This is Spoken Gospel.
We’re dedicated to seeing Jesus in all of scripture.
In each episode, we see what’s happening in a Biblical text,
and how it sheds light on Jesus and his gospel.
Let’s jump in.
This psalm opens with a question about who can dwell with God.
The rest of the psalm is David’s answer to his own question.
People who can enter God’s presence are righteous, honest, clean tongued, loving, and caring.
They hate evil and fear God.
People who experience God’s presence have integrity, they're generous, and they protect the innocent.
In short, the people who can come close to God are those who genuinely serve him.
God is looking for people who keep his law, reflect his character, and pursue holiness.
This prayer was most likely prayed as Israelites made pilgrimages to the temple during certain holy days.
That’s why David talks about sojourning in God’s tent and dwelling on God's hill.
And as they journey, this psalm encourages the pilgrims to
remember that only whole-hearted servants of God can access him.
The hope is that this song will lead them to repentance. If there is evil within them, they can make
it right before getting to the temple and make atonement for it through sacrifice once they arrive.
The final verse of this psalm says those who keep the characteristics outlined earlier will never be moved.
It’s an implicit reminder that those who genuinely serve him will never be moved from
the land of Israel while those who don’t follow his law will be removed.
This psalm presents a question that every person on earth should ask: will I live with God forever?
Being in God’s presence isn’t simply a spiritual experience, but its the best possible reality we can live in.
The next psalm says that in God’s “presence there is fullness of joy” and at his “right hand are pleasures forevermore”.
So, like the pilgrims who first heard this psalm, we should also use this psalm to reflect on the state of our own hearts.
Do we walk blamelessly, speak truthfully, refrain from gossip and insults, do we hate evil, and do we love well?
Do we meet the qualifications laid out in Psalm 15 that will allow us to draw near to God?
Well, the psalm just before this one actually gives us our answer: “There is no one who does good”.
Like the Apostle Paul says, we have all fallen short of the glorious character of God and we don’t deserve to come near him.
But that’s where our hope also lies.
When we see how far short we fall and confess that to God, Jesus offers to give us his perfections and his qualifications.
Jesus is the Lord in the tabernacle.
He is the God who dwells on heaven’s holy hill.
He perfectly upheld all ten of the psalm’s qualifications.
Jesus has the authority to determine who worships in his presence.
But Jesus, who was once perfectly in God’s presence, actually left it.
In turn, God’s presence abandoned him.
He was cast outside the city, away from the holy hill, in order to die on a cross.
But he died in our place.
Jesus used his authority to take responsibility for the ways we fall short.
And in doing so he removed the punishment that separates sinners like us from God’s presence.
So now, anyone who trusts in Jesus will be treated as if they are Jesus.
Like Jesus we will rise from the dead—and one day the last line of Psalm 15 will be true for us.
We will dwell with God forever.
So, I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God whose presence is our greatest treasure.
And may you see Jesus as the one who brings us into God’s presence.