David wanted to surround himself with good people, people he could trust and whose walk was blameless. Sometimes, when people are in positions of power or responsibility, they turn to those who can "get the job done" and do not ask questions about how they do it. It is worldly wisdom to say, “No one can rule effectively who cannot close his eyes and ears to some of the things that are going on around him.” But a good government is one in which the high places are filled with upright and not unscrupulous people. Luther said, "If God wants to be good to a prince or a country, he gives him a fine Joseph or a Naaman to be near him, through whom all things fare well and prosper.”1
As we saw yesterday, David, having affirmed the positive virtues in this psalm, also rejects the negatives. We have already looked at two vices suggested by these stanzas—faithless men and men of perverse heart—and continue with two more.
The next characteristic we find David talking about in this psalm is personal moral character, which he refers to as having a "blameless heart" and leading a "blameless life" (v. 2). These are divided by the stanza breaks in the New International Version, but they belong together since the only way to lead a blameless life is to have a blameless heart. In other words, as Jesus said, "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. 12:34)—and acts as well.
I do not often take issue with the translation provided by the New International Version, but I think I should do so here by pointing out that the word "your" in the first line of this psalm ("I will sing of your love and justice") is not in the Hebrew manuscripts. The psalm actually begins: "I will sing of love and justice.” In other words, the psalm is about love (or mercy) and justice, and the way David introduces these two ideas is much like the style of older writers who would compose essays with such titles as "On Friendship," "On Civil Government,” and so on.
It has been some time since we have come across a psalm attributed to David. The last one was Psalm 86, and this is the first in book four of the Psalter, though there is also one yet to come (Psalm 103). Many scholars reject the ascription of the psalm to David. However, it reads like a psalm of David, and it is an appropriate psalm for David as an anointed king of Israel to have written.
