Psalm 15

Good evening. I am glad that we can be here together and our continued look at the Psalms. This week we will be looking at Psalm 15 and what it has for us. This one is a shorter one but it is an interesting one.

Before we get into that though I had a question for you.

Have you ever not been invited to a Party or an event and wondered. How do I get to go do that or How do I get invited?

I always have wondered what it would be like to go on a game show. Not only to be in the audience but to get to be up on stage. To get to play the game. Especially because some of these game shows provide opportunity to get prizes that can be absolutely life changing. I always wondered what did it take to get invited to the party. Or what did it take to get to be a part of that opportunity.

I have to say its a little disappointing for a lot of shows. For some its just simply being there and getting lucky and being chosen. Others there is an application and video submission process.

I wanted though to be invited to the party. I wanted to be able to participate. Thankfully our faith isn’t like that. It isn’t some great mystery on how we get to be invited to relationship with God.

In many ways the Psalm tonight is a call to how we are to live our lives and how we are expected to be as we walk this journey of faith.

Let us read it together though.

Psalm 15 NIV

A psalm of David. 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.

When I was reading this Psalm and i was thinking about what it has to tell us this evening I kept thinking about our relationship with God.

So often we want to ask the question how can I be certain of my faith. This is the answer. It is in how we live. It is the reality of our heart and our words and our actions coming together.

What is this Psalm talking about though when it comes to the sacred tent?

The Sacred tent is a reference to the Holy of Holies that the Israelite people would worship God. Similar to The Holy Mountain being a reference to Mt. Sinai the place that Moses encountered God. These were places that the people would count on to encounter and engage with God.

In many ways that might be what we consider church to be. This place is supposed to be a place that we encounter his Spirit and that we are lifted up and we can grow closer to him.

Now we also believe that this is not limited to these spaces. That this can happen beyond the four walls that surround us. This doesn’t remove the idea that we want to be connected we want to draw closer to God and we want to be confident in that relationship.

The Message

Sometimes when I am trying to gain some new insight into a passage i like to go to some paraphrases of the Bible. They can often give a fresh presepctive on a passage. This weeks Psalm was one that i thought was very powerful. I wanted to share it with you.

Psalm 15 M:BCL

1 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 “Don’t hurt your friend, don’t blame your neighbor; 4 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.”

Makes it kind of simple doesn’t it.

Walk straight, act right, tell the truth.

Don’t hurt your friends or your neighbor

Despise the despicable

Make an honest living.

These are some pretty straight forward tasks. Yet, we make them to be very difficult. It is hard for us to live up to these standards. We don’t realize how much we are limiting ourselves when we choose to not live this kind of life.

Walk right act right tell the truth

this parallels the idea from the original passage of being blameless, righteous, and speak the truth.

This helps us to see it is more than just our actions that are required. The heart is essential to these ideas. It is the connection of the heart and the mind and our actions that must be maintained. The person who lives to only do right by the world’s standards misses the mark.

The person who strives to live life by God’s standards and to allow his standards to fill their heart to try to live life in a way that they can be seen as blameless and righteous can be confident that they will be invited to the party.

But I fall short

Now many would say I fall short of that all the time. I can’t live up to that standard. What am I to do. I don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to be at the party. This call to be blameless and righteous is not a call to perfection. It is a recognition that we are to keep our hearts focused on God to pursue him and to seek him. To strive to live our lives in a way that we glorify him.

It’s about relationships