Psalms 14 & 15

Psalms 14 - 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… (15:1-2)

What an interesting contrast to the prior psalm - if we were to answer the question only in light of most of Psalm 14, the answer to these questions would be “No one! No not one” (14:3).  But while, on the one hand, that is true, on the other hand we have pictured a way of living (cf. Psalm 1) that God desires and designs for us, that at the same time is (1) a dwelling and sojourning in God’s Presence, and (2) benefits and blesses those around me.  And the first (1), it seems to me, impacts and enables the second (2). 

I do think only One Person finally walked "blamelessly," and I surely can never merit a blessed, secure place with God based on my goodness or blamelessness, but I also think to stop there, or to not develop all that that means, might do injustice to this psalm.  Some are prone to dismiss such descriptions of a holy life as unattainable, or just to prove to us that we can never fully get there (implication, let's not try) but throw myself on the mercy and grace of God (absolutely, yes yes yes!).

Psalm 15 paints a picture of a holy life, one to which I should aspire, when life is going well, and when I am suffering - a life which is for God’s glory and my (and my neighbor’s) good.  On the recommendation of a seventeen year old who has experienced a similar grief to mine, I have finished C.S. Lewis’ “A Grief Observed,” (very helpful this time) and am rereading “The Problem of Pain” in which Lewis discusses God’s Goodness.  The Goodness of God includes, first (1) loving us just as we are, AND secondly (2) loving us so much and so perfectly that God will not leave us as we are.  

From the point of view of the Apostle Paul, and Jesus in, for example, John 15-16, related to Jesus I can abide in God and love my neighbor well.  And it is that relationship, that communion, through which the Word and the Spirit work in my thinking, my attitudes, my motives, my volition, my intentions, my actions, which slowly, but surely, works a transformation from the fool of Psalm 14 toward the blameless, righteous, loving person of Psalm 15.

Let me be explicit here in what I've implied - I love how David goes on to describe what walking blamelessly and doing what is right looks like:

2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right

  and speaks truth in his heart;
3 who does not slander with his tongue

and does no evil to his neighbor,

nor takes up a reproach against his friend;

4 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;

5 who does not put out his money at interest

and does not take a bribe against the innocent.

As a whole, this Psalm is kind of like "Love God with all your heart and soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself" (or “by loving your neighbor as yourself”) - can’t separate one from the other.  The psalmist is inspired to basically say, for God, “If you want to hang out with Me, and enjoy my Presence, be good to others, especially those with less leverage than you."

Abiding with God, sojourning with God, communion with God,
Living in God,
must mean the sanctification and beautification of my life, which in turn effects my stability and security in God and in the world (“He who does these things shall never be moved.”)

The adornment of God's Tabernacle is not silver or gold, or sacred artifacts, statues or paintings, tapestries or stained glass (as beautiful and uplifting as these may be).  It is you and me, loving our neighbor.