Psalm 101:1-8

Influence is a very important thing in all of our lives.  We are all constantly being influenced by the culture in which we live, our own health, the people surrounding us, circumstances and even the weather.  However, we are not nor should we consider ourselves to be victims of the influences around us. We can control what influences us as well as how we respond to those influences.  It is of utmost importance that we all learn to deal with these influences according to God’s Word or we may find ourselves very far from where God would have us to be.  This Psalm speaks to two common sources of influence with which all of us must learn to deal.

THE INFLUENCE OF OUR OWN SELF: Certainly, the most influential person in each of our lives is our own selves.  The choices that we make and the things to which we choose to expose ourselves exert a great deal of influence in our lives.  In a sense we are influencing ourselves on a very consistent basis through our habits and activities.  David says that He would choose to be influenced by his pondering of the ways of the Lord.  Certainly our thoughts are one of the greatest influences in our lives.  The things on which we choose to think and meditate will have a tremendous effect on every aspect of our lives and our walk with the Lord.  If we choose to have integrity in our own homes, walk in a way that is blameless and surround ourselves with songs of praise to the Lord we are having a very positive influence on our hearts.  David made the commitment to not set anything worthless before his eyes because he knew the dangers of this type of influence.  We all need to filter any form of entertainment we choose to enjoy through the standard set forth by David in this text.


THE INFLUENCE OF OUR SURROUNDINGS: There are many people all around us who do not care in the least about God’s will and the standards of His Word.  These are people with a perverse heart and we must keep them far away from our sphere of influence.  David promise to destroy the slanderous and proud.  We do not have that kind of freedom, but we certainly can protect ourselves from being under the influence of these people.  When we see people who are speaking evil of others and exulting themselves with arrogant words, we need to learn to walk away from them and not allow them to influence our thinking in any way.  Instead we should keep company with faithful men who seek to walk a blameless life before the Lord.  These are the men that we need to invite into our lives to minister to us and speak truth into our lives.  When we find a godly man we need to do all we can to be in their presence and allow them to influence us.  Liars wicked and the workers of evil must be cut off so that we do not begin to follow their ways.  We need to be constantly on the lookout for godly men who we can invite into our lives and allow them to influence us for the glory of God.

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