Skip to main content

Psalm 15

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.

Psalm 15:1-2

Psalm 15 is an interesting contrast to Psalm 14. It goes from "There is none who does good, not even one" to "Who gets to live in God's house? He who walks blamelessly." Kind of highlights the mess of being human. If the requirement of living with God is walking blamelessly, doing what is right, and having a heart completely in tune with truth, I am beyond hopeless.

Thank God, though, that Jesus is everything this Psalm tells me I have to be.

(v2) Walks blamelessly, does right, always speaking truth in his heart? Check.

(v3) Doesn't speak untruth about others to tear them down or misrepresent them in order to get a leg up on the competition or jockey for position among friends? Check.

(v4) Isn't self-righteous or self-protective in his anger, but expresses a true and appropriate righteous indignation at the right time in the right way? Check.

(v4) Isn't self-serving or self-promoting in praise, but shows honor to what is truly honorable? Check.

(v4) Keeps his word even when his word ends up costing him pain and loss? Check.

(v5) Doesn't leverage his assets to personal gain and other's loss, seeking to always come out ahead of others? Check.

He who does these things shall never be moved. I need to hear that - all the way down to the bottom of my soul. He will never be moved. And if I believe in Jesus, I am in Jesus. His security is my security. His strength is my strength. His record is my record. I stand in grace.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you that you sent your son to live the life I should have lived and that his record is mine by grace through faith. Thank you that even though I am the man described in Psalm 14, I stand in the record of the man of Psalm 15. I am as secure as he is and he cannot be moved. Thank you for the gift of righteousness. Please increase in me the desire to become more like Jesus today.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Gospel, Faith, and Asking Jesus into Your Heart

Kelly, our wonderful  Trailhead Kids leader, sent me a link to a great blog over at Sojourn Church.  It is titled " 9 Reasons not to Ask Jesus into your Heart ."  You should read it because it is clear, succinct, and right. I am not a fan of asking Jesus into your heart.  I am not a fan of committing your life to Christ or making him Lord of your life or asking Jesus to be your friend, either.  Strange thing for a pastor to say, right?  Wrong. After I became a believer and started working in a Christian high school, I came to see just how short those kinds of sayings fall from leading people to the real gospel.  As a new believer (and a lover of all things English), I loved my job, most of the things about my school, and, of course, my students.  One of the key frustrations I had, though, was that so many of my students claimed to follow Jesus but so few of them seemed to know him or love him. So, about two months into the school year, I de...

Teaching the Story Arc of the Bible

Each of the Journey campuses has started teaching a gospel class - a class that answers basic questions about following Christ and being a member in our church. This class has attracted a large number of people who are "peaking over the fence" - checking this whole Christianity thing out. That is both exciting and challenging. It gives us the chance to share the Bible with people who don't necessarily come to it with faith - as well as challenge those who do trust the Bible to get on mission with us. Our first lesson was on the story arc of the Bible - what is referred to as the diachronic view of scripture. Simply put, it is a way of looking at scripture as a complete story - with one major primary theme: God in Jesus reconciling the world to himself. Teaching a diachronic view of scripture to postmodern culture, though, presents some unique challenges. In prepping to teach, I wrote out the following thoughts. I would be glad to get any thoughts you have on this to...

Masturbation, Onanism, and Injustice

    The Real Sin of Onan I was a teenage new believer the first time I heard someone talk about the “sin of Onan.” The message was clear—and honestly, kind of terrifying: don’t masturbate. God killed a guy for it once. That story, told in Genesis 38, got repeated in various youth group talks and church settings. Onan became shorthand for what not to do with your body when you’re alone. His name was a warning: “Don’t be like Onan.” Touch yourself like that and God might just touch you to kill you. But when I actually read the passage, I found that it doesn’t say what I was told it says. An Old Reading That Misses the Point It’s true that for centuries—especially in medieval Roman Catholic tradition—this passage was interpreted as a condemnation of any “spilling of seed.” The act of ejaculation outside the context of procreation, whether through withdrawal or masturbation, was viewed as inherently sinful. That interpretation shaped a lot of what was passed down in purity cu...