Read Psalm 101 at Bible Gateway.
Psalm 101 is a messianic psalm which makes an intricate repeating pattern:
introduction) Psa 101:1, I will sing of mercy and justice; To You, O Lord, I will sing praises;
Psa 101:2-4 reverse parallelism:
1a) Psa 101:2a, I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? {n}
1b) Psa 101:2b, I will walk within my house with a perfect heart;
1c) Psa 101:3a, I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; {n}
2c) Psa 101:3b, I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me;
2b) Psa 101:4a, A perverse heart shall depart from me;
2a) Psa 101:4b, I will not know wickedness.
Psa 101:5-8 chiastic structure:
1a) Psa 101:5a, Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; {n}
1b) Psa 101:5b, The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure;
1c) Psa 101:6a, My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; {n}
central axis) Psa 101:6b, He who walks in a perfect way, He shall serve me;
2c) Psa 101:7a, He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; {n}
2b) Psa 101:7b, He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence;
2a) Psa 101:8, Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land, {n} That I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord. {p}
The theme of a perfect way / a perfect heart / refusing to endure wickedness is repeated in both halves of the psalm. What does it mean to have a perfect heart, and to walk in a perfect way?
“Perfect” means, “to be complete, to be finished, to be at an end, to be whole,” and is in Hebrew, Strong’s H8552, tamam, תָּמַם tav + mem + mem (final position). In the ancient Hebrew pictographs, the tav is the two crossed sticks, and can mean, mark, sign, signal, monument. The mem is the water, and can mean chaos, mighty, blood. I searched in all my reference books for some clue as to what story the pictographs might be telling, and the reference books were silent on it. But from the moment I saw the pictographs, I could not help but think that it was a very graphic picture of the cross (tav) covered by the blood (mem) of Messiah Yeshua.
What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
The fact is, being washed in the blood of Jesus fundamentally changes a person from the inside out. No longer are we perverse and proud, but whole and complete, and our way of walking reflects that. ♥ If our way of walking hasn’t been transformed, then our hearts haven’t been transformed either. Mental assent without corresponding fruit (“fruit worthy of repentance,” Mat 3:8) might fool people, but God is not mocked (Gal 6:7).
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