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Psalm 15



Psalm 15 The Passion Translation (TPT)
Living in the Shining Place
 A poetic song, by King David
1 Lord, who dares to dwell with you?
Who presumes the privilege of being close to you,
living next to you in your shining place of glory?
Who are those who daily dwell in the life of the Holy Spirit?
2 They are passionate and wholehearted,
always sincere and always speaking the truth—
for their hearts are trustworthy.
3 They refuse to slander or insult others;
they’ll never listen to gossip or rumors,
nor would they ever harm another with their words.
4 They will speak out passionately against evil and evil workers
while commending the faithful ones who follow after the truth.
They make firm commitments and follow through,
even at great cost.
5 They never crush others with exploitation or abuse
and they would never be bought with a bribe
against the innocent.
They will never be shaken; they will stand firm forever.
I’ve been seeing this meme pop up all over the internet lately:
I’ve spent a couple weeks thinking about this, processing this, and trying to figure out how I feel about this.  If you’re like me, your gut reaction was probably, “yeah, that’s right! You absolutely can’t treat people like garbage and worship God at the same time! Preach!  Amen!” But, if you’re also like me, then there’s probably part of you that was forced to pause, and ask yourself, “Self, how many times have I been guilty of this exact same thing?”  As David commonly says, pause in His presence.  
Over the past couple years, I have seen the best and worst of humanity in all types of settings.  I’ve definitely seen BOTH the best and worst of humanity outside of AND behind the fence. I’ve definitely seen BOTH the best and worst of humanity inside the walls of a church building.  I’ve definitely seen BOTH the best and worst of humanity inside my own house and circle.  
In all of these places--prison, the church, my own home--these same people have been both worshipping God and treating people like garbage at the same time, and if we’re going to be honest and transparent, I think all of us would have to admit to doing the same thing at one time or another in our lives.  Maybe we didn’t do it outright; maybe it was just in our thoughts, in a text, in a screenshot, or in an eye roll, but I’m pretty confident we’ve all done this very thing at one point or another in our lives. If we’re being 100% honest, then some of us would have to admit we live in that place, in that in-between, in that place where we worship God on Sundays in public, but we still treat people like garbage.  
David has a whole lot to say about that in Psalm 15.  He opens this psalm by asking who of us dwells with and lives close to God?  Then, throughout the rest of the psalm, he answers this question. David says in order to dwell in God’s presence, live in his glory, and be close to God, we must:
  • Be passionate
  • Be wholehearted
  • Speak the truth
  • Have trustworthy hearts
  • Refuse to slander or insult others
  • Refuse to listen to gossip or rumors
  • Never harm another with words
  • Speak out passionately against evil
  • Commend the faithful
  • Make commitments and follow through on them--no matter the cost
  • Never crush others through exploitation or abuse
  • Never be bought with a bribe against the innocent
  • Never be shaken
  • Stand firm forever
That seems easy, right?  Ha! Not exactly. Sometimes I wish scripture came with asterisks.  I wish God would have included some “unless” clauses throughout. How much easier would it be if this list looked something like this:
  • Be passionate **UNLESS it’s something you don’t want to be passionate about or it makes you uncomfortable
  • Speak truth **UNLESS it makes you look bad
  • Have trustworthy hearts **UNLESS you’re dealing with untrustworthy people
  • Refuse to slander or insult others **UNLESS they’ve done something to hurt you and make you look bad
  • Refuse to listen to gossip or rumors **UNLESS they’re really interesting and might affect your life
  • Never harm another with words **UNLESS they make you angry
  • Speak out passionately against evil **UNLESS it puts you in an uncomfortable position
  • Commend the faithful **UNLESS you don’t like them
  • Make commitments and follow through on them--no matter the cost **UNLESS you get busy
  • Never crush others through exploitation or abuse **UNLESS you need to so you can feel better about yourself
  • Never be bought with a bribe against the innocent **UNLESS it is going to get you further in life
  • Never be shaken **UNLESS something that seems better comes along
  • Stand firm forever **UNLESS it affects your image
We all do it.  We all add our own asterisks to scripture.  We excuse our behavior because of someone else’s behavior or because of a situation or because of a difficult choice we have to make.  But, David didn’t give us permission to make excuses here, and Jesus didn’t give us permission to include our own asterisks or excuses when he told us we were commanded to love God and love people.  He didn’t say we should love God and love people at our earliest convenience, when it is easy, or when we feel like it. He didn’t tell us we should love God and love people when they deserve it. He didn’t tell us we should love God and love people when it’s good for us and for our image.  No, he said to love God and love people. Period.  
Loving God and loving people means we can’t treat people like garbage.
Even when they deserve it.
Even when they’ve hurt us.
Even when they’ve lied to us.
Even when they’ve ghosted us.
Even when they’ve lied about us.
Even when they’ve gossipped about us.
Even when they’ve been evil to us.
Even when they’ve treated us like garbage.
As David would say, pause in his presence.
I don’t know about you, but I want to dwell in God’s presence.  I want to be close to Him, to live in his shining place of glory, and to dwell in the life of the Holy Spirit.  And I know that I can’t do that and treat people like garbage at the same time. I hope you have that same conviction today and everyday. I pray this will be your prayer today: God, I want to be close to you.  I want to live in your glory and dwell in the presence of your Holy Spirit, but I know I fail constantly. Help me to love you and love people, even when they don’t deserve it. Help me guard my heart, my ears, and my mouth.  Protect me from harm and from harming others, both with my words and with my actions. Protect me from evil and from spreading evil myself. Help me to be light, even when I’m surrounded by darkness. Give me the wisdom to keep me from treating other people like garbage even when they’re treating me like garbage.  I love you. Help me to live that love. Amen.  

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