Psalms 101: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The singer, speaking as a ruler, promises to sing of the LORD's faithful love and justice, and to live with an undivided heart inside his own house. He lists the people he will keep away from him (those who turn aside, the secret slanderer, the proud, the deceiver, the liar) and the faithful people he will keep near and allow to serve him. He closes by pledging that each morning he will remove the wicked from the land and cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.

Claim by Claim

1. 101:1
   • The psalm is attributed to David.
   • The speaker will sing of covenant loyalty and justice.
   • The speaker will sing praise to the LORD.
2. 101:2
   • The speaker will give careful attention to the blameless way.
   • The speaker asks when God will come to him.
   • The speaker will walk inside his house with integrity of heart.
3. 101:3
   • The speaker will not set any worthless or wicked thing before his eyes.
   • The speaker hates the doing of deeds by those who turn aside.
   • That deed will not cling to the speaker.
4. 101:4
   • A crooked heart will depart from the speaker.
   • The speaker will not know evil; it is unclear whether the object is an evil thing or an evil person.
5. 101:5
   • Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret will be destroyed by the speaker.
   • The speaker will not endure the person with haughty eyes and a proud heart.
6. 101:6
   • The speaker's eyes are on the faithful of the land.
   • The speaker intends the faithful to dwell with him.
   • The one who walks in the blameless way will serve the speaker.
7. 101:7
   • The one who practices deceit will not dwell inside the speaker's house.
   • The one who speaks lies will not stand firm before the speaker's eyes.
8. 101:8
   • Every morning the speaker will destroy all the wicked of the land.
   • The speaker's purpose is to cut off all workers of iniquity from the city of the LORD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

101:1

The psalm's heading attributes it to David, and the speaker throughout talks like a ruler: he decides who lives in his household, who serves him, and who is removed from the land and the city. Read as a king's pledge about how he will govern. "Faithful love" translates the Hebrew word *hesed*, loyal, committed care of the kind owed within a binding relationship; "justice" here means the giving of right decisions, the core duty of a king.

101:2

"When will you come to me?" breaks into the sentence without warning, and the Hebrew is as abrupt as the English. It is usually read as a plea for God's presence, but its connection to the lines on either side is genuinely unclear, and translators do not agree. "Blameless" and "whole and honest" render a Hebrew word meaning complete or undivided, not sinless. "My house" is both a family home and, for a king, the royal household and court.

101:3

The Hebrew phrase behind "anything worthless" is literally "a thing of belial", belial meaning worthlessness or ruin. "Turn away" translates a word for swerving aside from a path, used of abandoning loyalty to God.

101:4

"Crooked" renders a word for something twisted out of shape. The KJV's "I will not know a wicked person" uses "know" in its older sense of recognizing or associating with someone. The Hebrew can mean either an evil person or evil itself, and both readings are defensible.

101:5

"Silence" translates a Hebrew verb that can mean to destroy or to put an end to, so the threat is stronger than the English suggests. "A proud look" is literally "lofty of eyes," a stock phrase for looking down on other people.

101:6

"Live with me" and "serve me" describe membership in the royal household: those he keeps at court and appoints as his officials. The word behind "serve" is used of attendants waiting on a king and of priests serving at the sanctuary.

101:7

"Stay where I can see him" is literally "be established before my eyes", to hold a settled position in the king's presence, that is, a place at court.

101:8

Kings in the ancient Near East heard legal cases in the morning, so "morning by morning" means routinely, as each day's court business comes up, rather than at dawn specifically. "Cut off" means removed from the community, by execution or by banishment. "The city of the LORD" is Jerusalem.