Psalm 101:8 NKJV
“I will early destroy all the wicked of the land.” At the very outset of his government he would promptly deal out justice to the worthless, he would leave them no rest, but make them leave their wickedness or feel the lash of the law. The righteous magistrate “beareth not the sword in vain.” To favor sin is to discourage virtue; undue leniency to the bad is unkindness to the good. When our Lord comes in judgment, this verse will be fulfilled on a large scale; till then he sinks the judge in the Savior, and bids men leave their sins and find pardon. Under the gospel we also are bidden to suffer long, and to be kind, even to the unthankful and the evil; but the office of the magistrate is of another kind, and he must have a sterner eye to justice than would be proper in private persons. Is he not to be a terror to evil-doers?
“That I may cut off all the wicked doers from the city of the Lord.” Jerusalem was to be a holy city, and the psalmist meant to be doubly careful in purging it from ungodly men. Judgment must begin at the house of God. Jesus reserves his scourge of small cords for sinners inside the temple. How pure ought the church to be, and how diligently should all those who hold office therein labor to keep out and chase out men of unclean lives. Honorable offices involve serious responsibilities; to trifle with them will bring our own souls into guilt, and injure beyond calculation the souls of others. Lord, come to us, that we, in our several positions in life, may walk before thee with perfect hearts. (Spurgeon)
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“The commitment to excellence implies a difference in administration from the manner in which kings ruled in the ancient Near East. The godly king affirms that his loyalty is to Yahweh and not to the ways of this world.” (VanGemeren)
From the city of the LORD: “His ambition is to have Jehovah’s city worthy of its true King, when He shall deign to come and dwell in it.” (Maclaren)
“The psalm is doubly moving: both for the ideals it discloses and for the shadow of failure which history throws across it. Happily the last word is not with David nor with his faithful historians, but with his Son. There, there is no shadow.” (Kidner)
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I will early destroy … – Hebrew, “In the mornings I will destroy.” That is, It shall be my first business as I enter upon the day. Possibly, also, by the use of the plural here – “in the mornings” – there may be the idea that this would be his constant rule of conduct: he would do it every day; he would do it morning by morning. He would on no day – at no time – allow the wicked to be in his service. This rule would be unvarying. It would extend through his life. The word “destroy” here may refer not only to his conduct as a man, and as the head of a family, but to the act of a magistrate; and the idea may be, that the rule which he prescribed for himself in his own house was a rule which he would carry with him into public: that is, as the psalm was composed by David, that, as a king and sovereign, it should be his aim to carry those principles to the throne; that, in respect to the state, he would do what he purposed to do in his home-relations. The strict and stern regard for truth, sincerity, honesty, fidelity, which he would evince in the one case he would evince in the other; carrying to the high employments of public life, where there were so many temptations to a contrary course, the inflexible virtues which were needful for peace, for happiness, and for success in domestic life.
That I may cut off – By discountenancing them; by punishing them if they are guilty.
All wicked doers – All violators of law.
From the city of the Lord – From Jerusalem, the place where God dwelt, and which was sacred to his service. See Psalms 46:4, note; Psalms 48:2, note; Psalms 48:8, note. Happy is the man at the head of a family – happy is the magistrate – who adopts for himself, and who faithfully carries out the principles laid down by the author of this psalm – divinely inspired to adopt such rules for himself, and to suggest them for others in all ages. (Barnes)
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His resolution to extend his zeal to the reformation of the city and country, as well as of the court (v. 8): “I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, all that are discovered and convicted; the law shall have its course against them.” He would do his utmost to destroy all the wicked so that there might be none left that were notoriously wicked. He would do it early; he would lose no time and spare no pains; he would be forward and zealous in promoting the reformation of manners and suppression of vice; and those must rise betimes that will do anything to purpose in the work. That which he aimed at was not only the securing of his own government and the peace of the country, but the honor of God in the purity of his church, That I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord. Not Jerusalem only, but the whole land, was the city of the Lord; so is the gospel-church. It is the interest of the city of the Lord to be purged from wicked doers, who both blemish it and weaken it; and it is, therefore, the duty of all to do what they can, in their places, towards so good a work, and to be zealously affected in it. The day is coming when the Son of David shall cut off all wicked doers from the new Jerusalem, for there shall not enter into it any that do iniquity. (Henry)
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalms 101:8
8 (f) Betimes wil I destroy all the wicked of the land, that I maie cut off all the workers of iniquity from the City of the Lord.
f Magistrates must immediately punish vice, lest it grow to farther inconvenience and if heathen Magistrates are bound to do this, how much more they that have the charge of the Church of God?
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“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
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