I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
Psalm 101:3 brings David’s vow from his heart and house to what he deliberately permits before his eyes. Verse 2 concerned his own walk within his house; verse 3 concerns what he will place before himself, what works he will hate, and what evil he will refuse to let attach itself to him. This is a king’s vow spoken before God, but the duty is intensely personal. David knows that wickedness often enters by consent before it appears in conduct. Therefore he resolves to govern sight, judgment, affection, and association before evil gains a foothold.
“I will set.” David assumes responsibility for what he deliberately places before himself. Some things come before a man without his choice, but many are sought, watched, entertained, revisited, and enjoyed by deliberate action. Job made the same kind of covenant with his eyes: “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” (Job 31:1). Holiness requires more than resisting sin after desire has been inflamed. Wisdom refuses to arrange the temptation in the first place. David’s vow is deliberate because the eye can become the servant of a willing heart.
David’s own history makes this warning severe. Scripture records that from the roof of his house he saw a woman washing herself, and she was very beautiful to look upon (II Samuel 11:2). What followed brought adultery, deceit, murder, chastening, and lasting grief into his house (II Samuel 11–12). The king who vowed to set no wicked thing before his eyes learned how great a ruin may enter through the eye when desire is allowed to govern it. Eve likewise saw the forbidden tree as good for food and pleasant to the eyes before taking its fruit (Genesis 3:6).
“No wicked thing.” David’s rule is broad and dogmatic: “no wicked thing.” He does not promise to avoid only scandalous wickedness or whatever society presently finds offensive. God defines wickedness. The king’s standard must therefore be Scripture rather than appetite, fashion, entertainment, custom, or popular approval. “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (I Thessalonians 5:22). The man who sincerely wants a perfect way does not ask how much wickedness he may safely watch. He asks whether what he deliberately sets before himself agrees with the God he serves. Wickedness does not become clean because it is presented as amusement, art, fiction, humor, curiosity, or private entertainment.
“Before mine eyes.” David names the eyes because what a man watches can feed thought, desire, memory, envy, lust, fear, anger, and imitation. The psalmist prayed, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way” (Psalm 119:37). Solomon warned concerning the strange woman, “Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids” (Proverbs 6:25). The eyes are not independent rulers, but they can supply an evil heart with material. Guarding them is not weakness. It is refusing to furnish temptation with what it wants.
This duty is especially searching in private. A man may avoid public scandal while willingly setting wickedness before his eyes where no other person sees. But God sees the private screen, book, image, purchase, and secret interest as clearly as public conduct. David’s rule for his house therefore reaches what he chooses to behold there. A saint should not invite into his eyes what he would be ashamed to place openly before the Lord. Secret sight still stands before God.
“I hate the work.” David moves from refusal to affection. He does not only avoid the work; he hates it. “Ye that love the LORD, hate evil” (Psalm 97:10). Again, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:104). Here the stated object is “the work,” but Scripture does not stop with hatred of acts while protecting the workers from righteous judgment. David also said, “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies” (Psalm 139:21-22).
Of God it is written, “thou hatest all workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:5). Righteous hatred is never private spite, envy, personal revenge, or sinful rage. It agrees with God’s own judgment of wicked men and wicked works. A man is not safe while he outwardly avoids evil but inwardly admires, envies, laughs at, excuses, or wishes to share it. Holiness requires the affections to agree with God. If God calls a work evil, the saint must not train himself to enjoy it.
“Of them that turn aside.” These are men who depart from the right way. David elsewhere wrote, “Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies” (Psalm 40:4). Psalm 125 likewise warns of those who turn aside into crooked ways and are led forth with workers of iniquity (Psalm 125:5). Former profession does not sanctify present rebellion. A man may once have stood near truth and later choose lies.
This matters because those who turn aside often retain influence. Friendship, family connection, usefulness, reputation, talent, or former faithfulness can tempt men to excuse what God condemns. David refuses that compromise. Loyalty to Jehovah must outrank loyalty to persons. The saint must not call evil good because the offender is admired, familiar, powerful, or useful. God’s word judges the work, not our attachment to the worker.
“It shall not cleave to me.” David refuses any attachment to the wicked work he has just named. The law used the same strong language concerning idolatrous corruption: “And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand” (Deuteronomy 13:17). What a man continually watches, excuses, admires, and tolerates may begin to cleave to him in thought, habit, affection, companionship, and reputation. Evil tolerated becomes evil attached. David therefore settles the matter beforehand, resolving against that bond before appetite, friendship, fear, or convenience begins arguing for compromise.
Jesus Christ kept perfectly what David vowed. When Satan offered Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory in exchange for worship, Christ refused the offer and answered him from Scripture (Matthew 4:8-10). No wicked proposal attached itself to Him. Hebrews says of the Son, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity” (Hebrews 1:9). David vowed hatred of wicked works; Christ’s love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity were perfect. His people are legally justified by His work alone, but those He saves are taught to share His judgment of evil in practical holiness.
Do not arrange wickedness before your eyes and then excuse the desire it feeds. “Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good” (Romans 12:9). Hate the works God hates, refuse the path of those who turn aside, and keep evil from finding any willing place to cleave to your life.
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
Psalm 101:3 brings David’s vow from his heart and house to what he deliberately permits before his eyes. Verse 2 concerned his own walk within his house; verse 3 concerns what he will place before himself, what works he will hate, and what evil he will refuse to let attach itself to him. This is a king’s vow spoken before God, but the duty is intensely personal. David knows that wickedness often enters by consent before it appears in conduct. Therefore he resolves to govern sight, judgment, affection, and association before evil gains a foothold.
“I will set.” David assumes responsibility for what he deliberately places before himself. Some things come before a man without his choice, but many are sought, watched, entertained, revisited, and enjoyed by deliberate action. Job made the same kind of covenant with his eyes: “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” (Job 31:1). Holiness requires more than resisting sin after desire has been inflamed. Wisdom refuses to arrange the temptation in the first place. David’s vow is deliberate because the eye can become the servant of a willing heart.
David’s own history makes this warning severe. Scripture records that from the roof of his house he saw a woman washing herself, and she was very beautiful to look upon (II Samuel 11:2). What followed brought adultery, deceit, murder, chastening, and lasting grief into his house (II Samuel 11–12). The king who vowed to set no wicked thing before his eyes learned how great a ruin may enter through the eye when desire is allowed to govern it. Eve likewise saw the forbidden tree as good for food and pleasant to the eyes before taking its fruit (Genesis 3:6).
“No wicked thing.” David’s rule is broad and dogmatic: “no wicked thing.” He does not promise to avoid only scandalous wickedness or whatever society presently finds offensive. God defines wickedness. The king’s standard must therefore be Scripture rather than appetite, fashion, entertainment, custom, or popular approval. “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (I Thessalonians 5:22). The man who sincerely wants a perfect way does not ask how much wickedness he may safely watch. He asks whether what he deliberately sets before himself agrees with the God he serves. Wickedness does not become clean because it is presented as amusement, art, fiction, humor, curiosity, or private entertainment.
“Before mine eyes.” David names the eyes because what a man watches can feed thought, desire, memory, envy, lust, fear, anger, and imitation. The psalmist prayed, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way” (Psalm 119:37). Solomon warned concerning the strange woman, “Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids” (Proverbs 6:25). The eyes are not independent rulers, but they can supply an evil heart with material. Guarding them is not weakness. It is refusing to furnish temptation with what it wants.
This duty is especially searching in private. A man may avoid public scandal while willingly setting wickedness before his eyes where no other person sees. But God sees the private screen, book, image, purchase, and secret interest as clearly as public conduct. David’s rule for his house therefore reaches what he chooses to behold there. A saint should not invite into his eyes what he would be ashamed to place openly before the Lord. Secret sight still stands before God.
“I hate the work.” David moves from refusal to affection. He does not only avoid the work; he hates it. “Ye that love the LORD, hate evil” (Psalm 97:10). Again, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:104). Here the stated object is “the work,” but Scripture does not stop with hatred of acts while protecting the workers from righteous judgment. David also said, “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies” (Psalm 139:21-22).
Of God it is written, “thou hatest all workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:5). Righteous hatred is never private spite, envy, personal revenge, or sinful rage. It agrees with God’s own judgment of wicked men and wicked works. A man is not safe while he outwardly avoids evil but inwardly admires, envies, laughs at, excuses, or wishes to share it. Holiness requires the affections to agree with God. If God calls a work evil, the saint must not train himself to enjoy it.
“Of them that turn aside.” These are men who depart from the right way. David elsewhere wrote, “Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies” (Psalm 40:4). Psalm 125 likewise warns of those who turn aside into crooked ways and are led forth with workers of iniquity (Psalm 125:5). Former profession does not sanctify present rebellion. A man may once have stood near truth and later choose lies.
This matters because those who turn aside often retain influence. Friendship, family connection, usefulness, reputation, talent, or former faithfulness can tempt men to excuse what God condemns. David refuses that compromise. Loyalty to Jehovah must outrank loyalty to persons. The saint must not call evil good because the offender is admired, familiar, powerful, or useful. God’s word judges the work, not our attachment to the worker.
“It shall not cleave to me.” David refuses any attachment to the wicked work he has just named. The law used the same strong language concerning idolatrous corruption: “And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand” (Deuteronomy 13:17). What a man continually watches, excuses, admires, and tolerates may begin to cleave to him in thought, habit, affection, companionship, and reputation. Evil tolerated becomes evil attached. David therefore settles the matter beforehand, resolving against that bond before appetite, friendship, fear, or convenience begins arguing for compromise.
Jesus Christ kept perfectly what David vowed. When Satan offered Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory in exchange for worship, Christ refused the offer and answered him from Scripture (Matthew 4:8-10). No wicked proposal attached itself to Him. Hebrews says of the Son, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity” (Hebrews 1:9). David vowed hatred of wicked works; Christ’s love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity were perfect. His people are legally justified by His work alone, but those He saves are taught to share His judgment of evil in practical holiness.
Do not arrange wickedness before your eyes and then excuse the desire it feeds. “Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good” (Romans 12:9). Hate the works God hates, refuse the path of those who turn aside, and keep evil from finding any willing place to cleave to your life.