Psalm 101:3 Nothing Vile

Psalm 101:3 I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they shall not cling to me.

Psalm 101, like the previous psalm, is Of David. A psalm. David speaks of singing God's love and justice. It is part of his praise to the LORD. What he commits himself to is being careful to lead a blameless life. He hopes that the LORD will then come to him. Whatever happens, his intention is to walk in his house with blameless heart (2). Various commitments are made - to keep men of perverse heart far from him, to have nothing to do with evil, to silence anyone who slanders his neighbour in secret, not to endure anyone who is proud. More positvely, his eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with him. He whose walk is blameless will minister to him. Finally, negatively again, no-one who practices deceit will dwell in his house, no-one who speaks falsely will stand in his presence. Every morning he will put to silence all the wicked in the land and cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD. In the midst of these commitments comes verse 3 - a commitment to set before his eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men he hates, they shall not cling to him. It is difficult to know exactly what not setting before his eyes anything vile meant for David. There have been kings who permitted no sadness in their presence. Perhaps David had a rule that nothing vile could be seen in the court. For believers today, perhaps, it means certain books, magazines or newspapers would not be permitted, nor anything vile on the screen of a TV or computer. There is also a right hatred for the deeds of faithless men and a refusal to let them cling to us. Just as we would remove burrs or mud after a country walk so we must be careful to extricate ourselves from any close relationship with the faithless or unbelieving. This is part of praise too. It is not really praising, it is not singing God's love and justice if we fail to be fastidious in such matters.