Meditation on Psalm 15
Continuing our series on the Psalms at our regular service of Evening Prayer on Wednesdays.
Tonight’s Psalm asks and answers this question: Who can dwell on the Lord’s holy hill? It is a question like so many others in Holy Scripture. What must I do to be saved? What must I do to inherit eternal life? What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?
These are Law questions that get Law answers. What is required to dwell and abide in the house of the Lord, atop His holy mountain? A man must walk blamelessly, do what is right, speak truth not just aloud, but in his heart. He cannot slander, or reproach another. He must despise a vile person, but honor those who worship God. He cannot take advantage of the poverty of others.
When Jesus was asked those Law questions, He answered like this: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, etc.; and you must love your neighbor as yourself. You must give everything you have away. You must not be angry in your heart. You must not even look at a person with lust in your heart. You must do good to those who harm you. You must be perfect. Law answers to Law questions.
Who can dwell on the Lord’s holy hill? I have been reading a book on the Psalms written by an Episcopal-turned-Eastern Orthodox priest. It’s a very good book, filled with wonderful insights. But he addresses that question, “Who can dwell on the Lord’s holy hill?” by saying, “Man cannot help but sense that, in order to abide in God’s tabernacle and to rest on His holy mountain, there truly is something that he must ‘do.’ … Since God puts the moral … question into the human heart, it is a justified question and is always answered.” In other words, God’s answer to the Law question really is, “Do it.”
But that is not Jesus’ answer. When Jesus was asked in John 6, which we heard earlier, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”, He said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” You have no right to sojourn in the LORD’s tent. You cannot ascend the mountain and dwell on His holy hill. Our condition as sinful human beings is called “fallen” because we have fallen so far down the mountain into the pit that we can never ascend God’s holy hill, never accomplish what is written in the Law, never do what God demands. From birth we have one foot in the grave; from conception we are sinful and cannot do what the Law requires.
The real answer to the question posed at the beginning of the 15th Psalm, which is really the question of the entire Old Testament – the answer is simple and profound: “O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?” Only Your Son, Jesus. “Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” Only the Christ, who fulfilled the Law. Jesus walks blamelessly, Jesus does what is right. Jesus speaks truth in His heart. He did not slander with His tongue, He did no evil to His neighbor. Our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled all that is written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and at the same time bore the guilt for our collective and individual failure to do what is written in the Law.
And then, in and through Christ, the answer to the Psalm’s question is changed. Who will dwell in the Lord’s holy hill? The Baptized; those who have been joined to Christ and to whom has been imputed His righteousness. Who will dwell in the Lord’s holy hill? You will.
And now, because you are in Christ, you begin by the power of the Holy Spirit to yourself walk blamelessly and do what is right, and you begin to speak truth. You turn away from slander and reproach, hating evil and loving the good. And you will never be moved from this, because you abide in Christ, and He in you, and His shall you be forever.
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