Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
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Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
Psalm 15:1-5; Who Shall Dwell on Your Holy Hill
Martin Wagner July 6, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin
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We are in the Psalms this summer and we've looked through several, and this morning we are at Psalm 15. But before we read the text, I want us to take a step back and to think about not just what the Psalm says, but how is it that we should interpret Psalm 15. This intro is going to be a little longer than usual, and I just want to let you know I know my time limits. This is a holiday weekend and you showed up for worship, and so I am well aware of that, so just hang with me this morning. First, as we look at how to interpret, I want us to first look at two ways that won't work, two ways of interpreting this text that just will not work. The first approach I'll call the flat, moralizing method of interpretation. In this method, what we do as we see this psalm is simply a list of rules that you and I are to follow If you want to be in God's presence. Well, here are the list of rules that you need to follow. What changes do you need to make in life? Where do you not measure up? So here's some strategies, here's some inspiration in order for you to measure up to what God requires. That's fine. It's easy to read it that way, but the problem with that is that you don't actually need Jesus. You can interpret the psalm in that way and never actually need a Savior. There are a whole host of other religions, there are self-help programs, there are theories that you can go to to help you improve your behavior. But if we can interpret any text in the Bible and conclude at the end of it that we don't need a Savior, then I would contend that we've not interpreted it in the way that God intended us to read it.
Speaker 1:Now, does every verse in the Bible give us a direct reference to the person and work of Jesus? Well, of course not. That includes Psalm 15. But rather the whole storyline of the Bible. The entire story is about Jesus. Alec Mateer, as an Old Testament scholar, says that Jesus is the master theme of the Bible, and I like that picture that Jesus is not just a theme. He is the theme into which everything else in the Bible flows. Think about it this way is Psalm 15 more like an entry in a dictionary or a paragraph in a novel? In a dictionary? The context and the overall theme? They are irrelevant. One word stands on its own. It doesn't matter what word comes before it or comes after it. But not so with a paragraph in a novel the meaning of the paragraph. You have to understand the entire novel to understand exactly what the paragraph means.
Speaker 1:We can't interpret Psalm 15 as though it were an entry in a dictionary if it is divorced from the rest of the Bible. We have to see Psalm 15 as a part of a grander narrative, as a story that God is telling to us in His Word. So that's, on the one hand, we have the method of flat moralizing Just do what it says, just do it. But on the other extreme, we have the leapfrog method of interpretation. We read the text in such a way that we leapfrog over what is actually being said in the text. We know that we can't do what it requires. These are really hard commandments for us to live up to. So let's just leapfrog over those and get to Jesus so we can feel better about it. But here's what that's like.
Speaker 1:I want you to try to imagine this. I want you to imagine that a close friend of yours has really hurt you, they've gossiped about you and they have really damaged your reputation. And as you are working through your hurt and your anger at this close friend who has hurt you. You go to confront them and you say can we talk about it? Can we talk about how you've hurt me? And before you can get one sentence out, they fold like a cheap suit. They begin to say I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm such a terrible friend, will you please forgive me? Do you feel understood by that friend? Does it feel like they understood how they hurt you? Does it feel like they understand your pain? If that's their response? Well, of course not, because in their anxiety and in their shame, they just want to get over feeling bad and get to the forgiveness and not actually understand how they hurt you. And so they leapfrog over listening to you and we can read texts like Psalm 15 in that exact same way.
Speaker 1:The beauty and the goodness that they describe to us can make us feel uncomfortable because we're so much not like that, and so we want to skip over it and just get to the part about Jesus so that we can feel better. But here's the thing that's true you and I can't do what Psalm 15 is going to require of us. We can't do what the rest of the Scriptures require of us do what the rest of the Scriptures require of us. But if we leapfrog over the text, we don't actually face reality. We're not honest with what the Bible says, we're not honest with ourselves and we're not honest with God either, and so neither the flat moralizing approach nor the leapfrog method are going to work as we interpret Psalm 15. What I hope to do this morning is to take the text seriously, looking at the demands of what it requires and seeing how that points us to our Savior. But in doing so we can understand.
Speaker 1:Where does Psalm 15 fit in within the novel of Scripture? What part does it have to play? And so, with that introduction, let's read the text, psalm 15. Hear God's word to us today. Nor takes up a reproach against his friend 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, he 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. Amen, let's pray. Gracious God, we give you thanks for your Word that is living and active in us, and so we pray that as we hear and read Psalm 15, that, as we confess our need, we know that we don't just need understanding of your Word. We need it to transform our hearts. And so, by your Holy Spirit, we pray that you would open our eyes to see Jesus. We pray that you would soften our hearts, that we could receive your truth today, and we pray that you would strengthen our wills that we might walk in your ways. And so speak, lord, speak, for your servants are listening, and we pray this in Jesus' name Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Can you remember a time in which you have been homesick, in which you have felt that ache in your chest and the restlessness when you are away from the people and the places that you love? We sent our two oldest kids off to camp this week and we have not received the I'm homesick letter yet. But it may come and that's okay. One sense of which being homesick is good, because it means that you have something that is worth missing. It means that your home is a place of acceptance and warmth and comfort and love. A place of acceptance and warmth and comfort and love.
Speaker 1:But if we're honest, the ache for home doesn't just go away. When we grow up and we have an address of our own, the scenery may change, from a summer camp to college, to a new job in a new town, but the desire that we still have to be home doesn't go away. We want to be known, we want to be loved, we want to belong somewhere, and it's no wonder that one of the most famous lines in all of American storytelling comes from the Wizard of Oz. After all of Dorothy's adventures and meeting friends and facing danger and chasing false hopes, she closes her eyes and clicks her heels and says there's no place like home. There's no place like home. And when she does, she wakes up safe in her own bed, surrounded by the people who love her. That line has stayed with generations of people because it touches something that is deep in the human heart. All of us, in one way or another. We are looking for home. We are looking for a place in which we can be loved and accepted not just a roof over our heads, but rest for our souls. It is a longing that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve walked with the garden in perfect peace with God. They dwelled with God. That was home for us, but they sinned and they were kicked out of the garden, and we have been trying to find our way back ever since.
Speaker 1:Psalm 15 begins with a question that speaks to the homesickness that we all feel O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? In other words, who gets to come home to God? Who is it that gets to live in the presence of God? And that's what we will explore today in Psalm 15. We're going to look at it in three parts. First is the audience of the psalm. The second, we'll see the vision of the psalm and lastly, the invitation of the psalm. So first let's begin by looking at the audience, who's Psalm 15 was written for.
Speaker 1:I want you to imagine that this week you're going to pack up the car and you're going to head out west and you're going to visit a national park Yellowstone Park or Grand Canyon or somewhere like that. There are a lot of things that you're going to need to pack for your trip this week, but two things that are essential for you, two pieces of paper that are essential for you, are you need a ticket and you need a tour book. But how are those two pieces of paper different? The ticket gets you inside the park and the tour book tells you how you enjoy the park. And the question before us is Psalm 15, our passage this morning. Is Psalm 15 more like a ticket or is it more like a tour book? Is this Psalm about how we enter into the presence of God or how we enjoy the presence of God? To help us answer that question, I want to look at verse 1, particularly the verbs in verse 1 that give us a hint. Verse 1, who shall dwell, who shall sojourn? These are not words about access. These are words about abiding. These are words about living and enjoying the presence of God.
Speaker 1:Commentators agree that this psalm was used as some sort of temple song. People would sing this as they were on the presence of God. Commentators agree that this psalm was used as some sort of temple song. People would sing this as they were on the way to worship. But don't miss that these were songs sung by worshipers. These were songs sung by people who were headed to worship, people who were inside the covenant community, and so I think verse 1 leads us to think that Psalm 15 is more of a tour book of how we enjoy the presence of God than a ticket of how we access God, the audience of this psalm are the redeemed people of God. Just like the Torah book for Yellowstone will show you. Well, here's where you go if you want to experience the riches of Yellowstone National Park. Psalm 15 shows us here's how life is lived best. You want to enjoy the life that God has given you. This is how life is lived best.
Speaker 1:Old Testament scholar Derek Kidner says this verse 1 in our psalm refers to dwelling rather than gaining admission, for the qualities that this psalm describes are those that God creates in man, not those he finds in him. And so verse 1 is asking who is it that can enjoy fellowship with God? Who is it that is on the path to Eden restored? And to be clear, the emphasis on this being a tour book rather than a ticket does not decrease our need for the grace of God. It does not decrease our need for the atoning work. It does not decrease our need for the atoning work of Christ and His perfect obedience given to us. It does not decrease our need for the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. We need the Spirit's work in our hearts if we are to experience the joy of God's presence.
Speaker 1:The picture here is not of God just dropping us off at the gate to the national park and saying, well, good luck, I hope you enjoy the park. It is a vision of life that is lived in dependence and upon appreciation of the grace that we have received in Jesus. So now that we've seen the audience it's the redeemed people of God let's turn to the second part. What is the vision that Psalm 15 holds out for us? Like I alluded to at the beginning of the sermon, it can be easy to read verses 2 to 5, and you think well, I don't walk blamelessly, I don't speak the truth from my heart, I'm selfish, I want to take from my neighbor rather than to give to my neighbor. We see our failures and we've confessed that in our call to confession from 1 Peter this morning, and we've confessed that in our call to confession from 1 Peter this morning and we're tempted to gloss over it, and we're tempted to not actually pay attention to what Psalm 15 says and we miss the beauty of what it says. We miss that Psalm 15 shows us how life works best.
Speaker 1:In our family, our Christmas tradition is that we eat gumbo. I cook gumbo on Christmas Eve, and one of the things that you learned over time is that the worst possible gumbo you can have is fresh gumbo. It needs to sit around for a little while if it's going to be good, and so it needs to cook on the back burner for a while. And it actually needs to sit in the refrigerator for a few days for the flavors to all develop fully, for a few days for the flavors to all develop fully. If you rush gumbo, you're not going to fully enjoy the beauty and complexity of the dish Like a good gumbo. Psalm 15 needs a little bit of time to develop in our hearts. It needs time to simmer. So let's give the psalm a little bit of time.
Speaker 1:Let's look at verses 2 to 5 and see what it says. Scholars note that there are either 10 or 11 commandments in these four verses, depending on how you divide them, and there's really no consensus as to how they should be grouped together. But I found it most helpful. The way we'll look at it this morning is to group them into general categories of life, and that's what we'll look at. First, we're going to look at how verses 2 to 5 talk about our words, about how we communicate with one another, and secondly, we'll talk about how it examines our values and then, lastly, our relationships.
Speaker 1:So verses 2 to 5 talk about our words. How do these reveal the good life with our words? David talks about someone who speaks the truth in their heart and someone whose tongue there is no slander, who does no evil to his neighbor nor takes up a reproach against his friends. I want us to think about how we use our words today. So often our words today lack truth and they are full of slander. They are the exact opposite of what God requires of us. We can hide behind screens and we can say things online that we would never, ever say to someone's face. We tear each other down in comment sections, we spread rumors on group text and we think it's okay because it's just social media.
Speaker 1:I was at our denominations journal assembly a few weeks ago and it was a gathering of young pastors and it was a panel discussion and the question was asked what is it? How can we, as a denomination, maintain peace in the midst of disagreements that we have? And without exception, all of the panelists had the exact same answer Get off social media. And those responses were met with a thunderous roar and clapping. And you heard it right there were Presbyterian pastors and elders who clapped when they heard something, something to think about this week.
Speaker 1:Before sending or posting anything virtually, ask yourself would I say that? Would I say the same thing if I were looking at them face to face? If the answer's no, then don't. Instead, if you have something difficult to say, find a way to meet in person. Find a way to say something as personally as you can. What if you and I, what if our church, we were known as people who spoke the truth in love, people who built others up with our words rather than tearing them down? What if your friends knew that they could trust you to tell the truth, even when it was difficult? What if you could trust that what you shared in confidence would stay in confidence with your friends? What if you never had to worry what people were saying about you behind your back? Imagine that you never had to worry if someone was telling you the truth or if they were just telling you the convenient truth that made life easier for them.
Speaker 1:Do you see how this psalm gives us a vision for the good life? How much better would life be if we used our words for these kinds of ways, rather than tearing other people down. Next, the psalm talks about our values. Not just our words, but our values. What are the things? Who are the people that we esteem and value?
Speaker 1:The psalmist describes someone who does what is right and someone who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord. This is about having right priorities, about knowing what actually matters in life. Look around at the kind of people that we celebrate in life. Who are our heroes? We make celebrities out of people who are famous only because we have decided that they are people who are famous. We admire people for their wealth and their possessions and their followers and their good looks and we make no worry of their character. We follow influencers who look perfect online, but behind the scenes their lives are a wreck.
Speaker 1:We do the opposite of Psalm 15. We honor the vile, we honor those who exploit us, we honor those who lie to us, we honor those who cheat us and we despise those who fear the Lord. We have no place for quiet, godliness and contentment. We look at something like the Sermon on the Mount and we think that being poor in spirit and being meek and being peacemakers those are things that are to be despised. Give us something with power and strength. What if we looked up to people who were genuinely worth admiring, people who kept their promises, people who treated others well, people who lived with integrity? How would our lives be different if these were the people we valued?
Speaker 1:And finally, the last grouping has to do with our relationships. David describes someone who does no wrong to his neighbor, who keeps an oath even when it hurts, who lends money to the poor without interest and while refusing to accept a bribe against the innocent. These verses speak to our civic, to our business relationships that we have. The kind of life that flourishes in God's presence is one that doesn't take economic advantage over those who are poor and needy. Now, when we read the rest of the Scriptures, the Bible doesn't forbid wholesale lending money, but what is in view here in Psalm 15 is exploiting those who are in a difficult spot in life through exorbitant interest or lending terms and wielding power to abuse those who are poor and needy. Psalm 15 presents a world where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their station in life, because they are made in the image of God. But the psalm also describes the kind of person that you can depend on in life about who will help you, even when it hurts.
Speaker 1:Think about your relationships right now. How many people in your life would help you, even if it cost them something, even if it were a major inconvenience for them? Now flip it around. Are you that kind of person for the people in your life? When you make a promise, do people around you know that you will keep that promise, even when it's inconvenient? Here's a specific application. Think of you know that you will keep that promise, even when it's inconvenient. Here's a specific application. Think of one promise that you have been putting off, that you've made. That you have been putting off because it's become inconvenient or costly, and maybe it's helping someone move and it's really hot, and I get that you probably don't want to help them move. Or having a difficult conversation with someone because it just seems awkward, but the loving thing would be to go and to have the difficult conversation or following through on a commitment that you made months ago.
Speaker 1:We work against. We fight against the fabric of God's created order when we are not trustworthy, when we abuse and we mistreat other image bearers, when we abuse and we mistreat other image bearers. And so, as we let these commandments simmer on our hearts. I want you to imagine with me what would our church look like if we lived Psalm 15 lives. What if we were known for speaking the truth, in love and honoring others and living sacrificially? What if our lives looked like the opposite of the latest headlines a community without gossip or slandering. A community of honesty and transparency, where you could trust that when you heard something, someone was telling you the truth. A people of sacrificial generosity, who cared even when it wasn't convenient and who gave even when it was costly. Think about that kind of church. Wouldn't that be a city on a hill that the world around us couldn't ignore?
Speaker 1:Psalm 15 paints a beautiful picture of the life that God desires for us, and what I want to do is for us to look at Psalm 15 and for that to create a longing in us for this kind of life, but I want it to create a longing in you that is detached from any contingency of blessing or acceptance, because our temptation is to read this psalm and to read other psalms like it as if it were a ladder, and we need to climb this ladder in order to get God. I want us to read this psalm not as a means to get God, but as a means to enjoy God. Not as a means of earning a ticket to get our way in, but as a tour book to show us how life works best. But the question or the objection that is beneath that desire that I expressed is this why should you want to live in accordance with what Psalm 15 says? If you trust in Jesus, if you've already got your ticket in, if you're justified in Christ, if you're fully accepted, if you're fully acquitted, forever secure in Him, if obeying will not make you any iota more loved, any more accepted, if you don't get bonus points with God for obeying Psalm 15, and if even our best attempts at obedience are still stained with sin and imperfection, why then should we obey?
Speaker 1:The easy answer would be to say go read chapter 16 of the Westminster Confession of Faith. But if you aren't familiar with the Westminster Confession, it's a document that summarizes what we believe the Bible teaches and what we believe as a church. And here's a summary of what chapter 16 of the Confession teaches about good works that we obey not to earn God's love, but because we already have it. Our good works can't earn forgiveness and they will always be imperfect, and we obey in order to show our gratitude to God and to reflect the beauty of the gospel and for us to realize that God delights in our sincere efforts to love and obey Him and when we are united to Christ, even our weak and our flawed and our imperfect obedience is accepted in Him, because if you belong to Jesus, you are accepted and therefore your good works are accepted in Him. Not because your works are perfect, but because your Savior is perfect and they are accepted in Him. God sees your efforts through the work of Jesus and he is pleased. He's pleased even though our works are messy and flawed, and I think that is something that we need to hear and that we need to let sink into our hearts that God delights. God delights in our sincere efforts to love and obey Him In a similar way that a father delights with an imperfect birthday card that is given to him by one of his children. That birthday card doesn't make him more of a child, but it expresses the joy that he has as a child and in his fatherly love. The imperfection of the messy birthday card doesn't repel him from his child. It actually only draws his heart even closer in. What we see is that God delights when his imperfect, sinful children in faith seek to obey him. And that leads us to our third point.
Speaker 1:We've looked at the audience of the psalm in verse 1, the vision of the psalm in verses 2 to 5. Now let's look briefly at the invitation of the psalm. How does Psalm 15 invite us to dwell in the presence and joy of God? How can a sinful people dwell with the Holy God? To really understand the answer to this question, we have to zoom out, we have to think about the novel. Where does this paragraph fit within the overall story of the Bible? And what we see is that this psalm actually taps into what the entire Bible is about. You could summarize the entire Bible with this one sentence that our God is a God who wants to dwell with His people.
Speaker 1:In the Garden of Eden, you and I had this. We dwelled and we lived in perfect relationship with God. The Garden of Eden was the first tabernacle, it was the first temple, it was the first holy hill in the Bible. We had a home, but Adam and Eve, their sin, drove us out. And the rest of the Bible tells the story of us trying to gain access of God, trying to make a way to bring us back home the tabernacle in the wilderness and later the temple on Mount Zion. They were places where the presence of god met with his people, where heaven and earth met. They were means by which sinful people could enter into the presence of a sinless god. But the tabernacle and the temple, they had strict boundaries, they had limited access. But the message was this that despite the rebellion and sin of God's people, that God would keep His promises, that he would stop at nothing to dwell with His people.
Speaker 1:But in the coming of Jesus, the question of who can dwell with God is answered finally and fully. So the question of Psalm 15 is in verse 1, who can dwell on your holy hill? And the rest of the psalm gives us that answer. Follow these things and you can dwell on God's hill. Who has done Psalm 15? The answer is Jesus and only Jesus. He is the only one who has perfectly fulfilled all of what Psalm 15 requires and all that the rest of the law of God requires.
Speaker 1:Where we have spoken falsely, jesus spoke only truth. Where we have broken our word, he has kept every single promise and as the last Adam, jesus lived out Psalm 15. But here is the beautiful truth of the gospel. When we trust in Jesus, his perfect record becomes our perfect record. We are treated, we are seen, as though we have done everything that he has done for us, and so that is why we don't have to choose between leapfrogging and flat moralizing.
Speaker 1:We don't have to read Psalm 15 as a checklist in order to earn God's favor. We don't have to skip over the beauty of what is put out before us because we are afraid of falling short. Instead, we look to Christ for complete forgiveness and acceptance, and from that secure place, we depend on the Spirit's work in us, not in begrudging compliance, but we depend on the Spirit's work in us for joyful, spirit-filled, gratitude-driven obedience. We live the Psalm 15 life not to get home, but because we're already home. And so here's what I want to leave you with today who can dwell with God? Anyone and everyone who will look to Jesus. You don't have to earn your way in to dwell with God. You don't have to click your heels and wish that you were home. You already have a home if you trust in Jesus and you're not a guest. You are family, you are loved and accepted and you have a seat at the table.
Speaker 1:And, as our psalm ends those who look to Jesus will never be moved and they will never be shaken. And so that homesickness that you and I still feel, that is the echo of Eden in all of us, pointing us toward our true home in Christ. And when we trust in Jesus, we are welcomed home. We are welcome to dwell with God on His holy hill forever.
Speaker 1:You and I are not homeless wanderers trying to find our way back to God. No, we are beloved children who are already safe in our Father's house. And so let us rest and let us rejoice in that truth. Let's pray, our Father. We thank you that in Christ, the One who was true and blameless, that in Him that we are welcomed home and that we could never climb your holy hill. We thank you that Jesus came down, that we might go up, and so, lord, help us now by your Spirit to live as those who belong to you, not as those who need to earn your love. Let our hearts rest in the grace that you have given to us and let our lives reflect your glory. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.