Who Shall Dwell On Your Holy Hill?

Dakota Community Church

November 24, 2013

Who Shall Dwell on

Your Holy Hill?

Psalm 15

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

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 neighbour, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honours 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. He who does these things shall never be moved.

On the table here is life with a Holy God.

Who qualifies?

Here is what we must do if we want to live in God’s presence.

1. Walk blamelessly and do right.

Psalm 15:2a

2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right...

What does it mean to walk blamelessly and do right?

Is it to try your best? Is it to do more good than bad? What is meant by blameless?

Mark 10:17-22

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

God’s standard is so high as to seem absurd to us.

Our automatic response to these passages is, “It can’t mean what it seems to mean.”

When we talk about sin, is there ever a case when you must except blame?

When we talk about holiness, is there ever a case where you must admit to having done wrong?

What does this mean concerning your chances of living with God?

2. Speak only truth.

Psalm 15:2b

2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;

Think about what a wide range this is; first notice the phrase “in his heart”, this really expands the ground covered by this verse doesn’t it.

Psalm 44:20-21

If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?

Luke 16:13-15

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

So this “speaking” is not not only dealing with audible words, rather goes all the way to the heart level. Have you ever accidentally said something out loud and then thought, “Did I just say that out loud?” This includes the things you didn’t say out loud.

Now for a minute think about the other word in this little half sentence; “truth”

John 18:33-38

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”