What it takes to have fellowship with God (Psalm 15)
Ps 15:1-5
A friend with a burdened past was overwhelmed by God’s presence and love that she felt through the worshippers in a church. The service was simple (no hanging from the chandeliers kind of excitement), but it awakened her longing for God’s love, and she soon gave her life to Jesus. Like the above fellowship, different churches leave different impressions in this regard. In some, God’s presence is tangible, others are more like a social club, in yet others one senses resignation and hardly a sign of Life. Why is God seemingly absent in some churches and present in others? And what does it take for us individually to know God’s presence and enjoy His closeness? This is the question that the psalmist is considering though his context is a physical location (the tabernacle/temple) and how an Israelite might approach God there.
By grace or by merit?
The psalmist’s conditions for coming to God may seem puzzling. Surely, we enter by grace as redeemed sinners and not by merit. Israel, too, approached God on this basis, as the golden calf incident (Exodus 32-34) testifies.[1] Nevertheless, I am convinced that our attitude as individual Christians, as well as a worshipping community, affects whether God’s presence is in our midst. When Israel hardened into rebellion against God, He eventually left His temple in Jerusalem (Ezek 10:18-19, 23) visibly dissociating Himself from an unrepentant people. Further, the first condition in the psalm (‘to walk blamelessly’ – Ps 15:2) indicates that not sinlessness, but godliness is in view. ‘Blameless’ was used in the sacrificial context for animals without obvious defect (i.e. not lame, blind, etc.) and this is the sense here: someone who does not live in wilful disobedience but has a certain integrity and consistency between words, actions and attitudes.
The portrait of the godly
Ten further points expand on the initial condition. While the list is not exhaustive, the number ten is symbolic of completeness, so the sketch is meant as an overall portrayal of a godly person in fellowship with God. Three active elements towards good are followed by three passive ones of refraining from evil (Ps 15:2-3). They highlight that godliness means not only what one should not do, but what one should.
The next couple of points (despising the ‘reprobate’ and honouring godly people; Ps 15:4) may read like a Pharisaic approach of condemning ‘sinners’ and huddling with ‘the holy’, but that is not the point. Rather, to give an example, a flood of ministers and government officials resigned in the UK recently citing the prime minister’s lack of integrity in telling the truth as their reason. It is this kind of distancing oneself from wrong-doing and associating with what is honourable that is meant here. From such principles follow the commitment to honour obligations even when it hurts to fulfil them (v.4). Oaths were sworn before God indicating that pledges in horizontal relationships had a vertical dimension too.
The last two criteria emphasise not exploiting others (Ps 15:5). Loaning money on interest would have meant profiting from someone’s poverty and pushing them deeper into debt,[2] while paying a judge to pronounce a guilty verdict against the innocent would use power to subvert justice. Here and throughout the psalm, right human relationships are expected as a condition for approaching God, which assumes that loving God must be expressed in loving one’s neighbour (cf. 1 John 4:20-21). In other words, we cannot come to God with a sincere heart and with the right attitude if we cause harm to others, gossip, slander or exploit them (esp. Ps 15:3, 5).
Never shaken
Ultimately, we can only enter into God’s presence by His grace and because He provided us with the means for our sins to be wiped out and forgiven (through the sacrificial system in the OT and the one-off sacrifice of Christ in the New). When we live heedlessly and sin wilfully, both as a community of believers and as individuals, we grieve God’s Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30-31) and may not know the closeness of God’s presence. Yet, those who genuinely seek to live faithfully, even though they may stumble, will ultimately not be shaken and lose the connection to the Lord (Ps 15:5), who is our rock and strength in every storm.
[1] God redeemed Israel out of slavery by grace and was giving Moses the blueprint for the tabernacle that would ensure His presence with His people (Exod 25:1-31:18). However, Israel got tired of waiting for Moses and made a golden calf as a tangible representation of God’s presence (Exod 32:1-4). The Lord decided to remove His presence but at Moses’ intercession He relented (Exod 33:3, 15-17). The people remained as stiff-necked as ever, but God by grace agreed to carry on with them.
[2] Loaning money on interest to an Israelite was forbidden, though allowed to a foreigner (Exod 22:25; Deut 23:20). However, the image here is not concerned with these nuances but is used as a stereotypical example of profiting from someone’s misery.
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