Many of the giants of church history have read the psalms through the lens of the coming of Christ. John Calvin once wrote that in the psalms, “Christ Himself speaks.” He viewed this Christ-centered understanding of the psalms as the “plain sense” of the text. Certainly, Christ and the apostles in the NT teach us to read the entire OT in light of the incarnation.
When we do that with Psalm 15, we receive a wonderful reminder of who we are in Christ.
A Christless reading of Psalm 15 might not be the most encouraging way to spend a few minutes. Consider:
1 O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
Who can be in the presence of the Lord? What kind of person can stand in His presence?
2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;
Who among us can honestly say he or she has done this? Who has walked blamelessly? I certainly haven’t! But the real difficulty is speaking the truth in one’s heart. It’s relatively easy to tell the truth with my mouth. I do it all the time. But in my heart? Who only ever thinks true things? Who among us doesn’t need the constant correction of our thoughts by the Scriptures in the hands of the Holy Spirit?
3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
Never slandered? Never wronged a neighbor? Never wronged a friend? Were we to keep a ledger of our own such offenses from our earliest days, we might need to co-opt John’s language and say, “Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written”! (John 21:25)
4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
Are we able to stand under the scrutiny of this verse or are we more like the author of Psalm 73, who envied the arrogant upon seeing the prosperity of the wicked? Most of us at one time or another have envied rather than despised the vile person. More difficult is the latter half of the verse, which essentially describes a person who never breaks a promise even if it becomes very costly to him. Who among us hasn’t broken a promise?
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.
Maybe none of us lend money at all, but if we’re well-versed in the OT, we recognize that this thing of charging interest is emblematic of all kinds of ways that we take advantage of people. Ever taken advantage of someone? Used someone for your own benefit? Surely, we all have.
The end of v5 ties the whole thing back to v1. He who does these things will not be moved. He who is perfect in all these ways, he is able to sojourn in Yahweh’s tent. He is able to dwell on Yahweh’s holy hill. All others? No.
Depressed?
Don’t be. Galatians 3:27 reads, For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
If we read Psalm 15 in light of the perfect record of Christ, we should enjoy great comfort.
1 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;
I’ve walked anything but blamelessly and constantly battle falsehood in my heart; but Jesus knew no sin, and was full of grace and truth (2 Cor 5:21; John 1:14). I am in Him.
3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
I’ve done all these things many times; but there was no deceit in Jesus’ mouth, He loved even His enemies, and gave His life for His friends (Isa 53:9; Luke 23:34; John 15:13). I am in Him.
4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
I’ve been perfectly imperfect in justice, and broken countless promises; Jesus is perfect in justice and will judge all nations; He keeps His Word to His own hurt (Isa 42:1; Matt 12:18; 28:6; 1 John 5:20). I am in Him.
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.
I have certainly taken advantage of others; yet, Jesus has only ever helped the weak and needy who come to Him (Matt 11:28-30). I am in Him.
Jesus’ perfect record is my record. 1 Cor 1:30 reads, And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is my righteousness. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).
So, let’s consider the psalmists question from v1 again: O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
The answer? All those who by faith have put on Christ!
The proof is in Eph 2:4-8: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith…
By grace through faith, I have been baptized into Christ. I have clothed myself with Christ. I may dwell in His holy hill.
Praise God for Jesus Christ, the righteous (1 John 2:1), lauded in Psalm 15.
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