You can turn in your Bibles to
Psalm 15. It's said by historians that this
was a psalm that was penned by David as he was arranging to bring
the Ark of God to Jerusalem for the second time. As you probably
remember, the first time David thought he'd do his religious
duty with great pomp and ceremony and organized a new cart and
a great procession. And a man called Uzzah reached
out his hand to steady the ark when the oxen stumbled and God
struck him dead instantly. But before us in Psalm 15 is
the question. It is the big question. And it is the big personal question. We so often want to look around
and think about what other people are doing and what they believe
and what sort of things are going on. The question before us in
Psalm 15 is not about other people so much as about you and about
me. And the psalmist, led by the
Holy Spirit, addresses the question, addresses these big questions
to the Lord, in capital letters, Jehovah. because it is Jehovah's
tabernacle and Jehovah's holy hill to which people will come. And that word abide in verse
one is a beautiful word, isn't it? Because it means to be with
and to remain with. And the question, of course,
is, Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in
your holy hill? Who may abide with the Lord Jesus
Christ? He came, according to John 14,
and He tabernacled amongst us. John 1. He is not only God, that He is God in flesh, and
He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And he came,
and when his works done, and his ascension gifts to the church,
led to the formation of gatherings like ours. In Ephesians 2, 20,
21. and 22 were built on the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone in whom the whole building, being fitted
together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also
are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the
Spirit. Now the tabernacle may refer
to this church here on earth, this gathered dwelling place
of God by the Spirit. He is our tabernacle. And also, the holy hill may refer
to that tabernacle, that dwelling place of God in heaven. We read in Sunday service from
Revelation 22 before Simon spoke to us about that river of grace,
that infinite river of grace that flows from the throne past
the altar, Christ Jesus, and becomes a river which is infinite. And that holy city is coming
down beautifully adorned as a bride for her husband. The question
is, who may dwell? Who may abide? The question is addressed to
God, because God alone can give us the answer. And the answer is given in remarkable
ways. There are 11 statements in these
next five verses. Simple, clear statements. Verse 2, this is the description
of he who dwells and he who may abide. Verse 2, he who walks
uprightly, who works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart. who does not backbite with his
tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up
a reproach against his friend. In whose eyes a vile person is
despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord. He swears
to his own hurt and does not change. He who does not put his
money out at usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall
never be moved. It is common thinking, isn't
it, that entry into heaven is an easy, easy thing. That the road is broad. For some, it's as broad as all
humanity. And the door is as wide as the
road. Psalm 15 reminds us that it is
a narrow and constrictive way to dwell with a holy God on a
holy hill. To abide in His tabernacle requires
remarkable things. And Psalm 15 gives us, in these
remarkable things, two things which I think are clear. One
is, the Psalm is about the Lord Jesus. It's a description of
our Saviour. And it's a description, because
it's a description of Him, it's a description of who we are in
Him. Let's just go through these 11
points. He who walks uprightly, verse
2. Walks uprightly in faithfulness,
holiness, integrity, sincerity. Who has walked uprightly? Turn back in your Bibles. Just
one psalm. The fool. has said in his heart,
there is no God. And it may be translated, the
fool has said in his heart, no God. No, I will not have you
rule over me. No, I will make a God and I will
have my own image. They are corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none who does good.
The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned
aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good.
No, not one. have all the workers of iniquity
no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not
call on the Lord. Do not call on the Lord. Psalm
24 is a parallel psalm to the one that we have here with very
many similar words in it. Who can walk on this holy hill?
Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in
his holy place? He who has clean hands and a
pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn
deceitfully. is a big deal. It requires holy
uprightness, perfect uprightness. And we know, if we're honest
about ourselves, it cannot be a reference to us as we are. But there was a voice from heaven. There was a voice from that holy
hill and on that holy hill. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. God the Father looked at his
son. He was well pleased with his
thoughts, well pleased with his actions, well pleased with his
motives. well pleased with all of his
life, walks uprightly and works righteousness. Righteousness
is nothing other than having a perfect record before God's
holy law. He loved God he loved his neighbor. In fact, in Hebrews 1.9 it's
stated of him, he loved righteousness and he hated lawlessness. Isaiah 42 talks of our Lord Jesus. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake This is what the Lord Jesus did. He will
exalt the law and make it honourable. No one else ever has. So we have His walk, we have
His works, and we have now His words. He speaks the truth in
His heart. He never lied to God. He never lied to himself. He never lied to others. We only have to think of our
own lives for a millisecond to know that Psalm 15 gives man
no comfort in himself whatsoever. Jesus spoke nothing but absolute
perfect truth. Perfect truth in love with his
Father all the time. He who does not backbite with
his tongue He doesn't slander. The word means to spy out with
a view to expose. So the Lord Jesus said he didn't
come to condemn. Men are condemned already. He will not slander. He slandered no one. He spoke
the truth. Also, He came on behalf of His
people. He came not to expose our sin,
but to cover our sin. Love covers a multitude of sins. His love was infinite. He didn't come to slander. He
was slandered. but he never standed in return.
Nor does evil to his neighbour. He only did good to everyone
he met all the time. He alone lived out that second
great command of the law in summary, to love your neighbour as yourself. loved his neighbours. He alone
loved them as himself. Nor does he take up a reproach
against his friend. He doesn't endure. He doesn't
listen to. He doesn't take on board a reproach
against his friend. What does he say when he hears
his bride reproached. Who shall lay any charge to God's
elect? The answer from heaven is absolutely
no one. And in Romans 8, it's because
it is God who justifies He says of his bride, she is perfect
in my sight. He won't hear that reproach and
he won't let the sins of his people be exposed. There was
this notion, and it probably still is common, isn't it, that
there's going to come that day of judgment when all of our sins
will be held up before all of God's people on a great movie
screen, and all of the Lord's people will endure seeing all
the sins of all of the Lord's people exposed. Dear, oh dear,
this verse says that He won't do that. It's a shocking thing
to think, isn't it, that the sins he's put away, the sins
he's promised never to remember, a shocking thing to think that
he would want to dig them up again and expose his bride on
her wedding day to shame. He's a faithful husband. He won't
take up reproach against his friend. But he's not a weak,
wimpish character our Saviour, in whose eyes, verse 4, a vile
person is despised, a vile person is disesteemed or contempted,
a vile person is one who brings to God and continues
to bring before other people their own righteousness, their
own filthy rags. They are still in their sin. They wear their own robes. They think that they are righteous. They think that they are good.
They are people who oppose and reject the gospel. And God sees them for who they
are. He who justifies the wicked and
condemns the just. Both of them alike are an abomination
to the Lord. See, the Lord despises because
the Lord loves. The Lord despises things which
are said about his Father, things which are said about the Blessed
Holy Spirit, things which are said about him and things which
are said about his people. We have so much of this universal
love of God for everyone, we just completely cannot sustain
that in light of scripture. In Psalm 139, Do I not hate them,
O Lord, who hate you? And do I not loathe those who
rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. Those who change the gospel are
just the gospel. attack the very character of
our God. And Jesus says He despises them. They have not got to where they
are without Him having warned them by His servants for hundreds
and thousands of years. They are always warned. John
3.36 says that they do not believe God's wrath remains on them. If it remains on them, it has
always been there, and God hasn't taken it away from them. But,
as much as he despises the vile person, he honours those who
fear the Lord. He honours them because of His
Father's eternal choice of them, for His Father's love for them,
for His providential care of them, because they are one with
Him. Both He who sanctifies and those
being sanctified are of one, which is why He calls his bride
altogether lovely and he calls his church the excellence of
the earth. He honours those who fear the
Lord. He swears to his own hurt and
does not change. He swore to his own hurt, his
own hurt of shame and death before the foundation of the world.
Proverbs 11, 15 says, he that is a surety for a stranger will
suffer. He was made a surety, he swore
to be a surety of a better covenant and he took an oath to his own
death. He swore to his own hurt. And then we have a picture which
can only describe our Saviour. He does not change. He does not
change. We change all the time. Our emotions
go up and down. Our bodies grow older. We are happy And sad, we are
healthy and sick. We might be rich and we might
tomorrow be poor. Circumstances change, so much
of our lives is completely out of our control. We spend our
lives trying to get it under control. God continually reminds
us that this earth is shifting sand. It's as stable as water. but he doesn't change. Those wonderful words that you
probably know well in Malachi 3.6. I, the Lord, I am the Lord. I do not change. Therefore, you are not consumed,
O sons of Jacob. He doesn't change ever. His love doesn't grow hot and
cold. His emotions towards his people
are the same. He is the rock. He is a rock that doesn't need
to change and will never need to change. He is the first cause. He is
the mover who moves all things. Verse 5, he doesn't put out his
money at usury. And people want to see that as
a reference to people not charging interest. The reality is It has
a spiritual sense as well. Usury was banned under the Mosaic
law because who gave them all that they had? God gave them
all that they had and he blessed them bountifully such that they
weren't to take the things of God and use them for their own
gain to suppress their brothers and sisters. You know the grace of God. Our
Lord Jesus, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became
poor, that you, through His poverty, might become rich. See, He doesn't put things out
to gain from it, because He doesn't change. He's not added to by
the things of this world. He's not bargaining with the
people of this world. Freely you have received, freely
you give. He says to that woman at the
well, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who offers
this gift, he would have given you this living water. He gives freely. He gives not on the basis of
merit or reward for work. He doesn't call on his people
to achieve, to receive. It's free. It's grace. He doesn't take a
bribe against the innocent. He can't be tempted with anything
against his people. What can you give to him who
owns the universe? The things of this world and
the things that men esteem are not going to be moving things
in his world. He's not going to be bought.
He's not going to be bribed. He who does these things shall
never be moved. Our Lord Jesus. does these things. He did these things. Our Lord
Jesus does not change and he shall never be moved. He's a
sure foundation. He won't be moved. He will move
all things. that he won't be moved. Their
righteousness is of me, says the Lord Jesus. As I said earlier, this beautiful
psalm, which is like a refiner's fire, tests people. and reminds us of what's required
to be a dweller in God's holy hill. And as I said to you earlier,
it's a description, a perfect description of our Lord Jesus.
And it's a description of we who believe God's children have two natures
in this world. We have the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus imputed to us all and we have the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus imparted to us. We have in this world two
natures and it's only the children of God who see that clearly. It's only the children of God
who look at Psalm 15 and say, I can't do a single one of those. Someone must do it all for me.
Someone must go to that holy hill on my behalf. Someone must
take me there. But there are in God's children
in this world. There are the marks of God's
activities in them. We are, according to Ephesians
2.10, His masterpieces. And we walk
in works that He's prepared before for us. We saw just a little
while ago, Hannah. Hannah who believed God, trusted
God. See, the walking uprightly and
doing these things is a faith activity in God's children. Hannah forsook her firstborn
son, gave him to God. There's a beautiful picture of
that wonderful good work, as the Lord Jesus described it,
of the lady who seems to be the only one that knew that the Lord
Jesus was going to die. The only one, it seemed, who
really believed the things that he'd said over and over again.
And she took what was most valuable, and did something which was most
embarrassing. She took that alabaster jar box
of ointment and she broke it and poured it over the Lord Jesus.
She believed Him and God says it was a good work. As 1 John
3 says, those born of God can't sin. They who do righteousness
are righteous, not because of their righteousness, but because
He is righteous. In Matthew 25, the Lord Jesus
talks about the separation of the sheep from the goats. And
the sheep are commended by the Lord Jesus for the things they
do and they immediately turn to Him and say, when did we ever
do that? I don't remember doing that at
all. He said, in as much as you do it under the least of these,
my brethren, you do it for me. So it's not an activity that
causes boasting in believers, because we know that it was done
by him and in him. But the believer also is someone
who is true in his heart. And that's the question, in a
sense, that the psalm is asking, isn't it? When it's just you
and God, what's going on in your heart
conversation with Him? See, the question is addressed
to Him, not to other people. I don't need to know the answer
and I don't need to know the meditation. But God's children
have been led by the grace of God to see themselves and to
see the Lord Jesus. And they are people who can speak
the truth in their hearts about who they are, about what they
are, about what they've done. They speak the truth in their
hearts of who He is, who God is, who Christ is, and they love
that truth. They love what God says about
them and they love what God says about His Christ and His salvation. And God's children have learnt, through bitter experience in
a sense, that backbiting with their tongues does two things. It's an activity of hypocrisy. For anything I backbite anyone
else on this planet about, I've actually done worse. And I've
made it even worse by trying to cover it up and pretend that
I'm righteous by doing so. And God's children have learned
that love, love for our brothers and sisters, covers a multitude
of sins. So they don't want to see the
sins of their brothers and sisters exposed. I don't want your sins
exposed to anybody. You talk to God. We don't want
to take up a reproach endure or hear a reproach about the
sins of my brothers and sisters. Don't tell me, I don't want to
know, I don't need to know, and I'm not helped by knowing, and
neither are you. Love covers sins. We don't want those we love to
be exposed. We want them to be clothed in
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. And we are mindful that in this
world, there are people who hate the Lord Jesus, and especially
those who hate him at the same time as they're proclaiming to
be His servants. As I read to you from Psalm 139,
do I not hate those who hate you? It's all with reference
to loving our God. Because we love Him, we hate
the things that cause His name to be brought into disrepute. We are to turn from those people
who tell lies about our God. It's not a fleshly hatred, it's
a spiritual hatred for the glory of God. as Paul says in 1 Corinthians,
but now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone
named as a brother, someone who claims to be a brother, who is
sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler,
or a drunkener, or extortioner. Not even to eat with such a person. And all of those attributes need
to be given their spiritual context as well as their practical context. We do not honour God by allowing
those people who despise his gospel to think that we will
have spiritual company with them in their state. Love for them
Love for their souls causes us to turn from Him. And we honour those that love
the Lord Jesus. We honour those. We esteem them
honourable. Those who fear the Lord. And we are, as moved by God,
people who swear for their own hurt and do not change. I spent
some time this afternoon reading from Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
It was remarkable the lengths those Roman Catholic idolaters
went to cause the martyrs to be turned from their confession
of faith. Just a remarkable testimony.
They swore, they confessed the Lord Jesus to their own hurt. Their families were brought out
before them as they went to the flames, saying, save yourself
for the sake of your family. But they loved the Lord Jesus. They swore to their own hurt. and they wouldn't be changed.
Nothing in this world could entice them to turn from their confession
of who Jesus is and what he's done. And they don't put their
money out to usury. They don't take the things that
they have in this world to get advantage by oppression. And they won't be bought. because
there is nothing that this world offers which is worth exchanging
the glory of God and our souls for. We're waver and less kept
by the grace of God, but God's people will be kept strong in
remarkable ways. It might seem impossible from
this distance, but will find that grace is sufficient for
the time. And then we have a promise from
our God that these people, because of who the Lord Jesus is, they'll
never be moved. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. His gifts are unchanging. because if the Lord has done
something for me, he has done something in me. See, Christ
in you is the hope of glory. And us and the Lord Jesus have
been forged by His activities into this extraordinary union,
where the things of His are ours and He owns us as His own. And the basis of our hope is
what the Lord Jesus has done. The historic realities. He died
for me. He took my sins as his own. He
kept the law for me. He rose. He reigns for me. And the evidence is Christ in
me. The hope of glory. Psalm 15 is
a glorious description of our Lord Jesus and His salvation. And it's a glorious description
of those who He says are complete in Him, perfect in Him, lacking
absolutely nothing in Him, and perfectly fit, perfectly fit,
to be honoured as citizens of heaven, abiding in his tabernacle
and dwelling on his holy hill. May that be our portion. May
God bless our meditations. Let's pray.