Three Fingers Pointing Back

Psalm 109 is harsh. It is the song of a king who vows to recompense those who walk over others and persecute the poor, who disregard God and disrespect their neighbors. We are tempered by grace from acting harshly. We are called by Jesus to absorb and resist injustice at the same time. But we must not grow numb to the indignation that the psalmist expressed. We ought to cringe with such indignation and it ought to begin with those remnants of wicked motives within our own hearts and lives. Let us be so disgusted with that within ourselves that degrades and destroys that we set out to purge our own hearts regularly of their creeping decay that we might be singular in our love, sincere in our devotion to God, and simple in our service to humanity.

I must ponder and take great care about the way that I walk. How can I do this in a rush? How can i do this if I do not rise before the demands of the day overtake me and the cares of this world absorb my attention? I must arise in time and devote the time to knowing what to do. By taking this time, I will save much time that will otherwise be spent flailing and failing, faltering and floundering. It is the blameless heart I seek, the heart that, in integrity, seeks not its own ends but those purposes of God for which it was awakened. Then, I begin where I am, in my own house, within the confines of my closest and dearest relationships, among those I have neither need, desire, nor ability to impress, to walk with integrity of heart. So, the psalmist tracks the beginning of successful person's day - Begin with God, continue with family, and branch out from there. Then, in verse 3, he reminds himself not to be drawn away by setting any vile thing before him. It is a good reminder that even the blameless heart can be distracted and diverted by the temporal temptations of decadent beauty.