Psalm 15

Is there a proper way to approach God, address Him, talk to, worship, and think about him? Yes, scripture gives a repertoire of thought and expression to respond to God. The book of Psalms is an essential source to understand how we can and should express ourselves to Him. It was the hymn book for the covenant community of Israel in the temple, during festivals, and during personal devotion to God. Today, we will look at Psalm 15 and consider David's question, “Who shall sojourn in God’s tent?”.

Psalm 15 ESV

A Psalm of David. 1 O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? 2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; 3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; 5 who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

A Psalm of David - Superscripts

As we studied earlier, the book of Psalms is a collection of songs and poems written in an ancient style. Hebrew poetry consists of short lines of thought that are connected by comparison, completion, or addition of thoughts. The lines are grouped into pairs of two or three. These lines are further grouped into larger sections of thought. Our English translations help us see these groupings through indentations and extra line space. In addition, English translations often give a title or description of the chapter, sometimes in a different font or text style. The translator intentionally adds this as a guide to the main idea of the chapter. These are not part of the original Hebrew text. However, immediately before the psalm there is sometimes a section that gives an attribution, description, or musical direction. These are called superscripts. They appear in the Hebrew text. They remind us that these songs are deeply rooted in a specific historical context and use.

Context and Structure

Today, we can use this song as a guide to remind us how we can and should think about our gathering together or spending personal time to worship God. Psalm 15 has the topic and structure of being part of a liturgy, a song or composition used as worshippers approach the sacred place of worship (Tabernacle and later the Temple). As they get closer, they examine their lives before they enter. The psalm begins with two questions followed by lines of answers and a conclusion. This questions and answers share a familiarity with wisdom psalms that emphasize the different paths of following God. There is a proper and improper way. God desires for those who worship Him to align their lives to conform to His way.

Good Questions

Why does David ask this question about being in the sacred location of the tabernacle or Temple? David recognizes two things. First, God is holy, and second, a holy God requires holiness from his people. The people of Israel knew stories in the Bible that revealed God’s holiness.Narratives such as the garden of Eden, Noah’s ark, and Moses at the burning bush reminded Israel of God’s holy attribute. At the same time, God taught them of their lack of holiness and need for obedience in order to be with God. For example, the laws of cleanliness and temple sacrifice showed them how “unholy” the people could be in their hearts and by simply living in a fallen and sinful world. The temple structure emphasized that there were limits to entering God’s holy place. The outside courts were open to all, but the subsequent inner sections were increasingly limited to a smaller group. Ultimately, the Holy of Holies was entered by only one person once a year. Each worshipper needed to think soberly about themselves and their potential sinful character as they came closer to the “tent” and “holy hill”.

Today we do not have a sacred temple, nor is our church building a sacred immovable location. The place where God desires to dwell is in those who believe in Christ. But are we not just as unholy as those worshippers of long ago? What makes our entry into God’s presence accessible today? It is because of Jesus Christ that we have access to life with God. In Christ, we are part of a new covenant. God brings us near to himself. Ephesians 2:12-13

Ephesians 2:12–13 ESV

12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

As we look at the answers in the Psalm concerning “who may dwell”, we should recognize that Jesus fulfills each of these requirements. He fulfilled all the righteous commands of God. And because He invites us to be “in Him,” we too may enter with humility, thanks, and obedience. Jesus is the only one truly worthy to enter the dwelling place. If we are in Christ, we may enter but we also must seek to be Christ-like in our lives.

Good Answers

The first answer focuses on being blameless, which implies being “whole, or whole-hearted”. This applies to one’s commitment to serving and following God alone. “Whole” living means living in obedience (righteous - doing what is morally required by God).

Think about your walk with God over the past months or years. You may notice moments of great passion for God and possibly moments when God was the last thing in your heart. The hymn lyrics are accurate, “prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,” You may have drifted back into sinful habits. Maybe a major event in life knocked you down, and you relied on your old ways to get you through. Be encouraged. God is faithful and just to forgive us as we come back to him in repentance.

The blameless ones speak the truth and hold back from slander. Their conversation is never deceptive, nor do they use their mouth to hurt others to “get ahead”.

When it comes to living or working with or alongside other people (neighbors), the righteous person seeks to live in peace by recognizing God’s requirements to love others. The ten commandments contain six commands that focus on how we view and tread others. Obedience to God requires that we be “Christ-like” in all our relationships.

The next phrase may seem a bit extreme, “despise a vile man”, but we must see it in the context of the guidance of the wisdom psalm. The wisdom psalms remind us only two options: to follow God or not (the righteous and the wicked). The righteous person will not be envious of the wicked. Rather, they will take align themselves with the God who takes “no delight in wickedness”. Psalm 5:4

Psalm 5:4 ESV

4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.

The person who may dwell with God keeps his oaths. This describes a person who remains truthful and honest even when it becomes a disadvantage.

Imagine being pulled over by an officer, no seatbelt, texting, speeding, etc. Is it not a strong temptation to say or not say things to get you out of an expensive fine.

The last answer focuses on the righteous person who deals with resources (money, time, things) with integrity. Even in the ancient world, people borrowed money. God governed debt by not allowing Israel to collect interest from their own people. This may seem risky, but God intended debt to be a temporary situation and provided specific laws to prevent it from becoming a way of life. The righteous person will also not be consumed with getting richer at any cost and avoids bribery.

How do you measure up?

In the earliest days of covid, entering some public places required a mask and temperature checks. Many are still rightfully cautious about the potential spread of illness. A person needed to be “in good health” to participate in a gathering. What does the psalm say about being prepared to enter God’s holy presence? Are there any restrictions or requirements? Yes. And if you look at the answers, you will notice that you have failed at some point to measure up to the requirements of God’s holiness. So why does the Christian message invite us to come to know God when we clearly stand in opposition to His holiness? How can we "measure up" to holiness? First, we must enter by recognizing our sinfulness and God’s holiness. Just as Isaiah recognized his own “unclean” state of life in the presence of God, we, too, must come to God recognizing both our sinfulness and God’s solution. Isaiah 6:5-7. Then we need someone who is holy to be our means of entrance. We may then look to God’s solution in Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17

Romans 5:17 ESV

17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Who may enter is answered by being in Jesus Christ. And because we are made righteous through Christ, we are empowered to live in obedience to God’s commands. We do not obey God in order to receive grace but because we have received grace. Only by God’s grace can we enter and live a life of Christ-like obedience.

Some Modern Concerns

As we look at these ancient Psalms, we will hopefully recognize that we should approach God with the same humility and honesty as suggested in the psalm. This psalm reminds us that we should check our hearts, our thoughts, and our ways because we have a personal relationship with God. He knows our hearts. And since this psalm served as part of a liturgy (a section or component of a worship gathering), we can let it guide our modern concept of a worship gathering. Let’s examine some modern trends that need to be guided by this psalm.

It has become a common trend within the last couple of decades to become “seeker-sensitive” in a worship service. The intent of these actions is to make a worship gathering extremely inviting, comfortable, and familiar to non-Christians so that they would gladly attend a church gathering. The end result is that a Sunday gathering has become more like a concert, dance club, or entertainment attraction than a sober gathering of people before a holy God. At the extreme end of this approach are churches like Church by the Glades in Florida. In an attempt to be creative, they use a lot of pop culture, media, songs, art and topics to be an essential element in a worship service.

Lead pastor Pastor David Hughes in an interview said the following, “I can’t teach people until we get their attention, so we work really, really hard…people are so busy today, so distracted that we wan’t church to be exciting, crazy inspiring, and we will get your attention. In fact, we have a promise at Church by the Glades, you will not fall asleep in our church.” “We are in south Florida where people tend not to go to church, so we just changed our mentality and started thinking, OK, people don’t go to church, what environments do they go to? And so we thought about concerts and clubs, our church has sort of a vibe that feels like a concert.”

We are all about two things: Jesus and His Word! CBG is a hyper-creative and a fully-charged church where no perfect people are allowed.

How are we to evaluate this emphasis and trend in many churches?

For centuries, Christians have debated over what instruments, notes, harmonies, and rhythms should be used in the worship of God. While there may be a variety of opinions on this, we should be concerned with the content and focus of our worship services.

This approach to a worship gathering will eventually lead to a compromised gospel. First, it seeks to be delightfully inviting only later to hopefully share a potentially serious message. Ultimately, the message either gets delayed to keep them coming because it may be offensive, or it becomes altered to neglect pointing out sin and the need to repent and turn to God. Often this approach leads to a self-help empowerment message rather than the power of the Gospel to save sinners. Secondly, this approach often leads to building a massive media/art entity that must be fed with lots of money. Something new is always necessary to keep up with the latest trend. Instead of focusing on the spiritual and relational needs of a Christ-centered life, it makes Christianity appear no different from the average non-believing life. Eventually, it becomes nothing more of entertainment business.

And since entertainment changes with the culture, so too will this type of church. As a result, these churches tend to develop enthusiastic people with shallow biblical roots. From the parable of the sower and seed, the seed that does not grow deep roots will be trampled on, eaten up, or choked by weeds. How well does this approach fit with Psalm 5?

Psalm 5 reminds us that God should be the center of our worship. When we gather together as believers, it is rightfully appropriate to come to God, recognizing His holiness and our sins. As we recognize this, we can look to our need for forgiveness, rejoicing that God has provided the solution for sin in Jesus Christ. If we desire to be in line with the teaching of scripture, we will always be conscious of the great debt of sin we have and the great blessing of God’s grace in Christ. An honest discussion of our sin is always a proper attitude.

We should not make the false assumption that Christ only spoke of sin to the self-righteous and never neglected to talk of sin to others. Consider that he received the sinful woman who wept over the feet of Jesus, and with her tears and hair, she washed his feet. Jesus told her that her sins were forgiven. What about the woman caught in adultery? Did Christ avoid pointing out her sin? No, he pointed out her living with a man, not her husband. He pointed out the error in her theology, but he also offered her living water. What about the woman caught in adultery? Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of her accusers but also pointed out the obvious sinful lifestyle she had. He told her to “go and sin no more”. And let’s consider the meal at Zacchaeus’ house. After eating with Jesus, Zacchaeus repented for his sinful ways. All these encounters with Jesus remind us that meeting with God will always involve checking our hearts before Him.

Only then can we fulfill the words of Hebrews 10:19-25.

Hebrews 10:19–25 ESV

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.