Balanced spiritual desire of the king; 2 Sam 5.1-5; David was made king, and he set down his standard for living.

v1-4: Personal lifestyle;

• a desire to praise God, esp. for His character; "I will sing of your love and justice; to you O Lord, I will sing praise";
• a desire for a godly walk; "I will be careful to lead a blameless life...I will walk in my house with blameless heart";
• there is a sense here of David walking 'within his household' with integrity. He sought to maintain a good testimony in that environment;

• a hatred of personal sins, and a desire to be a man of integrity; "I will set before my eyes no vile thing...I will have nothing to do with evil";
• a caution about those with whom he fellowshipped; "the deeds of faithless men I hate...men of perverse heart shall be far from m."

David displays a deliberate commitment to live a life honouring to God. We see too that the godly life is something practical, and a matter of choice and decision.

v5-8: Ruling faithfully;

• dealing in an appropriate way with;
• whoever slanders his neighbour in secret;
• whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart;
• those who practice deceit;
• those who speak falsely;
• and, in general, the wicked and every evildoer.

Attitudes are as bad as actions, and bad actions invariably come forth from bad attitudes. In spite of David's godly rule, there would always be the ungodly in his kingdom.

David apparently found it difficult to deal with others; his treatment of Joab and Absalom was open to question, although he was more gracious to Shimei. A real problem was that the ungodly were close to him.

One key issue is the company we keep, see v6. If we maintain company with the godly, then that will promote our own godly living.