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. – Psalm 101:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 10, 2013): Psalm 101

I find that I continually have to admit my struggle with the mystical. More than anything, I want to be logical and prepared for the things that this life is going to confront me with – and yet I am also constantly reminded that God often chooses not to work that way. There is something about our spiritual lives that comes from outside of us – something that we have no control over. Maybe that is the reason why the pastors who are responsible for growing huge ministries often seem to have no idea why or how the ministry grew. It just seemed to happen. The truth of our spiritual lives is that there is no way that we can force God to move. God moves when – and where – he decides to move. And sometimes all we can do is wait for God to move in our lives.

David writes that he “will be careful to lead a blameless life.” But then he follows up that statement with a question – “when will you come?” There are those that would like to use this verse to argue for an early date to the writing of the Psalm. The argument is that the Psalm was written during the time that David was waiting for the Ark of the Covenant to be moved into Jerusalem – an event that happened early in David’s time as king. But I think a better explanation might be that the two statements should be connected – because that is the reality that we know. We want to be careful to lead a blameless life. We never want to do the stupid things that we do. And yet – we do them. We commit the crime. And all of this was something that David was very acquainted with.

David knew that the act of leading a life that was blameless was impossible in his own strength. He had tried – and failed. The only hope David had for being blameless was for God to show up. And so David was waiting for God to come - his prayer was that God would come and make him blameless – make him holy (set apart for a purpose.)

It is the spiritual mystery that we all live in the midst of. We want to be good, but the reality is that we experientially understand Jesus comment that no one is good except the Father. And if we want to be blameless, that level of good is only possible if we invite God to show up in our lives.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 103

Note: The VantagePoint (Edmonton) sermon "You With Me" from the series "Blood, Sweat and Tears" is available on the VantagePoint website. You can find it here.