¹I will sing of lovingkindness and justice, to You, O Lord, I will sing praises. ²I will give heed to the blameless way. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. ³I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not fasten its grip on me.

The psalmist, David, sets his goal high. Despite his notable failures to live up to his deepest aspirations, he did live an exemplary life. He was the human epitome of a man who chooses to live life like a “tree firmly planted by the streams of water,” as Psalm 1 describes the one who commits to avoid the lifestyle of the wicked, sinners, and scoffers. He delights in and meditates on the righteousness of God’s law. Of course, the Lord Jesus fulfilled this perfectly, and we will too, when we arrive in the glorious presence of the Lord (1 John 3:2).

This short psalm gives us words to succinctly affirm our devotion to the Lord Yahweh and align with His attitude toward those devoted to wickedness. Four “I will” statements outline his singing, heeding, walking, and setting. Singing involves an emotional response in our praise. The content of our praise is the Lord’s “lovingkindness and justice.” When we praise God for what is central to His character, this will undoubtedly affect our acting in line with His character:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Mic. 6:8)

The phrase “to love kindness” translates a single word in the original Hebrew, the noun form of which is hesed, rendered in our psalm here as “lovingkindness.” In other words, God’s desire for us is to act out the lovingkindness and justice toward others that is intrinsic to the One we worship. This leads us to understand the following “I will,” where we must listen carefully and understand what it means to live a blameless life (vs. 2).

The third “I will” puts this praise and understanding into action: “I will walk in my house in the integrity of my heart.” This is not just an outward show of righteousness, but living consistently and authentically, even when no one else is around to observe our behavior. In fact, God always sees and hears us (Heb. 4:13).

His fourth affirmation is a commitment to not even consider any other lifestyle, as he terms it: “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes.” A life not focused on the Lord Yahweh is a life without value. The choice is stark. In the Lord, there is lovingkindness, justice, blamelessness, and integrity, but apart from the Lord, there is nothing.

As the psalm continues, there is not a fine line between the “wicked” people and their actions; David desires them to be “destroyed” (vs. 8). We discuss elsewhere the imprecations found in the Psalms (that is, the strong denunciations of and desire for the destruction of unbelievers).[1] However, we note that while God indeed separates the sinner from his sins “as far as the east is from the west,” as Psalm 103:12 points out, He otherwise does not separate the sinner from his sin where there is no repentance (Eze. 18:20, Rom. 6:23). David expresses his loyalty toward the Lord by hating what God hates (vs. 3).

Yes, God loves sinners (John 3:16), and David does desire the same kind of love, that God would forgive and save sinners. But here, his expression is best understood that should they remain in the grip of a “perverse heart” (vs. 4, also Jer. 17:9), slandering (vs. 5a), arrogance toward others (vs. 5b), deceitfulness and lies (vs. 7), then David is justified in his final comments of his disposition toward them.

The final verse makes sense when we note that David writes as the king of Israel, who is charged with emulating in his reign the very attributes for which he praises God, namely lovingkindness and justice. He is not to be a harsh overlord (like his grandson Rehoboam, who caused the nation of Israel to be divided, 1 Kings 12:13-14). David’s reign was also characterized by justice, including dealing harshly with those who acted contrary to God’s ways. So, he concludes that as king: “Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, so as to cut off from the city of the Lord all those who do iniquity” (vs. 8).

While we do not have the authority to remove all wicked people from our society, we can limit their influence on ourselves, our families, and our churches (see 1 Cor. 5 for how Paul writes of removing from fellowship professing believers who are unrepentant of arrogant, blatant, ongoing sinful behavior). The character of God lived out in our lives as we act with lovingkindness and justice may sometimes require a level of separation because of our devotion to God and protection for those in our fellowship.

Though the psalm ends on a terse note, in the middle of his imprecation, David counters with his desire to have godly influencers in his life: “My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me” (vs. 6).

Lord, though I often fail, I nevertheless choose to walk in Your ways, to worship You, and to choose godly influencers in my life.

[1] https://www.bible-equip.org/articles/biblical-theological/Psalms.pdf