Thank you so much, Andrew. My dear friends, let's open God's Word together. I said Psalm 15. I just heard it clearly. It takes me a while to get used to Andrew's accent. You guys are all experiencing that. And when he asked me to preach Psalm 15, I thought, is 15, 50? I don't know, so I'm going to do 15, and we'll be content there. Psalm 15. Will you stand with me as we read God's Word? Psalm 15:
“A psalm of David. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, 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, 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.”
[Prayer] Our Heavenly Father, we tremble before Your Word, and we ask for Your spirit to be our teacher. As we look to your holy and inspired and unfailing Word, may we see these truths as promises to our own hearts. Would You, God, open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things from Your Word? Would You encourage us in our pursuit of repentance? Would You entice us to greater pleasures found only at Your right hand? And above all else, God, would You show us the Lord Jesus Christ in whom is all goodness and truth, our Friend in every season. Show us Christ, lift Him up through Your Word, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. [End]
You may be seated.
The title of this message is “The Ultimate Q&A.” And I call it that because It's a question in verse 1, two questions presented clearly, “O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent and who shall dwell in your holy hill?” Followed by a series of answers, really 10 answers, and then a final line that gives us a promise. And so, it's an ultimate kind of Q and A.
I've been answering questions for a long time. My favorite... question and answer sessions. weren't with eager college students or in student ministry with kids with questions about apologetics. My favorite question and answer sessions were with my kids at bedtime when they were little. We'd always have Bible time at night, but Q&A was a special night. I'd sit on the bed and they could ask any question they wanted. Hopefully, Bible questions, but they strayed all over the place. And I remember once when my oldest daughter was just four years old, I had a Q&A time with her.
And it started with, “how far away is the sun, Daddy?” And I said, “93 million miles.” That and other facts I have just right here. My brain always makes that sound when I tap it. It kind of knocks the rust off a little bit. “93 million miles, baby, really far away.” And she says, “well, daddy, how can we see it?” And I said, “well, it's really, really big and it's really bright.” And she said, “is it bigger than our house?” And I said, “yes, quite a bit. And bigger than the city, it's honestly bigger than the whole world.” And she said, “well, is the sun bigger than Jesus?”
And for me, that was a little bit of a dilemma because Jesus is big, right? He's significant. So, I kind of hemmed and hawed and said, “yeah, I mean, he made the sun, but it's bigger physically than Jesus because Jesus is person-sized.” And then she had her little Sunday school bookmark with a picture of Jesus on it, that typical kind of Anglo Jesus, looks like long-haired, kind of somebody from Greenville or something. And she said, “did Jesus look like this?” And held it up. And I said, “no, probably not.” “He was Middle Eastern.” “We don't know exactly what he looked like.” She said, “did he wear glasses?” And I said, “they didn't have glasses back then.” She said, “I didn't think so. He would look weird with glasses. Good night, Dad.”
And just like that, the conversation is over. Physics, astronomy, geography. I mean, there's a lot that goes on with a Q&A with a little child, but all of us have questions. It's how we learn and grow. People have lots and lots of questions, important questions, practical questions, difficult questions. The question before us in Psalm 15 is an ultimate question. An ancient question that's as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago when King David composed this song. It's an ultimate question because it answers our greatest need, to answer and provide for us what it means to know God truly, to be in his presence.
This is the most important question any human being could ever ask and have answered. The simple outline, I think you can see it, is just verse 1 is the ultimate question. In verses 2 through 4, a searching answer is provided by God's King, a searching answer that will really cause us to consider our own hearts and what it means to have fellowship with God. And then in that final line of verse 5, it provides for us a promised result. So, we'll follow this psalm in its simple format. And I think it will minister to our souls and help us make sure that we have the answer to the most important question, what does it mean to know God, to abide with Him?
So, let's carefully look first at that ultimate question in verse 1. “O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who will dwell on your mountain of holiness?” It opens with the word Yahweh, the covenant name of God. The question is addressed to the right place, to the right person. The psalmist speaks to God Himself and asks this question of the covenant God of Israel, the God who's revealed Himself, the God who says, “I am who I am, Yahweh.”
And as he asks the question, he asks it in a twofold way. First, “who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” Speaking of God's tent is a simple and metaphorical way to talk about the meeting place that the Hebrew people had, which at one point was an actual tent, the tabernacle. And then later would be constructed into a more permanent abode, the temple. But even that temple would be replaced several times, but it was always the place that symbolized the presence and worship of God. It was the place that God determined that He would meet with His people. And David is asking about abiding there, a word that refers to sojourning or spending the night someplace. A word that speaks of temporary residence.
And then the second question is a question with another verb, dwell. A word that is more permanence to it, to settle down, to stay. The word tent, like the word abide, is a temporary dwelling. But when he says, “your hill or mountain of holiness,” he's talking about Mount Zion, the holy mountain where Jerusalem was located, where the temple would find its permanent spot. It's called Zion or the Mountain of Holiness, Psalm 2:6 or 43:4. There's lots of places you can see references to Zion. It becomes really something that is more long-standing than the temple itself since the temple would be replaced several times and the mountain was there to stay.
And so, his word for the mountain has to do with dwelling, to live there in this place. Mount Zion was the place that God had chosen to commune with His people. It was the place where heaven met earth. It was a sacred place, a sacred mountain. And it wasn't a place for the temple or the holy hill, ultimately, anyone to stay permanently, but David uses this metaphor to deepen his question about what does it mean to make contact with God, to truly know God, and to not be in His presence just for a moment, but in a permanent and abiding kind of way. That's the question that David is asking in this beautiful song.
The worshiper is presented as an eager guest and then as a permanent resident. And people who study the Psalms have wondered, is this an entrance liturgy? In other words, is this something that the priests would either say to each other or to the people when they would enter into a time of offering sacrifice or corporate worship and they would ask these questions and the people would give these answers and reciting them to remind themselves of the importance of preparation, or maybe it was part of a pilgrimage in one of the annual festivals, or something for visitors to recite. But really, the question is bigger than that. It's one that transcends through all of God's people's experiences.
Psalm 27:4 says, “one thing I have asked from the Lord. that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple.” Psalm 84:1, “how lovely are thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts. My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.” It's the language of visitation. It's a language of abiding.
I was there that day with Andrew Curry. He had flown back from Ireland. I had just clarified during the singing time because I couldn't figure out why his wife wasn't there and I was with him instead. But she was in Ireland and he had come back to become a citizen of the United States. I was there that day. How many years ago was it, Andrew? Ten years ago. He's been American, sort of.
And we went down to downtown LA, to the convention center. And I'd never been part of one of those swearing-in ceremonies, because I was born here. And I always wondered what it looked like. I'd seen him on TV, you know, little ceremonies in a small town, in a courthouse with a judge, and somebody waving a little flag, and so happy to join up. And so I went, and Andrew, I think, had a little lapel pin, a little American flag lapel pin, so he was showing up and showing out. And we went into the LA Convention Center, this massive structure, and there is thousands upon thousands, maybe 10,000 people being sworn in to become American citizens during the reign of Barack Obama.
And as we went in there, I'd never seen anything like it. They had a list on the big screen of all the different countries that people were leaving behind and joining the United States. Iran and Iraq and Pakistan and Guatemala, big lists and thousands upon thousands of people. And then this little guy from Northern Ireland at my side, and he took his vows, and they said the pledge, and it was really a lovely ceremony. And it was in that moment that my friend became an American, sort of. And no, no, it's legit. He's completely legitimate.
And when I think of his permanent residence, his change of status, that's what's behind verse 1. The psalmist isn't content with a day of visitation at God's temple. He understands that in his heart of hearts, there is something inside of him that longs for a deeper experience of knowing God, that there is a kind of taste that the worshiper experiences in their ordinary visit to God's house with God's people, but it resonates in the heart of the worshiper as a longing for something greater and more lasting, something that will not end. And so, he says, “who shall dwell on your holy hill?”
I mean, the temple wasn't real estate up for grabs for someone to build a house there. And so, the language is metaphorical as he expresses this yearning and longing to be in God's presence forever. He wants to be welcomed as a guest in God's house and then granted a permanent residence with God in His presence. The language of ancient Near Eastern hospitality is present in the question, and you know about hospitality. Yours is called Southern hospitality, and it involves grits and a place to stay. And likewise, ancient hospitality was a full guarantee of protection and shelter. It was gracious and warm, but a guest was even more than welcome. He was considered an inviolable member of the family.
And so, it's not an annual visit, it's not a weekly visit that's in David's mind. It's true spiritual intimacy and protection to be guaranteed a place in God's presence, not for a moment, but forever and ever. Pilgrimages and ritual of worship were just foretastes of what David truly longed for. He wanted to remain in God's presence forever and ever.
Does that resonate with your heart in worship? Have there been times of encounters with God and His word and His spirit that you long for more and you are aware that you have not fully been satisfied? And as you imagine Jordan's distant shores, as you long for your true home of heaven, does your heart resonate with that question in verse 1 as you ask God, “who can sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?”
Because week after week, we go to church, and we love it, and we benefit and grow from our time together under the teaching of the Word, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs to one another, in the richness of fellowship, but then we stop. Friend, a day is coming when it will not end, when fellowship will be perfected, and the knowledge of God will be made full, and our songs will echo for all eternity. But not everybody will be welcome there.
David gets that because he understands how short his own worship has become. He understands how his sin has so often cut him off from God's favor and presence, and that's why he says he must sojourn, but he longs to dwell. And it gets to the heart of David and the heart of every one of us, created by God, made to glorify Him, created for communion with God, made in His image and given life and breath and everything. The point of being a creature, a God-made creature in His likeness and image is to ask this question, how can I be made right with God? How can I be with God? How can I fulfill the purpose for which I was created? And God gives us this incredible answer in Psalm 15, an answer that we have to listen to if we're to know God with favor. And layer upon layer, he tells us the required character of a worshiper, and it certainly can prepare us to think about our own sanctification, our own growth in godliness. It certainly can prepare us for an understanding of how we ought to think about being ready to be in God's presence and minister to God's people. And layer upon layer, the psalmist puts down the characteristics of an acceptable worshiper.
And lots of scholars have studied this psalm and looked at some of its structural arrangements. And as we move into the second part of our outline, the searching answer, verses 2 through 4, you can see some of that structure brought out very well by the English Standard Version. Look at verse 2. It says, “he who walks blamelessly and does what is right. and speaks truth in his heart.” Three action words, walking blamelessly, doing righteousness, and speaking truth. So, there are three positive activities that he lays out.
And then verse three, three negative actions. Sings this worshiper who will be accepted by God should never do. He does not slander with his tongue, does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, verse three. And then, structurally, just looking through it, verse 4, there are two positives given, “whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord and who swears to his own hurt and does not change.” And then verse 5 has two negative qualities, “who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent.”
So, not good at math, but count with me here. That's three positive actions and three negative assertions, and then two positive attributes, and then two negative attributes. How many? Ten, good. You're good at math like me. And in college, I had one math class. I was a history and classics major, so I avoided all math and science, except the very minimal. And I found a class called the Art of Math, and the football team was in there, and I knew I was in the right place. So, the Art of Math. So, ten.
Why are there 10 attributes given here? Well, some have speculated it's a practical exposition of the real significance and meaning and where the rubber hits the road. A practical look at the 10 commandments, the 10 words. So, there is only one God. There is a prohibition of idolatry in this pure worship. There is a desire to honor the Lord's name, verse 4, the third commandment. There is implied, a regular observance of the Sabbath because it's talking about worship, the fourth commandment. There is a desire to be in right standing with neighbor and family, perhaps that's a connection to the fifth commandment, on your father and your mother. The desire to do what is right and righteous, to never cause harm would certainly capture the sixth commandment, thou shalt not murder. The seventh commandment of prohibition of adultery is listed in here in the sense of this is someone who is blameless, and truthful, and not slanderous, and never going to reproach their friend. Prohibition of theft, bearing false witness is certainly covered in these verses in the way a person who is a true worshiper treats their neighbor. And the desire that is in the heart to not be covetousness, to not be covetous, the thenth commandment, could all be explained here. So perhaps there is a connection to the 10 commandments, but there's maybe more than that if we look at them briefly but carefully.
These searching answers really do get to the heart of our separation from God because they expose how short we fall of righteousness and what a difficult thing it is to be truly acceptable to a Holy and Perfect God. So, let's break them down categorically a bit. Look at verse 2. It speaks of the worshiper's character. The first prerequisite is that this person has godliness, integrity. He must be a man who's above reproach. “He's one who is righteous, who pursues holiness, whose life is right before God.”
And those three words, walk and work and speak, speak of participles that are habitual in action. The starting point of every worshiper is that he has a godly life. That's what the psalmist wants on godliness. It's a word we may not think of very often. We usually use a negative word, sinless, when we talk about Christ. Michael Reeves, in his excellent book, “Rejoicing in Christ,” speaks of the sinlessness of Christ and calls it, “a negative, chilly word to describe Christ's life. It tells us what he was not. He was not selfish, not cruel, not abusive, not twisted, not petty, and not proud.”
And when we open it like that, he says, “we can see that to be sinless is beautiful, dynamic, and attractive. The trouble is we often leave the word closed and it reinforces all our stereotypes of what holy people are like, bloodless, bland, dreamy, delicate, and so spiritual it looks painful.” But this is true godliness. This is a practical outworking of how God's worshipers must be if they're to be accepted in God's presence. And so, he first walks with integrity. That's that Hebrew word that speaks of wholeness. He's an undivided man. He doesn't have a secret life of shame. There's not another side to him. He is who He is. It's a word to describe Job in the book of Job as a blameless man. He repents of his sin. He avoids evil things. He worships God with wholeness. Job uses this same language to describe himself. Job 31:4, “does he not see my ways and number all my steps? If I've walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened after deceit, let him weigh me with accurate scales and let God know my integrity.” And so, Job calls on his wholeness, his integrity. Every worshiper is to be perfectly whole before God. No double life, no hypocrisy.
Second, righteous works. This is the deeds that he does. And some have looked at Psalm 15 and compared it to the book of James. This is the outworking of faith. This is what godliness looks like in action. And so, he's described as righteous and upright in the things he does. And then it moves to the category that's the hardest for all of us, speaks truth in his… what would you expect that to say? What do you speak truth with? What do you use to speak with? Your mouth. But look what he says, “he speaks truth in his heart.”
And so, David understands that lip service isn't enough. That this is speech at its very source. The heart monitor that Jesus describes in Mark chapter 7, “that which proceeds out of a man is what defiles a man for from within, out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts, theft, murder, fornication, adultery, deeds of coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, evil, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things proceed from within and defile the man.”
James talks a lot about the mouth, but he also speaks of the heart. James 3.14, “if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't be arrogant and lie against the truth in your heart.” And so here, that inner attitude, the heart purity flows out of the mouth and the inward and outward walk are matched with integritous living. It's blameless and right and true.
And we all understand the pain and sorrow that hypocrites can bring, especially when they say they represent God. The character of God determines the character of the worshiper. And this man who comes to God's presence is to be perfectly integritous, blameless in heart and mouth and hands and walk. He is a blameless man, pristine in holiness and purity, acceptable in God's presence. And as soon as he says at the end of verse 2, “who speaks truth in his heart,” it triggers a landslide of examinations of our weakest member, our tongues.
And verse 3 says, to speak of the man's words, “he does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend.” Verse 3 takes up that speech mentioned in the prior verse and moves it from the heart dimension to the words that actually come out of our mouths. And the emphasis here is now on the horizontal, like the second half of the Ten Commandments, 6 through 10 are all concerned with our relationships. And so, he says, in a negative way, not, nor, and nor, the negatives give permanent objective negation rather than temporary subjective negation. They are tried and true qualities. These are the things a true worshiper will never say, he'll never do with his mouth.
“He does not slander,” verse 3, a Hebrew word that combines the word for leg and for spy. The slanderer goes around with his mouth trying to do damage to others. Proverbs 16.27, “a worthless man digs up evil while his words are a scorching fire. A perverse man spreads strife and a slanderer separates intimate friends.” This is the danger of gossip, the danger of slander. You've experienced this pain in your own life when somebody's talking about you and saying bad stuff about you in order to bring you down. You've also experienced this as you've spoken that way about others. Our tongues can be like a fire, James says. This man does not slander. “He speaks only what is true and charitable.” When Jonathan Edwards was 17, he wrote a series of resolutions. One of them is that he would examine all his words at the end of the day and make sure they were only spoken with the highest level of charity. That's quite the examination, isn't it? To go through all the words we said through the day and ask God, was my speech marked with love? Love for others, love for God. That's what's required.
This little depiction in verse 3 of this man is, his words are a benefit and a blessing to others because they're not slanderous, they do no evil, and they take up no reproach against his friend. He moves on in verse 4 to speak of this worshiper's allegiances. Verse 4, “in whose eyes a reprobate is despised but who honors those who fear the Lord.” That's maybe a strong statement for your ears to hear. A vile person is despised would happen to love the sinner and hate the sin. It sounds kind of ornery, don't you think? But there's an appropriate negative attitude toward the godless and immoral. There's a way that we love our enemies but still understand appropriate allegiances. In other words, you're either on God's side or you're not, and you must assess every single person on that level for their sake and for God's sake.
And so, who this man is, is a man of perfect allegiances. He will not compromise to be loved by the world. He will not lower his standards in order to be acceptable to his friends and neighbors. How blessed is the man, Psalm 1, “who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the seat, the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.” The godly man despises the contemptible. The godly man takes no pleasure in evil. He's not entertained by it. He doesn't wink at it. Just as the way you treat others has a direct impact on the way you worship God, the way you view others has a direct impact on your relationship with God. God hates every evil way, and this does not preclude his compassion towards sinners. This does not exclude our evangelistic opportunities and responsibilities but enables it as the godly separate themselves from every evil way.
This means that godly people don't look like the world. They live different. They speak different. They understand there is those who are vile. There are the reprobates. And what they honor is they honor those who fear the Lord. To the pure, all things are pure. Are you feeling the weight of this yet? If you're going to be worshiping God, your allegiances need to be perfect, your mouth needs to be clean, and your life needs to be holy. But he's not done because now he's going to go with you to work. Verse 4, 5, “he swears to his own hurt and does not change. He does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.”
These are all the practical avenues of the employed person's life. Swearing to his own hurt is a legal and binding kind of agreement. It's to stick to your word. In other words, the godly man keeps his word. He remains true to what he says. He has a deep sense of integrity, and his word is more valuable to him than his wallet. And God is on the side of this kind of person whose word is his bond, who keeps his promises. Perhaps there's financial obligations involved. It doesn't matter to this man because his word is his bond.
In verse 5, it speaks of the... the monitor that is your checking account. He says, “he lends out his money without interest and he will not give a bribe.” Now, I know we're all interested in loans without interest and that's not what's being offered here by me or by this Bible verse. But instead, there's something in the background in Israel you need to understand. They had a total ban on exploitive interest within the family of Israel. It was the exploitation of a brother in place of misfortune; it was called usury. It's the practice of charging high interest on business loans. According to the law, Israelites were not to take advantage of the difficulties and adversities of one of their fellow Israelites who'd fallen on hard times, Exodus 22, Leviticus 25, Deuteronomy 23. You can look at those passages if you're interested.
In the ancient Near East, they could have charged at times 50% for loaning money. This is like the payday loan kind of people. But it was to their own kinsmen, to their own fellow Israelites inside the covenant. And all of it is just a reminder that God is actually watching every part of your life, including how you handle your money. This is why Ananias and Sapphira should have read Psalm 15. But this man, this integritous man cannot be tempted to bribe or subvert justice for his own cause. He's not going to deal in any way that's exploitive with his fellow men. He's going to pursue a path of righteousness in all his dealings because true religion is practical religion.
And there's our answer. A very clear answer. Who can be in God's presence? Well, Psalm 15 has showed us that a person must be righteous in every possible way. Perfectly holy. He can only live in the presence of God if he lines up in all these ways. And I don't mean to be 2025 on you, but how does that make you feel? How does it make you feel? You puff out your chest and say, Psalm 15, “nailed it.”
I think Psalm 15 gives us an answer that if you want to worship God and live in his presence, that to sinners like you and I, is absolutely devastating. I think Psalm 15 is a calamity. But it's a calamity that sinners need because we're so prone to self-righteousness. We're so geared towards a meritocracy when it comes to our relationship with God that we think we're close, and we don't recognize that this is a who can jump over the Grand Canyon contest. Nobody. So, you went further than I did. At least I get to the bottom first. This is a devastating Psalm. Disastrous and overwhelming, but the beautiful thing it accomplishes is it takes a wrecking ball to any man-made religion and shuts it down. I think I just made all the pumpkins fall. I was worried about the bountiful feast going down, but that's a snack for later.
This Psalm tells you that if you thought this morning that human effort could make you acceptable to God, that good works could earn your salvation, it's wooing you to be overwhelmed at God's impossible, unattainable standard because you can't do Psalm 15. We can't because we aren't Psalm 15. We're Psalm 14. Look at it. “The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, any who seek after God. They've all turned aside. Together they become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. They have no knowledge. All the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord. They are in great terror for God is with the generation of the righteous. He would shame the plans of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. Oh, the salvation for Israel would come out of Zion when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people. Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.”
That's the Psalm that Romans quotes to speak of depravity. And it's the Psalm that captures us, not Psalm 15. Psalm 14. We're Psalm 14 kind of people. You see, Psalm 15 is this massive wall, a barrier, a wall, a fortress, a huge insurmountable obstacle between sinful man and a holy God. And God's holiness exposes our sinful condition.
And what this psalm demands, so beautifully, as you read your Bible, it transforms from a wall to a gate, from a guard to a guide. And I think the way it does that is through that question that it asks. By asking the question about worship, who can worship? It exposes in us a desire for God. Yes, twisted and broken and so fallen short, but a clear agenda that the God who is so separate from us is inviting us to worship him and calling us to do so and demanding that we turn from our sin and pursue His perfect holiness.
The fact that this is an invitation, kind of a song, is showing us something inside of even broken people that reminds us that we must long for God's presence. And if you do, there's hope for you. Yes, this psalm serves to show us there shouldn't be superficial or shallow worship, that we need to be ready to be in God's presence. And yes, this psalm can promote in a sanctified man the pursuit of holiness. And a reminder that legalism isn't obedience, that obedience is important, but ultimately, this psalm is pointing us towards a reality that is the whole message of the scriptures.
It is God himself who insists on being worshiped. He made us for this, and He made a way for us to have the forgiveness we need, and the righteousness, perfect righteousness described in Psalm 15, which will never be found in us, but is always and only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. This psalm shows us that forgiveness and righteousness must be found outside of us because all that's in us is in transgression and sin. Psalm 15 seems at first to be a description of David, the man after God's own heart, the runner up after King Saul, but David's integrity is not described here. His integrity ran aground with Bathsheba and adultery and murder and compromise. This psalm is not a depiction of David. It is a depiction of David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was all 10 of these words, His character, His words, His allegiances, His dealings. The man of Psalm 15 teaches us the way to God and the God of the gospel gives us the power to be one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High. That's why that final line of Psalm 15 so powerfully makes us a promise. He who does these things shall never be moved. And the only way we can do this perfect integrity is not by merit, but by mercy. It is not by nature, but by grace. It is not by our initiative, but by His initiative.
And the promise of perfect security. He who does these things shall never be moved. This unshakability, this promise has gotta be linked to the question in verse one. How can we find perfect stability and perfect assurance and belonging in God's presence? How stable and how secure can we be? Well, only if there is some way that we can have all our shortcomings in integrity and speech and righteousness and dealings completely forgiven. And not just complete forgiveness, but full righteousness.
There's a really famous Q&A called the Heidelberg Catechism. It asks Christians questions and provides them helpful and memorable answers. My favorite one lately is this. What comfort is it to you? Here's the question. What comfort is it to you? “What comfort is it to you that Christ will come to judge the living and the dead?” It's quite the question, isn't it? When you think of the judgment of Christ, is the first word that comes to your mind comfort? But that's the question, “what comfort is it to you that Christ will come to judge the living and the dead?” And I think this is the security depicted in verse five is the answer to this question that Christians have been reciting for hundreds of years.
And here's the brief answer. What comfort is it to you that Christ will come to judge the living and the dead? “In all my sorrow and persecution, I lift up my head and eagerly await as judge from heaven the very same person who before has submitted himself to the judgment of God for my sake and has removed all the curse for me.” That's the answer.
And I love that answer. How do we find comfort and stability and hope when we're up against a holy God and we are wretched and vile sinners? Well, the comfort is in all our sorrows and all our persecution, we lift up our head and eagerly await as judge from heaven, who? The very same person who has submitted himself to the judgment of God for my sake and has removed the curse from me.
The security we find is because of the finished and perfect work of Christ. We will not be shaken because the righteous person has established permanent residence in God's presence. And the only way that happens from a divine and human perspective is Jesus has bridged the gap. And this psalm, in the words of one author, becomes, between two poles, an appropriate median. There is indeed access to the holy God in worship and prayer, but it must be employed carefully, not casually, with appropriate preparation and reverence. What is that preparation and reverence?
Well, friends, ultimately, the psalm becomes a gateway from a barrier because the realization is the preparation for worship illuminates the necessity for worship. And yes, we must live with integrity, but the only hope we have is if we live in the perfect, righteous accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we enter the divine presence, with full and free forgiveness. We walk in righteousness because we have a righteousness that is not our own but given to us by our elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we can say, “my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.”
[Prayer] Father, thank You for the solid rock that is Jesus Christ. As we prepare to take the supper together, reassure us of Your acceptance through the accomplishment of the Lord Jesus Christ in His name, amen. [End]
