The Ideal King

[0:00] Psalm 101 Superscription of the psalm says a psalm of David The eight verses I love But actually let me pray before Heavenly Father we have gathered once again In your presence as your people To seek your face Because we want to hear from you Because we want to be people who become more and more The citizens of your kingdom Will become more and more like our king We want to be able to represent you well We want to know your voice So we pray God that you would speak to us That you would hear us as we pray to you So that we might So that we might be able to serve And glorify you

[1:02] In the power that you provide Make us people who seek good Righteousness Justice Do that even now Lord As we go through Psalm 101 together In Jesus name we pray Amen Psalm 101 A psalm of David I will sing of steadfast love and justice To you oh Lord I will make music I will ponder the way that is blameless Oh when will you come to me I will walk with the integrity of heart within my house I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless I hate the work of those who fall away It shall not cling to me A perverse heart shall be far from me I will know nothing of evil Whoever slanders his neighbors secretly I will destroy

[2:06] Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure I will look with favor on the faithful in the land That they may dwell with me He who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house No one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land Cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord I don't know if you guys have ever thought about The merits of different systems of government That's kind of a hot topic right But in his essay entitled Equality C.S. Lewis kind of talks about democracy And kind of weighs the merits of it He's a supporter of democracy But for kind of a reason that might be different from most people Why they support democracy And he writes this

[3:06] He says, I am a democrat because I believe in the fall of man I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason A great deal of democratic enthusiasm Descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau Who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good That everyone deserved a share in the government The danger of defending democracy on those grounds Is that they're not true And whenever their weakness is exposed The people who prefer tyranny make capital out of the exposure The real reason for democracy is just the reverse Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves I do not contradict him But I reject slavery because I see no man fit to be masters So since human beings are selfish And democracy is founded on the belief that every man or woman will seek selfishly their own welfare

[4:07] Giving them the power to elect their own rulers and leaders Kind of provides a natural check on the leader's power So I think that's an accurate assessment And it really highlights the genius of democracy as a system of government Because it takes into account the sinfulness of man The fact that power corrupts people And it provides checks and balances to protect us from tyranny So that's why democracy works But what if in an ideal world We could have a just, totally trustworthy, incorruptible ruler All wise, all known I mean that's the ideal scenario Wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about being involved in politics And having to know what's going on all the time So that you can be an informed voter To make sure that It's like to be able to trust somebody completely And to have a benevolent ruler And Psalm 101 is really a picture of that kind of reality

[5:13] Where there is a picture of an ideal king Who rules in God's stead And it teaches us that God will come to the aid of his people Whose king rules with steadfast love and justice So in verse 1 it talks about the character of God Verses 2-5 it talks about the character of the king And in verses 6-8 it talks about the character of the king's servants So let's look at that Look at verse 1 It begins I will sing of steadfast love and justice To you, O Lord, I will make music So I will sing parallels I will make music So the steadfast love and justice They're not It's not talking about the king here But the psalmist is singing of the attributes that belong to God He's singing of God's steadfast love and justice And steadfast love refers to God's loyalty And his commitment to his people His unchanging love for them

[6:16] And justice refers to God's just rule and judgment over his people And so this verse really kind of serves as a foundation Kind of for the rest of the psalm Because the character of God is the basis for the character of the king And following So because God relates to his people in steadfast love and justice It's necessary for his king Who rules in his stead as his representative To live blamelessly And to rule with justice and integrity So the supercription of the psalm said that it was a psalm of David That could mean that this is a psalm that was written actually by David Or it could mean that it's a psalm of David Like about David, concerning David And either way, these verses are words of a righteous king And it says in verse 2, Psalm 101 I will ponder the way that is blameless Oh, when will you come to me?

[7:13] So this is kind of the main Kind of prayer that carries the psalm Because the king is crying out for God's help So we don't know what the occasion is But he needs God's help and deliverance So he's crying out to him He's saying, come to me But the basis for this is that he is a faithful king He represents God He's blameless in the way he has been serving him So he continues in verse 2 I will walk with integrity of harvest in my house So not only does he ponder what is blameless He thinks about what's blameless But he also walks with integrity His actions and his thoughts They pertain to God and his will So it's a picture of complete faithfulness And devotion to God And loving good also means hating evil Necessarily so So it says in verses 3-4 I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless I hate the work of those who fall away It shall not cling to me

[8:14] A perverse heart shall be far from me I will know nothing of evil Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure Notice how just categorical these resolutions are I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless I will know nothing of evil So it's a picture of complete devotion once again And so it's a good helpful teaching Because if we truly love God And seek the good of our neighbors It's not enough to just try to do good We also must fight against evil We must hate wickedness And we can't condone evil and be neutral toward that That's because to love good means to hate evil And so that's what we see here The king is walking with the integrity of heart But he keeps those with a perverse heart far from him And this doesn't mean that we shouldn't love and seek sinners

[9:15] To draw them near to God But it does mean that we should never participate in sin Or let our hearts be perverted by their influence So the psalmist says He will not even set before his eyes anything that is worthless So that's a great question Is that not only what we think about Not only what we do But also what we set before our eyes Is there Is everything that you set before your eyes Whether you're walking down the street downtown Or whether you're sitting in front of your TV Or a laptop screen Is everything that you set in front of your eyes good and worthwhile Or is it worthless Worthless can be translated wicked as well Which is an interesting insight as well That what is wicked Even though it might seem useful Is actually useless It's worthless to do evil Because whatever we set before our eyes Whether we know it or not It affects us If we consort with people who have perverse hearts It affects our hearts

[10:16] If we listen to people who slander their neighbor It affects our ability to love our neighbor That's what this is talking about So that's the character of the king And in verses 6 to 8 We see the character of the king's servants And because the king's character is good He's upright He's just The same words that are used to describe the king Will be used in verses 6 to 8 Because he appoints people to serve in his courts That also exemplify that kind of blamelessness So read verses 6 to 8 with me It says I will look with favor on the faithful in the land That they may dwell with me He who walks in the way that is blameless Shall minister to me No one who practices deceit Shall dwell in my house No one who utters lies Shall continue before my eyes Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land Cutting off all the evildoers From the city of the Lord And this psalm

[11:23] The entire psalm Is really fulfilled Ultimately by Jesus In that sense that he is The ultimate Davidic king Right?

[11:33] This is David Possibly writing this Or at least it's about a Davidic king Who's supposed to rule in this kind of way But everybody among Israel's kings And Judah's kings Failed to do this Right?

[11:47] Because if you look at 2 Samuel 24 Even David Who is supposed to be this ideal king Fails He takes a census Right? Of Israel Which he is not supposed to do Because in doing that It shows that he is not depending on God's power But he is depending on his military prowess Or the size of his kingdom So that led to God's judgment Leading to 70,000 people being killed in Israel Right?

[12:16] And that's the It's because of a pestilence that God sends And so even he didn't represent his people well He did not He would not blame us He did not walk with integrity In a complete way So but because he was only a shadow of the reality That he was pointing to And that was Jesus Because he came And as Hebrews 4.15 He says We do not have a high priest Who is unable to And sympathize with our weaknesses But one who in every respect Has been tempted As we are Yet without sin Right?

[12:46] So Jesus is the ultimately blameless king And because he is the blameless king That represents us As the psalm talks about When he intercedes for us When he cries out He calls for our deliverance God delivers He comes to save And that's why That's why we can rely on On the promise That is implicit in this psalm That those who Those who have That God will come to the aid Of the people Whose king rules With steadfast love And justice Because we do have a king Who rules with steadfast love And justice And that's Jesus But there's also an application For us In terms of how we How we ought to live as well Because as those who serve the king Who is characterized By steadfast love And justice We too As his people Should exemplify that And show that But we fail Because Christ died for our sins And gives us a spirit We can now obey him And love him And serve him In that way And

[13:49] Yeah That's the song Let's sing A song and pray Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you