Who Shall Sojourn in Your Tent

Who shall dwell in your holy hill? James Ritenbough points out that if you ask a Christian what their favorite Psalm is, they will probably say Psalm 23. But if you ask a Jew, they will probably say Psalm 15. It seems to be a contrast between God’s mercy and care in Psalm 23 and God’s holiness and demand for righteousness in Psalm 15. Some of Psalm 15 is actually repeated in Psalm 24. Let’s read it. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?     And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,     who do not lift up their souls to what is false,     and do not swear deceitfully. 5 They will receive blessing from the Lord,     and vindication from the God of their salvation. 6 Such is the company of those who seek him,     who seek the face of the God of Jacob.[a Verse 1 of our Psalm today. I should interrupt just a moment to say that this year I am planning to preach from a Psalm once a month. Psalm Sunday, you might call it. It is to remind us that the Psalms are a guide to a richer and more intimate prayer life. Also, I hope, a more fruitful prayer life. Verse 1 now of Psalm 15. O Lord, who may abide in your tent?     Who may dwell on your holy hill? It is a question, of course. Who can come into the presence of God? Who can walk in the Spirit? Who is permitted to commune with God? How can we have fellowship with Him? It’s not an entrance exam and there is nobody at the door who is telling you that you can’t come to church. Rather it is a challenge to our own way of living. A challenge to ask ourselves if we are walking worthy of the Gospel. In fact nobody is worthy to come into God’s presence except through the sacrifice of Jesus. It is in that name, Jesus, that we can come boldly before the throne of grace. The first line can be translated as Who may sojourn in your tent, giving the feeling of movement in contrast to the sense of rest in the second line. The tent is a reference to the structure called the tabernacle in the wilderness. This is where the ark of the covenant was placed every time the Israelites stopped. It was the presence of God on their journey. He led them by a cloud in the day and a pillar of fire in the night. They followed His leading. They were pilgrims on a journey to a destination, but God allowed his presence to go with them. Sometimes we take our little camper and head north. We live in such cramped quarters, but we like each other, so it is tolerable. We eat simply. We are on a journey. Even when we stop at a nice place by a lake with our canoe and our cat, we are still away from home. We have some of the comforts of home in the camper, but not a lot of them. There are some places where a house is available, but we actually prefer the camper. We use the facilities of the house, but it isn’t our house. Now you can see I’m dreaming about summertime and the literal wilderness that we love so much. But the analogy is not one of escape but of journey. After 3 weeks of living in the camper it is very nice to come home. That’s where the nice bed is, and the books, and the oven so Ingrid can make chocolate chip cookies. The second line represents the goal of the journey. That is home. It would be a long time before they came to the Holy Hill, which represents Jerusalem. That is where they finally settled in the time of King David. Then under his son Solomon they built the first temple. It was a place of rest and peace as long as they remained righteous. A place of permanence. For us, of course, it represents the heavenly home. In Pilgrim’s Progress it is called the Celestial City. For us both aspects are true. As we proceed through this life, we are pilgrims on our way to a city of light. Along the journey there are many distractions, but we have this confidence: the Lord is available to us. A song says, I am on my way to heaven where the saints are robed in white shouting glory all the way. There is a permanent dwelling place where we can finally lay the burden down and be released from the external pressures. And so the second question: Who may dwell on your holy hill? Jesus, as he walked day by day with his disciples was always present. They often went out to the wilderness between their times of preaching in the cities and villages. But one day he announced that he would be leaving. Let not your heart be troubled, he said, I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place I will come again and receive you to myself. We are welcomed into his presence in heaven, but the concern of the disciples now is “what shall we do without you” Jesus promises help for the journey. He announces that he will send the Comforter to guide them. Let’s read the promise in John 14:16-20 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,[a] to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in[b] you. 18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. We are welcomed into the Presence. We can come with confidence because we come through Jesus, as it says in Hebrews 4:16. But. There are a few characteristics of those who come before the throne of God. A few weeks ago we talked about the man who came to a wedding feast but didn’t put on the wedding garment that was provided. The garment represents the outward righteousness. It is expected that those who are redeemed and forgiven will also be set free from the expressions of sin in their lives. It is not only a judicial forgiveness but also a practical transformation in their lives. A character change that is done through the work of the Holy Spirit. Who shall be allowed into the presence of the Lord? We are so presumptuous at times. There is almost a carelessness as we enter our prayers or our services or even as we stumble into the church. We know that there is holiness with God. Because of that we examine ourselves, not only before communion, but any time we place ourselves consciously before Him. When we close our online teachings in India I often say, “Let us prepare ourselves to pray.” Then I see on my monitor that the women pull their scarves over their heads. Everybody stands. Their hands are either folded or raised to heaven. It is time to pray. When our boys were small we lived in Stockholm. The custom there was when you came in and sat down you would pray for the service and open yourself to the word of God. We followed that pattern with our children. It was a way of preparing our hearts to hear from God. We do something similar here with our reading and invocation. We declare that we are entering God’s presence and that we have come to worship Him and to hear from him. We come in reverence. Church, the church building itself, is a thin place. A place where God is welcome to break through the buffer of our secularism with the revelation from eternity. The latest news from heaven. Who shall sojourn? Who shall ascend? Who shall dwell in this place? Who shall go about the altar of God and enjoy His Presence? Who shall abide in the Holy Hill? There are positive requirements. Walk blamelessly. Do what is right. Speak truth in the heart. Walking blamelessly speaks of integrity. A life that isn’t speckled with sin and evil, but rather is an example to others. When they chose deacons in the early church they looked for men of good reputation and filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom. They were people careful with their words and actions. They walked blamelessly. Doing right is next. We are talking here about acts of righteousness. Not merely random acts of kindness, though that is certainly desirable. It almost seems like an appeal to natural law. It refers to action above and beyond the call of duty. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him drink. That is an act of righteousness. He may remain your enemy, but you have honored the fact that he is made in the image of God. That’s what the Good Samaritan did. That’s what the EMS volunteers and small town firefighters do. That’s what school volunteers do. Acts of righteousness. And the speaking what is right. Speaking truth in your heart. In the previous Psalm, the 14th, it starts out, Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”     They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;     there is no one who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind     to see if there are any who are wise,     who seek after God. 3 They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse;     there is no one who does good,     no, not one. That Psalm is a bit of a contrast to this one. They pair together well. We see those who don’t want to walk in God’s counsel contrasted with those who do. The issue lies deep in the heart. The part of you that communes with God. We speak truth in the heart because we don’t want to fool ourselves. Of course we speak truth in love with others as well. Jesus tells us that our actions and words proceed from the thoughts in our hearts. First integrity. Then righteous acts. And then truthfulness. Not my truth and your truth, as they are saying these post-modern days. Not alternative facts and conflicting narratives. Basic truth is there. God does not change. Following these characteristics are a few that are stated negatively. What you don’t do is a part of the privilege of being in God’s presence. No slander. No evil. No reproach against a friend. Slander is using false information to defame another person. So there are two aspects. One is that hearsay is repeated without checking the facts. If the hearsay helps my position I repeat it, simply accepting it as true. I have seen some ludicrous statements posted that are obviously false, and yet they are reproduced because of their shock value. The other aspect is that I am defaming someone. It feels good to cut them down just because they disagree with me. We can be secure without denigrating the other person. We don’t have to question their integrity. We can disagree without defaming. Slander is closely related to libel and many people who have gone public with slander have ended up being found guilty of libel. Slander is the opposite of speaking truth in love. It is speaking lies with malicious intent. Those who desire God’s presence in their lives don’t do it. Then it says he does no evil to his neighbor. Harming your fellow man. We are called to love our neighbor. If we have disagreement, we try to settle it amicably. If we lose the mediation, we don’t seek revenge. We don’t do tit for tat, but we seek ways to restore relationship. And if we win the mediation we don’t gloat, but once again we do our best to restore relationship. Taking up a reproach against a friend is a third negative. We don’t do it. Friendship is precious and must be protected. Love covers a multitude of sins and betrayal is deeply wounding. Many of us have felt it. A friend loves at all times. He can confront us if we are doing wrong, but he will not desert us. A friend doesn’t defend wrongdoing; in fact, a true friend will bring correction. You can’t put on and take off friends like a jacket. Loyalty is fundamental. No slander. No evil. No disloyalty. And then in verse 4 we have a hard phrase that doesn’t sound Sunday Schoolish. In whose eyes the wicked are despised. It is given in contrast to the second part of the verse. It is a judgment call. It reminds us that there are vile people, and they don’t merit our respect. Sometimes they are very powerful vile people, as we have seen in the #MeToo movement. We are not talking about refusing to properly respect or honor any positions or offices they might hold. But there are judgments to be made. In the Book of Esther we find Mordecai. He would not bow down to Haman even though he was next in power to the king. He refused to pay him homage because he understood he was a vile man. In 2nd Kings Elisha met with the good king Jehoshaphat and the bad king Jehoram, the kings of Judah and Israel. Elisha said he would never meet with Jehoram, except for his respect for Jehoshaphat. We need to be careful that we not kowtow to venal people just because it might advance our own ideas or finances or positions. Corrupt company is contagious. Jesus did not answer Pilate at his trial. Rather we honor those who fear the Lord. Those who uphold justice. Those whose walk is blameless and who do good and who don’t slander. The last part of verse 4 has to do with keeping your word. When you make a promise or a commitment you keep it. Think about your commitment to be sure it is clear. I was careful one time in Argentina to carefully say I would like to do something. But it was interpreted as I will do something by the ones who received it. The misunderstanding created a big problem. That’s why I say we need to pay attention to how we express ourselves. We are people who keep our word. The last negative statement is about taking interest on money you lend. The Mosaic law taught that you should not charge interest on money lent to a fellow Israelite. The implication is that it was a poor Israelite. That is, he needed money to survive. This was not a capitalistic society with a modern banking system. I doubt they are talking about loans so you could invest in something. They were permitted to charge interest to non-Israelites, but they could not charge exorbitant interest. That was called usury. There is a business that offers payday loans that is often under attack for usury. Credit card companies also charge high interest with some frequency and we have a student loan crisis for the same reason. How can we apply the principle in our modern financial system? (I was going to say our house of cards, but maybe that’s too radical.) Jesus, in a parable about investing, told the guy who hid the money that he should have put it out for interest. At least there would be a little inflation protection. So there is wiggle room with regard to taking interest. I’m not an economist but I read a lot. Some banks in Europe offer negative interest rates. You pay them for holding your money. But as far as I know, none of them offer negative interest rates on loans they give out. I have friends in India today who want to buy a car. The interest rate on a car loan there is 9%. The point is that we don’t take unfair advantage in any way of the poor. But we should help them and not be afraid to lend them money. The chapter also speaks of bribery. Bribing against the innocent. Shockingly, it seems to say you are paying a bribe in order to get the innocent pronounced guilty. Equal justice. Maybe you will see the movie Just Mercy. I read the book a few months ago. There are many examples of innocent people pronounced guilty because exculpatory evidence was withheld by over aggressive prosecutors. Sometimes false evidence was presented. This was not money bribery, but a desire to get quick closure on cases that would bring praise to the prosecutor. We read occasionally of people who have been exonerated after many years in prison. Some have been executed and found to be innocent after their death. Dishonest prosecution. Often it is because of their skin color or their ethnic background. Some governors have even refused to vacate convictions when presented with proof. They are afraid of being seen as soft on crime. In fact, they are engaging in something far more serious than crime. As I mentioned in the beginning, some of the words of this Psalm are repeated in Psalm 24, considered a Messianic Psalm by many. The idea is presented throughout scripture. It is clear that the walk with God is also a walk that calls for justice. We need to examine our lives in many ways. I want to dwell in the tabernacle of the Lord. We talked about the dwelling place in Psalm 84 a few weeks ago, moving towards it from strength to strength. My first sermon here in Arena was from Psalm 27, Thy Face Will I Seek. I was thinking about the old hymn, Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord. We come to the Lord confidently, but also humbly and in fear. We come washed in the blood of Jesus. We come filled and led by the Holy Spirit. We come with clean hands and a pure heart. We come before his presence with singing. We enter his gates with thanksgiving. We come clothed with garments of righteousness. We are not perfect, but we come. We are hungering and thirsting after righteousness. We come with a contrite spirit. We come expecting his face to shine on us and give us peace. In that attitude, and we are welcomed into his presence.