INVITATION PSALM 15 MAIN IDEA GOD INVITES US TO SHARE HIS HOME AND HIS MISSION. I. HIS HOME (VS 1) God invites us into his home; Jesus invites us to invite Him into ours. A. INTRODUCTION B. INVITATION C. INHABITING II. HIS MISSION (VS 2-5a) God invites us to share in His ministry of redemption. A. LOVING THE WAY (2a) B. LOVING WITH OUR WORDS (2b-3) C. LOVING THE GOOD (4a) D. LOVING THROUGH SELF-SACRIFICE (4b-5a) III. HIS PROMISE (5b) God invites us to look for His promise. A. WALKING IN THE LIGHT B. STANDING ON THE ROCK
Invitation Psalm 15 In the last Psalm, the author painted a pretty bleak picture of human beings. His conclusion was that every human being has been contaminated by sin; we are all sinners living together with other sinners in a fallen world. Because of that, we have all suffered the consequences of our sin and the sin of others. In addition to that, we have been the cause of others suffering the consequences of our sin. After all that bad news, he ended the Psalm with hope. For us, Jesus has become the answer to our sin problem. We can be right with God based on the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus if we ask Him to apply these to our lives. We do that by giving our lives to God in faith. Listen to how the Apostle Paul summed it up: 9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved (Romans 10:9-10 / NLT). It s clear; the answer to our sin problem is Jesus. He will save anyone that asks to be saved. I want to remind us that the word for saved in Hebrew is the same root word as Jesus Name. The word for saved in Greek is actually the same word for healed. Sometimes we tend to think that all there is to our salvation is to be forgiven of our sin so we can spend eternity in heaven. Being saved from hell is a very important part of our salvation. However, there is much more to salvation. The main idea of this morning s text is this. GOD INVITES US TO SHARE HIS HOME AND HIS MISSION. I. HIS HOME (VS 1) Verse 1 reminds us that God has offered to share His home with us. GOD INVITES US INTO HIS HOME; JESUS INVITES US TO INVITE HIM INTO OURS. There are some things we need to address in this Psalm by way of introduction. It has been suggested that this Psalm was used as preparation for worshipers. As worshipers approached the city of Jerusalem, priests would help the worshipers prepare their hearts by reciting this Psalm, teaching it, and then helping the worshipers to memorize it. Remember these Psalms were songs. It would remind the worshipers that they were going to meet God. This would be helpful to the worshipers because rabbis had come with 613 commandments to be followed. This Psalm has only 11 to focus on. Jesus narrowed the commandments down to 2: Love God and Love our neighbors. However, Jesus described what genuine love for God and one another would look like in the Sermon on the Mount. If you study through Jesus sermon and take the commands in this Psalm seriously, we would easily be discouraged if we think we are going to be perfect. Here is an approach to these types of teachings. Jesus said that we should love our enemies. Here is what He said: 27 But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. 35 Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. 36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate (Luke 6:27, 35-36 / NLT). Page 2
Can you do that? Let s try and approach it like this. Let s ask ourselves this. What kind of person could do something like that? What would he or she look like? What steps can I take in order to become this type of person? That is a lifelong task. You see, if we simply try to obey the command to love our enemies; that is probably bound to fail. We first have to change the kind of person that we are; then we ll be able to do that. The goal in true Christianity is to change our hearts. As we get into this text this morning, I d like to quote from the prophet Micah: 6 With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown all you people what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God Micah 6:6-8 / TNIV) I think this an important concept to understanding the nature of this Psalm. There are no religious duties mentioned here. This is all about the lifestyle God wants for His children. True religion ought to manifest itself in the way we live. Formal worship is important but having great music, having people waving their arms and swaying their bodies, clapping their hands and saying amen don t prove a thing. How we act towards one another and others are much truer indicators of our faith. How husbands treat their wives, how wives treat their husbands, how parents treat their children, how we love each other here at church and how we treat others is what this Psalm is all about. Jesus tied loving our neighbors with loving God. The Apostle John put it this way: 20 If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For if we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another (1 John 4:20-21 / TNIV). Loving God means loving one another. Let s examine the invitation to live with God. In the first half of verse 1 the Psalmist asks, YAHWEH who may dwell in Your sanctuary? Mitchell Dahood translated the verse like this, YAHWEH, who shall be a guest in your tent? I kind of like that translation better because it uses the words guest and tent. The word in our text translated dwell and that Dahood translates guest is the Hebrew word guwr. The word has a sense of hospitality or seeking hospitality. It has the sense of temporariness. In order to be a guest at someone s house, you first need to be invited. You know, being invited is important. One day a superintendent decided he would come and preach at one of the churches under his jurisdiction. When he got up to preach, he noticed that only 3 people showed up for the service. Angrily the superintendent asked the local pastor, Didn t you let people know I was coming to preach? No, said the pastor, we tried to keep it quiet, but it looks like the word seems to have gotten around anyway. Look, the point is that God has always invited people to come into His presence. We have an open invitation to come into God s presence. Now let s look at the word translated sanctuary in our text and tent by Dahood. The word for sanctuary and tent in Hebrew is skēnē. It is the word used to describe the tabernacle; the tent that was set up in the middle of the Hebrew camp as they traveled through the wilderness. In reality, the only ones allowed into the tabernacle were priests. But God had His tent set up in the middle of camp so His children knew they were in His presence. Page 3
God has invited us to spend eternity in heaven with Him. If you are a believer and have invited Jesus into your heart, then you will spend eternity in heaven with God after you die. However, we don t have to wait until we die until we spend every moment with God. We can live personally and intimately with God right now. We are not only invited to live in heaven, we are invited to invite Jesus into our hearts. Jesus is described as inhabiting the lives of His believers. Listen to the invitation Jesus gives us: 20 Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends (Revelation 3:20 / NLT). Keep this in mind; Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Glory of God is now inviting us to invite Him to come and live in us. He is willing to come into our lives and take up permanent residence in us. Look at the second phrase in verse 1, who may live on Your holy mountain? The word used for live has to do with permanence. It has to do with inhabiting, abiding, settling in, or homesteading. But there is another interesting twist to this word. This is the root word from which we get the concept of the Shekinah Glory of God. Rabbis coined this word, Shekinah to describe the presence of God that filled the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. It is the physical presence and manifestation of God. When you think about it, it s amazing to think that the Shekinah Glory of God lives in you and me if we are believers. Listen to how the Apostle Paul put it: 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority (Colossians 2:9-10 / TNIV). Let s take a moment to think about that. The fullness of the Godhead lived in Jesus. That Shekinah Glory lives in Jesus and Jesus lives in us. Our bodies are temples of God; God lives in us. All we have to do is ask Him to come in. GOD INVITES US INTO HIS HOME; JESUS INVITES US TO INVITE HIM INTO OURS. II. HIS MISSION (VS 2-5a) If that sounds incredible, think about this. Not only does Jesus give us an open invitation to live with Him, He invites us to share His mission in verses 2 through the first half of verse 5. GOD INVITES US TO SHARE IN HIS MINISTRY OF REDEMPTION. Did you ever stop to really think that you and I are the method God chose to bring salvation to the world? Jesus gave up everything in heaven; He set aside all His God privileges and entitlements to come to earth to redeem us. In that plan, Jesus allowed Himself to suffer public humiliation, physical, emotional, and spiritual torture, and finally a painful and humiliating death so we could be redeemed from sin, Satan, and death. Jesus laid it all on the line so that human beings could be saved. And then, He returned to heaven and left the rest of the plan to His apostles. Today, Jesus has trusted you and me to carry out and finish the plan. As St. Francis used to say, We must preach the Gospel every day and use words if necessary. It s not enough to just talk about the Gospel; although that will be important. However, we must live the Gospel first. In the first half of verse 2 we must love the way. I love the way the pietists described the Christian life. They described it as a walk. Pastors and laypeople in the Evangelical Covenant Church will Page 4
often greet each other with the phrase, How s your walk? I like that. It seems to me that is the fundamental question we should be concerned with. Am I right with God and am I walking with Him? The word blameless may be a little misleading. It doesn t mean absolutely perfect in this sense. The phrase could be translated, Those who walk with integrity. In fact that s the way Dahood translates it. In other words, can people trust us? Can they trust that we are motivated out of love for God and love for them? I think this should be the case in all of our dealings whether in the church or outside the church. However, let s just apply this to our church family. If we are walking with integrity; I should be able to assume you love me and what you do is with loving intentions for me and the church as a whole. I should be able to assume that there are no selfagenda or secret motives in your actions towards me. You ought to be able to assume the same about me. As we have emphasized in our walk through the VERITAS program here at church; we need to be able to think the best about one another. If we can t do this in church with other believers, how can we hope to do that outside the church with unbelievers? We need to practice and exercise walking with integrity. The second phrase in the first half of verse 2 says that we are to do what is righteous. Again, I like Dahood s translation, practices justice. This is a lifelong pursuit. We need to practice and exercise at getting good at justice, righteousness, fairness, and faithfulness to God. Those are all parts of the Hebrew word tsedēq. Think about what kind of person walks with integrity; practicing justice, righteousness, fairness, faithfulness to God and love for people. What does that person look like? How close are you to looking like that person? What kinds of spiritual exercises and spiritual disciplines do you need to become like that person? Let s learn fall in love with the way God has mapped out for us and embrace it by walking with integrity. The second half of verse 2 and verse 3 describe the concept of loving with our words. I think I have mentioned this before but let me just quickly state it again. There have been times when I have been talking and all of a sudden my brain would say, That s the stupidest thing I ve ever heard, and yet, my mouth would just continue to go on speaking. This is one of the ways we can cause a great deal of damage to the church. It is one of the ways we can easily destroy one another s lives. Look at how this strophe is set up. The phrase in the second half of verse 2, who speak the truth from their hearts, and the second line in verse 3, who do their neighbors no wrong, have to do with the positive command of Jesus for us to love one another as He loves us. The first phrase of verse 3, who have no slander on their tongues, and the third phrase of verse 3, who cast no slur on others, remind us of the warning Jesus brother James gave us. He said this: 5 the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of one s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water (James 3:5-12 / TNIV). Page 5
Let s deal with this first. These two commandments were important enough to make it into the psalmist s song. They are 2 of the 11 commands in this song. We are not to slander or slur. Let me just give you some of the behaviors that includes. We are not to tell stories about others; we are not to gossip, nor cast doubts about other s character. We are not to scorn, shame, disgrace, or publicly humiliate others. Think about this the next time you are about to gossip or talk badly about another. James said that it is inconceivable that with the same mouth we can presume to praise God and then talk harmfully about each other, who are made in the image and likeness of God. Before we speak we should ask if what is about to come out of our mouth is consistent with our praise and worship. Now let s deal with the first concept that we should love one another as Jesus loves us. These two phrases, who speak the truth from their hearts, and who do their neighbors no wrong, clearly have to do with deep down genuine love for our neighbors. Let me start here at church and then you can continue to apply it to people outside the church we come in contact with in everyday life. Jesus said the world would recognize that we belong to Him based on the way we love one another. That doesn t just apply to the people we naturally love. It means that we are called to love everyone here at church. Jesus doesn t give us the opportunity to pick and choose. The words heart and no wrong are important here. Our mouths will almost always give away who we are. Jesus said this: 45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart (Luke 6:45 / NLT). It seems pretty clear to me. If we are people that gossip, speak negatively, speak angrily, or speak nasty to or about others; that is a clear indication that we have evil hearts. On the other hand, if Christ is living in our hearts then our words should be gracious. Here s how the Apostle Paul put it: 18 be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 2 0 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:18-20 / TNIV). Out of the overflow of the love of God in our hearts; our mouths will speak. This also takes practice and intentionality. What kind of person speaks like this? Where are we in our walk in becoming like this kind of person? What do we need to practice? In our quest to walk with integrity, the first half of verse 4 reminds us that loving the good is important to stay on track. Sometimes we are uncomfortable with commands like this one, Despise those whose ways are vile. Let remind us that this is poetry and further we have to look at literary techniques. For example, Jesus said: 26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters yes, even life itself such a person cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:26 / TNIV). Jesus did not literally mean we should hate our father, mother, husband wife, children, brothers and sisters. In fact in other places He commands us to love and honor our parents and spouses. He commands us to love our children. In fact He said that is the second great commandment; that Page 6
we should love one another. He is simply emphasizing the cost and commitment it takes to follow Him. In our poem this morning, it would help if I told you that the words despise and vile are synonyms that are closely related. Try and read the first line in verse 4 like this. Despise those who despise God and God s laws. In other words, in our society, we tend to idolize actors, actresses, sports heroes, and celebrities. Much of what they do in their private lives and sometimes even in their public lives are diametrically opposed to God and His standards. And yet even Christians get caught up in idolizing these people. We are not to get caught up in the worship of rich, powerful, and famous people. Instead, if we are walking with God, we will honor those who God honors. The second line in verse 4 is loaded. The psalm writer picked some awesome words. First of all, those who God chooses to honor are those who fear Him. This time the word fear means much more that being afraid. It means standing in awe of God, revering God, honoring God, respecting God, and loving God. Do you know people who that type of love for God just oozes out of? I got a chance to spend a week with Dallas Willard. You could just feel this type of honor, love, and respect for God just ooze out of every part of his being. I was in awe of just being with him. Now let s look at the word for honor. We have come across this word before; only the last time we came across it, it applied to God. The Hebrew word is kabod. Literally it means heavy. But it also means glory. God s glory is heavy. We also said that both kabod in the Hebrew and doxa in the Greek mean reputation. When we talk about God s glory, we are talking about His reputation. Now watch this in verse 4 here. If we want to walk in integrity, we are to give glory to those who love, honor, and respect God. God has chosen to share His glory with those who give glory to Him and we are to give glory to those who give glory to God. In other words, it is more important to look up to your Sunday school teachers, missionaries, those who volunteer in the church, pastors, and others who work for the Gospel; not to celebrities. And the bottom line for Christians is love as modeled by Christ. As described in the second half of verse 4 and the first half of verse 5, we are called to love through self-sacrifice. Too many Christians living in the United States today want to be served rather than to serve. We want things and expect others to sacrifice for us. But that is the exact opposite of the New Testament teaching. I think the two examples of self-sacrifice are merely examples or how we handle our finances and how we look at others. Before I give us the New Testament illustration, I want to go over the last sentence in verse 4, who keep their oaths even when it hurts. This is accurate but I think it misses the passion of the psalmist. Let me try to paraphrase it a different way. We are to keep our promises and commitments even if doing so will cause us great personal harm. In other words, if we are going to be good Christians and members of Devon Church; we must be willing to put the good of one another and the good of the church before our own desires. Here s how the Apostle Paul put it: 1 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. 3 Don t be selfish; don t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don t look out only for your own interests, but take Page 7
an interest in others, too. 5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had (Philippians 2:1-5 / NLT). Just think about how loving a place this would be if we worked at self-sacrifice for the good of one another and the good of our church. I can think of several people in my life who love with the kind of sacrificial love I have described. What would these kind of people look like? What would it take for us to become those kinds of people? GOD INVITES US TO SHARE IN HIS MINISTRY OF REDEMPTION. I am trying to picture in my mind what kind of person would want to bring God s redemption to all the people them meet; people who are willing to sacrifice their wants and desires in order to love God, love the church, and love the lost. I am going to do some self-examination to see what kinds of exercises and disciplines I need to engage in to get to that point. III. HIS PROMISE (5b) These are all based on God s promise as laid out in the second half of verse 5. GOD INVITES US TO LOOK FOR HIS PROMISE. The songwriter started out the Psalm by asking, Who can live and abide with God? Who can share God s home and God s mission? (My paraphrase) He then went on to list 11 qualities of people who are invited by God. And here he ends the song by punctuating it with an exclamation mark. The promises apply to God s children who choose to walk in the light. The sentence starts out with, Whoever does these things. The people who do these things are so in love with God that God s love fills them up so much that the love overflows them and spills out on to others who happen to be around them. The Apostle John summarized it like this: 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin (1 John 1:5-7 / TNIV). Did you catch that theme of walking in integrity? The way we live; the way we think, speak, and act will demonstrate what s in our hearts; the love of God or the love of self. But the point is that when we live for Christ by loving one another and loving the lost, we will not be moved. We will be standing on the Rock. We will be firmly planted on Jesus. Let me just close this promise with the words of Jesus Himself: 24 Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash (Matthew 7:24-27 / NLT). Page 8
GOD INVITES US TO LOOK FOR HIS PROMISE. This is an extremely positive Psalm. No wonder the priests taught this song to those on their way to the temple to worship. It is incredible to think that GOD INVITES US TO SHARE HIS HOME AND HIS MISSION. What kind of person lives out these commands we have looked at this morning? What do they look like? What would it take for us to be that kind of person? Lectio Divina Psalm 15 A psalm of David. 1 Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy mountain? 2 Those whose walk is blameless, who do what is righteous, who speak the truth from their hearts; 3 who have no slander on their tongues, who do their neighbors no wrong, who cast no slur on others; 4 who despise those whose ways are vile but honor whoever fears the Lord; who keep their oaths even when it hurts; 5 who lend money to the poor without interest and do not accept bribes against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken. Page 9