Broken Promises

By Alessandra Velsor

“I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise. 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. I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it. The perverse of heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with what is evil. Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret,I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate. My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me. No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the Lord.”—Psalm 101 (NIV)

When my husband or I make a promise to our children, they expect us to deliver. Recently, we were doing some home renovations, and we had all the materials we needed to work on our daughter’s room. Kenny promised Sunny he’d paint her room and assemble her new bed on Monday. So, when she arrived home from school on Monday and saw it wasn’t done, she clearly expressed her righteous disappointment to him. As a good father, Kenny delivered on his promise to build her bed as his apology to her.

Some promises definitely have a greater weight than furniture assembly, which reminds me of what Spider-Man once said,“With great power comes great responsibility.” For example, scholars believe Psalm 101 was written by King David upon his ascendance to the throne. In this psalm, we can sense his enthusiasm and confidence in his new role of bringing the necessary change to Israel. We can see he takes his newly appointed position seriously as he lays out several promises to God and the people, because true worship is vertical and horizontal, as perfectly explained here:

“First, there’s vertical worship . . . this is what we normally think of worship. It is the formal, conscious turning of our hearts toward God in awe, adoration, and praise. And this is something we should do every day—that vertical, intentional, conscious worship of God. . . .There’s a second vital form of worship: not just vertical worship, but horizontal worship. What do I mean by that? This is where, as an act of worship, we surrender everything in our lives, and everything we do and say, to our Lord. Here we seek to live in a way that pleases him.”—Paul Tripp

Psalm 101 lists some great promises from a young king—ones we should personally strive for as children of God! We should actively remove temptations surrounding us (verse 3), despise and reject evil (verses 4–5), be in pursuit of what is godly and refuse ungodly influences (verses 6–7), and be quick to do justice. For instance, David wanted any judicial case decided in the morning and not procrastinate on doing what was right (verse 8). A man after God’s own heart, we know David genuinely meant every single promise. But like any human on this earth, and as we’ve been reading this week, he miserably failed to deliver. He had to humbly repent for all his sins, including adultery and murder. For, “the Spirit if willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41 NIV).

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”—Micah 6:8 (NIV)

Thankfully, God is a God of justice and mercy. Unlike a father’s attempt for restoration after a broken promise, our sins can bring us significant consequences. We must ensure we don’t abuse God’s mercy and see it as a pass for us to sin more. Instead, we must constantly ask our helper, the Holy Spirit, for His guidance so we can turn from evil daily. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross gives us full access to the Father who forgives us when we humbly confess our sins, like David did in Psalm 51.

Pause: How we spend our time and money, and who we spend it with, can often reveal our worship habits. Take an inventory of your calendar and finances. What does it reveal about what or who you worship?

Practice: Change something about your day that would intentionally bring focus to God.Is there something you need to say or confess today?

Pray: Father, thank You for Your love and justice. Thank You for Your mercy and Your Son’s sacrifice! Help me have a heart like David who sought You with all his heart, especially when he failed at his promises. I confess I haven’t always followed through myself, and I ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance today. I praise You for who You are and may my worship to You bring You all the glory. Amen.