“I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.” (Ps 101:2-3 AV)
I am sure this has come across in the past. But another reminder doesn’t hurt. The king is the writer here. More than likely, it is a psalm of David. As the king, there were things appearing in his house that would border on the absurd. He would be required to keep company with all sorts of things. As the judge of the land, the palace would have regular traffic of an offensive nature. Being a head of state, he would entertain those from different cultures who may not make the effort to adjust their appearance or behavior toward the sensitivities of God’s servant. Keeping his palace pure would have been a challenge. But not an impossibility. David has a major failure in this area. He may have kept his palace clean, but he went out onto the porch and looked into another’s home who did not. Note, the use of the word ‘cleave’. David may have, of necessity, kept company with the unclean, but he didn’t have to allow it to cleave to him.
When I was a kid, we went camping quite a bit. When we camped, it was truly roughing it. No cabins or showers for us. A tent and a pond are what we got. Water was drawn from the pond and sterilized in a 55gal drum over an open fire. Our bathrooms were a hole in the ground with a tarp surrounding the hole. We had a cooler with ice for perishables, but non-perishables were stored in the open. All cooking was over an open flame. If you have ever done that, you know your cookware gets coated with carbon from the fire. This is almost impossible to get off. If one is not careful, over time, that carbon can build up and flake off in your food. One way to prevent this is to coat the outside of your cookware with soap. We used bar soap for a while. Then switched to liquid soap. A thick coating of soap is what the carbon adheres to. Then all one has to do is submerge in water and the soap with carbon comes right off! Amazing. You cannot keep the cookware from getting exposed to the carbon. If you want to live, unfortunately, the cookware has to be exposed to a hostile environment. But if there is a layer of protection between the cookware and the environment, then the environment doesn’t cleave to the pot or pan.
It is common to think of this passage only in the context of keeping a morally pure home. That is certainly the case. We should do this. For David, his home was far more than a place to live. It was his job site as well. It is where he lived and worked. For David, his home took up most of his time. His point is simple. There may be times when being near the wicked cannot be avoided. The key is that the wicked do not cleave to him. He may have to sit and preside over a trial of unsavory detail, but that doesn’t mean he must allow the details of this event to occupy his mind. He may have to accept the audience of an immodestly dressed head of state from another country, but that doesn’t mean he has to dwell on what he saw. Sometimes, evil cannot be avoided. It is what we do with what we, unfortunately, experienced that matters just as much as trying to expel it all before it happens. My wife and I were at an airport a while back. There was all sorts of inappropriate language, behavior, and dress. It could not be avoided. Being there was necessary. What we choose to do with what we were cast into is the safety net that keeps sin from clinging to our souls.
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