Psalm 15 - Ascend The Hill Series

Introduction:

• This psalm is simply titled A Psalm of David. In it, David meditates over the character of the man received into the presence of God. We have no precise occasion for this psalm, but this was a time when (most like when he was sojourning to the temple to make sacrifices); David was very much concerned with the questions asked and answered in this psalm.

• Our conversations about people reveal the type of relationship we have with them. (In other words, how I speak about you to others reflects how I really feel about you)

• In the same way, our prayers indicate where we are in our relationship with God.

• For David, his greatest desire begins with the first term, LORD / Yahweh), he is crying out to God because he wants to pursue him and know him in a deeper and more intimate manner.

• Master Chef & Master Chef Jr.

- I am a big fan of these shows however I can’t cook at all.

- I wouldn’t stand a chance to even get on Worst Cooks in America.

- I am good at Grilled Cheese sandwiches, after that my culinary skills plummet.

- I don’t have what it takes to be a chef.

• Who can possibly fulfill these requirements?

• God wants you to fall in love with him (daily).

15:1 - LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?

LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle?

• In one sense, David’s question here is figurative. Though he, like the sons of Korah, may have wished to live in the house of God (Psalm 84:2-4; 84:10), it was impossible for him because David was not a priest.

• The word translated abide can be better thought of as sojourn; it describes a visit, receiving the hospitality of a tent-dwelling host. This opening is understood in light of the customs of hospitality in the ancient Near East.

• The tabernacle of God was the great tent of meeting that God told Moses and Israel to build for Him during the Exodus (Exodus 25-31). This tabernacle survived through several centuries, and at David’s time seems to have been at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39-40).

• Since the tabernacle was the place where man met with God through the work of the priests and the practice of sacrifice, David’s longing to abide in Your tabernacle was actually a desire to abide in the presence of God.

• David has in mind the life that lives in the presence of God – who walks in close fellowship with God because the heart, the mind, and the life are all in step with the heart, mind, and life of God.

Who may dwell in Your holy hill?

• In one sense, David here simply uses the Hebrew technique of repetition to ask the same question as in the first part of the verse.

• The word dwell here has a more permanent sense than the word abide in the previous line. It is as if David wrote, “Who may be received as a guest into God’s tent, enjoying all the protections of His hospitality? Who may live as a citizen in His holy hill?”

• Since the tabernacle was not at God’s holy hill in David’s time (though the ark of the covenant was), David has two different – yet similar – places in mind.

15:2-3 - He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;

He who walks uprightly:

• In describing the character of the man who can live in God’s presence, David begins with two general descriptions (walks uprightly, and works righteousness).

• In one sense David speaks from an Old Covenant perspective. Though the Old Covenant gave an important place to sacrifice and atonement through blood, it also based blessing and cursing on obedience (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28). The disobedient could not expect blessing, including the blessing of God’s presence.

• The New Covenant gives us a different ground for blessing and relationship with God: the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Under the New Covenant, faith rather than performance is the basis for blessing.

• David’s principle is also accurate under the New Covenant in this sense: the conduct of one’s life is a reflection of his fellowship with God. As John wrote: If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth (1 John 1:6). We might say that under the Old Covenant a righteous walk was the precondition for fellowship with God; under the New Covenant a righteous walk is the result of fellowship with God, founded on faith.