Psalm 101 (NIV84)

I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise. I will be careful to lead a blameless life— when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil. 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. 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. No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. 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.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a President who sincerely felt this way? I know I’m not the only one to have that thought after reading this Psalm. If our rulers thought and lived this way, can you imagine how much better our world would be?

King David is describing his desire to be a faithful king over God’s people. He expresses that he wants to be a king like the Lord, hating sin and evil, punishing wrongdoers and leading the people in keeping with the will of our Heavenly Father. That may have been his desire, but we know David did not always live or rule that way. He was a sinner, just like the rest of us.

And while it sounds like this would be an ideal thing to have in our nation, I think that is part of the problem we have. Too many people think it is the government’s job to lead people to God. But that is not the way God set things up. Jesus told His followers to tell other people about Him, who He is and what He did for us through His life and death and resurrection. The message of reconciliation and forgiveness is to be shared by every believer with the people in their sphere of influence. You need to be the ones who share the hope that is in you, that Jesus paid for your sin and the sin of the whole world, and that everyone who trusts in Him receives His pardon and peace.

Instead of just wishing that we had rulers like the one David describes here, why don’t we all strive to live the life he outlines. If we would sing of God’s love and justice, voice our praise to Him publicly, and have the mindset to live according to His Word and His Will, how far would that go in making this world a better place? Especially if we would speak this truth in love?

Something for all of us to consider today.