Psalm 101

⁶ My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land,
That they may dwell with me;
He who walks in a perfect way,
He shall serve me.

⁷ He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house;
He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.

⁸ Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land,
That I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.

Some commentaries style this Psalm, “The godly-purposes and resolutions of a king.” They think of the Psalm as a king’s pious resolutions, when, as a king reflecting on all that such a resolution implies, he breaks forth in earnest petition that God Himself would come to him and take up His dwelling with Him, giving grace to walk in “a perfect way.”

One writer thinks that it fits in with David’s early life, and that it fits in with what we might expect of a pious young king. In other words, they reduce the Psalm to David’s day dreaming.

Most certainly it is a Psalm of David, but it does not describe his character or his reign. Having due respect for David’s consecration to God, and that of his court, he could not have hoped to keep out all who do not walk a “perfect way.” …

Instead of portraying David and his kingdom, it is a prophecy of a perfect King, of David’s Greater Son, King Messiah. He alone can look into the heart of man and know what they are. — Phillips, pages 235-236.

All my other commentaries fall into the categories mentioned by Phillips (above), even Wechsler, and, surprisingly, Williams. Here’s how Wechsler interprets it:

The present psalm takes up the climatic and conceptually “sustained” note of God’s “everlasting” lovingkindness with which the previous psalm ended and develops it into a new and complementary melody of personal purity. It is God’s “everlasting” (i.e., undiminished and unending) lovingkindness, in other words, that stands at the foundation of his [David’s] desire for personal purity, both in enabling him to truly perceive what it is (via justification), and in providing him with the motive to pursue it as his expression of gratitude and obedience to God (via sanctification). — Wechsler, pages 240-241.

I agree with Phillips. That’s the way I read the psalm before I opened any of my commentaries. If the psalm is an expression of David’s desire, his own repeated failings throughout his life reduce it to a wish list. But even as a wish list it would only make sense if it focused on David’s own behavior, but the King in the psalm clearly intends to enforce his standards on others, which no King but Messiah could do.

David assumes the role of a prophet and portrays the Messiah, the Son of Man on earth, as the perfect ONE. He was the Redeemer, the ONLY begotten of the Father, Who came to the earth, subject to the will of God. Long before His incarnation He said, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God, yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Psalm 40:8). This is repeated in the New Testament in Hebrews 10:7. While He was on earth He said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34). — Phillips, page 236.

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The Psalm has nothing to do with the heavenly Jerusalem. It concerns Jerusalem on earth when the Messiah rules the world. Listen to what Jeremiah was led of God to say, “Behold, the days come saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is the name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:5-6). The Messiah will not tolerate a perverse heart; the heart of hate will receive swift judgment. The hearts that are proud and manifest self-exaltation will be rejected by Him. Liars, grafters, deceitful people, adulterers, and such like will be cleansed out every morning.

These things can be better understood by reading and meditating on the 22nd Psalm. According to the prophecy which Isaiah was led of God to write, during the Kingdom Age people will build houses, plant vineyards and rear children. The children born will possess the Adamic nature, even though Satan will be bound and the Messiah reigns. Those children must hear the gospel that David portrayed in Psalm 22, and accept it or be lost. Isaiah 65 reveals that the children will be permitted to live one hundred years without being regenerated; though outwardly they will obey the King, but in their hearts they may be rebels. This Psalm reveals that the Messiah will execute judgment every morning.

Isaiah 65 also reveals that all the faithful, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, will live on as the days of a tree. In other words, they will live through the Kingdom Age, and as other Scriptures reveal, they will be translated into eternity at the end of the Kingdom Age, which is to be 1,000 years. — Phillips, page 238.

perverse (v.4) = twisted, perverted