Sermon Tone Analysis

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Free admittance, popcorn, and drinks.

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Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

Our psalm for this evening is a rather short psalm, it’s only five verses, but the message behind the psalm is powerful and thought-provoking—it really speaks of the need for a Savior who makes the believer righteous.

David wrote this psalm, but in this case, we don’t have a clue how it was supposed to be utilized.

Of course, like all the psalms, it would’ve been utilized for musical worship, but beyond this, we don’t know how it was to be sang or even for what part of musical worship it was to be utilized.

Psalm 15 doesn’t give us a time period or a rough estimate all we know is that David is reflecting on the tabernacle, but not because he wants to think about the tabernacle itself, but rather because he’s thinking about who resides in the tent.

He’s thinking about the idea of dwelling with God.

That idea of dwelling with God causes David to reflect on something in particular—that to dwell with God there are certain requirements.

You cannot flippantly come into his presence, you can’t come into his presence in any way that you want; you must come into the presence of God according to how God has told us to come to him.

We see that in the various requirements that the Israelites had to meet in order to make the tabernacle and in order to prepare a place for the LORD to come and dwell.

And I think it would be beneficial for us to reflect just briefly before we jump into the text on the requirements that the Israelites had to follow to make a place for the LORD to dwell in.

The requirements for the tabernacle begin in Exodus 26, but remember that by the time Moses gives these requirements to the Israelites, he had already spent chapter 25 explaining the details of the items within the tabernacle—the Ark of the Covenant was to be made of acacia wood.

It was to be two cubits and a half by a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half.

It would be overlayed with gold.

The details are so strenuous that even the feet of the ark are described and the poles utilized by the Israelites to carry the ark are defined.

We read about the mercy seat that sat upon the Ark of the Covenant—it’s material, measurements, and even the decorative carving that was to be placed on and near it.

Before we even get to the tabernacle itself, we still have the table for bread and the golden lampstand.

By the time that we get to the tabernacle in Exodus 26, it’s very clear that there are very specific details that must be kept.

The tabernacle itself had very specific materials, measurements, and decorations—they couldn’t make the tabernacle just however they wanted to; it had to be made according to God’s specifications.

We see this level of specificity with the clothing for the priests, who can serve as priests, and the different rituals that the priests would perform while in the tabernacle.

Only very specific people could enter into the tabernacle during very specific days for very specific purposes.

It’s important to remember this because this is the mindset that David has as he writes Psalm 15.

That God is a God that wants to dwell with his people, but there’s a specific way in which a person is to come to the LORD.

Keep this in mind as we read Psalm 15 together.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts and it’s going to seem a little different than usual because the two sections are a little different—it’s a question and answer type of psalm, but there’s only one question and it’s found in the first section: (1) The Question: Who May Abide?

(1).

The first section of our text this evening is made up of the first verse and it’s summed up with that question “who may abide?”

David poses the question that sets the stage for the remaining four verses of the text.

The second section: (2) The Answer: The Righteous (2-5).

David answer the question that he poses and the answer can be summed up in two words, the righteous.

The righteous may abide.

Our message for this evening is going to remind us of our inability to be in God’s presence apart from the work of God through Jesus Christ.

It should cause us to rely completely on Jesus and praise him for what he has done.

Prayer for Illumination

The Question: Who May Abide?

(1)

David starts Psalm fifteen by posing the same question in two different ways, “O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill?”

There are a number of details that I’d like for us to see in Psalm 15:1 starting with the relationship aspect of this verse.

David says, “O LORD.”

Remember that LORD when in all capital letters in the Bible refers to the personal name of God, Yahweh and anytime it is utilized in a context like this, it’s meant to remind the reader of the personal relationship between the person and God.

Which sort of colors this whole psalm for us—even in knowing that he has a personal relationship with the Father, David still poses the questions at hand.

And it’s actually a useful spiritual exercise for us to do the same—it is good and useful to remind ourselves of who we are without Jesus because it draws us and pushes us to greater praise of his name.

David addresses God by emphasizing the personal relationship that he has with the Father and then again, he asks the same question posed two different ways: “Who shall sojourn in your tent?” and “Who shall dwell on your holy hill?”

This question is a spiritual question: who can draw near to God; who can worship in God’s dwelling place?

Remember that as David reflects on this, he has everything that we spoke about in the introduction in mind.

He knows that God is very specific concerning who can come into his presence, he knows that God is very particular about the worship that he is owed, David knows what God’s Word has said concerning the requirements of genuine worship.

Which means that he knows that to come into the presence of God is not something to be taken lightly, it isn’t something that can be taken flippantly; it’s something that needs to be taken utterly seriously and it has to be done in such a way that pleases God.

In our modern vernacular, we might say that it needs to be on God’s terms, not ours.

We don’t choose how we come to God, we come to God the way that he wants us to come to him—to think otherwise is foolish and dangerous.

Now there are some details that are of note in vs. 1 that help us see what precisely David means in the meanings of the words themselves:

The first phrase, “who shall sojourn in your tent?” shows us the nature of how we are to come into God’s home or house— sojourn is a word that we don’t utilize often anymore, but the idea is that the sojourner isn’t the master of the tent.

He is the dependent in the tent.

Again, this emphasizes the fact that God doesn’t allow us to come into his presence our way, it has to be his way.

It’s also a reminder that this figurative tent is God’s home and that we are guests within his home.

The second phrase, “who shall dwell on your holy hill?” emphasizes the fact that his is God’s place that we are being invited to—dwell carries the idea of not just visiting, but residing on God’s Holy Hill.

It’s more than just a weekend visit, it’s the idea of living in the presence of God.

Taken together, what David is doing is that he’s thinking on or pondering the question of “who can dwell” in the presence of God.

The term tent is often utilized to speak of the tabernacle and the holy hill refers to Zion or the city of Jerusalem.

Allen Ross, “The question is concerned with who was eligible to be a ‘guest’ of the Lord and live in the place where His presence rested.

It was a spiritual question: who can draw near to God and worship in His dwelling place?”

Considering all that David knows about God, it is a good question to ponder.

Think of everything that David knows of God, of Yahweh.

Including all of what we discussed concerning the tabernacle in the introduction—David knows that there are specific requirements for being able to worship Yahweh.

He knows the ceremonial laws, he knows the governmental laws, he knows the moral laws.

He knows all about the history of the Israelites in regard to their relationship with God.

He also knows about God from a deeply personal level—remember, this is the same David who through God’s power slew Goliath.

The same David who had seen God work through his life in many different ways to bring him to where he was.

If this was written later in life (remember, we don’t know the precise date of authorship), this is the same David who committed terrible sins and God still forgave him.

This is the same David who saw his son betray him and yet, still retained the crown of Israel as God’s chosen king.

David knew this God and this God knew him.

But not only does David know who God is and what God has done in his life and the live’s of the Israelites, but David knows God’s character.

We know this because David as an Israelite would be familiar with the Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy).

So really, David’s question is that of who can go into the presence of such a good God, a righteous God, a just God? Who can come into the presence of this God who had done all these amazing things for Israel and for David himself?

Who can be in the presence of the God who has such strict laws concerning sin—so strict, that as he says in Psalm 14, there is none righteous, no not one?

He knew how God had revealed himself and he knows God to be a good God.

He knows God is righteous and just; he knows that God’s law demands perfection and no human can possibly reach the standard that God has for us—he knows as Paul says in Romans, “all have fallen short of the glory of God.”

And it’s those concepts that lead us to the next section of the passage as David answers his question.

Read with me vss.

2-5:

The Answer: The Righteous (2-5)

The answer to David’s question as he reflects is simple in word, but difficult in deed.

The only person that can sojourn in God’s tent and who can dwell on God’s holy hill are those who are righteous.

David doesn’t actually utilize the word righteous, but he describes a righteous person through vss.

2-5.

Let’s look at those verses individually:

Vs 2, “He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;”

When the Bible utilizes the word walk, it has in mind the concept of how you are to live your life.

A person who is acceptable to come into God’s presence and dwell with him is one who lives life in a blameless way.

Paul utilizes the same terminology in his letters to Titus and Timothy to talk about the requirements for both elders and deacons, that they live life in such a way that that if they were accused of sin, it simply wouldn’t stick because their reputation was that of living blameless lives.

David teaches us that all who want to dwell with God ought to live in the same way.

David says that the person who is acceptable “does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.”

He is a person who seeks to only do right and not evil; he doesn’t seek his own fulfilment and happiness, but he cares for what is true, sure, and trustworthy.

This really speaks of his character itself—he’s genuine.

What he says he is, he genuinely is.