Every Morning

Introduction Is it best to do what is in itself right, or to do what will work out the best for you? Early in the 1500s an Italian civil servant, Machiavelli, wrote a book for princes, that is rulers, telling them how to rule. Listen to some of what he wrote about keeping your word:

Everyone understands how laudable it is for a prince to keep his word and live with integrity and not cunning. Nonetheless, experience shows that nowadays those princes who have accomplished great things have had little respect for keeping their word and have known how to confuse men' s minds with cunning. In the end they have overcome those who have preferred honesty. ...I will hazard to say this: there are certain qualities that when you have them and always keep to them they are harmful, but when you seem to have them are useful, like seeming merciful, loyal, humane, upright and religious, and being so. But you must remain mentally prepared, so that when it is necessary not to have these qualities you are able, and know how to assume their opposites (pages 96, 97 Everyman, 1995)

Perhaps you sometimes feel that tension between doing what is right, and doing things that will suit? Perhaps sometimes we all want to lie, cheat, or be deceptive, while (like Machiavelli's Prince) outwardly we seem to be godly and honest. This psalm challenges the personal behaviour of all of us, but particularly those in some sort of authority. The Reformer of the Church, Martin Luther, called this psalm a "mirror for magistrates". Those who are in some sort of charge of people can look in to see if the "godly ruler" of the psalm is reflected in them. It's a psalm for bosses, managers, and leaders. Maybe it's also a psalm for teachers and even parents. As time moves on, I begin to think of the work I will soon be doing down at Oakwood in north London. I will be vicar in a small parish. It's certainly for vicars too. There are two headings tonight: First, TRUTH IN THE RULER; secondly, TRUTH IN THE RANKS; First, TRUTH IN THE RULER (vv 1-4) We'll look at a boss's personal behaviour, in this case King David, as we read verses 1-4 again:

I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise. [2] I will be careful to lead a blameless life-- when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart. [3] I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. [4] Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.

It seems to me that there are three things here that David sets as his own principles for leadership: (i) Being aware of God (ii) Leading a blameless life, and (iii) Keeping away from evil people. Being aware of the person and nature of God sets the scene for the whole psalm. "I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praise." Being aware of the person and nature of God is essential for a good leader. If we know that there is a God, we know that there is someone over us. We know that however important we may be, there is a God over us to whom we are just a human being. It is important not to be taken in by the lies of the world, which make us think the world revolves around ourselves. I am glad that our Queen and our Prime Minister are regularly in church, hearing the word of God, and praying. It worries me when leaders acknowledge no God, no one greater than themselves. But in this first verse it isn't just the person of God, but his nature. God is a God of love and justice. That is God as the Bible reveals him. That's why I'm glad that our Queen and Prime Minister are in Christian churches and not Hindu Temples or Moslem mosques. In the Bible there is a balance in the qualities of love and justice. Love means that God is merciful, but justice means that God does not neglect punishment where it is due. These two qualities are a check on each other. Loving kindness prevents justice from being too harsh, and justice prevents loving kindness from being too lenient. A good boss, manager, headteacher, whoever, needs to be aware of both love and justice. To try and reflect those characters of love and justice is a good aim for a parent, and anyone who has responsibility over others. The second principle King David sets himself is living a blameless life. Verse 2:"I will be careful to lead a blameless life-- when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart." The one who is over others to rule and order them cannot be above the law. His or her word needs to be trusted. David recognises the trouble that comes to us when we do not lead a blameless life. He recognises that in those times God is far from us. As David sorts his life out under God, he prays that he will have God's presence with him. Leading a blameless life is a principle that we can aim at, though not achieve. If you're a boss and you steal from work, how can you expect your employees not to? If you speak about people behind their back, how can you not expect that people will do that about you? If you are unconcerned about the hungy and poor, how can you expect people to be concerned about you if that should happen to you? King David linked leading a blameless life and knowing God's presence. We don't always realise that our actions can be cutting ourselves off from God. We fall into some wrong habit or action, we go dry spiritually, God seems far from us, and we go even further from him. Maybe there is a Christian brother or sister here tonight who knows there are specific sins that are making a barrier between them and God? Why should God come to us while we are not willing to live his way? The third principle that David mentions is keeping away from evil people. Verses 3 and 4:

I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. [4] Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.

A godly leader has to keep the ungodly from worming their way into his or her heart. Best to make no associations with evil men at all. When we resolve to have nothing to do with evil men, we need to remember that this is in relation to personal administration. This is a psalm of King David in his royal role. We know that Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, when he had taken flesh and lived among us, was criticized for mixing with sinners. He said, "the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost". It is important for Christians to know and mix with people who are lost, but it is also important that the Christian doesn't take on their standards and priorities. Some of you are soon to go away to college. There will be a difficult line that you will have to take between making good non-Christian friends, and compromising your own standards as a Christian. Others of you may be in positions of responsiblity, perhaps a partner in your firm, and you are working with people who do not share the same values, or commitment to God's love and justice. When some issue of integrity comes up, how can you disassociate yourself from an evil or perverse decision? You can only have strength to do that when you remember the first verse of the psalm. There is a God of love and justice. He knows our secret acts. He will not wink at our deceptions. He has sent his only beloved Son to die for our sins, to make us new: how can we go back to the ways of darkness? In this first part of the psalm we have seen the principles that David sets as his own principles for leadership. He is going to keep aware of the person and character of God. He is going to lead a blameless life. He is going to keep away from evil people. Secondly, TRUTH IN THE RANKS (vv 5-8) In the second part of the psalm King David turns from what he requires in himself, to what he requires in those who serve him. Verses 5-8:

Whoever slanders his neighbour in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure. [6] My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me. [7] No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. [8] Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.

Here too there are three principles that King David puts into practice for those who serve him. What David considers important is: (i) silencing slanderers (ii) advancing the godly, and (iii) keeping out evil-doers. First silencing slanderers, verse 5:

Whoever slanders his neighbour in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.

Slander is telling stories about people, passing on rumours. Haughtiness and pride is another way of looking down on others. So often slander and pride are to raise ourselves up and pull someone else down. If we are to be a godly boss, such a person is not the sort whom we should have around us. The story is told of a man long ago who went to confess his sin of slander to monk. "I've sinned by telling slanderous statements about someone. What should I do now?" The monk replied, "Put a feather on every doorstep in town." The young man did it. He then returned to the monk to find out if there was anything else he should do. The monk said, "Go back and pick up all the feathers". "That's impossible", he replied, "The wind will have blown them all away". "And so has your slander become impossible to retrieve", said the monk. The second principle David has for choosing those around him is advancing the godly. Verse 6

My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me.

If David had to promote someone, he wouldn't take the one who dressed the best, who had the best personality, but the one who would be faithful and who was concerned about their own sin. The people to advance are those who are upright. David's third principle for those under him is keeping out evil-doers. Verses 7 and 8:

No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. [8] Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.

In this, David defends the honour of God. David's capital was Jerusalem, it was the place of God's Temple. David was concerned to keep the city pure. He would not defile the honour of God by leaving evil unpunished. To promote and give way to evil doers is to stand where they stand, it is to be tainted by association. So in the second half of the psalm David has told us what he considers important in those around him. These are his priorities for those who serve him. He will silence slanderers. He will advance the godly. He will have nothing to do with evil-doers. Conclusion What are we to conclude from looking at this psalm as Christian people? No doubt, that Machiavelli would have got short shrift from King David. But we know that David himself did not keep to these ideals. He can not be held up to us as a model. We can't say 'If you want to learn how to be a king, a ruler, a manager, go and look at King David'. It is a great pattern that David gives us here, a challenge to those who followed him as King, and a challenge to all who are responsible for other people. But the one who does perfectly fulfil the role of king in these things is Jesus Christ. He is the leader of the people. He is the one who brings about the covenant promises. He is the one who perfectly serves God. We could set the words of this psalm into the mouth of Jesus Christ. "I will sing of your love and justice...to you I will sing praise... I will be careful to lead a blameless life...I will set before my eyes no vile thing...I will have nothing to do with evil...no-one who practices deceit will dwell in my house" and so on. In the matter of God's love and justice, there too our mind must go to Jesus Christ. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." God's love was in Christ reconciling the world, but God's justice did not allow our sin to go unpunished: Jesus Christ bore our sins on the cross. He took the punishment that our sins deserved. Love and justice perfectly resolved. To read the psalm without thinking of Jesus, and solely as a kind of leadership checklist, is to put principles into the position that God himself should occupy. You may have come across the influential book by the Mormon author Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey puts principles of integrity at the heart of his treatment. He looks for change by envisioning people with what they could be. Much of what he writes is highly ethical, but it misses out on that central act of love and justice in Jesus Christ. Another American hits the mark. The missionary to the North American indians, David Brainerd, wrote in his journal of the way he encouraged changed and changing lives in the converted Indians:

I never get away from Jesus and him crucified. when my people were gripped by this great evangelical doctrine of Christ and him crucified, I had no need to give them instructions about morality. I found that one followed as the sure and inevitable fruit of the other... I find my Indians begin to put on the garments of holiness and their common life begins to be sanctified even in small matters when they are possessed by the doctrine of Christ and him crucified.

So as we turn to prayer let's pray for the Holy Spirit to make us see our sinfulness and our need of the cross of Jesus Christ.