O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart. Psalm 15:1-2
The word for abide means “sojourn.” On a journey in David’s day you would set up camp, and sleep in a tent. At times, you would invite someone into your tent to fellowship with them.
Before Solomon, there was no temple, but the tabernacle; a tent in which was the presence of God, signified by the Ark of the Covenant. It was set up on a hill, as was the temple built on a hill, the Temple Mount. To enter either, you needed to be holy.
Theologian John Calvin viewed David’s words in Psalm 15 in this way: “The meaning of his discourse, to express it in a few words, is this, that those only have access to God who are his genuine servants, and who live a holy life”
Here we are given a simple list of qualifications to fellowship with God, to be invited into his tent. There is a simple test in this Psalm. If you cannot answer affirmatively to each characteristic, that area or areas requires work. This is not a test of your salvation but of your sanctification.
Walking in integrity is first, but this is almost overarching. When someone attempts to climb a ladder whose rungs consist of ungodly behaviors, there are none. There is no evidence on which to indict. We want to maintain short accounts with God, and one with integrity clears them each moment, like breathing out carbon dioxide and breathing in clean air.
It is not hard to maintain your integrity when you are wholeheartedly involved in righteous works. Gainful employment in God’s work keeps us honest. Idle minds and hands leave us open to straying into sin.
Truth telling is a habit learned from abiding with and in the truth. The “sum of Your word is truth” David tells us elsewhere (Psalm 119:160). It becomes both natural and easier to tell the truth than to concoct a self-serving justification. Use of, “but I was just,” is a key indicator of an oncoming lie.
He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; he swears to his own hurt and does not change. Psalm 15:3-4
Most certainly, we are not to connive to do evil against our neighbor, friend, or anybody for that matter. It starts with slander and ends with subterfuge.
This word “slander” describes a searching out process by walking, i.e. spying. We slander when we circle around someone to notice and report to another your assessment of that person, most always speculating on, but not knowing, that person’s motive. Don’t be fooled. This is an antagonistic action against your brother. In doing so “you slander your own mother.” Psalm 50:20
If allowed to progress, this seed sown with a few words of innuendo can become biting sarcasm, scorn, reviling, a fued, or malicious vendetta, even between friends. This war of words surely does not square with a life of integrity. Consequently, your invitation into God’s tent is in serious jeopardy.
Controlling what we say, and the purification of the well from which our words flow (the heart, Proverbs 4:23), is no easy task. James laments about the unbridled tongue, “But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.” James 3:8
A man or woman on God’s invitation list rejects and condemns that which God considers a reproach to his character. If you find yourself disgusted with sin, yours and the world’s, this is where you should be. More importantly, you are now in a much better position to understand his grace and mercy. As they say, “there, but by the grace of God go I!”
In one area, though, a godly person can be harsh with words, by calling a reprobate a reprobate! The New Living Translation describes a reprobate or vile person as a “flagrant sinner.” As opposed to prejudging motives, to call someone out for what is clearly wrong in the eyes of God is to possess the disposition of God. John the Baptist called the leaders of his day a “brood of vipers.” Luke 3:7 On the other hand, when you see a “faithful follower” of Jesus, you weigh them down with honor, as medals weigh down a decorated soldier’s uniform.
Someone welcomed inside God’s tent is certainly the person who keeps their word despite the circumstances. Here it is described anciently, as “swearing to your own hurt.” You immediately think of Jacob, who loved Rachel so much, he served Laban faithfully for seven years to win her hand. “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. Genesis 29:20 To lend some additional perspective, she was “beautiful of form and face” and he had “not yet gone into her” during that time.
But the obscure story of Jephthah in Judges illustrates this trait best. To win out over the sons of Ammon, he vowed to the Lord to offer up (sacrifice) the first thing that he encountered when he returned home victorious. Out walks his one and only daughter to greet him “with bells on,” who would thereafter spend all her days a virgin. He said this knowing he gave his word to God, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me; for I have given my word to the Lord, and I cannot take it back.” Judges 11:35
He does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken. Psalm 15:5
The Old Testament was explicit in its prohibition against lending to a fellow Israelite with interest. They were not to act as a creditor to their brother, but were to be generous. “If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest.” Exodus 22:25 A key word in the study of finance is leverage. You will hear that term a lot. It means to gain an advantage or a position of strength. Tax collectors were like this in Jesus’ day and they were despised. To lend with interest was to enslave your brother, as the Egyptians did God’s people. God wants us to be gracious as he is to us. If a man can lend a brother money with no strings, meaning he has really resolved to give it to him, he has the heart of God, and if a man repays the sum, he too has the heart of God. Both are welcome in God’s tent.
Bottom line, a just man cannot be bribed. This is simply another form of leverage applied to gain advantage over the innocent. Almighty God looks down on the person who is handed a brown bag of cash to see what they will do. He is very pleased when it is pushed away. A person of integrity cannot be plied away from what is right. He or she cannot be shaken nor will they stumble.
Paul quotes David in Romans 3:10, saying, “there are none righteous, no not one.” He is correct. But in reality, he failed to look in God’s tent. That is where the righteous hang out.
Seeing Evil, Hearing Evil
Christians should be keenly aware of the evil one, and all his machinations. Learn from his subtle goading of Jesus in the wilderness with half truths. Study his word games with Eve. Examine the utter ruination of a disciple who chose to betray Christ. Read about the alluring manner of Delilah with Samson, or the entrapment of Joseph by Potiphar’s wife. For accounts of evil kings and queens, examine the actions of Ahab and Jezebel, and Herod. Better, think about how the scribes and Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus. Then there is all that Jesus said directly about the “prince of the power of the air.”
In all cases, it is obvious Satan has a playbook, and he returns to it time and time again.
Moreover, he operates both in our meager realm and in the the spiritual world above.
You might wonder out loud why God has allowed such a force to run rampant and roughshod over all of humankind for so long? Well, the Almighty has an endgame, and it does not end well for the “father of lights.”
In Joel 3 we read of God’s plans to finally rid himself of the evil nations who had their way with his Chosen People. In the end, he will do all the goading, drawing them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat (or “Decision” as in v. 14) to meet their fate.
I digress for a moment to address a current topic from a few miles up. What’s quite clear from history and our present state of affairs, Satan is alive and well, still dishing out misery, death and destruction, pain and confusion. If he was effective with Nero, Stalin and Hitler, and countless others down through time, we cannot downplay a return to the playbook with other leaders in power now. Immediately, thoughts go to the present administration. Know this for sure, though, if there is any leader who truly aligns with God and/or his people, or His purposes, Satan will seek to destroy that leader using every tool, trick or weapon he has at his disposal.
We tend to be duped into thinking Satan scorns who we may scorn on face value, but we should be smart enough to know that he contends with anyone who is touching a raw nerve (his), meaning that person is trending toward right rather than wrong.
We tend to think that God only uses the pious, dignified, and saintly. If that were so, he’d never use me or you! God used Cyrus the Great (see Isaiah 45), the king of Persia, obviously not in the blood line of King David, to return Israel to her land. Today people would scowl at this choice, yet great good was done and the temple was rebuilt.
We must, therefore, cut through the noise, and think like God thinks. He uses willing and unwilling participants, but he tends to tack on blessings to those who give him the credit, or hang out with those who do. We cannot know where someone stands spiritually by outward manifestations or mannerisms alone, or 280-character messages. We can observe, however, the force with which Satan applies to rid himself of these do-good types. If the devil is attempting to move heaven and earth to bring someone down, know for sure that he is striving ultimately against the goodness and influence of almighty God, not because that person is uncouth.
Know this also. The more stubborn and strong a man or woman is in resisting or attacking evil or injustice, the more aggressive, radical, and desperate Satan becomes. It is actually a testament to that person’s authenticity and favorable stance before God, or heavenly assignment (or calling) without belief as with Cyrus, that engenders such unbridled antagonism.
Of course, nations and what they stand for can also be Satan’s target, but at the tipping point, he normally favors cutting off the head of who he considers, or who he would cause us to believe is, a monster.
Now returning to the passage, it appears (at least here) that the Lord is more apt to refer to particular nations as malefactors, rather than kings (Tyre, Sidon, Philistia, Greece, Edom, Egypt). Joel 3 addresses the problem of those nations who appear to have gotten away with murder. To them there looms a future day of reckoning in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. More on this coming.