Psalm 15 The Message
15 God, who gets invited
to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?
2 “Walk straight,
act right,
tell the truth.
3-4 “Don’t hurt your friend,
don’t blame your neighbor;
despise the despicable.
5 “Keep your word even when it costs you,
make an honest living,
never take a bribe.
“You’ll never get
blacklisted
if you live like this.”
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart?
Who are the invited?
Who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Where are the invited who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Where is that Heavenly Angelic chorus singing …?
Psalm 23:6Authorized (King James) Version
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
What is God’s sanctuary?
Probably too many of us think of it only as a church building.
In its widest, richest sense, God’s sanctuary is wherever we experience God.
It is the place where our heart is.
On Sunday a church building becomes a sanctuary as God’s people gather, make up the building blocks of God’s spiritual temple (2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Peter 2:5).
There we are strengthened for another week of work, another week of serving God—out in the sanctuary of God’s vast world.
Psalm 15 reminds us that what pleases God is not rituals but a life that seeks to live God’s way.
When we walk with God on a daily basis, we will do what is right, speak the truth, refuse to slander others, and not harm our neighbors in any way.
What’s more, we won’t be impressed by people who delight in doing wrong or in mocking God, and we will honor those who faithfully serve God.
We will keep our promises, even when it hurts. And we will help the poor and protect the innocent, taking no part in any bribery, fraud, or other corruption.
When we live as the psalmist describes, we experience God’s presence.
This happens not only in church gatherings but also in our everyday activities.
Those who live God’s way are building the foundation of a life which cannot be shaken—regardless of uninvited trials try shifting the ground under our feet!
Who Shall Dwell on Your Holy Hill?
“Who shall dwell on your holy hill?”
The question David poses in the first verse is of the utmost importance. It may strike us as a question that’s tied only to worship in ancient Israel, but in truth it takes us to the very doorstep of heaven and asks us, Who will enter these gates?
While the answer is explained in the rest of Psalm 15, the general point is one we find throughout Scripture.
The writer of Hebrews advised his readers to “strive for … the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
The Lord Jesus similarly instructed that “the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14).
Isaiah 2:1-5 Lexham English Bible
The Mountain of Yahweh
2 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 And it shall happen in the future of the days
the mountain of the house[a] of Yahweh shall be established;
it will be among the highest[b] of the mountains,
and it shall be raised from the hills.
All of the nations shall travel to him;
3 many peoples shall come.
And they shall say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh,
to the house[c] of the God of Jacob,
and may he teach us part of his ways,
and let us walk in his paths.”
For instruction shall go out from Zion,
and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations
and he shall arbitrate for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
A nation shall not lift up a sword against a nation,
and they shall not learn war again.
Those who’ll stand on the holy hill of the Lord, enjoy His presence for eternity, then, are those who arrive there by the narrow way, striving after holiness.
The sad truth is that too many assume they will dwell on God’s holy hill because they once said a prayer, walked down an aisle, or are a member of a church.
It is a grave mistake to think that those acts on their own will merit eternal life if they are accompanied with a way of life that gives no evidence of knowing Christ as Lord.
Charles Spurgeon once preached,
“If the man does not live differently from what he did before … his repentance needs to be repented of, and his conversion is a fiction.”[1]
1 “What Is It to Win a Soul?,” The Sword and the Trowel (December 1879), p 561.
So, who will ascend the hill of the Lord?
It is the one who “walks blamelessly,”
In a way that cannot be confused with that of an unbeliever, and whose life manifests the reality that God has saved him or her.
It is the one whose talk is not marked by slander but who “speaks truth in his heart.” This is someone who doesn’t merely say what is correct but says what is correct and true, with no gap between what is said and what is lived, is done.
The combination of reading Psalm 15 and looking honestly at ourselves will very likely be discouraging.
Only the Lord Jesus embodies the psalm’s portrayal of holiness to perfection.
John 3:19-21 Amplified Bible
19 This is the judgment [that is, the cause for indictment, the test by which people are judged, the basis for the sentence]: the Light has come into the world, and people loved the [a]darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For every wrongdoer hates the Light, and does not come to the Light [but shrinks from it] for fear that his [sinful, worthless] activities will be exposed and condemned. 21 But whoever practices truth [and does what is right—morally, ethically, spiritually] comes to the Light, so that his works may be plainly shown to be what they are—accomplished in God [divinely prompted, done with God’s help, in dependence on Him].”
He deserves to dwell on His Father’s holy hill,
and only because He chose to die for His people’s sins and clothe them with His perfection are we invited to live with Him there.
It is always good and right to let the light of God’s word shine on our hearts and expose, and reveal, against the desires of the darkness what is there, for it will steadily move us towards authentic repentance and to gratitude to our Savior.
And those who know they will stand there because of Him will seek to be like Him. Consider your walk and your words, and pray that you would be ever more conformed to the image of Christ until you dwell with Him on God’s holy hill.
In the name of God, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit …
Praying …
Psalm 14 New King James Version
Folly of the Godless, and God’s Final Triumph
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
14 The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.
4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call on the Lord?
5 There they are in great fear,
For God is with the generation of the righteous.
6 You shame the counsel of the poor,
But the Lord is his refuge.
7 Oh,[a] that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When the Lord brings back [b]the captivity of His people,
Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 