Psalm 15 - Who Can Enter Series

Summer in the Psalms 2024

Psalm 15

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

06-16-2024

That’s a Good Question

When you are young, you think that you have all the answers. As you grow older, you realize that you don’t even know some of the questions.

Questions are important. Here are some important questions from history:

To be or not to be? That is the question.

Where’s Waldo?

Who framed Roger Rabbit?

Does Barry Manilow know that you raided his wardrobe?

Where’s the beef?

Who let the dogs out?

Are we there yet?

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?

Who’s on First?

What would you do for a Klondike bar?

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

What you talking about Willis?

How much is that doggie in the window?

Which came first the chicken or the egg?

Who shot J.R.?

In Douglass Adams’s classic “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” a computer is programmed to discover the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.

After thousands of years, it finally spits out the answer - 42. Deep Thought, the supercomputer, then creates another supercomputer (the Earth). Thousands of years later, the answer was about to be spit out when Earth was destroyed to make way for a space highway.

All of those questions are trivial compared to the question that David begins this psalm with.

Background

All we know about Psalm 15 is that David wrote it. We don’t know the date or the circumstances that prompted David to write it.

Some commentators believe it could have been written when David brought the ark of God back to Jerusalem, dancing in his underwear in all his might (proving he wasn’t a Baptist!) (see 2 Sam 6)

It is what is called an entrance liturgy psalm. It could be a kind of Q and A script that a priest would use as worshippers approached the Temple to worship.

This Psalm asks a rhetorical question (who may enter God’s presence?) and then gives eleven ethical qualifications for those who God welcomes.

Psalm 24 asks the same question and there David focuses more on the ritual than the moral:

"Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.” (Psalm 24:3-4)

David begins Psalm 15 with the most important question in the universe - who is qualified to come into God’s presence?

It’s important to understand that David is not writing about what you must do to be saved. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But once we are saved, what does that look like practically?

Turn to Psalm 15.

Prayer.

Who Can Get In?

David begins with the question:

“Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?” (v. 1)

?He begins the Psalm by addressing the covenant name of God - Yahweh. This is the promise-keeping God whose love endures forever.

David’s two questions are the same but with a slight twist.

First, he asked who may “dwell” in your “sacred tent?”

The word “dwell” can be translated as “sojourn.” This implies a temporary guest in God’s tent, the place of God’s presence among the Israelites before the temple was built.

There were no Holiday Inns at this time and to give refuge to a foreign traveler would be expected in that culture.

The second question is stronger. Who may “live” on your “holy mountain?” (See Psalm 2:6) This is more of a permanent residence than just a temporary visit.

A resident alien would have no right of residence but would be there as a gracious guest of the host.

?No one lived at the Temple. Some priests worked at the Temple and were allowed, at certain times, to enter into God’s presence in the “holy of holies.”

David doesn’t want to visit God’s presence every once in a while. He wants to live there permanently.

The Sons of Korah feel the same way in Psalm 84:

“How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!  My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.” (Psalm 84:1,4)

A lot of people want to try to keep as much distance between themselves and God as possible. David was the opposite. He wanted to be as close to God as he could be.

So the opening question is what kind of man or woman will be allowed to dwell in God’s presence?

?David gives eleven qualifications in this short Psalm that tells us what type of person passes God’s entrance test.

Let’s take the test together. It will be good for us. For those who aren’t Christians yet, it will help you know what God requires. For those of you who are new Christians, it will help to know if we are on the right track. For us more seasoned believers, it will be a good checkup for us.