Psalm 15:2

Psalm 15:2

“He who is walking uprightly,^a
And working righteousness,^b
And speaking truth in his heart.^c”

From the last post on Psalm 15, it becomes clear that to be able to dwell with God and live with him is one of the greatest gifts that we receive through the Holy Spirit. This is also something that we should remind ourselves not to forsake and always remember God as our Lord and Savior. David describes the type of man, or Christian who is able to dwell with God. Just because the Holy Spirit dwells in us does not make give us an easy ride to talk with God, in fact it may make it more difficult in some aspects because Satan will try doubly as hard to try and ruin us by sin. If we do not possess the characteristics of Psalm 15, we quench the Holy Spirit within us.

A) When David says, “He who is walking uprightly”, the word for “uprightly” in Hebrew, tamim, literally means perfectly, complete in all its parts. What is the Christian walking in though? Each day we walk along the thin line that is the will of God. The will of God when described by most commentators is not an individual plan for your life, though there is one for all of our days are written in His book, but one that is the moral will of God. (Psalm 139:16) This moral will is described perfectly in Colossians 1:9-13:

“Because of this, we also, from the day in which we heard, do not cease praying for you, and asking that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, to your walking worthily of the Lord to all pleasing, in every good work being fruitful, and increasing to the knowledge of God, in all might being made mighty according to the power of His glory, to all endurance and long-suffering with joy. Giving thanks to the Father who did make us meet for the participation of the inheritance of the saints in the light, who did rescue us out of the authority of the darkness, and did translate [us] into the reign of the Son of His love.”

Paul clearly lays out the will of God for every believer. The will of God is never directed towards the individual, but for all God’s children. (Though God has a will for the individual, this is seen in retrospect when we see God’s hand on our lives) We are to walk in these things daily if we want to be able to walk with the Lord. These are the things that David says we have to walk in all parts, we cannot skip one and go to the next. When you read 2 Peter 1:5-8, these are all the characteristics that a Christian should have, this is what God wants for your life, what the will of God is for you. Do not be ignorant, may the Holy Spirit convict you on what you are missing from your walk with the Lord. Like David, let the Lord search you by His Spirit and show you what is missing. (Psalm 139:23) In fact, there is a complete list of all the things that God hates in Proverbs 6:16-19. (The Seven Things God Hates)

B) Going into the Hebrew again for the 2^nd part of this verse, the Hebrew word for working, paw-al, is something that should be translated as, “systematic, habitual work.” This is not a type of work that every once in awhile when God smacks you over the head to do something good. You will know when you are doing this when you never receive a rebuke from God about doing works of righteousness because you are always doing it. I think that Christians are way too lazy and need to actually start getting out there and working. One of the best descriptions of work and labor is in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, when Paul says to “labor in love.” This type of labor is work that breaks you down and is merciless. This is not something you can do each day without it crushing your spirit and building it back up. Did you not know that God always called Israel out on the lack of care for the poor and widows? What are you doing this week to help those who need it and feverously work righteousness? This is not something you take your time and say, “not now, maybe tomorrow or the next day.”Maybe your worldy needs are being met and you have no reason to seek out the hungry and poor. Will God still answer your prayers? Of course, but to what extent? Will your lack of fervor for His will hold back or delay an answer?

C) The person who speaks truth in his heart does not make false promises or teaches lies. Whatever his heart convicts him of, he speaks it. He is a man who believes in the truth and makes it a practice of living by it daily. This truth can mean he speaks Gods word and that of the Bible, or that he does not let any falsehood escape his mouth. Solomon talks about this in Proverbs when he says that if we make any type of promise we cannot keep, we are to go immediately, forsaking sleep, and right the wrong. (Proverbs 6:1-4) Do we have the truth in us? Do we not hear from God every time we read His word? If we go against what He says, the truth is not in us, and we do not speak it in our hearts, let alone follow through and produce fruit from it. Are we slandering those around us, or are too promiscuous with our words? If all our words are played back before us when we stand before Christ, will we be able to stand on them or have them crush us? For a man’s words either condemn him or save him. (Matthew 12:37)