Bible Studies

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The Songs
Psalm 15 - Holy and Blameless Lives
Key Verses: (NCV)

• 1: "Lord, who may enter your Holy Tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?" - David reveals that humanity has always been concerned with the issue of holy living and what we can do to insure that we are living with God and in His kingdom.
  
  
• 2: "Only those who are innocent and who do what is right. Such people speak the truth from their hearts." - A focus on righteous living seems to be the mostly likely pathway to heaven.
  
  
• 4: "They do not respect hateful people but honor those who honor the Lord. They keep their promises to their neighbors, even when it hurts." - Hate evil but love neighbors - a dichotomy that is not easy to resolve.
  
  
• 5b: "Whoever does all these things will never be destroyed." - A clear, yet difficult pathway to earning salvation.
  

Points to Contemplate:

• Are you living in God's Holy tent? Are you spending time in His sanctuary? Do you have the desire to do so? Do you work hard at being holy? Do you spend a great deal of time in prayer and in the Word in order that you may become the holy person God intended you to be? Is this the immersion in God's the Holy Tent in which David refers or is it some sacred and unattainable goal that remains just outside your reach? Are you striving to earn the privilege of residing in God's presence or do you feel you have already arrived?
  
  
• Are you doing what is right? Do you speak the truth of God from your heart? Are you measuring up to God's standards? When you do, how does it make you feel? What have you achieved? When you fail, what then? Who is hurt? What is God's response? Is it possible to live your life in ways that are worthy of God's love? Is your focus at attempting to live a righteous life working?
  
  
• Who do you respect and honor in life? Are your actions towards others dictated by their acts of holiness? Do you tend to migrate towards "good" people and avoid the "bad?" Does God want you to hate evil-doers? Should you respect only those who are attempting to live in God's Holy Tent? In this approach, if everyone falls short of God's righteousness, who would be left to love?
  
  
• Are you doing everything you need to do? David provides us with ten standards to holy living in this short Psalm. How are you measuring up? Do you walk blamelessly, do what is right, and speak the truth at all times? Do you avoid slander and evil? Do you avoid reproach of your neighbors yet, despise the wicked? Do you honor those who fear the Lord and stand by their oaths to holiness? Do you avoid loans or bribes? If you do all these things you will never be destroyed. How are you doing?
  

Promise of the Gospel:

This psalm gives a clear picture of the importance of holy living but the message is wrong. It is a message that reveals how impossible it is to earn God's love. We cannot begin to hope that we will be able to work our way into heaven. The standards are too high. When we measure ourselves against the righteousness of God we find that we are never quite up to the level He requires. As David ends his psalm with the phrase "Whoever does all these things will never be destroyed," and if we are honest to ourselves, we will walk away in hopelessness because we know, in our hearts, that we will never be able to do all these things. This is what makes the news of Christ so good. We now know that in our belief in Christ, we do not need to worry when we fall short. Our slate is not filled with those moments when we failed to live by God's standards. We can become blameless and holy. There is hope. It is through the grace of God that this hope evolves. It is from Jesus and His death on the cross that this promise of eternal life was fulfilled. We are called to live holy lives, but when we fall short there is grace.

FUMC Devotionals
BLOG: Reflections from the Left

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