April 26, 2023 — Psalm 15

“O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors; in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the Lord; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved.” Psalm 15

“The 15th psalm is a psalm of instruction that teaches the true understanding of the Law, the truly good life, and true good works. These are all fruits of the Spirit and of faith: to live blameless before God through true faith, to do right to the neighbor, and to turn away from the evil ways and from the hypocrisy of the ungodly, by which they serve God with fraudulent works and omit the true works.” (Martin Luther, Reading the Psalms with Luther)

“Who may abide in your tent, your holy hill?” The idea of pitching a tent in the presence of G-d is behind the idea of “dwelling with G-d” — “remaining with G-d”. We do not deal much with tents in our society — only if we are camping, or coming into the presence of a homeless camp. All of sudden, the idea of pitching a tent changes — for the tent is the least stable and enduring of all dwellings. But for the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years, their whole existence was wrapped up in a tent. The Lord dwelled in a tent — the people lived in tents. In other words, there was an inward and inter-dependence between the tent dwellers — the people needed G-d — G-d loved the people and chose to dwell with them. 

“Those who do these thing shall never be moved”, says the Lord. Those who do these things will live the blameless life: through (1) personal character — doing what is right and not being afraid to speak the truth; (2) loving others – speaking well of our enemies (within biblical boundaries) and loving all people; (3) an attitude of humility — rejecting selfishness and honoring those who fear G-d; and (4) generosity — not allowing money to cloud one’s judgment.

We may never be completely blameless and we may never be able to reject the ego in all of us, but trying to follow these four intents will put us on the right path.

Prayer: O Lord, our gracious and merciful Father, grant us steadfastly to believe in Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior; to fearlessly confess Him before men to the reproving of the unbelieving and the wicked. Strengthen us by Your Spirit to walk honestly as in the light of day, both privately and in public. Amen.

Pastor Dave