Integrity: Life with Father:

by Marsha Dowell

“I will walk with integrity of heart,” says King David (Psalm 101:2).
I work for a family-owned company whose founder was quoted as saying, “Do what is right, not what is easy.” The company’s number one core value is “Integrity in all that matters.”
The founder’s son defines integrity as “doing the right thing even if no one is watching you.” I have been with this company for 17 years, and I can attest to this core value being upheld in all aspects.
As a result, I work in a positive environment with superiors and co-workers who treat me with respect. I know the products we offer are made by other employees who follow this rule of integrity by doing all things as well as they know how, which is another company expectation. Because of that principle, I can offer these products to customers, trusting that these products are sound, whole, and follow a firm adherence to a code.
That is what David is expressing in Psalm 101:2. David’s intent was to walk with integrity of heart. He also expected those who served him, and those who were in his household to operate with the same uprightness. The results would be honesty, respect, trust, and sound relationships within David’s sphere of influence.
David made mistakes, just as we do. Does this contradict his claim of walking with integrity in Psalm 101:2? In I Kings 9:4, God described David to Solomon in this way: “And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness…” David is again described as having his heart wholly true to God in I Kings 15:3. The reason that he is described in this way is explained in verse 5: “Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and did not turn aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”
Yes, imperfect man can walk with integrity of heart. Whenever David sinned, as we all do, we see his sincere penitence toward God in Psalm 51. He pleads with God to have mercy, cleanse him, fill him with joy, and create in him a clean heart. This consistent desire of David’s to keep his heart wholly true to God is what we can learn about how to walk with integrity.
The sayings, “Do what is right, not what is easy” and “Do the right thing even if no one is watching you” may be heard as company mottoes today. But they also resonate in other ways, times, places and values. Become, as God describes David in Acts 13:22, “a man after My own heart.”