Psalms 101 · The Lantern

Of David. A psalm. Of loyal love and judgment I will sing; to you, LORD, I will make music.

I Will Set No Worthless Thing before My Eyes

I will act wisely in a blameless way — when will you come to me? I will walk about in the integrity of my heart within my house.

I will sing psalms and understand in the unspotted way. That a person should understand what he is singing, and that his mind should contemplate the psalm itself, so that his thoughts do not wander outside, and he seem indeed to sing psalms with his body, while his mind is without fruit. In the unspotted way: that as I walk in this world I may act justly, and have no spot.

"I walked in the innocence of my heart in my house." I continued to live a life of simplicity, I did not practice duplicity, feigning a different appearance to outsiders while bringing myself to do the opposite at home; instead, my private face corresponded to my public one.

And again David saith, "I have walked in my house in the innocency of my heart, when wilt Thou come unto me?"

I will not set before my eyes a thing of worthlessness. I have hated the doing of deviations; it will not cling to me.

A crooked heart will turn away from me; I will not know evil.

The one who slanders his neighbor in secret — him I will destroy. The haughty of eyes and the broad of heart — him I cannot endure.

And Jezebel was able to injure the most religious Naboth by her false accusations; but then it was the wicked and apostate Ahab who listened to her. But the most holy David, whose example you ought to follow, as all pray that you may, does not favor such people but was apt to turn away from them and avoid them, as raging dogs.

Him who secretly disparaged his neighbor, this one I persecuted. So far ought we not to consent to the disparager, that we should even, as far as it lies in us, pursue such a person, providing for what is useful in both cases: that we neither listen willingly, nor permit him to sin.

He [Poemen] also said, "If a monk hates two things, he is able to free himself from the world, and these are," he said, "the gratifications of the body and vainglory."The same old man also said, "Wrath is a natural thing in a person, it is his nature, but it must be used to cut off evil passions.

My eyes are on the faithful of the land, to dwell with me; the one who walks in a blameless way — he will serve me.

The one who works deceit will not dwell within my house; the one who speaks lies will not be established before my eyes.

Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, to cut off from the city of the LORD all the workers of iniquity.

Now if these words in the law, "Thou shalt have dominion over many nations, and no one shall rule over thee," were simply a promise to them of dominion, and if they contain no deeper meaning than this, then it is certain that the people would have had still stronger grounds for despising the promises of the law.

In the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth. Well did he say, the sinners of the earth: for sinners are earthly. This is what he means, that the promptings of the devil, which he was suggesting to me, I cast out of my heart, and did not take up. For when evil thoughts are cast out, the demons are slain.

"In the morning I destroyed all the ungodly that were in the land. That I may root out all wicked doers from the city of the Lord" [Psalm 101:8]. This is obscure. There are then wicked doers in the city of the Lord, and they at present, seemingly, spared. Why so?

Psalms101

I Will Set No Worthless Thing before My Eyes