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Godly Manhood

Psalms 96-102

Today’s Psalms really lifted me up.  I get that way when I praise God.  How about you?  My soul resonates with the words of these Psalms.  The truth has a ring to it that sets my soul to vibrating.  Just reading these words, and affirming them in my heart with a hearty amen, makes me glad and full of peace.  Yet, in the midst of praise, God still provides instruction.  I’ve said before that this blog is for men to encourage each other to read the scriptures.  I’ve also said that as we read we should look for what God has to say about being a Godly man.

There is a Psalm in today’s reading that does just that; it instructs us on Godly manhood.  Take a look at this:

Psalm 101:1-8

“I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O Lord, I will make music.
I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;
I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
A perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.

Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
I will not endure.

I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
shall minister to me.

No one who practices deceit
shall dwell in my house;
no one who utters lies
shall continue before my eyes.

Morning by morning I will destroy
all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers
from the city of the Lord.”

What I took from this is:

1)      We need to praise God.  I mentioned above that God’s truth resonates with our souls.  It does so because we were made to praise God.  How can we be happy when we are not fulfilling our purpose which is to praise God?

2)      We need to contemplate and meditate on God’s Word and ways.  What does it mean to be a Godly man?  I remember a few years ago the fade of WWJD.  I’m sorry it was just a fade.  We should be looking at all of life with this question on our mind.

3)      We need to walk with integrity in our heart even when others can’t see us.  It’s one thing to act Godly on Sunday; it’s another to do so in public; and still another when no one can see us.  Integrity isn’t a disguise to be flung on when others are around and taken off when alone and “being yourself”.  You have integrity or you don’t; you can tell if you have it by how you act when others don’t know what you are up to.

4)      We need to guard what we allow into our hearts and minds.  One carless glance down the magazine isle at the grocery store can send your thoughts down a sinful road.  Acts flow from thoughts.  Let’s see if I can say this correctly; I’ve heard something similar somewhere before.  Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a destiny.  They say our eyes are the gateway to our soul.  If this is true we better be good guards of what we let in.

5)      We must make a firm commitment to flee from perversion and evil.  We cannot allow ourselves to even peek over the edge of the pit.  There can be no compromise here.  To compromise with evil is to lose the battle.  Turn your back on sin.  Be done with it.

6)      We must not keep company with those that would speak about others behind their back.  If they will do it to those who are absent, they will do it to you when you are absent.  Such a person is a snare; stay away from them.  The same with the arrogant and haughty.  A Christian should be humble in the knowledge of the price Christ paid for their salvation.  There is no good thing in us and we shouldn’t act like there is beyond that which exists in us through the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit.  If Christ, the living God, can humble Himself I would think it would be well to follow that example.  We are, after all, his disciples, his ambassadors.

7)      We must fellowship with believers.  I don’t like it when we Christians take the side of the lost against our brothers and sisters in Christ.  This is wrong and at times crosses into slandering a neighbor secretly.  I will give the benefit of the doubt to my brother and sister in Christ before I will to the lost.  Beyond that, as men, we need to encourage and sharpen each other.  Be careful of the company you keep.  Don’t just avoid the wicked but deliberately keep company with God’s people.

8)      Beyond the company we keep, we must be careful what we allow in our homes.  Hospitality is important but we should never allow the wicked a place in our home.  We never welcome cancer into our bodies; the same should be true of our homes.

Those are the lessons I took from that Psalm.  What do you think?  Am I wrong?  Did I miss something?  Tell me what you think.

In the mean time, have a righteous day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!