Life is full of tough decisions; some of the decisions can be difficult to make as Christians. Yesterday, in my Sunday school class, we began a new series that focuses on the central idea that what we surround ourselves with does matter. While preparing the lesson, I used Psalms 101 as the starting point and had planned to simply focus on one key verse: I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me (Psalms 101:3). As I began to study that particular psalm in greater detail, I began to really think about the lesson that was unfolding before me.
David is one of the Bible’s most beloved Old Testament characters. His life has been used as a teaching tool for both child and older Christian. Many people focus on David as the shepherd boy while others focus on David as the King of Israel. David was not a man without sin; he had an adulterous affair that resulted in a pregnancy. To hide that pregnancy, he planned and executed the murder of her husband. He often made hasty decisions that went contrary to the advice of what God had revealed to David through His prophets. Yet God still had this to say about David: For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father (I Kings 11:4). In spite of everything wrong and everything sinful David had done God – Himself – testified that David’s heart was perfect. The book of Acts also bears witness of God’s love for David: And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will (Acts 13:22).
As I studied Psalms 101 it became clear that I was looking at David’s personal desires. This psalm was the description of the type of man who David wanted to be. He had reached the point in his life that he was ready to make the tough decisions that we all find difficult to make. His proclamation, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me (Psalms 101:3) is the most often quoted verse out of this particular passage of scripture and the starting point for so many studies about how as Christians, we should be careful what we allow ourselves to be visually subjected to. While it is a good place to start, by no means should it be all we are concerned with doing. In this particular passage of scripture, not only does David say that he wants to be mindful of what he sets before his eyes, he also is concerned with the people he has around him, those that live in his house, and even the type of man he is when he is in the walls of his own home. I remember a line from a sermon I heard years ago; the way we act when we think we are alone is the person we really are. David’s heart’s desire was to be a man who walked with God and God found pleasing not only when others were watching but also when others could not see.
One of the verses that really stood out as I was preparing the Sunday school lesson was, A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person (Psalms 101:4). A froward person is someone who willfully and with all deliberateness, chooses to do what they know is wrong. The Merriam Webster Dictionary further defines froward as meaning, “habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition.” Each of us know people – family, friends, and coworkers – that if we are honest with ourselves, we know fit that definition. I was not raised in church, I grew up in a mostly secular home and was not taught anything different from what I was exposed to in both the public school system and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools while my father was stationed overseas. At the heart of that educational system was humanism – the idea that there is no God, no supernatural force out there and that humanity was able to decide what was morally right and wrong.
Many of you were exposed to the same thing and like me, have a hard time calling anyone wicked or evil except for those such as Charles Manson and other notorious criminals. We do not have the same world view of David, or even the Lord Jesus Christ, for that matter. We do not like the idea of putting people into one of two categories; everyone can be scripturally divided into two peoples: the righteous and the wicked. There is no “in-between.” Even Jesus taught this very concept during his conversation with Nicodemus, He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (John 3:18-19). For many of us, it is hard to accept that even some of the members of our own families would be considered as wicked or evil by the standards of the Bible. Many of us have even gone to the extent of categorizing sins to make ourselves feel better. The apostle James even dealt with the early Christians doing the same thing: For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10).
No matter how big our plans are we all have a tendency to check the local forecast before we head out to work, school, or even a family vacation. We want to be ready for whatever the weather might bring for that day. We want to know whether to pack for warm temperatures or for cold; we want to know if we need to worry about rain or take sunscreen for those bright sunny days. With the development of smart phones, some of us have even begun to check the weather nearly every hour out of the sheer need to know everything that might affect us later that day. Over the last fifteen years, there has even been a cable channel, The Weather Channel, that devotes a 24 hour cycle of the latest weather prediction for the local area. With all our changes in technology, we still are amazed when we see the stories of people caught off guard by storms. In fact, I even had someone tell me they found it nearly impossible to believe that so many people can be caught unprepared for what the weather may bring.
