Before His Presence

Heavenly Father, we have gathered as your children, and because you are a loving Father who watches over us, who hears us, who's attentive toward us, we know that when we are gathered, you are in our midst.

And that alone is what makes it worthwhile for us to be here.

Amen.

To express our love for you, to experience your love for us, to hear from your word, hear you speak to us, and to speak back to you in prayer.

So would you please lead us from the beginning to the end, and meet with us in a powerful way this evening.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So we're in Psalm 15. It's a relatively short psalm.

It's one that is quoted a lot.

And at least a couple songs written based on this psalm.

It's entitled, Psalm of David, Psalm 15. I will read it out loud for us.

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 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.

A lot of interpreters of the psalm think that this psalm was part of the entrance liturgy.

So when the Jews entered the temple for worship, they would ask the question in verse 1.

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell in your holy hill?

And then the priest would answer with the following verses that specify what the requirements are in verses 2 to 5.

And then they would conclude with the blessing at the end, verse 5.

And he who does these things shall never be removed.

So this is a hypothetical reconstruction.

So we can't ever be sure of this situational representation.

But we do know that the psalm, that kind of entrance liturgy faithfully represents the concern of the psalm.

Which is, if you want to enter a king's court, you need to meet certain criteria and to fulfill certain protocol.

What does the king require?

And so here, the question is, what does God require of us?

What does it take?

What's the characteristic of a worshiper as you approach God's presence?

And so let's look at the answer.

So that's the question in verse 1.

And the answer is given, verses 2 to 5.

So we'll start with verse 2.

It says, he who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.

So the bar is set really high from the get-go.

The person must be blameless.

So nothing about his life must be susceptible to blame or fault.

And the word blameless comes from a root word that means complete.

So it really refers to the way of life that is whole.

So maybe an English word that captures it best is integrity, a wholeness.

The person who would enter the presence of God must be a person of integrity.

And then the rest of the verses 2 to 5 explain what that blameless life looks like.

It says, he does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.

So the fact that he does what is right, of course, presupposes that there's something that is right and wrong.

It's not up to the determination of whoever is in power or has influence.

But rather, there's something far more fundamental than that that goes beyond our conscience,

which itself is susceptible to corrosion.

And as Psalm 145, 17 says,

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.

And because the Lord is righteous, to do what is right is to obey the God who alone is righteous.

That's what it refers to.

And then, not only does being, walking blamelessly involve right action,

but also it involves truthful speech.

So he says, and the phrase, in his heart, he speaks the truth in his heart,

makes a direct connection between what's in our heart and what we speak, what we say.

And as Luke 6.45 confirms, it's out of the abundance of the heart, one's mouth speaks.

And so sometimes, I don't know if you guys have seen that commercial.

I don't even remember what the commercial was about anymore.

But a guy hits send in an email, and he just freaks out because he's supposed to send it to one person,

and he sends reply all to everyone.

And it was probably something inappropriate.

And so he's freaking out.

And so that's kind of, sometimes we think about it that way, right?

We blurt out things, we say things, and then we try to backtrack and say, oh, I didn't really mean that.

But the truth is, what we say always means more than what we are willing to admit,

because it comes from what's in the heart.

And that's what the Bible teaches.

And so he who walks blamelessly not only does what is right, but always speaks truth in his heart.

And so that's the positive description of the blameless.

And then it's followed by a negative description, what the blameless is not.

So verse 3, it says,

He does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor,

nor takes up a reproach against his friend.

And this is important because both doing what is right and abstaining from evil are important.

And that's why we as Christians talk often of sins of commission,

sins that we commit, as well as sins of mission, sins of omitting, not doing something.

As James 4, 17 says,

Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

So the blameless person not only must always do what is right,

he must also never do evil.

There are two sides of the same coin that can't be separated.

And that's why it follows the positive description with the negative description,

verses 2 and 3.

And they're kind of mirror images of each other.

So he speaks truth in his heart, which corresponds to he does not slander with his tongue.

He never says anything malicious or false about someone else.

So not only does he do what is right, but also the negative counterpart,

he does no evil to his neighbor.

And not only does he walk blamelessly,

and he also does not take up a reproach against his friend,

meaning that he won't even entertain efforts by others to besmirch his friend.

He won't even take up a reproach.

He won't give any currency to that kind of slander.

And then verse 4 again goes to describe the positive description of this blameless person

that God invites into his presence.

It says,

In whose eyes a vile person is despised,

but who honors those who fear the Lord.

And once again, the positive and the negative description.

So he honors those who fear the Lord,

but he despises those who are vile.

And sometimes I think people parade cowardice behind the banner of tolerance.

So they're saying,

No, we're going to tolerate.

We're tolerant people,

so you can think what you want.

You can believe what you want.

But that's not true righteousness.

That's not true blamelessness.

The truly blameless despise what is evil.

They despise what is vile.

And so the righteous person hates the wicked,

but honors the righteous.

And the righteous are those who fear the Lord,

it says.

And so that's something that's applicable to us,

and partly applicable to us.

Because we are not to honor simply those who have power,

or simply those who have money,

or simply those who are handsome or beautiful.

But we are to, as Christians,

primarily honor those who fear the Lord.

That's our primary criteria for the characteristics that we cherish in people,

the godliness.

And the rest of verse 4 further describes this walk of a blameless person.

It says he swears to his own hurt and does not change.

Meaning that this person would rather suffer loss for himself

than break his word.

And this description was probably the most surprising one for me

as I was studying this passage,

because we live in a society where words are cheap, right?

I mean, politicians take their oath of office,

and people in court take their oath.

People who may be married take their oath of marital vows.

Yet all of those are so frequently broken, right?

Perjury, divorce, and demagoguery among the politicians.

And so, and we say that it's kind of like a,

the fact that, you know, swearing or taking oath

seems like more like a formality than something that we take seriously.

And so we say things like,

oh, well, circumstances have changed,

so I can't keep that word anymore.

So, which shows that we, you know,

really only keep our word when it's to our advantage.

And so, but not so the person who walks blamelessly.

He swears to his own hurt and does not change.

And I think there's a reason why the Bible takes swearing so seriously.

It's because as Isaiah 65, 16 says,

it says, teaches us to swear only by God,

only by the God of truth, Isaiah 65,

because he's really the only one worthy of taking an oath by,

because he's unchanging and he's infinite,

unlike any other basis which is changing and mercurial.

And so, that's kind of really the fundamental thrust

of the third of the Ten Commandments.

In Exodus 27, it says,

you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

A lot of times that's kind of interpreted to think

that maybe it just means kind of, you know,

using Jesus' name as a swear word or something like that.

It feels, it means something far deeper than that.

It means you should never take up God's name in vain,

meaning you can't use his name alongside

saying something that's false or not true,

that won't be fulfilled.

Because that's not only,

not only does that besmirch your own character,

but that profanes God and imputes his character.

Because you have taken an oath or have sworn by God

who is unchanging and who is truth,

and yet you have lied,

and you've taken his name up in vain.

And so, keeping one's oath was for biblical writers,

not just a matter of expedience,

it was a matter of allegiance to God himself.

And, of course, Jesus later in Matthew 5,

it kind of expands this commandment

and brings its true ideal out

when he says,

do not take an oath at all.

Let what you say be simply yes or no.

Anything more than this comes from evil.

In other words,

everything we say at all times

should be so completely true

that simply yes or no should suffice.

So that's what he's saying.

But it doesn't seem to be

kind of a literal sweeping legal prohibition

because Jesus himself swears

when a high priest forces him to it later

when he's on trial by Caiaphas,

the high priest.

But it seems to be rather an ideal teaching

that we should strive for as believers.

But because we live in a world

where people's words are cheap,

sometimes oaths are necessary.

But, I mean, isn't this such an ideal

where you never have to distrust anyone

because truthfulness is so widespread

and everybody's honest.

And then lastly, verse 5 says,

that he whose walk is blameless

does not put out his money and interest

and does not take a bribe against the innocent.

And this is referring back to God's commandment

in Exodus 22, 25, where he says,

if you lend money to any of my people with you

who is poor,

you shall not be like a money lender to him

and you shall not exact interest from him.

And so the goal of the command

was to prohibit exploitation, right?

Because if you're having to borrow money,

then you're poor, right?

You need money.

And by taking, by practicing usury

and adding interest to what you lend to the poor,

you're not helping them,

but you're actually making their condition worse.

And because of that,

it usually was prohibited against the poor in the Bible.

And according to one modern psychologist's estimate,

they say up to about 16 million Americans

suffer from some kind of physical or emotional stress

from consumer debt.

And that's, I mean, the debt,

people's debt frequently leads to anxiety,

even divorces and suicides.

And, but the one whose walk is blameless

is not calculating to press one's own advantage

when someone is vulnerable,

but rather he's compassionate toward the poor,

gives without thinking about his own interest.

And so as we kind of look at all of these different descriptions

of the one whose walk is blameless,

verses two to five,

there's,

it's striking that all of it deals with

how to treat other people, right?

It doesn't say, for example,

who will sojourn in God's tent,

who will dwell on your holy hill?

And then it doesn't answer,

well, he who diligently searches God's word

and then communes with him in the heartfelt prayer, right?

It doesn't say that,

even though that's surely true, right?

To seek God's word and to pray.

And I think this omission doesn't suggest

that worshiping God

and cultivating our personal relationship with God

are unimportant.

Rather, I think it's focusing on our duty on others

because it would remind us

that our devotion to God,

coming to God in worship,

doesn't just encompass

our private personal relationship with him,

but encompasses our entire life

and how we deal with everything,

everyone in our lives

and everything that we do.

And that entirety of it must be worship.

And he who is worthy of approaching God in worship

is he who is always worshiping

in all that he does.

And Christians used to describe this kind of life

with the Latin phrase,

quorum deo,

which means before God,

the presence of God.

And that summarized the idea

that Christians ought to always live

in the presence of God,

under the authority of God,

and for the glory of God.

And the main point of this psalm, then,

is that it's only those who live

in the presence of God,

who live with the fear of God,

that are worthy to be in the presence of God.

So in every moment of our lives,

we have to live as if we're

in the very presence of God.

That's what this is calling us to.

And I think when some people think about that,

you know, they go,

oh man, that's kind of a scary thought, right?

Like that seems kind of stifling

or maybe even restrictive

to think that, oh man,

I'm living every moment of my life

under the watchful eyes of God.

But I think actually quite the opposite is true

because if you think about it,

driving on the road,

and I think this is,

you know, when you're driving on the highway

and all of a sudden there you see a police car

with the radar gun,

you know, everybody kind of slows to a crawl, right?

And that's because they weren't breaking the law, right?

For someone who's always driving at the speed limit,

they wouldn't flinch when they see a police officer

because they don't have anything to worry about, right?

But it's the people who are always

breaking the speed limit that flinch

and slow down even more

than they're supposed to

when they see a police officer.

So it's the people who are breaking the law

and doing whatever they want

that are really living in constant fear, right?

And to kind of expand that,

to extrapolate from that example,

it's always those who gossip and slander others

who are constantly afraid of being backstabbed by others

or always are worrying that other people

are talking behind their back, right?

It's always those people

who are constantly taking advantage of others

for their own gain.

They're always afraid that someone's cheating them

or they're being defrauded,

so they're suspicious of people, right?

It's always people who are double-minded

at duplicitous in their motives

that are living in fear of being exposed

for being a fraud.

So it's only the blameless, really,

that can live fearlessly.

And that's what this passage talks about.

It's only the blameless that can live fearlessly.

Only those who live in the presence of God

can truly dwell in the presence of God.

And those who do that,

the final promise,

so the question, the answer,

and the promise at the end in verse 5

is he who does these things

shall never be moved.

He who's walked is blameless,

is immovable.

They're unshakable.

And of course,

it doesn't mean that that person

will never suffer

or experience setbacks in their lives,

but that person is immovable

in the context of this passage,

which was,

who will dwell in God's holy hill?

That person whose walk is blameless

will always dwell in God's holy hill.

He is always going to have God's presence

with that person.

That's the promise.

And I think it's not a coincidence

that the editor of the Psalter

put Psalm 15,

like by Psalm 14,

because Psalm 14 just told us

that no one's blameless, right?

Verse 3 says,

they have all turned aside together,

they have become corrupt.

There's none who does good,

not even one.

And then it tells us in verse 15,

the person who's going to be

in the presence of God

must be blameless.

And I think that points

to its ultimate fulfillment

of the entire Psalter,

of the entire Old Testament

in Jesus, right?

No one is truly blameless.

No one can claim this promise

for themselves

to never be moved,

but to always dwell

in the presence of God,

because no one has successfully

lived every moment of their lives

as if they lived

before the very presence of God.

But Jesus did,

and he fulfilled

these commands for us.

And because he,

the perfect one,

died for us

and his righteousness

is given to us

through the cross

and through his resurrection,

that's why we can be assured

now as believers,

as we have put our trust

in Jesus,

that we can dwell

in God's holy hill,

that we can sojourn

in his very tent.

It's such an intimate

description with God.

And that promise

is really why we're here.

That's why we can gather

with the assurance

that God is going

to be with us.

And since God is with us,

let's pray to him.