Questions

Hello again!

This is what God gave me today in His word:

A Psalm of David. O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, 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; 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. (Psalms 15:1-5)

David asks a question of God: Who will live next to God (“sojourn in his tent”)? Who will dwell on God’s holy hill? The blameless one. The one who does what is right, the one who speaks truth in his heart… The one who doesn’t slander, and does no evil to his neighbor. The one who doesn’t take up a reproach against his friend, despises a vile person, but honors those that fear the Lord. The one who never takes an oath that will hurt someone else, but only himself. The one who doesn’t loan but rather lends money, and the one who doesn’t take a bribe. Read over that list one more time, does it remind you of someone?

Jesus is such a perfect fulfillment of this passage, that there is simply no one it can be coincidence. Who was the only blameless one to ever walk on the Earth? Jesus Christ is the only one who you can never truthfully blame for anything. Even when Pilate asked the pharisees why they wanted to crucify Jesus, they essentially replied that “he should just trust them” (see: John 18:29-30). Jesus is also certainly the only one who always does what is right, and who speaks truth i his heart. Not only that, but far from slandering others, He uplifts those others have torn down (i.e. the woman caught in adultery, see: John 8:1-11).  Likewise, Jesus not only did no evil to his neighbor, He specifically encouraged us to love our neighbors – to love all those around us.

Jesus also never took up reproach against one of His friends. You never see Him getting angry when one of His disciples (or all of them, more often than not) don’t understand something He says. He also despises evil doers… Which is why He came to die, to set them free from their evil doing. Likewise with everything else that is listed – Jesus is the embodiment of the passage. He is the one who “dwells” on God’s holy hill of Calvary, where He made atonement for each and every one of our sins. And now, as the last part of the passage states, He shall never be moved. Satan can’t push us around (if you will) when we are in Christ, because when we are in Him, we shall never be able to move away from the place where He dwells – Calvary. So long as we stay there, at the foot of the cross, our hearts and minds are protected by Christ’s blood.

You are Loved!

Joshua Cleveland