Psalms 15

Psalms 15:1-5

The character of those who dwell with God. A psalm of David. The deuteronomic character of the fifth psalm will not be questioned. In it we have no longer experiences, but a moral conclusion, -the character asked and given of those who are to dwell with God. Its connection with the other psalms of this series proves, in opposition to the thought of many, that it is not Christ Himself who is before us in it. but the remnant of Israel in the latter day, with whom already we have seen Jehovah taking part. “God is with the generation of the righteous,” as the last psalm has declared; and here we find, in necessary harmony with this, that they are to be with Him. It is, of course, true that their righteousness is defective, and that on the ground of it they could in no wise stand before God; but nothing is said here of the ground of acceptance, and though it be only grace that could accept them, yet they have none the less a positive righteousness of their own which is the work of the Spirit in them, and which He owns as such. Thus it is, then, that they are characterized here.

1. The psalm consists of a question and answer which clearly divide the five verses into two parts. This the numerical structure very distinctly shows. Let any who doubt its reality try the very simple experiment of dividing the psalm differently, and so as to preserve even the show of numerical significance. It seems impossible to do this. In David’s reign the ark abode in a tent on Zion, but this is here only the veil through which we look forward to the future. The “tent” in this way, and the thought of sojourn in it, do not imply anything temporary, but must be viewed as paralleled by that of abiding in God’s holy hill. So rightly argues Delitzsch. Each expression supplies something to the full thought. The grace of the wilderness-journey shines out in the first; and God’s dwelling among His creatures must in one sense be ever but a tent, though the “abiding” takes away the fear that, after all, He may depart again. The question is plainly a question of congruity. Let God’s grace be all that He has shown it to be, yet He cannot dwell with those who are alien to His nature. Grace itself can only avail to bring us nigh to God by bringing into His likeness also those it brings nigh. Thank God that it really does this, and we have now the character of those who thus are fitted by grace to dwell with Him.
2. The answer has, brief as it is, four parts, the first of these being necessarily that integrity of heart which manifests itself in the walk and ways, the doing of righteousness, the speaking of truth with the heart. These three things are plainly but manifestations of the same spirit governing the whole practical life. The first thing is righteousness then, which must be the basis of all else. The second is love, for, as the apostle says, “love worketh no ill to his neighbor.” That is almost in words what we have here; and to this it is added, “who taketh not up a reproach” -the reproach of another -“against his neighbor.” The first thing here, who gaddeth not about with his tongue," is in our common version “backbiteth not”; and the connection, at least, with what follows, is evident. The third part of this description shows us a soul in the presence of God; and here the translation given by Delitzsch seems preferable to our common version or the revised. The sign of a soul before God Job illustrates for us in this way, though the best man of his day on earth; and the antithesis, as Delitzsch remarks, is well preserved with the following clause, he honoreth those that fear Jehovah." How beautiful this spirit of self-judgment, along with the honor given to another for the very thing that marks himself! Then if he vows to the Lord to his loss, yet he cannot go back or change it. Finally, he is tested by the opportunity to make gain of his neighbor’s poverty, and refuses it: usury was absolutely forbidden as between Hebrew and Hebrew; and he rejects the ready bribe to pervert justice. This completes the picture of the perfect Israelite. “He that doeth these things shall never be moved.”