July 6, 2025 • 31 mins
Martin Wagner July 6, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are in the Psalms this summer and we've looked
through several, and thismorning we are at Psalm 15.
But before we read the text, Iwant us to take a step back and
to think about not just what thePsalm says, but how is it that
we should interpret Psalm 15.
This intro is going to be alittle longer than usual, and I
(00:21):
just want to let you know I knowmy time limits.
This is a holiday weekend andyou showed up for worship, and
so I am well aware of that, sojust hang with me this morning.
First, as we look at how tointerpret, I want us to first
look at two ways that won't work, two ways of interpreting this
text that just will not work.
(00:41):
The first approach I'll callthe flat, moralizing method of
interpretation.
In this method, what we do aswe see this psalm is simply a
list of rules that you and I areto follow If you want to be in
God's presence.
Well, here are the list ofrules that you need to follow.
What changes do you need tomake in life?
Where do you not measure up?
(01:03):
So here's some strategies,here's some inspiration in order
for you to measure up to whatGod requires.
That's fine.
It's easy to read it that way,but the problem with that is
that you don't actually needJesus.
You can interpret the psalm inthat way and never actually need
a Savior.
There are a whole host of otherreligions, there are self-help
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programs, there are theoriesthat you can go to to help you
improve your behavior.
But if we can interpret anytext in the Bible and conclude
at the end of it that we don'tneed a Savior, then I would
contend that we've notinterpreted it in the way that
God intended us to read it.
Now, does every verse in theBible give us a direct reference
to the person and work of Jesus?
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Well, of course not.
That includes Psalm 15.
But rather the whole storylineof the Bible.
The entire story is about Jesus.
Alec Mateer, as an OldTestament scholar, says that
Jesus is the master theme of theBible, and I like that picture
that Jesus is not just a theme.
He is the theme into whicheverything else in the Bible
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flows.
Think about it this way isPsalm 15 more like an entry in a
dictionary or a paragraph in anovel?
In a dictionary?
The context and the overalltheme?
They are irrelevant.
One word stands on its own.
It doesn't matter what wordcomes before it or comes after
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it.
But not so with a paragraph ina novel the meaning of the
paragraph.
You have to understand theentire novel to understand
exactly what the paragraph means.
We can't interpret Psalm 15 asthough it were an entry in a
dictionary if it is divorcedfrom the rest of the Bible.
We have to see Psalm 15 as apart of a grander narrative, as
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a story that God is telling tous in His Word.
So that's, on the one hand, wehave the method of flat
moralizing Just do what it says,just do it.
But on the other extreme, wehave the leapfrog method of
interpretation.
We read the text in such a waythat we leapfrog over what is
actually being said in the text.
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We know that we can't do whatit requires.
These are really hardcommandments for us to live up
to.
So let's just leapfrog overthose and get to Jesus so we can
feel better about it.
But here's what that's like.
I want you to try to imaginethis.
I want you to imagine that aclose friend of yours has really
hurt you, they've gossipedabout you and they have really
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damaged your reputation.
And as you are working throughyour hurt and your anger at this
close friend who has hurt you.
You go to confront them and yousay can we talk about it?
Can we talk about how you'vehurt me?
And before you can get onesentence out, they fold like a
cheap suit.
They begin to say I'm so sorry,I'm so sorry, I'm such a
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terrible friend, will you pleaseforgive me?
Do you feel understood by thatfriend?
Does it feel like theyunderstood how they hurt you?
Does it feel like theyunderstand your pain?
If that's their response?
Well, of course not, because intheir anxiety and in their
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shame, they just want to getover feeling bad and get to the
forgiveness and not actuallyunderstand how they hurt you.
And so they leapfrog overlistening to you and we can read
texts like Psalm 15 in thatexact same way.
The beauty and the goodness thatthey describe to us can make us
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feel uncomfortable becausewe're so much not like that, and
so we want to skip over it andjust get to the part about Jesus
so that we can feel better.
But here's the thing that'strue you and I can't do what
Psalm 15 is going to require ofus.
We can't do what the rest ofthe Scriptures require of us do
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what the rest of the Scripturesrequire of us.
But if we leapfrog over thetext, we don't actually face
reality.
We're not honest with what theBible says, we're not honest
with ourselves and we're nothonest with God either, and so
neither the flat moralizingapproach nor the leapfrog method
are going to work as weinterpret Psalm 15.
What I hope to do this morningis to take the text seriously,
looking at the demands of whatit requires and seeing how that
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points us to our Savior.
But in doing so we canunderstand.
Where does Psalm 15 fit inwithin the novel of Scripture?
What part does it have to play?
And so, with that introduction,let's read the text, psalm 15.
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Hear God's word to us today.
Nor takes up a reproach againsthis friend in whose eyes a vile
person is despised, but whohonors those who fear the Lord,
who swears to his own hurt anddoes not change, he who does not
put out his money at interestand does not take a bribe
against the innocent.
He who does these things shallnever be moved.
(06:21):
Amen, let's pray.
Gracious God, we give youthanks for your Word that is
living and active in us, and sowe pray that as we hear and read
Psalm 15, that, as we confessour need, we know that we don't
just need understanding of yourWord.
We need it to transform ourhearts.
And so, by your Holy Spirit, wepray that you would open our
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eyes to see Jesus.
We pray that you would softenour hearts, that we could
receive your truth today, and wepray that you would strengthen
our wills that we might walk inyour ways.
And so speak, lord, speak, foryour servants are listening, and
we pray this in Jesus' nameAmen, amen.
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Can you remember a time in whichyou have been homesick, in
which you have felt that ache inyour chest and the restlessness
when you are away from thepeople and the places that you
love?
We sent our two oldest kids offto camp this week and we have
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not received the I'm homesickletter yet.
But it may come and that's okay.
One sense of which beinghomesick is good, because it
means that you have somethingthat is worth missing.
It means that your home is aplace of acceptance and warmth
and comfort and love.
A place of acceptance andwarmth and comfort and love.
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But if we're honest, the achefor home doesn't just go away.
When we grow up and we have anaddress of our own, the scenery
may change, from a summer campto college, to a new job in a
new town, but the desire that westill have to be home doesn't
go away.
We want to be known, we want tobe loved, we want to belong
somewhere, and it's no wonderthat one of the most famous
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lines in all of Americanstorytelling comes from the
Wizard of Oz.
After all of Dorothy'sadventures and meeting friends
and facing danger and chasingfalse hopes, she closes her eyes
and clicks her heels and saysthere's no place like home.
There's no place like home.
And when she does, she wakes upsafe in her own bed, surrounded
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by the people who love her.
That line has stayed withgenerations of people because it
touches something that is deepin the human heart.
All of us, in one way oranother.
We are looking for home.
We are looking for a place inwhich we can be loved and
accepted not just a roof overour heads, but rest for our
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souls.
It is a longing that goes allthe way back to the Garden of
Eden, when Adam and Eve walkedwith the garden in perfect peace
with God.
They dwelled with God.
That was home for us, but theysinned and they were kicked out
of the garden, and we have beentrying to find our way back ever
since.
Psalm 15 begins with a questionthat speaks to the homesickness
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that we all feel O Lord, whoshall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holyhill?
In other words, who gets tocome home to God?
Who is it that gets to live inthe presence of God?
And that's what we will exploretoday in Psalm 15.
We're going to look at it inthree parts.
First is the audience of thepsalm.
The second, we'll see thevision of the psalm and lastly,
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the invitation of the psalm.
So first let's begin by lookingat the audience, who's Psalm 15
was written for.
I want you to imagine that thisweek you're going to pack up the
car and you're going to headout west and you're going to
visit a national parkYellowstone Park or Grand Canyon
or somewhere like that.
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There are a lot of things thatyou're going to need to pack for
your trip this week, but twothings that are essential for
you, two pieces of paper thatare essential for you, are you
need a ticket and you need atour book.
But how are those two pieces ofpaper different?
The ticket gets you inside thepark and the tour book tells you
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how you enjoy the park.
And the question before us isPsalm 15, our passage this
morning.
Is Psalm 15 more like a ticketor is it more like a tour book?
Is this Psalm about how weenter into the presence of God
or how we enjoy the presence ofGod?
To help us answer that question, I want to look at verse 1,
particularly the verbs in verse1 that give us a hint.
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Verse 1, who shall dwell, whoshall sojourn?
These are not words aboutaccess.
These are words about abiding.
These are words about livingand enjoying the presence of God
.
Commentators agree that thispsalm was used as some sort of
temple song.
People would sing this as theywere on the presence of God.
Commentators agree that thispsalm was used as some sort of
temple song.
People would sing this as theywere on the way to worship.
But don't miss that these weresongs sung by worshipers.
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These were songs sung by peoplewho were headed to worship,
people who were inside thecovenant community, and so I
think verse 1 leads us to thinkthat Psalm 15 is more of a tour
book of how we enjoy thepresence of God than a ticket of
how we access God, the audienceof this psalm are the redeemed
people of God.
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Just like the Torah book forYellowstone will show you.
Well, here's where you go ifyou want to experience the
riches of Yellowstone NationalPark.
Psalm 15 shows us here's howlife is lived best.
You want to enjoy the life thatGod has given you.
This is how life is lived best.
Old Testament scholar DerekKidner says this verse 1 in our
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psalm refers to dwelling ratherthan gaining admission, for the
qualities that this psalmdescribes are those that God
creates in man, not those hefinds in him.
And so verse 1 is asking who isit that can enjoy fellowship
with God?
Who is it that is on the pathto Eden restored?
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And to be clear, the emphasison this being a tour book rather
than a ticket does not decreaseour need for the grace of God.
It does not decrease our needfor the atoning work.
It does not decrease our needfor the atoning work of Christ
and His perfect obedience givento us.
It does not decrease our needfor the renewing grace of the
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Holy Spirit at work in our lives.
We need the Spirit's work inour hearts if we are to
experience the joy of God'spresence.
The picture here is not of Godjust dropping us off at the gate
to the national park and saying, well, good luck, I hope you
enjoy the park.
It is a vision of life that islived in dependence and upon
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appreciation of the grace thatwe have received in Jesus.
So now that we've seen theaudience it's the redeemed
people of God let's turn to thesecond part.
What is the vision that Psalm15 holds out for us?
Like I alluded to at thebeginning of the sermon, it can
be easy to read verses 2 to 5,and you think well, I don't walk
blamelessly, I don't speak thetruth from my heart, I'm selfish
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, I want to take from myneighbor rather than to give to
my neighbor.
We see our failures and we'veconfessed that in our call to
confession from 1 Peter thismorning, and we've confessed
that in our call to confessionfrom 1 Peter this morning and
we're tempted to gloss over it,and we're tempted to not
actually pay attention to whatPsalm 15 says and we miss the
beauty of what it says.
We miss that Psalm 15 shows ushow life works best.
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In our family, our Christmastradition is that we eat gumbo.
I cook gumbo on Christmas Eve,and one of the things that you
learned over time is that theworst possible gumbo you can
have is fresh gumbo.
It needs to sit around for alittle while if it's going to be
good, and so it needs to cookon the back burner for a while.
And it actually needs to sit inthe refrigerator for a few days
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for the flavors to all developfully, for a few days for the
flavors to all develop fully.
If you rush gumbo, you're notgoing to fully enjoy the beauty
and complexity of the dish Likea good gumbo.
Psalm 15 needs a little bit oftime to develop in our hearts.
It needs time to simmer.
So let's give the psalm alittle bit of time.
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Let's look at verses 2 to 5 andsee what it says.
Scholars note that there areeither 10 or 11 commandments in
these four verses, depending onhow you divide them, and there's
really no consensus as to howthey should be grouped together.
But I found it most helpful.
The way we'll look at it thismorning is to group them into
general categories of life, andthat's what we'll look at.
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First, we're going to look athow verses 2 to 5 talk about our
words, about how we communicatewith one another, and secondly,
we'll talk about how itexamines our values and then,
lastly, our relationships.
So verses 2 to 5 talk about ourwords.
How do these reveal the goodlife with our words?
David talks about someone whospeaks the truth in their heart
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and someone whose tongue thereis no slander, who does no evil
to his neighbor nor takes up areproach against his friends.
I want us to think about how weuse our words today.
So often our words today lacktruth and they are full of
slander.
They are the exact opposite ofwhat God requires of us.
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We can hide behind screens andwe can say things online that we
would never, ever say tosomeone's face.
We tear each other down incomment sections, we spread
rumors on group text and wethink it's okay because it's
just social media.
I was at our denominationsjournal assembly a few weeks ago
and it was a gathering of youngpastors and it was a panel
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discussion and the question wasasked what is it?
How can we, as a denomination,maintain peace in the midst of
disagreements that we have?
And without exception, all ofthe panelists had the exact same
answer Get off social media.
And those responses were metwith a thunderous roar and
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clapping.
And you heard it right therewere Presbyterian pastors and
elders who clapped when theyheard something, something to
think about this week.
Before sending or postinganything virtually, ask yourself
would I say that?
Would I say the same thing if Iwere looking at them face to
face?
If the answer's no, then don't.
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Instead, if you have somethingdifficult to say, find a way to
meet in person.
Find a way to say something aspersonally as you can.
What if you and I, what if ourchurch, we were known as people
who spoke the truth in love,people who built others up with
our words rather than tearingthem down?
What if your friends knew thatthey could trust you to tell the
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truth, even when it wasdifficult?
What if you could trust thatwhat you shared in confidence
would stay in confidence withyour friends?
What if you never had to worrywhat people were saying about
you behind your back?
Imagine that you never had toworry if someone was telling you
the truth or if they were justtelling you the convenient truth
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that made life easier for them.
Do you see how this psalm givesus a vision for the good life?
How much better would life beif we used our words for these
kinds of ways, rather thantearing other people down.
Next, the psalm talks about ourvalues.
Not just our words, but ourvalues.
What are the things?
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Who are the people that weesteem and value?
The psalmist describes someonewho does what is right and
someone who despises a vileperson but honors those who fear
the Lord.
This is about having rightpriorities, about knowing what
actually matters in life.
Look around at the kind ofpeople that we celebrate in life
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.
Who are our heroes?
We make celebrities out ofpeople who are famous only
because we have decided thatthey are people who are famous.
We admire people for theirwealth and their possessions and
their followers and their goodlooks and we make no worry of
their character.
We follow influencers who lookperfect online, but behind the
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scenes their lives are a wreck.
We do the opposite of Psalm 15.
We honor the vile, we honorthose who exploit us, we honor
those who lie to us, we honorthose who cheat us and we
despise those who fear the Lord.
We have no place for quiet,godliness and contentment.
We look at something like theSermon on the Mount and we think
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that being poor in spirit andbeing meek and being peacemakers
those are things that are to bedespised.
Give us something with powerand strength.
What if we looked up to peoplewho were genuinely worth
admiring, people who kept theirpromises, people who treated
others well, people who livedwith integrity?
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How would our lives bedifferent if these were the
people we valued?
And finally, the last groupinghas to do with our relationships
.
David describes someone whodoes no wrong to his neighbor,
who keeps an oath even when ithurts, who lends money to the
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poor without interest and whilerefusing to accept a bribe
against the innocent.
These verses speak to our civic, to our business relationships
that we have.
The kind of life thatflourishes in God's presence is
one that doesn't take economicadvantage over those who are
poor and needy.
Now, when we read the rest ofthe Scriptures, the Bible
doesn't forbid wholesale lendingmoney, but what is in view here
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in Psalm 15 is exploiting thosewho are in a difficult spot in
life through exorbitant interestor lending terms and wielding
power to abuse those who arepoor and needy.
Psalm 15 presents a world whereeveryone is treated with
dignity and respect, regardlessof their station in life,
because they are made in theimage of God.
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But the psalm also describesthe kind of person that you can
depend on in life about who willhelp you, even when it hurts.
Think about your relationshipsright now.
How many people in your lifewould help you, even if it cost
them something, even if it werea major inconvenience for them?
Now flip it around.
Are you that kind of person forthe people in your life?
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When you make a promise, dopeople around you know that you
will keep that promise, evenwhen it's inconvenient?
Here's a specific application.
Think of you know that you willkeep that promise, even when
it's inconvenient.
Here's a specific application.
Think of one promise that youhave been putting off, that
you've made.
That you have been putting offbecause it's become inconvenient
or costly, and maybe it'shelping someone move and it's
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really hot, and I get that youprobably don't want to help them
move.
Or having a difficultconversation with someone
because it just seems awkward,but the loving thing would be to
go and to have the difficultconversation or following
through on a commitment that youmade months ago.
We work against.
We fight against the fabric ofGod's created order when we are
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not trustworthy, when we abuseand we mistreat other image
bearers, when we abuse and wemistreat other image bearers.
And so, as we let thesecommandments simmer on our
hearts.
I want you to imagine with mewhat would our church look like
if we lived Psalm 15 lives.
What if we were known forspeaking the truth, in love and
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honoring others and livingsacrificially?
What if our lives looked likethe opposite of the latest
headlines a community withoutgossip or slandering.
A community of honesty andtransparency, where you could
trust that when you heardsomething, someone was telling
you the truth.
A people of sacrificialgenerosity, who cared even when
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it wasn't convenient and whogave even when it was costly.
Think about that kind of church.
Wouldn't that be a city on ahill that the world around us
couldn't ignore?
Psalm 15 paints a beautifulpicture of the life that God
desires for us, and what I wantto do is for us to look at Psalm
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15 and for that to create alonging in us for this kind of
life, but I want it to create alonging in you that is detached
from any contingency of blessingor acceptance, because our
temptation is to read this psalmand to read other psalms like
it as if it were a ladder, andwe need to climb this ladder in
order to get God.
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I want us to read this psalmnot as a means to get God, but
as a means to enjoy God.
Not as a means of earning aticket to get our way in, but as
a tour book to show us how lifeworks best.
But the question or theobjection that is beneath that
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desire that I expressed is thiswhy should you want to live in
accordance with what Psalm 15says?
If you trust in Jesus, ifyou've already got your ticket
in, if you're justified inChrist, if you're fully accepted
, if you're fully acquitted,forever secure in Him, if
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obeying will not make you anyiota more loved, any more
accepted, if you don't get bonuspoints with God for obeying
Psalm 15, and if even our bestattempts at obedience are still
stained with sin andimperfection, why then should we
obey?
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The easy answer would be to saygo read chapter 16 of the
Westminster Confession of Faith.
But if you aren't familiar withthe Westminster Confession,
it's a document that summarizeswhat we believe the Bible
teaches and what we believe as achurch.
And here's a summary of whatchapter 16 of the Confession
teaches about good works that weobey not to earn God's love,
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but because we already have it.
Our good works can't earnforgiveness and they will always
be imperfect, and we obey inorder to show our gratitude to
God and to reflect the beauty ofthe gospel and for us to
realize that God delights in oursincere efforts to love and
obey Him and when we are unitedto Christ, even our weak and our
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flawed and our imperfectobedience is accepted in Him,
because if you belong to Jesus,you are accepted and therefore
your good works are accepted inHim.
Not because your works areperfect, but because your Savior
is perfect and they areaccepted in Him.
God sees your efforts throughthe work of Jesus and he is
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pleased.
He's pleased even though ourworks are messy and flawed, and
I think that is something thatwe need to hear and that we need
to let sink into our heartsthat God delights.
God delights in our sincereefforts to love and obey Him In
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a similar way that a fatherdelights with an imperfect
birthday card that is given tohim by one of his children.
That birthday card doesn't makehim more of a child, but it
expresses the joy that he has asa child and in his fatherly
love.
The imperfection of the messybirthday card doesn't repel him
from his child.
It actually only draws hisheart even closer in.
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What we see is that Goddelights when his imperfect,
sinful children in faith seek toobey him.
And that leads us to our thirdpoint.
We've looked at the audience ofthe psalm in verse 1, the vision
of the psalm in verses 2 to 5.
Now let's look briefly at theinvitation of the psalm.
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How does Psalm 15 invite us todwell in the presence and joy of
God?
How can a sinful people dwellwith the Holy God?
To really understand the answerto this question, we have to
zoom out, we have to think aboutthe novel.
Where does this paragraph fitwithin the overall story of the
Bible?
And what we see is that thispsalm actually taps into what
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the entire Bible is about.
You could summarize the entireBible with this one sentence
that our God is a God who wantsto dwell with His people.
In the Garden of Eden, you and Ihad this.
We dwelled and we lived inperfect relationship with God.
The Garden of Eden was thefirst tabernacle, it was the
first temple, it was the firstholy hill in the Bible.
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We had a home, but Adam and Eve, their sin, drove us out.
And the rest of the Bible tellsthe story of us trying to gain
access of God, trying to make away to bring us back home the
tabernacle in the wilderness andlater the temple on Mount Zion.
They were places where thepresence of god met with his
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people, where heaven and earthmet.
They were means by which sinfulpeople could enter into the
presence of a sinless god.
But the tabernacle and thetemple, they had strict
boundaries, they had limitedaccess.
But the message was this thatdespite the rebellion and sin of
God's people, that God wouldkeep His promises, that he would
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stop at nothing to dwell withHis people.
But in the coming of Jesus, thequestion of who can dwell with
God is answered finally andfully.
So the question of Psalm 15 isin verse 1, who can dwell on
your holy hill?
And the rest of the psalm givesus that answer.
Follow these things and you candwell on God's hill.
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Who has done Psalm 15?
The answer is Jesus and onlyJesus.
He is the only one who hasperfectly fulfilled all of what
Psalm 15 requires and all thatthe rest of the law of God
requires.
Where we have spoken falsely,jesus spoke only truth.
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Where we have broken our word,he has kept every single promise
and as the last Adam, jesuslived out Psalm 15.
But here is the beautiful truthof the gospel.
When we trust in Jesus, hisperfect record becomes our
perfect record.
We are treated, we are seen, asthough we have done everything
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that he has done for us, and sothat is why we don't have to
choose between leapfrogging andflat moralizing.
We don't have to read Psalm 15as a checklist in order to earn
God's favor.
We don't have to skip over thebeauty of what is put out before
us because we are afraid offalling short.
Instead, we look to Christ forcomplete forgiveness and
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acceptance, and from that secureplace, we depend on the
Spirit's work in us, not inbegrudging compliance, but we
depend on the Spirit's work inus for joyful, spirit-filled,
gratitude-driven obedience.
We live the Psalm 15 life notto get home, but because we're
already home.
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And so here's what I want toleave you with today who can
dwell with God?
Anyone and everyone who willlook to Jesus.
You don't have to earn your wayin to dwell with God.
You don't have to click yourheels and wish that you were
home.
You already have a home if youtrust in Jesus and you're not a
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guest.
You are family, you are lovedand accepted and you have a seat
at the table.
And, as our psalm ends those wholook to Jesus will never be
moved and they will never beshaken.
And so that homesickness thatyou and I still feel, that is
the echo of Eden in all of us,pointing us toward our true home
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in Christ.
And when we trust in Jesus, weare welcomed home.
We are welcome to dwell withGod on His holy hill forever.
You and I are not homelesswanderers trying to find our way
back to God.
No, we are beloved children whoare already safe in our
Father's house.
And so let us rest and let usrejoice in that truth.
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Let's pray, our Father.
We thank you that in Christ,the One who was true and
blameless, that in Him that weare welcomed home and that we
could never climb your holy hill.
We thank you that Jesus camedown, that we might go up, and
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so, lord, help us now by yourSpirit to live as those who
belong to you, not as those whoneed to earn your love.
Let our hearts rest in thegrace that you have given to us
and let our lives reflect yourglory.
We pray this in Jesus' name,amen.
We are in the Psalms this summer and we've looked
through several, and thismorning we are at Psalm 15.
But before we read the text, Iwant us to take a step back and
to think about not just what thePsalm says, but how is it that
we should interpret Psalm 15.
This intro is going to be alittle longer than usual, and I
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just want to let you know I knowmy time limits.
This is a holiday weekend andyou showed up for worship, and
so I am well aware of that, sojust hang with me this morning.
First, as we look at how tointerpret, I want us to first
look at two ways that won't work, two ways of interpreting this
text that just will not work.
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The first approach I'll callthe flat, moralizing method of
interpretation.
In this method, what we do aswe see this psalm is simply a
list of rules that you and I areto follow If you want to be in
God's presence.
Well, here are the list ofrules that you need to follow.
What changes do you need tomake in life?
Where do you not measure up?
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So here's some strategies,here's some inspiration in order
for you to measure up to whatGod requires.
That's fine.
It's easy to read it that way,but the problem with that is
that you don't actually needJesus.
You can interpret the psalm inthat way and never actually need
a Savior.
There are a whole host of otherreligions, there are self-help
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programs, there are theoriesthat you can go to to help you
improve your behavior.
But if we can interpret anytext in the Bible and conclude
at the end of it that we don'tneed a Savior, then I would
contend that we've notinterpreted it in the way that
God intended us to read it.
Now, does every verse in theBible give us a direct reference
to the person and work of Jesus?
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Well, of course not.
That includes Psalm 15.
But rather the whole storylineof the Bible.
The entire story is about Jesus.
Alec Mateer, as an OldTestament scholar, says that
Jesus is the master theme of theBible, and I like that picture
that Jesus is not just a theme.
He is the theme into whicheverything else in the Bible
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flows.
Think about it this way isPsalm 15 more like an entry in a
dictionary or a paragraph in anovel?
In a dictionary?
The context and the overalltheme?
They are irrelevant.
One word stands on its own.
It doesn't matter what wordcomes before it or comes after
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it.
But not so with a paragraph ina novel the meaning of the
paragraph.
You have to understand theentire novel to understand
exactly what the paragraph means.
We can't interpret Psalm 15 asthough it were an entry in a
dictionary if it is divorcedfrom the rest of the Bible.
We have to see Psalm 15 as apart of a grander narrative, as
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a story that God is telling tous in His Word.
So that's, on the one hand, wehave the method of flat
moralizing Just do what it says,just do it.
But on the other extreme, wehave the leapfrog method of
interpretation.
We read the text in such a waythat we leapfrog over what is
actually being said in the text.
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We know that we can't do whatit requires.
These are really hardcommandments for us to live up
to.
So let's just leapfrog overthose and get to Jesus so we can
feel better about it.
But here's what that's like.
I want you to try to imaginethis.
I want you to imagine that aclose friend of yours has really
hurt you, they've gossipedabout you and they have really
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damaged your reputation.
And as you are working throughyour hurt and your anger at this
close friend who has hurt you.
You go to confront them and yousay can we talk about it?
Can we talk about how you'vehurt me?
And before you can get onesentence out, they fold like a
cheap suit.
They begin to say I'm so sorry,I'm so sorry, I'm such a
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terrible friend, will you pleaseforgive me?
Do you feel understood by thatfriend?
Does it feel like theyunderstood how they hurt you?
Does it feel like theyunderstand your pain?
If that's their response?
Well, of course not, because intheir anxiety and in their
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shame, they just want to getover feeling bad and get to the
forgiveness and not actuallyunderstand how they hurt you.
And so they leapfrog overlistening to you and we can read
texts like Psalm 15 in thatexact same way.
The beauty and the goodness thatthey describe to us can make us
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feel uncomfortable becausewe're so much not like that, and
so we want to skip over it andjust get to the part about Jesus
so that we can feel better.
But here's the thing that'strue you and I can't do what
Psalm 15 is going to require ofus.
We can't do what the rest ofthe Scriptures require of us do
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what the rest of the Scripturesrequire of us.
But if we leapfrog over thetext, we don't actually face
reality.
We're not honest with what theBible says, we're not honest
with ourselves and we're nothonest with God either, and so
neither the flat moralizingapproach nor the leapfrog method
are going to work as weinterpret Psalm 15.
What I hope to do this morningis to take the text seriously,
looking at the demands of whatit requires and seeing how that
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points us to our Savior.
But in doing so we canunderstand.
Where does Psalm 15 fit inwithin the novel of Scripture?
What part does it have to play?
And so, with that introduction,let's read the text, psalm 15.
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Hear God's word to us today.
Nor takes up a reproach againsthis friend in whose eyes a vile
person is despised, but whohonors those who fear the Lord,
who swears to his own hurt anddoes not change, he who does not
put out his money at interestand does not take a bribe
against the innocent.
He who does these things shallnever be moved.
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Amen, let's pray.
Gracious God, we give youthanks for your Word that is
living and active in us, and sowe pray that as we hear and read
Psalm 15, that, as we confessour need, we know that we don't
just need understanding of yourWord.
We need it to transform ourhearts.
And so, by your Holy Spirit, wepray that you would open our
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eyes to see Jesus.
We pray that you would softenour hearts, that we could
receive your truth today, and wepray that you would strengthen
our wills that we might walk inyour ways.
And so speak, lord, speak, foryour servants are listening, and
we pray this in Jesus' nameAmen, amen.
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Can you remember a time in whichyou have been homesick, in
which you have felt that ache inyour chest and the restlessness
when you are away from thepeople and the places that you
love?
We sent our two oldest kids offto camp this week and we have
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not received the I'm homesickletter yet.
But it may come and that's okay.
One sense of which beinghomesick is good, because it
means that you have somethingthat is worth missing.
It means that your home is aplace of acceptance and warmth
and comfort and love.
A place of acceptance andwarmth and comfort and love.
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But if we're honest, the achefor home doesn't just go away.
When we grow up and we have anaddress of our own, the scenery
may change, from a summer campto college, to a new job in a
new town, but the desire that westill have to be home doesn't
go away.
We want to be known, we want tobe loved, we want to belong
somewhere, and it's no wonderthat one of the most famous
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lines in all of Americanstorytelling comes from the
Wizard of Oz.
After all of Dorothy'sadventures and meeting friends
and facing danger and chasingfalse hopes, she closes her eyes
and clicks her heels and saysthere's no place like home.
There's no place like home.
And when she does, she wakes upsafe in her own bed, surrounded
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by the people who love her.
That line has stayed withgenerations of people because it
touches something that is deepin the human heart.
All of us, in one way oranother.
We are looking for home.
We are looking for a place inwhich we can be loved and
accepted not just a roof overour heads, but rest for our
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souls.
It is a longing that goes allthe way back to the Garden of
Eden, when Adam and Eve walkedwith the garden in perfect peace
with God.
They dwelled with God.
That was home for us, but theysinned and they were kicked out
of the garden, and we have beentrying to find our way back ever
since.
Psalm 15 begins with a questionthat speaks to the homesickness
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that we all feel O Lord, whoshall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holyhill?
In other words, who gets tocome home to God?
Who is it that gets to live inthe presence of God?
And that's what we will exploretoday in Psalm 15.
We're going to look at it inthree parts.
First is the audience of thepsalm.
The second, we'll see thevision of the psalm and lastly,
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the invitation of the psalm.
So first let's begin by lookingat the audience, who's Psalm 15
was written for.
I want you to imagine that thisweek you're going to pack up the
car and you're going to headout west and you're going to
visit a national parkYellowstone Park or Grand Canyon
or somewhere like that.
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There are a lot of things thatyou're going to need to pack for
your trip this week, but twothings that are essential for
you, two pieces of paper thatare essential for you, are you
need a ticket and you need atour book.
But how are those two pieces ofpaper different?
The ticket gets you inside thepark and the tour book tells you
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how you enjoy the park.
And the question before us isPsalm 15, our passage this
morning.
Is Psalm 15 more like a ticketor is it more like a tour book?
Is this Psalm about how weenter into the presence of God
or how we enjoy the presence ofGod?
To help us answer that question, I want to look at verse 1,
particularly the verbs in verse1 that give us a hint.
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Verse 1, who shall dwell, whoshall sojourn?
These are not words aboutaccess.
These are words about abiding.
These are words about livingand enjoying the presence of God
.
Commentators agree that thispsalm was used as some sort of
temple song.
People would sing this as theywere on the presence of God.
Commentators agree that thispsalm was used as some sort of
temple song.
People would sing this as theywere on the way to worship.
But don't miss that these weresongs sung by worshipers.
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These were songs sung by peoplewho were headed to worship,
people who were inside thecovenant community, and so I
think verse 1 leads us to thinkthat Psalm 15 is more of a tour
book of how we enjoy thepresence of God than a ticket of
how we access God, the audienceof this psalm are the redeemed
people of God.
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Just like the Torah book forYellowstone will show you.
Well, here's where you go ifyou want to experience the
riches of Yellowstone NationalPark.
Psalm 15 shows us here's howlife is lived best.
You want to enjoy the life thatGod has given you.
This is how life is lived best.
Old Testament scholar DerekKidner says this verse 1 in our
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psalm refers to dwelling ratherthan gaining admission, for the
qualities that this psalmdescribes are those that God
creates in man, not those hefinds in him.
And so verse 1 is asking who isit that can enjoy fellowship
with God?
Who is it that is on the pathto Eden restored?
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And to be clear, the emphasison this being a tour book rather
than a ticket does not decreaseour need for the grace of God.
It does not decrease our needfor the atoning work.
It does not decrease our needfor the atoning work of Christ
and His perfect obedience givento us.
It does not decrease our needfor the renewing grace of the
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Holy Spirit at work in our lives.
We need the Spirit's work inour hearts if we are to
experience the joy of God'spresence.
The picture here is not of Godjust dropping us off at the gate
to the national park and saying, well, good luck, I hope you
enjoy the park.
It is a vision of life that islived in dependence and upon
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appreciation of the grace thatwe have received in Jesus.
So now that we've seen theaudience it's the redeemed
people of God let's turn to thesecond part.
What is the vision that Psalm15 holds out for us?
Like I alluded to at thebeginning of the sermon, it can
be easy to read verses 2 to 5,and you think well, I don't walk
blamelessly, I don't speak thetruth from my heart, I'm selfish
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, I want to take from myneighbor rather than to give to
my neighbor.
We see our failures and we'veconfessed that in our call to
confession from 1 Peter thismorning, and we've confessed
that in our call to confessionfrom 1 Peter this morning and
we're tempted to gloss over it,and we're tempted to not
actually pay attention to whatPsalm 15 says and we miss the
beauty of what it says.
We miss that Psalm 15 shows ushow life works best.
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In our family, our Christmastradition is that we eat gumbo.
I cook gumbo on Christmas Eve,and one of the things that you
learned over time is that theworst possible gumbo you can
have is fresh gumbo.
It needs to sit around for alittle while if it's going to be
good, and so it needs to cookon the back burner for a while.
And it actually needs to sit inthe refrigerator for a few days
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for the flavors to all developfully, for a few days for the
flavors to all develop fully.
If you rush gumbo, you're notgoing to fully enjoy the beauty
and complexity of the dish Likea good gumbo.
Psalm 15 needs a little bit oftime to develop in our hearts.
It needs time to simmer.
So let's give the psalm alittle bit of time.
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Let's look at verses 2 to 5 andsee what it says.
Scholars note that there areeither 10 or 11 commandments in
these four verses, depending onhow you divide them, and there's
really no consensus as to howthey should be grouped together.
But I found it most helpful.
The way we'll look at it thismorning is to group them into
general categories of life, andthat's what we'll look at.
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First, we're going to look athow verses 2 to 5 talk about our
words, about how we communicatewith one another, and secondly,
we'll talk about how itexamines our values and then,
lastly, our relationships.
So verses 2 to 5 talk about ourwords.
How do these reveal the goodlife with our words?
David talks about someone whospeaks the truth in their heart
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and someone whose tongue thereis no slander, who does no evil
to his neighbor nor takes up areproach against his friends.
I want us to think about how weuse our words today.
So often our words today lacktruth and they are full of
slander.
They are the exact opposite ofwhat God requires of us.
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We can hide behind screens andwe can say things online that we
would never, ever say tosomeone's face.
We tear each other down incomment sections, we spread
rumors on group text and wethink it's okay because it's
just social media.
I was at our denominationsjournal assembly a few weeks ago
and it was a gathering of youngpastors and it was a panel
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discussion and the question wasasked what is it?
How can we, as a denomination,maintain peace in the midst of
disagreements that we have?
And without exception, all ofthe panelists had the exact same
answer Get off social media.
And those responses were metwith a thunderous roar and
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clapping.
And you heard it right therewere Presbyterian pastors and
elders who clapped when theyheard something, something to
think about this week.
Before sending or postinganything virtually, ask yourself
would I say that?
Would I say the same thing if Iwere looking at them face to
face?
If the answer's no, then don't.
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Instead, if you have somethingdifficult to say, find a way to
meet in person.
Find a way to say something aspersonally as you can.
What if you and I, what if ourchurch, we were known as people
who spoke the truth in love,people who built others up with
our words rather than tearingthem down?
What if your friends knew thatthey could trust you to tell the
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truth, even when it wasdifficult?
What if you could trust thatwhat you shared in confidence
would stay in confidence withyour friends?
What if you never had to worrywhat people were saying about
you behind your back?
Imagine that you never had toworry if someone was telling you
the truth or if they were justtelling you the convenient truth
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that made life easier for them.
Do you see how this psalm givesus a vision for the good life?
How much better would life beif we used our words for these
kinds of ways, rather thantearing other people down.
Next, the psalm talks about ourvalues.
Not just our words, but ourvalues.
What are the things?
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Who are the people that weesteem and value?
The psalmist describes someonewho does what is right and
someone who despises a vileperson but honors those who fear
the Lord.
This is about having rightpriorities, about knowing what
actually matters in life.
Look around at the kind ofpeople that we celebrate in life
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.
Who are our heroes?
We make celebrities out ofpeople who are famous only
because we have decided thatthey are people who are famous.
We admire people for theirwealth and their possessions and
their followers and their goodlooks and we make no worry of
their character.
We follow influencers who lookperfect online, but behind the
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scenes their lives are a wreck.
We do the opposite of Psalm 15.
We honor the vile, we honorthose who exploit us, we honor
those who lie to us, we honorthose who cheat us and we
despise those who fear the Lord.
We have no place for quiet,godliness and contentment.
We look at something like theSermon on the Mount and we think
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that being poor in spirit andbeing meek and being peacemakers
those are things that are to bedespised.
Give us something with powerand strength.
What if we looked up to peoplewho were genuinely worth
admiring, people who kept theirpromises, people who treated
others well, people who livedwith integrity?
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How would our lives bedifferent if these were the
people we valued?
And finally, the last groupinghas to do with our relationships
.
David describes someone whodoes no wrong to his neighbor,
who keeps an oath even when ithurts, who lends money to the
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poor without interest and whilerefusing to accept a bribe
against the innocent.
These verses speak to our civic, to our business relationships
that we have.
The kind of life thatflourishes in God's presence is
one that doesn't take economicadvantage over those who are
poor and needy.
Now, when we read the rest ofthe Scriptures, the Bible
doesn't forbid wholesale lendingmoney, but what is in view here
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in Psalm 15 is exploiting thosewho are in a difficult spot in
life through exorbitant interestor lending terms and wielding
power to abuse those who arepoor and needy.
Psalm 15 presents a world whereeveryone is treated with
dignity and respect, regardlessof their station in life,
because they are made in theimage of God.
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But the psalm also describesthe kind of person that you can
depend on in life about who willhelp you, even when it hurts.
Think about your relationshipsright now.
How many people in your lifewould help you, even if it cost
them something, even if it werea major inconvenience for them?
Now flip it around.
Are you that kind of person forthe people in your life?
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When you make a promise, dopeople around you know that you
will keep that promise, evenwhen it's inconvenient?
Here's a specific application.
Think of you know that you willkeep that promise, even when
it's inconvenient.
Here's a specific application.
Think of one promise that youhave been putting off, that
you've made.
That you have been putting offbecause it's become inconvenient
or costly, and maybe it'shelping someone move and it's
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really hot, and I get that youprobably don't want to help them
move.
Or having a difficultconversation with someone
because it just seems awkward,but the loving thing would be to
go and to have the difficultconversation or following
through on a commitment that youmade months ago.
We work against.
We fight against the fabric ofGod's created order when we are
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not trustworthy, when we abuseand we mistreat other image
bearers, when we abuse and wemistreat other image bearers.
And so, as we let thesecommandments simmer on our
hearts.
I want you to imagine with mewhat would our church look like
if we lived Psalm 15 lives.
What if we were known forspeaking the truth, in love and
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honoring others and livingsacrificially?
What if our lives looked likethe opposite of the latest
headlines a community withoutgossip or slandering.
A community of honesty andtransparency, where you could
trust that when you heardsomething, someone was telling
you the truth.
A people of sacrificialgenerosity, who cared even when
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it wasn't convenient and whogave even when it was costly.
Think about that kind of church.
Wouldn't that be a city on ahill that the world around us
couldn't ignore?
Psalm 15 paints a beautifulpicture of the life that God
desires for us, and what I wantto do is for us to look at Psalm
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15 and for that to create alonging in us for this kind of
life, but I want it to create alonging in you that is detached
from any contingency of blessingor acceptance, because our
temptation is to read this psalmand to read other psalms like
it as if it were a ladder, andwe need to climb this ladder in
order to get God.
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I want us to read this psalmnot as a means to get God, but
as a means to enjoy God.
Not as a means of earning aticket to get our way in, but as
a tour book to show us how lifeworks best.
But the question or theobjection that is beneath that
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desire that I expressed is thiswhy should you want to live in
accordance with what Psalm 15says?
If you trust in Jesus, ifyou've already got your ticket
in, if you're justified inChrist, if you're fully accepted
, if you're fully acquitted,forever secure in Him, if
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obeying will not make you anyiota more loved, any more
accepted, if you don't get bonuspoints with God for obeying
Psalm 15, and if even our bestattempts at obedience are still
stained with sin andimperfection, why then should we
obey?
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The easy answer would be to saygo read chapter 16 of the
Westminster Confession of Faith.
But if you aren't familiar withthe Westminster Confession,
it's a document that summarizeswhat we believe the Bible
teaches and what we believe as achurch.
And here's a summary of whatchapter 16 of the Confession
teaches about good works that weobey not to earn God's love,
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but because we already have it.
Our good works can't earnforgiveness and they will always
be imperfect, and we obey inorder to show our gratitude to
God and to reflect the beauty ofthe gospel and for us to
realize that God delights in oursincere efforts to love and
obey Him and when we are unitedto Christ, even our weak and our
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flawed and our imperfectobedience is accepted in Him,
because if you belong to Jesus,you are accepted and therefore
your good works are accepted inHim.
Not because your works areperfect, but because your Savior
is perfect and they areaccepted in Him.
God sees your efforts throughthe work of Jesus and he is
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pleased.
He's pleased even though ourworks are messy and flawed, and
I think that is something thatwe need to hear and that we need
to let sink into our heartsthat God delights.
God delights in our sincereefforts to love and obey Him In
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a similar way that a fatherdelights with an imperfect
birthday card that is given tohim by one of his children.
That birthday card doesn't makehim more of a child, but it
expresses the joy that he has asa child and in his fatherly
love.
The imperfection of the messybirthday card doesn't repel him
from his child.
It actually only draws hisheart even closer in.
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What we see is that Goddelights when his imperfect,
sinful children in faith seek toobey him.
And that leads us to our thirdpoint.
We've looked at the audience ofthe psalm in verse 1, the vision
of the psalm in verses 2 to 5.
Now let's look briefly at theinvitation of the psalm.
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How does Psalm 15 invite us todwell in the presence and joy of
God?
How can a sinful people dwellwith the Holy God?
To really understand the answerto this question, we have to
zoom out, we have to think aboutthe novel.
Where does this paragraph fitwithin the overall story of the
Bible?
And what we see is that thispsalm actually taps into what
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the entire Bible is about.
You could summarize the entireBible with this one sentence
that our God is a God who wantsto dwell with His people.
In the Garden of Eden, you and Ihad this.
We dwelled and we lived inperfect relationship with God.
The Garden of Eden was thefirst tabernacle, it was the
first temple, it was the firstholy hill in the Bible.
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We had a home, but Adam and Eve, their sin, drove us out.
And the rest of the Bible tellsthe story of us trying to gain
access of God, trying to make away to bring us back home the
tabernacle in the wilderness andlater the temple on Mount Zion.
They were places where thepresence of god met with his
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people, where heaven and earthmet.
They were means by which sinfulpeople could enter into the
presence of a sinless god.
But the tabernacle and thetemple, they had strict
boundaries, they had limitedaccess.
But the message was this thatdespite the rebellion and sin of
God's people, that God wouldkeep His promises, that he would
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stop at nothing to dwell withHis people.
But in the coming of Jesus, thequestion of who can dwell with
God is answered finally andfully.
So the question of Psalm 15 isin verse 1, who can dwell on
your holy hill?
And the rest of the psalm givesus that answer.
Follow these things and you candwell on God's hill.
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Who has done Psalm 15?
The answer is Jesus and onlyJesus.
He is the only one who hasperfectly fulfilled all of what
Psalm 15 requires and all thatthe rest of the law of God
requires.
Where we have spoken falsely,jesus spoke only truth.
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Where we have broken our word,he has kept every single promise
and as the last Adam, jesuslived out Psalm 15.
But here is the beautiful truthof the gospel.
When we trust in Jesus, hisperfect record becomes our
perfect record.
We are treated, we are seen, asthough we have done everything
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that he has done for us, and sothat is why we don't have to
choose between leapfrogging andflat moralizing.
We don't have to read Psalm 15as a checklist in order to earn
God's favor.
We don't have to skip over thebeauty of what is put out before
us because we are afraid offalling short.
Instead, we look to Christ forcomplete forgiveness and
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acceptance, and from that secureplace, we depend on the
Spirit's work in us, not inbegrudging compliance, but we
depend on the Spirit's work inus for joyful, spirit-filled,
gratitude-driven obedience.
We live the Psalm 15 life notto get home, but because we're
already home.
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And so here's what I want toleave you with today who can
dwell with God?
Anyone and everyone who willlook to Jesus.
You don't have to earn your wayin to dwell with God.
You don't have to click yourheels and wish that you were
home.
You already have a home if youtrust in Jesus and you're not a
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guest.
You are family, you are lovedand accepted and you have a seat
at the table.
And, as our psalm ends those wholook to Jesus will never be
moved and they will never beshaken.
And so that homesickness thatyou and I still feel, that is
the echo of Eden in all of us,pointing us toward our true home
(30:01):
in Christ.
And when we trust in Jesus, weare welcomed home.
We are welcome to dwell withGod on His holy hill forever.
You and I are not homelesswanderers trying to find our way
back to God.
No, we are beloved children whoare already safe in our
Father's house.
And so let us rest and let usrejoice in that truth.
(30:24):
Let's pray, our Father.
We thank you that in Christ,the One who was true and
blameless, that in Him that weare welcomed home and that we
could never climb your holy hill.
We thank you that Jesus camedown, that we might go up, and
(30:46):
so, lord, help us now by yourSpirit to live as those who
belong to you, not as those whoneed to earn your love.
Let our hearts rest in thegrace that you have given to us
and let our lives reflect yourglory.
We pray this in Jesus' name,amen.
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