Vows About Acceptable and Unacceptable Associates

The genre and function of this psalm are difficult to determine because it is unique. It begins with phrases familiar from individual thanksgivings (“to you, O LORD, I will sing praise”), but what follows are not confessions of what God has done but vows of how the speaker will live. Their closest parallel in the Psalms appears in the liturgies of temple entry (e.g., 26:1–8, 11; see the Introduction).

101:1–2a  While the whole psalm is probably recited to Yahweh, only these opening verses are explicitly addressed to him. The interchange between I and you exemplifies the reciprocal relationship. In the opening line the speaker confesses, “I” will sing of . . . love and justice. We need to note that the NIV’s your is not reflected in the Hebrew…