Psalm 15--Some Thoughts

Psalms 15:1-5

A Psalm of David. LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? (2) He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; (3) He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; (4) In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the LORD; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; (5) He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Most people think they are going to heaven when they die; are they?

They would have to keep (obey) the commandments. Luke 10:25-28 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (26) He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" (27) So he answered and said, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND,' and 'YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'" (28) And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live."

The same question is asked in Psalm 15–who can live with God in his house and in his presence? Verse 1 is the question and the remaining verses answer the question.

According to these verses these activities must be done in thoughts, desires, words, and deeds. The heart, will, emotions, attitude must be in harmony with this.

Walk uprightly

Works righteousness

Speaks the truth in his heart

Does not backbite with his tongue

Does no evil to his neighbor

Does not take up a reproach against his friend

Despises vile people

Honors those who fear the Lord

Swears to his own hurt and does not change

Charges no interest

Does not take bribes against the innocent

Then the promise: the one who does these things will never be moved.

What do these things mean?

1. Walk uprightly: walk is to live our life, what we do, what we think, what we say. It is our behavior. We do walk uprightly in a physiological sense, but uprightly refers to lining up and obeying God’s rules. Luke 1:6 “And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” This is not a part-time lifestyle or even a majority of the time lifestyle. It must be full time. Matthew 5:19 “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” And James 2:10 “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

2. Works righteousness: Works is a word that means do, act, or function, thus it is doing righteousness. Doing righteousness by what standard? It must be the standard of God’s ways, laws, and deeds, not by our definition of right and wrong. John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Matthew 7:24-27 "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: (25) and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. (26) "But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: (27) and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." We can consider all the rules that the Lord Jesus has just spoken in the previous chapters as well as all the other rules given by him and his apostles in the rest of the New Testament.

3. Speaks the truth in his heart: This is speaking truth sincerely. At times the devil spoke truth but it was with the intent to deceive. We must always speak the truth sincerely, from good motives, and as Jesus has given us example. Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his heart is not with you.” Another translation has: Proverbs 23:7 “People like that take note of how much you eat. They say, "Take all you want!" But they don't mean it.”

4. Does not backbite with his tongue: does not slander. This is a type of lie. Slander is defined as a false statement or statements intended to injure someone's reputation or well-being, or the act of making such statements; defamation. (http://www.wordsmyth.net/?level=3&ent=slander). Two examples are first: Genesis 39:14-18 that she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, "See, he has brought in to us a Hebrew to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. (15) And it happened, when he heard that I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me, and fled and went outside." (16) So she kept his garment with her until his master came home. (17) Then she spoke to him with words like these, saying, "The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came in to me to mock me; (18) so it happened, as I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me and fled outside."

And second: Matthew 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by her children."

5. Does no evil to his neighbor: This is fairly self explanatory. Our neighbors are not only those who live by us but also any one we met. Luke 10:29-37 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" (30) Then Jesus answered and said: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. (31) Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. (32) Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. (33) But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. (34) So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. (35) On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.' (36) So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" (37) And he said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

6. Does not take up a reproach against his friend: Not only does the righteous person avoid harm to his neighbor, he also avoids talking cruel things, lies, slanders, verbal abuse, and other verbal lashings about and to his neighbor. This could also include gossip–lies told about someone and then passed on to others. Nehemiah 4:1-3 “When Sanballat heard that we Jews had begun rebuilding the wall, he became furious and began to ridicule us. (2) In front of his companions and the Samaritan troops he said, "What do these miserable Jews think they're doing? Do they intend to rebuild the city? Do they think that by offering sacrifices they can finish the work in one day? Can they make building stones out of heaps of burnt rubble?" (3) Tobiah was standing there beside him, and he added, "What kind of wall could they ever build? Even a fox could knock it down!”

7. Despises vile people: the word vile means something despised, thrown away, rejected, and refused. These are people who despise, reject, refuse God and his ways, laws, rules, and decisions. The people of Israel in 1 Samuel 8:7 “And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:23 “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king." So called wise men in Jeremiah 8:9 “The wise men are ashamed, They are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; So what wisdom do they have?” The people of Judah in Amos 2:4 “Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, Because they have despised the law of the LORD, And have not kept His commandments. Their lies lead them astray, Lies which their fathers followed.”

8. Honors those who fear the Lord: Fear the Lord as in being afraid of what he can do to us on Judgment Day. It is a fear that causes us to run to him for mercy, instead of running away and hiding. Matthew 10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Those who fear the Lord are in the same camp; we are to help each other, honor each other, pray for each other in every way possible. The opposite would be to oppose, fight, and hinder.

9. Swears to his own hurt and does not change: Our examples are the leaders of Israel and the city of Gibeon in Joshua 9:17-20 “So the Israelis set out for their cities and three days later they reached their cities of Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. (18) The Israelis did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had made an oath with them in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. Nevertheless, the entire congregation grumbled against their leaders. (19) Then all of the leaders spoke to the entire congregation, "We have sworn to them in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them. (20) So this is what we'll do to them: we'll let them live, so that wrath won't come upon us because of the oath that we swore to them." Jephthah in Judges 11:34-36 “When Jephthah arrived at his home in Mizpah--surprise!--it was his daughter who came out to meet him, playing tambourines and dancing. She was his one and only child. Except for her, he had no other son or daughter. (35) When he saw her, he ripped his clothes and cried out, "Oh no! My daughter! You have terribly burdened me! You've joined those who are causing me trouble, because I've given my word to the LORD, and I cannot go back on it. (36) She told him, "My father, you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me according to what has come out of your own mouth, considering that the LORD has paid back your enemies, the Ammonites." When we make a solemn promise we must keep it; it is better not to promise at all then to break a promise.

10. Charges no interest: We lend things all the time; we lend money, tools, books, etc. We must not charge interest when we do this.

11. Does not take bribes against the innocent: We are not to takes against the guilty either. 1 Samuel 8:3 “But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.” Matthew 28:12-15 “When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, (13) saying, "Tell them, 'His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.' (14) And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure." (15) So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.” Acts 24:26 “Meanwhile he also hoped that money would be given him by Paul, that he might release him. Therefore he sent for him more often and conversed with him.” When a decision concerning others is made, it must be made fairly with justice. We must not let anything interfer with doing what is right in God’s eyes. Even if it hurts a relationship, we must do what is right. We cannot bribe God–Psalms 49:7 “But no one has enough to buy back a life, and you cannot bribe God.” Wicked judges can be bribed–“Proverbs 17:23 A wicked judge will accept a bribe, and that keeps justice from being done.” Exodus 23:8 “Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe makes people blind to what is right and ruins the cause of those who are innocent.” Isaiah 5:23 “But for just a bribe you let the guilty go free, and you keep the innocent from getting justice.”

In summary, none of us do this perfectly, which is why we need salvation and a savior. We have broken God’s commandments. Breaking God’s commandments brings the judgment of hell forever. Jesus came and preached that people need to repent (change their attitude and life), ask Jesus to forgive their sins, and trust in him forever. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.