Psalm 101:3

3 I have not set before mine eyes any unlawful ting; I have hated transgressors.

Psalm 101:3 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 101:3

I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes,
Either the eyes of the body, which are the inlets of lust and are easily caught with objects that inflame the heart, and should be turned aside from beholding vanity; or the eyes of the mind; so the Targum,

``I will not propose to my heart;''

or, as Kimchi,

``in my thought'',

that is, I will not set up an evil thing in my imagination, to dwell upon in my thoughts, and take delight and pleasure in meditating upon it; or set it before me, to imitate as a pattern, to work by, and copy after: Christ did not so; he set the Lord always before him, ( Psalms 16:8 ) , not anything of Belial ^F11 or Satan, as the phrase here may be rendered; no, he always bid Satan, or anything of his, be gone, and get behind him, ( Matthew 4:10 ) ( 16:23 ) .

I hate the work of them that turn aside;
from God, and from his law; from the paths of religion, truth, and virtue; and from the Gospel, and a profession of it; such are not fit for the kingdom of God, and in these God and Christ have no pleasure, ( Hebrews 10:38 ) ,

it shall not cleave to me;
neither the wicked thing, or thing of Belial, nor the work of apostasy; that is, he would have no familiarity nor fellowship with it; not come near it, nor connive at it, but hate and abhor it: the Jews said, an evil disease, or a thing of Belial, "cleaveth fast unto him", ( Psalms 41:8 ) , but they were mistaken.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 (leylb rbd) "verbum Belijahal", Montanus; so Cocceius, Gejerus, Ainsworth.

Psalm 101:3 In-Context

1 I will sing to thee, O Lord, of mercy and judgment; I will sing a psalm,

2 and I will be wise in a blameless way. When wilt thou come to me? I walked in the innocence of my heart, in the midst of my house.

3 I have not set before mine eyes any unlawful ting; I have hated transgressors.

4 A perverse heart has not cleaved to me; I have not known an evil man, forasmuch as he turns away from me.

5 Him that privily speaks against his neighbour, him have I driven from me: he that is proud in look and insatiable in heart, —with him I have not eaten.

6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walked in a perfect way, the same ministered to me.

7 The proud doer dwelt not in the midst of my house; the unjust speaker prospered not in my sight.

8 Early did I slay all the sinners of the land, that I might destroy out of the city of the Lord all that work iniquity.