Follow the leader

Title: Follow The Leader
Date: 18 December 2022
Preacher: Dn Keng Wan Ling

Good morning brothers and sisters. Today's sermon continues the Royal Series:
- The week before: Psalms 20: before a battle
- Last week: Psalms 21: after victory
- This week: Psalms 101: This psalm sets out what David said, at the ceremony where he was appointed King. There were no work plans, no strategic focus, no promises to shore up the national defences so Israel won’t be bullied.
- Psalm 101, David:
1. Gives praise to God
2. Makes these strong and sweeping oaths to be pure ( I will behave wisely // I will have a perfect heart // I will not know weakness)
3. Expects those around him to be pure as well
- Proud and haughty? Then i won’t tolerate you
- Faithless? Perverse of heart? I don’t want anything to do with you
- Deceitful? Get out of my house!!
- Liar? Get out of my presence!!
- Slander your neighbour in secret? I will silence you! (gulp…. Silence like…??)
- Wicked or an evil-doer? I will silence you!! (Double gulp…)
Er… then… *who* is left to dwell in your house, to work for you? Oh… the faithful of the land, those who walk in blameless, can serve me (v 6). This sounds like a really difficult boss to work for!
Our title is: Follow the Leader (Ps 101); First I'll share a few reflections about David based on this psalm. Then i’ll explain what this has to do with us
Summary of these 3 reflections (on screen). Question: Do you think David managed to stick to what he said? Google please- search for “King David’s death”)
(A) DAVID
1. Leading (and Living) as an Act of Worship
We already know that David was a great leader because he was anointed by God. And he was anointed by God because he was a great follower of God.
From the very start, David was always a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Reading about David’s life from his start as a shepherd boy, to the beloved of Samuel, to being a fugitive, and then king of Israel for 40 years, the heart and core of it is his devotion to God- his worship of the God of Israel. David was a worshipper first before he was a warrior or a king.
The psalm we are reading now, expresses how he intends to continue to worship God, by being a king who rules according to the will of God. That’s why I think it’s appropriate that it starts with praise to God.
Verse 1 I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise.
Before David talks about his kingship, he sets his position clearly. God’s kingdom is a theo-cracy (theo= God, cracy= a form of government)- i.e. ruled by God through a human king that is subjected to God’s discipline, to the Torah, to the words of the prophet. That’s why the King is called- “the servant of the lord” - and it’s an honorific (a title that confers respect and esteem).
2. Leading (and living) as walking in the path of righteousness
Secondly, David affirms he will be very very careful to be pure and act with integrity (of course we know later about his in/famous stumbles):
Verse 2: I will be careful to lead a blameless life— when will you come to me?I will conduct the affairs of my house, with a blameless heart.
Verse 3: I will not look with approval, on anything that is vile.
What we now call “integrity”, in the OT the term is phrase “righteousness”. OT people would be familiar with this term and the concept-David himself uses it often in the psalms:
● Psalms 23: 3- The Lord leads me in the paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake. The shepherd boy of old, uses this analogy to express how he needs God to keep him on the right path (Some say this was written later in David’s life, when he was well established)
● Psalm 18- When God delivered him from all his enemies, and Saul, David sang about it, including how he (David) has always done the right thing. Note it talks about HIS (David’s) righteousness (Focus on v 20-24)
3. Leading (and living): Journeying together
Verse 6 My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me.
Verse 7 No one who practises deceit will dwell in my house;
no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.
Verse 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.
I think you and I, we DO expect our leaders to be morally upright and have integrity. However, we often overlook the communal/corporate aspect of it.
In David’s time, the Israelites would be well aware that righteousness is NOT an individual, or a personal issue. There are representatives, such as the king, or the High Priest, but it’s not their sole or even main responsibility. 2 examples of the communal aspect of righteousness:
(i)The role of the King: God acceded to their request for a king, but put in this warning: Samuel had said to the people very clearly at the inauguration of the first king (Saul), "If you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king" (1 Samuel 12:25)
So- Kingship has a strong communal aspect! It’s not the righteousness of the KING only, but also of the PEOPLE! So David here in Psalm 101, v 6-8, isn’t being extreme, but reflecting this reality. “I can’t allow any wickedness on my watch, because both you AND ME, will be swept away” [i.e. “I am accountable to God for you lot!”] King David, stands with his people, before Yahweh.
(ii) The function of the High Priest:: The High Priest had to wear a breastplate when he was serving in the Holy Template. [1]This breastplate had the 12 gemstones laid in 4x3 rows, with the names of the tribes of Israel written on it; because the High Priest represented all the people, as mediator and intercessor, before the Lord (Exodus 28:29, 39:7). Exodus 28: Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord.
B) Extreme Responses to an Extreme God
We don’t really know at exactly what point David said these words- when he was made king over Judah (in Hebron), when he was about 30 years old; or when he was crowned king over the whole of Israel (when he was about 37/38 years old). We do know that David ruled the united Israel until he was about 70 years old- a good almost 40 years as King!

From what you know, do you think he managed to keep his oath set out in Psalms 101?

Summary:
1.As an Act of Worship
2.As Walking the Path of Righteousness
3.As Journeying Together

Yes he did. David stuck to it even at his death bed.
Truly David was an exceptional man, and his words here are a reminder to us in our own journeys as we live (our lives), as we lead (our families, our friends, at work), and as we follow our God.

See how faithful David was. He charged Solomon even when he was dying: 1 Kings 2: David gives a charge to Solomon
When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son.
2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses.
Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go 4 and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’
See verse 4: What promise is David talking about?

God’s Response to David’s Heart- The Promise of an Eternal Kingdom
This is sometimes called the “Davidic Covenant”.
Because David sought God SO MUCH, SO FAITHFULLY, God responded by
● anointing him (which you already know)
● calling him His Son (which is not unique to David, God said the same thing about Solomon too - (about Solomon) God declares, “I will be his father, and he will be my son” (2 Sam 7:14; cf. Ps 2:7), AND
● promising him a dynasty that never ends (2 Sam 7:16)

2 Samuel 7:
12 r“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 uHe shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.
15 But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.”
17 According to all these words and according to all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

Wow, that’s pretty special.

Don’t get it wrong, it’s not that David gets to be so special and have his OWN kingdom. Remember David wanted to build a house of the Lord? And then wanted to build a kingdom for God - a theocracy, remember? God is promising David that David’s offspring will always be instrumental, in leading God’s kingdom! [Other covenants were to Noah after the flood, Abraham to be a great nation, Moses at Mt Sinai- God’s special people- mostly with conditions!]
In preparation for this sermon, I had the chance again to really think about David, and get into his psyche. My first reading of Psalms 101 is that these are extreme words, a strong oath, said publicly; even when I read and reread- I still feel the same way. Why is David so… extreme? So “extra”? “Extra’ is slang that means: Over the top; excessive, dramatic behaviour; way too much. Why couldn’t David just have said, “Look guys, I'll just try my best, alright?” Who could blame him? Why does he need to say until like that?

Then it hit me. David is extreme/or “extra”- because our Lord God, Yahweh, is very “extra”. Our God doesn’t do things in halves, He is NOT moderate. He is HOLY, and anyone who has a heart after Him, who follows Him, needs to be holy too.

And our God is faith, He keeps His promises.
When He looked at how the Kings after David, Solomon, one after another failed to live up to the condition of the covenant, He said, “I made a covenant with David, and it shall come to pass.” God promised!!

And, to fulfil that promise, God sent Jesus.

Luke 1:31–33, he said, "Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.".
Jesus comes as the Davidic king! God has kept the promise He made to David.
Invitation: How is God the king of your own life?
The invitation from God today- follow the footsteps of David. He invites you to acknowledge him as your King. David has sworn to “follow the leader”, to follow His King, Lord Jehovah Yahweh.
David’s heart was to build a temple for God to rest in but today’s that template is us, our bodies, our lives.
David wanted to be a ruler, a king, over God’s kingdom- a theocracy-

[1] It was one of 8 priestly garments he wore, and apparently had 2 types of stones sewn into it, the Urmin and Thummim.

Bilingual Service Video Link：https://youtu.be/vF5D9iaUfW8