Psalms for Life, A Blameless Walk Psalm 15

- In Psalm 15, David tells us that one whose walk is blameless and who does what is right, that one's worship is acceptable to God.

- I don't know about you, but when I think about the kind of person that David describes, I don't measure up. How can I? How can you?

- I'm also quite sure there's only one who does measure up.

- When I read this Psalm the first person I think about is Jesus.

- The life described by the psalmist is the kind of life, Jesus lived and he invites us to live in his strength.

- For an unshakable life, live right before God.

- Let's note the qualities of a person who may be in God's presence, whose worship is acceptable to God.

- ² Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, (1)
    speaking the truth from sincere hearts (2).
³ Those who refuse to gossip (3)
    or harm their neighbors (4)
    or speak evil of their friends (5).
⁴ Those who despise flagrant sinners,(6)
    and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,(7)
    and keep their promises even when it hurts.(8)
⁵ Those who lend money without charging interest,(9)
    and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.(10)

- Do you find it interesting that there are 10 qualities listed by David in the Psalm? Does that remind you of anything? The 10 Commandments, maybe?!

- So David is noting for us that the qualities of a person who is acceptable to be in the presence of God and whose worship is accepted in God's sight, their qualities are of an ethical nature rather than ritual or traditional.

- For us and our worship to be acceptable to God, what we think and say we believe has to match what's in our hearts and in our lives.

- One of the things that we need to take from this right-away is that worship is not about how or what, but about who and why.

- Worship is about right relationship. It's about God.

- God cares very little about the style of our worship or the rituals or traditions we follow.

- What God cares about is the character of those who worship him.
- Another thing we need to take from this right-away is that God cares about who we are and how we live, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

- While Sunday morning is important, worship is more important than just Sunday morning.

- Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?
    Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
 Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right...

- An acceptable life is about living right before almighty God. For an unshakeable life, live right before God.

- As we continue looking at this Psalm, we begin to recognize the values that David is talking about are the values of the kingdom of the heavens, where God reigns and where his will is done.

- A person who has given over his or her life in submission to Jesus as his student is a person whose life will grow more and more to reflect the qualities David describes in Psalm 15.

- Generally speaking, citizens of the kingdom of heaven (1) lead blameless lives and do what is right.

- They will look like those who not only do not do what is bad, but also do what is good.

- And (2) citizens of God's kingdom will also speak the truth from sincere hearts.

- They develop the habit of thinking good thoughts, which leads to doing good deeds.

- Specifically, (3)they refuse to gossip, the citizen of the kingdom of the heavens will not be a gossip.

- We use the excuse, "we don't gossip, we share in love," but let's be honest most of what we call "sharing in love" is really gossip and therefore a sin against God and against one another.

- Gossip is not a value that members of God's household should wish to cultivate.

- Gossip wreaks havoc on the witness and walk of one whose life is supposed to be blameless.

- (4) The citizens of God's kingdom also seek to do no harm to their neighbors.

- The New Testament instructs us that as far as it depends upon each one of us, we are to live in peace with everyone, if at all possible and if not possible, we need to be on our knees before the Lord forgiving our those who harm us rather than seeking to harm them.

- The instruction of the law regarding how we are to treat our neighbors is plain: you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.

-We also need to examine our own lives and evaluate whether or not we have wronged or harmed our neighbors.

- (5)Citizens of the heavenly kingdom will not speak evil of their friends.

- Proverbs tells us, faithful are the wounds of a friend, and also, a friend loves at all times.

- Friendship requires words that build up rather than words that tear down.

- A person who treats or speaks to others with scorn, reproach, or contempt is not a friend or acting out of friendship.

- (6) Citizens of God's kingdom despise flagrant sinners. 

- The way of Jesus is different. While Jesus spent his time with tax collectors and sinners because it is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick, he also called attention to the hypocrisy of the religious right and left.

- While we do remember that David is a man after God's own heart and that many of his Psalms foreshadow the coming of Christ, we must also remember that it is God who is the judge of the unrepentant sinners who continuously flaunt their sins and revel in them.

- For many years, many have said, love the sinner, hate the sin, but the church has been doing a far more thorough job in hating the sin, and a far less enthusiastic job of loving the sinner.

- (7) Heaven's citizens honor the faithful followers of the Lord. It would be a far better thing for us in the church and for those outside the church if we would honor those that fear the Lord, who have been faithful examples and whose lives demonstrate a faith in Jesus Christ that works.

- Honoring one another above ourselves and encouraging one another and building each other up honors God and Christ's body, the church.

- We are called to hold one another in high regard for the sake of Jesus Christ and his Church, anything less reduces the visibility of the image of God in one another, dampens our zeal, limits our love, and chokes our witness

- (8) Citizens of God's kingdom keep their promises even when it hurts.

- The image used here by David is of one who keeps a business arrangement, even when it is no longer advantageous, but results in sacrifice just to keep one's word.

- Are we prepared to keep our agreements even when it looks like they are no longer to our advantage?

- The crucifixion certainly did not look like it was anything to Jesus advantage, yet his sacrifice resulted in purchasing our freedom from sin and death.
- (9) Lend money without charging interest - Jesus takes this suggestion further.  In Luke 6, he instructed his disciples to love their enemies, do good to them, and loan them money all while expecting nothing in return.

- Common sense tells us that when we love those who hate us and do good to them and even loan them money we ought not to expect anything in return, let alone interest.

- Freely you have received, freely give. This value is a quality represented in one whose heart is in full submission to the kingdom of heaven.
- (10) Cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.  The image here is one of the court of law in which neither the judge nor any witness yield to the temptation to sabotage justice by accepting a bribe against an innocent person.

- Most of us will probably never have to worry about giving or receiving monetary bribes that subvert justice, but we do need to consider how this plays out in daily life.

- For example, as I look around my house, I see a lot of stuff, stuff I feel I really need; stuff I feel I've got to have, but really, how much stuff do I really need?

- Am I not really lying to myself? Don't we all accept bribes and lie to ourselves about how much stuff we really need?

- How many of us are bribed by sales flyers and commercials and sales tags to buy things we don't really need when that money could be going to ministry to the poor, the needy, the innocent?

- In Psalm 15, David invites his readers to accept the challenge of a blameless walk so that our life and our worship is acceptable to God.

- If we are walking with God, allowing him to work in&on us about all these things and more, then David has this to say: Such people will stand firm forever.

^{- This Psalm is one of those passages that we can use to examine our lives in cooperation with the Spirit of God.}

^{- At the end of the day or week we can prayerfully meditate upon this Psalm evaluating our day(s).}

^{- God can use it to teach us to stand firm forever if we let him.}

- For an unshakeable life, live right before God.