of heart as he cherishes it before God. Applying his words, not to his own royal estate with its peculiar obligations, but to the ordinary conditions of human life, we have four features of all genuine piety.
I. A FULL, INTELLIGENT GRATITUDE. "I will sing of mercy and of judgment [righteousness]" (Psalms 101:1). We are to cultivate and express ("I will sing") thankfulness for all that God does for us—for his mercy and for his judgment.
1. Forevery kind of mercy; for all forms of kindness and benefaction—creation, preservation, provision; for forgiveness and reception into his kingdom; for long continued patience with us through the years of an immature and imperfect Christian life; lop the promised inheritance he offers us, which is immeasurably beyond our desert.
2. For all his ways of righteousness; for the justice he has done to us in bringing our integrity into the light, and establishing us in the confidence and favour of our brethren; in honouring our industry and fidelity; also for the righteousness he has shown in overturning the designs, or in humbling the pretences, or in overthrowing the institutions, of the guilty; and even for his righteousness as shown in his chastening of ourselves, purging us of our folly and error and impurity. Perhaps at first we can go no further than silently submit to this last form of Divine judgment; but "afterwards," when "the peaceable fruit of righteousness" has been gathered (Hebrews 12:11), we can open our lips and "sing."
II. A DEVOUT SENSE OF DEPENDENCE ON GOD. "Oh when wilt thou come unto me?" (Psalms 101:2). It is significant that the psalmist interjects this petition between two utterances of his purpose. It is as if he said, "I will do the thing that is right and wise; but I know I cannot accomplish anything without thy helpful, thine effectuating power." He felt as Moses did when he said, "If thy presence go not with as," etc. (Exodus 33:15). It is a deep sense of our dependence which is the essence of our devotion. If we have not this, prayer is an act of mere formal obedience; if we have it in our heart, prayer is the certain, spiritual, and acceptable outcome. In the prospect of the future, in the conduct of our life, in the prosecution of all Christian work, it is essential that we hold fast, and that we appropriately express, this consciousness of our need of the presence and the power of God.
III. A FIXED PURPOSE OF INTEGRITY. It is vain indeed to sing and pray, if we do not intend to depart from all iniquity (see Psalms 66:18). But if the purpose of our heart is toward God and righteousness, we may be sure that the faintest cry is heard. The psalmist here resolves to act uprightly; he will walk within his house with a perfect heart—he will "show piety at home;" he will discharge his kingly duties with all conscientiousness; he will uphold and honour the faithful (see Psalms 101:6); he will remove the wicked from place and power (see Psalms 101:4, Psalms 101:5, Psalms 101:7, Psalms 101:8); he will spare no one, he will spare nothing, that he may build up "the city of the Lord" (Psalms 101:8). True piety will manifest itself in these three directions:
1. It will be seen at home, in all purity, guardianship on the one hand or obedience on the other, kindness, patience, unselfishness, forgiveness.
2. It will be exercised in the daily occupation, and show itself in fidelity, honesty, truthfulness, thoroughness, equity, considerateness.
3. It will shine, with clear and steady light, in the sanctuary, revealing itself in constancy of worship, activity in service, heartiness in cooperation.
IV. SACRED SELF-RESPECT. The psalmist was resolved that nothing wicked should "cleave to him;" he would not have it "before his eyes" (Psalms 101:3); he would "destroy all the wicked" (Psalms 101:8), so that neither his own presence nor his country should be dishonoured or contaminated. Piety will have a supreme concern for its own purity; it will guard its heart most carefully against every one and everything that would hurt or would defile; it will extirpate the thoughts which stain the soul; it will burn the books which pollute the mind; it will not allow anything which is unholy and unworthy of a Christian disciple to enter the sanctuary of the soul; it will know how to be merciless to the flesh, that it may be true to the spirit (Matthew 5:29, Matthew 5:30); it will "keep the heart beyond all keeping," knowing that "out of it are the issues of life."
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY