Psalm 101 (KJV): A froward heart shall depart from me

From Psalms

Psalm 101
(Of David.  A psalm.)

¹I will sing of mercy and judgment:
      unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.
²I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.
      O when wilt thou come unto me?
I will walk within my house
      with a perfect heart.
³I will set no wicked thing
      before mine eyes:

I hate the work of them that turn aside;
      it shall not cleave to me.
⁴A froward heart shall depart from me:
      I will not know a wicked person.

⁵Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour,
      him will I cut off:
him that hath an high look and a proud heart
      will not I suffer.

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

⁷He that worketh deceit
      shall not dwell within my house:
he that telleth lies
      shall not tarry in my sight.

⁸I will early destroy
      all the wicked of the land;
that I may cut off all wicked doers
      from the city of the LORD.

This is a strong psalm - especially in the King James Version.  "I will early destroy the wicked of the land."  So let me make sure I understand it.  First, I will become perfect - never lie, cheat, covet, or steal.  I have a long way to go.  Next, to help me become perfect I will shift my vision from evil to good.  I will not know any evil person.  Let me think about this.  Anyone who has lied, cheated, or stolen...I can ignore and forget I ever met?  " Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour...him that hath an high look and a proud heart..." Somehow, that's not all bad but seems kind of limiting because that's going to be a lot of people.

Despite its strong tone and disregard of forgiveness that Jesus taught there is a valid point here that I have come to learn in recovery.  Recovery is about a change in your heart.  Froward means: obstinate, willful, disobedient, fractious, wayward, unmanageable, difficult.  To me that rings true of the addict's heart.  In order to change your heart you need to change the way you think.  You need to be able to remove yourself from situations and relationships that lead you down your path to addiction.  You need to remove those influences from your life and never look upon them, again.

For example, if inevitably every time you go out to a company function, as an alcoholic, you pick up a beer - then you need to stop going to company functions.  Or if every time you go out of town on business you revert to your sex addictions - you need to stop going out of town on business.  At least until you have ways to manage these situations or relationships with relapsing into your addiction.  It may mean severing old friendships, or even changing jobs or careers.  For many people this is impossible - which is why they find themselves back in their addiction.

There is indeed a stronger point to this psalm, that we need to not only root out this evil in our world and everywhere we see it.  My thought on that is that once I clean my own house I will take on that endeavor.  However, for now I will focus on those things that most impact my sobriety and removing the evil from my life.  Once I can say that I am "behaving wisely in a perfect way," then I will be ready to work on destroying all evil.

Thanks for letting me share.