PSALM 15 Presumed to be written by David. It may have been when the ark of the covenant was brought into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6). This was a time when David was very much concerned with the questions asked and answered in this Psalm.
1 Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?
2 The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart;
3 whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others;
4 who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind;
5 who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken.
SECTIONS:
I Three positively phrased Ethical characteristics (does these good things)
II Three negatively phrased Ethical characteristics (does not do these things
III Three positvely phrased Ethical characteristics (does these good things)
IV Three negatively phrased Ethical characteristics (does not do these things)
THEME A man who has personal purity and integrity shall abide in God’s sacred tent and will not be shaken. Or the blameless character of one who knows God.
Poetic characteristic of Psalm 12
The chief characteristic in Hebrew poetry is the use of parallel lines, typically found as couplets. Sometimes a second line is a restatement of the first line. For example, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” Sometimes the second line of the couplet would be an expansion of the idea found in the first line. For example, “The highway of the upright avoids evil; he who guards his way guards his life” (Proverbs 16:17). Other times, the second line of a couplet will be in contrast to the first line For example, “The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases Him” (Proverbs 15:8). We will see this type of Hebrew parallelism used in Psalm 15: Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?
QUESTIONS:
According to David who may live in God’s holy mountain?
Do we do these things all the time, every moment of our lives? Do you think David did?
Did David never do wrong to a neighbor? Think of a famous story in the bible about David.
What does it mean to dwell in God’s sacret tent to you?
What is the reward of someone who can dwell in God’s sacred tent?
So if we cannot live perfect lives can we dwell in God’s sacret tent?
Barnes commentary
This psalm asks an important question and makes us reflect: Who is truly religious? Who will enter heaven? Who has such a character to hope for the favor and friendship of God? David lists characteristics of real religion, and it’s as true now as it was when he wrote this psalm. It’s about living the life of a true Christ follower. Religion isn’t mere outward professions; its seat is in our heart.
Bible-studys.org
The Holy of Holies was a place open only to the priests before Jesus’ crucifixion. It is where God dwelt. But the dividing curtain was torn from the top to the bottom at the death of Jesus’ body on the cross. The veil (curtain), symbolized Jesus’ flesh. Jesus opened the way for all believers to enter the very presence of God. 2 Corinthians 5:1 “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
No man can live a life good enough to inherit heaven. Salvation is a free gift of God to all who will believe. The catch is, if you believe, you will desire to do things that please God. When you are saved, you become a new creature in Christ. Old things pass away and all things become new.
westpalmbeachchurchofchrist.com
We must always remember that what we do toward one another is also what we do toward Jesus. If we are acting cruelly, immorally, or with malice toward others, we are doing such toward Jesus. By the same token, when we are active in works of righteousness, we are also doing these things toward God. Jesus taught us that principle in Matthew 25:34-40.
We cannot tell people what we think they want to hear. Instead, we must always be truthful. Some of us associate the truth with harshness and think to be truthful means that we will hurt someone’s feelings. But we’re told to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:25,29). Honesty and gentleness can go hand in hand if we are thoughtful with our words. There’s no trust if we aren’t truthful to each other.
Heroes today are those who get paid millions of dollars a year. Many commit evil and get away with it. Sometimes athletes are the poster children for bad role models, yet these are the people that our children want to be like. Those who are good, moral, and honest people get zero press coverage.
We tend to idolize an actor or actress that we think seems to be so good and wholesome, but in reality is just acting a part. How easy it is for us to glorify what the world glorifies. Yet this is a distortion of the values that God has placed within us.
The stay-at-home mother, or homemaker is looked down on in our society. They think she’s foolish, wasting her life, or lazy. This is a false value of our society and not from God. God glorifies mothers who stay home to take care of their children. God does not look on this woman as insignificant.
Integrity is shown when we keep our word despite the cost. How easy it is to excuse ourselves from our commitments because we didn’t count the cost before we made a promise. God keeps his promises. When we say something, let’s mean it or not say it at all. (I remember in our church the pastor telling us if we say “I’ll pray for you” then we better pray for that person. If we don’t intend to pray then we should never say we will.)
The concept of being judged based upon how we use our money was also taught to us in the New Testament by Jesus in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25). A talent was a denomination of money that was used in the Roman days. Each of the servants in that parable was judged on what each did with the money that was given to him by the master. Each servant was given a different amount of money. But judgment was based upon whether the servant used the money in the service of the master, or if it was used selfishly. God didn’t give us what we have so that we would hoard it, be selfish with it, or be consumed by it. We are to serve God with it, yet how often serving God is the last thing we use our money for. We get stingy when it comes to using money to serve God. We will give an account of how we use the things God has given us.
What our pastor at James River Church taught us one Sunday
Our preacher spoke about how in today’s world there isn’t much kindness. Instead there is disrespect, meaness and anger. People get angry about wearing or not wearing masks during Covid-19. There’s meaness and anger on airplanes, or when talking about politics, or when driving on the road. There’s meaness toward teachers and police officers, anger over racial injustice, anger over protesting. We need to practice more kindness in the midst of all the meaness we see in the world.
Luke 6:35 says “Be kind because God is also kind to the wicked and ungrateful.” Rom 5:8. We need to show kindness by our actions. Where can we be more kind? In conversations with friends and family, in every online post and comment, in traffic, in long grocery store lines, when doing business with others, to the waitress in a restaurant, to those who need our help.
There are two questions we need to ask ourselves: 1) How would Jesus treat this person in this situation? 2) How would we treat this person if they were Jesus? In Matt 25:40 Jesus says , “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. We live in a world where kindness is in short supply. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, Just as God forgave you.
My reflections on Psalm 15
As a Christian I tried to be perfect in my walk with God but failed miserably. I realized it’s not about perfecton in this fallen world. If any of us could be perfect or “good enough” Jesus wouldn’t have had to die for our sins. None of us can be perfect. But I also try not make sin a habit. God helps me by having me experience consequences to my actions and disciplining me when I go astray, just as any parent would discipline their child. I also realized that when I do fail God is quick to forgive. One time I had done something seriously wrong. Hard as I tried I couldn’t forgive myself. I would cry over and over asking God to forgive me. If I coudn’t forgive myself how could God possibly forgive me? One day as I was crying my heart out I heard God say in my spirit, “Child, I forgave you the first time you asked.” What a gracious Father. This is when I began to learn the true compassion of our heavenly Father for all of us. I may not walk out a “perfect” life but because I love Jesus I try to do the right thing and live the way God wants me to live.
When God disciplines me it’s done with the love of a Father. I didn’t have any good role models for a father because of my mom’s divorce, but my role model now if the best Father of all because everything he does is done in love. My mother’s discipline was done in rage, using harsh physical force and not done in love, and it was inconsistent. Because of her upbringing this was the only role model she had to follow. She didn’t know any better. My mother did not allow mistakes to be made. So I had a view of God’s discipline as unrelenting, violent and unforgiving, which is why I would beat myself up every time I made a mistake or fell to sin. I tried to be so perfect and yet would fall short all the time. Then I started to study my bible and found out that God’s discipline is different. I love the following verses:
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live? Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a peaceful harvest of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb. 12:5-10) Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrew 12:14) I think this last line is the most important thing about holiness. When we do the things mentioned in this Psalm we are a light to the world. We are showing them the kindness and love of Jesus.
One thing I’ve learned to do in prayer ministry is keep a confidence but that’s not the way I used to be in grade school. I was bullied by some girls but God taught me something through all of it. When I was bullied, the pain of it hurt deeply. Some girls would gossip and lie about me behind my back and even in front of me saying very mean spirited things. So I learned not to to the things they did because of how much it hurt me. I try to watch my words. Do my words hurt others and tear them down or do do they build up and encourage? I’m not very tactful. I tend to blurt out my thoughts without thinking of how to put them all the time. But I’m trying to learn. And when I experience how merciful and patient God is with me, I try to be forgiving if someone hurts me. I realize I need to show the same mercy to them that God has shown to me. And he is quick to forgive as soon as I confess. Didn’t Jesus ask why we are so quick to see a splinter in another’s eye and not see the huge beam sticking out of ours? He also gave a parable of a servant who owed a huge debt to his master. His master, in great generosity and mercy, forgave that debt. Yet the servant refused to forgive a much smaller debt someone owed to him. This encourages me to extend the same mercy and forgiveness to another and not slander or gossip about them. I think this is what David was reflecting on in Psalm 15.
SONG: You’re a Good Good Father, They’ll Know We are Christians