The Paznic of Zion

In Psalm 101 David says he will behave himself wisely and in a perfect way “in his house.” It’s interesting because often we let our guard down at home and sometimes we don’t treat our own family as nicely as we do other people. We’re trying to save face with other people, but our family knows who we really are. This is a sad truth. But David says he strives to be perfect, holy, mature, right before God even in his own house.
He chastens himself to be right before God but he also doesn’t want to be around those who want to do evil. He is wise with his friends and who he allows to influence him.
He refuses to be around those who slander others, gossip, tear down people to others. He says them will he “cut off.” Whether he sends them out of his presence or interrupts their tirade about others doesn’t matter. The fact remains: he will not listen to slander.
He also calls out those who are prideful. I often identify pride in others, but I also need to be zealous to identify pride in my own heart. It manifests itself in so many different ways. It is the root of so many other sins.
Those that are upright, those are the ones that David watches. Those are attractive to him as they please the Lord. He wants to be surrounded by these kinds of people.
David hated deceit, those who were dishonest. He didn’t want them in his house. He wanted to be far from them. He wanted to rid the land of Zion of every evil doer. He was the Paznic for Zion (as we say in Romanian). He was the guard, keeping the peace of God’s place that He had made for Himself. David was valiant for his God. Just think of when he defeated Goliath who was blaspheming the name of our God!
Many seem to have the mindset that holy doesn’t really mean holy in the Bible. I have even been taught this. But when God commands us to be Holy, that is exactly what He means. I think we are quick to excuse ourselves: “Well, I can always say I’m sorry to God.” We give into our sin instead of having self-control and being valiant for God and pursuing holiness even when it means discomfort or inconvenience. Holiness was important to David. He wanted to be perfect and he wanted to be around those who were. When the kingdom of heaven is on earth and the Lord Jesus comes to reign in a perfect, new world, we will live perfect, holy lives in unity serving an amazing, holy God. We should prepare our hearts for that world now. After all, the kingdom of God is within us already. We are part of that kingdom if we have repented of our sin and ask Jesus to save us. We should behave as children of the kingdom, children of Light.
We, like David, should be a Paznic for Zion, weeding out the evil, abhorring the evil, separating ourselves from evil. Let us be valiant for our God.