Psalm 101 speaks of integrity. It’s pretty clear-cut, in the ESV version, the Psalm is even called “I will walk with integrity”. The way it’s put there speaks to me, it isn’t saying “I should”, there is no question in that statement, “I will walk with integrity”. I’ll wrap back to the part about integrity later.

First, I want to focus on a phrase. Throughout the whole Psalm, the phrase that we read over and over is “I will”. Throughout the world, and even in myself, I don’t hear that sort of conviction in daily life. “I will” is substituted for “I might”, “I could”, etc. These all convey a sense of being able to back out. Even the term “I can” lacks the certainty that “I will” has. “I can” can mean that you can but lack the conviction to do it. And taking it a step further, even the phrase “I will” can lack conviction. For example “I will go take out the trash” or “I will drive you to school”. In Psalm 101 it’s a much different form of “I will” from those.

So we have conviction, but for what? As said before with the heading, integrity. When I search for the definition of the word “integrity”, I get this in response, “integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.” I think this definition has been generalized for the public and for the rest of the world. The word moral can be subjective in exactly what it entails. I think we as Christians have a great example of what to look for in integrity though, Psalm 101. It lays out our “moral principles” pretty well throughout it. Which I think makes it a great thing to read and study.

As I said at the start, I would challenge you to read Psalm 101 again. But this time, focus on the conviction behind it, and look at the integrity it talks about. Take it one line at a time and dwell on what is said.