Deeper Commentary

Psa 15:1 A Psalm by David.
Yahweh, who shall dwell in Your sanctuary? Who shall live on Your holy hill?- Perhaps this was written before David took the hill of Zion from the Jebusites. He felt they shouldn't be living there because of how they lived so immorally; and was eager to make it his own inheritance by conquest. And it seems from Ps. 16:5,6 that David considered Zion his personal inheritance where he was to live (see on Ps. 17:14). The priests didn't live in the sanctuary, indeed the High Priest could only enter the most holy place briefly once / year. David seems to have had insight into the fact that ultimately that most holy place would be opened and the "blameless" (:2) would be able to not only enter it but live there permanently. These are the very ideas developed in Hebrews, developing the implications of how the Lord had torn down the veil through His death- that we might enter in and dwell there in God's presence and fellowship.

Literally, "Who shall dwell in Your tent?", as if worshippers are invited to God's home to stay as guests, but they end up permanently dwelling there. Hence Ps. 61:4 "I will dwell in Your tent forever". The tendency was for the people of Jerusalem to think that God lived amongst them (Mic. 3:11; Is. 48:2). But in fact, the essence of abiding with God is that we dwell in His home. It has been suggested that this Psalm was used as the worshippers came before Yahweh at the feasts, specifically to the sanctuary on Mount Zion. But the question posed is not who can attend the feasts, but who shall go further and dwell permanently in the tent of meeting with God. Those who came to the feasts at best three times a year and just for a few days, were to see this as looking forward to actually settling and dwelling on Mount Zion and permanently living in God's tent- even more intimately than the priests or even the High Priest on the day of Atonement. What was possible for the priests for a few moments or hours was to be the permanent experience of all believers. Just as we may reflect that the intense feelings of spirituality and fellowship experienced at church gatherings are but a foretaste of the eternal felicity and spirituality of God's Kingdom.

Psa 15:2 He who walks blamelessly, does what is right-

This Psalm states that only those who do the right things and don't do wrong things can dwell in Yahweh's tent and hill. David on one hand is to be commended for seeing that behaviour and the state of the heart is the qualification for coming close to God- rather than performing entrance rituals or ancestry, i.e. being a Levite. But the truth is that it is God who causes people to approach unto Him, and that 'causing' is all of His grace: "Their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from their midst; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach to Me: for who is he who has had boldness to approach to Me? says Yahweh" (Jer. 30:21). "Even him whom He shall choose, He will cause to come unto Him" (Num. 16:5). Israel had earlier felt that God's moral requirements for coming near Him were too high for any man: "Everyone who comes near to the tent of Yahweh dies! Will we all perish?" (Num. 17:13). Putting these passages together, it is indeed the case that the moral requirements for approaching Yahweh are too great. No man of himself has that "boldness to approach to Me". But He does cause men to approach Him. And He brings them close, by grace. David is still at the point of thinking that steel willed obedience to God's ways is the sole requirement for drawing near to God. Heb. 10:19-22 takes the idea further- only through the Lord's blood can the human conscience be purged of sin, and thus we can not only approach but approach boldly into the most holy place: "boldness to enter into the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water". The implication is that seeing all men are sinners, in fact no man can approach God, let alone boldly, let alone dwell permanently in His presence, as David suggests we can. Only those covered by forgiveness and grace- and for us, the Lord's blood- can do so. David's idea is far less mature- he thinks that by doing good deeds and avoiding sin we can achieve this. In reality nobody ever achieved it by following David's stipulations here. The argument of Hebrews is that only now, in Christ, is man able to confidently enter the Holy Place. It is quite possible that this is the Spirit's answer to David's immature position in Psalms 15 and 24. Ps. 24 contains similar ideas: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully" (Ps. 24:4). Hebrews is saying that clean hands and heart are only possible through the cleansing work of the Lord's blood. Psalm 24 continues: "He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation" (Ps. 24:5). Paul is clear that the blessing of righteousness can only come by grace through faith in the Lord's work. Not by having a supposedly pure heart. Is. 33:14-17 has the same style of asking the double question 'Who can enter / fellowship with God?', conditions given similar to those in Psalms 15 and 24, and then blessings of fellowship with God pronounced: "Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning [referring to the shekinah glory of God burning in the sanctuary]? He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil- he will dwell on high... Your eyes will see the king in His beauty, they will see the land that is distant". So if, as some claim, these psalms were used as an entrance liturgy for entry into the temple- then David was in a sense misleading subsequent generations by predicating dwelling with God upon personal righteousness and blameless thinking and living. They would have led to the well attested practice of priests standing at the temple gates and assessing the worthiness of worshippers by posing questions to those seeking entrance. Possibly this is alluded to in Am. 5:10: "They hate him who reproves in the gate and they abhor him who speaks truthfully / honestly [an allusion to Ps. 15:2 "he who speaks truth"]". And possibly this was what Eli was doing as he interviewed Hannah at the entrance to the sanctuary. It is also attested that the worshippers stood outside the temple gates and had to ask: “Who is worthy to enter the temple?”. The priests, from within, then responded to them by reciting Psalms 15 and 24, as conditions of entrance. The ten entry requirements of Ps. 15 were recited, using the ten fingers of the human hands. And who in all honesty could have said "Yes" to having a clean heart and pure hands, "he whose walk is blameless" (Ps. 15:2), without faith in the Lord's blood? At best this bred hypocrisy.

David at this stage had a far too simplistic view of spirituality, dividing men into the sinners and the perfect. He speaks of "those whose ways are blameless...  he who walks blamelessly" (Ps. 119:1; 15:2). He considered that he was "blameless": "I was also blameless before Him... I will be careful to live a blameless life... he who walks in a perfect way will serve me" (Ps. 18:23; 101:2,6), whereas in his more honest moments in Ps. 119 he recognizes he had gone astray from God even in his younger life. Yet he confidently asks God to judge him according to his [supposed] integrity (Ps. 7:8; 26:1,11). Paul shows a far greater realism and maturity in Romans 7. David often states that the righteous will never be moved. This was part of his too simplistic division of men into super righteous or super evil, cowboys or Indians. He himself was "moved" by the events surrounding his sin with Bathsheba (Ps. 38:16; 94:18). In the bigger picture, this was God's attempt to get him to a greater maturity and realism.   

We wonder at David's possible arrogance in assuming that he or any man can walk blamelessly. Only the Lord Jesus fits this. And yet this is the phrase used in God's command to Abraham and his seed (Gen. 17:1). It was only possible for Abraham to do so by his faith in imputed righteousness, by grace through faith. But it's questionable as to whether David at this point realized that; he had to learn it through reflection upon the wonder of how God had counted him righteous after the sin with Bathsheba.

And speaks truth in his heart- David is to be commended for so often perceiving the importance of internal spiritual mindedness, at a time when religion was perceived merely as ritualism and externalities. It is part of being human that we speak to ourselves, and often our self talk can be fantasy / imagination about things which are not true. But this will lead to doing what is not right, David reasons. To speak the truth in our hearts all the time is perhaps the litmus test of our spiritual mindedness. See on Ps. 16:2.

Speaking truthfully in our heart leads directly on to not slandering with our tongue (:3). In reality, this is how slander begins: the slanderer nurses untruthful narratives about a person and keeps speaking them in their self talk. And those narratives expand. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Those internal false narratives about another are then spoken out as words of slander.

Psa 15:3 he who doesn’t slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his friend, nor casts slurs against his fellow man- This  offers commentary upon gossip in relation to our “neighbour”: “He that... speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor receiveth / endureth a reproach against his neighbour” (Ps. 15:2,3 AVmg.). To gossip / backbite is paralleled with receiving gossip. To listen to it and accept it is as bad as to create it in the first place. The antidote is to have a mind that thinks of those things which “are true... lovely... of good report”. We live in a world of conscious untruth and half truth. In our unshareable self, our inner thoughts and musings, let us seek to have only that which is true passing through our meditations. And then we will not want to receive a gossip against our brother, indeed by implication we will not ‘endure’ it, we will tell the gossiper to cease, and certainly not act upon it. AV "nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour" is a fair translation. In which case the idea is that we are not to 'take up' gossip with our neighbour, but treat it as gossip.

 
Psa 15:4 in whose eyes a vile man is despised, but who respects those who fear Yahweh-

The psalm is a chiasm, and this verse is actually the centre of it. As if he [wrongly?] sees the despising of those whom God refuses as the apex of spirituality. As discussed on :2, David is far too judgmental. He divides men into those who are "reprobate" ["vile"] and those who fear Yahweh. He is speaking within the context of Israel, who were all God's people. The reality is that man is on a journey, and at times acts in "reprobate" way and at times fears God. And the heart position of man may be one way, but his external behaviour another way. David here assumes that he can decide who is "reprobate" and who fears Yahweh. But that decision is only ultimately made by God, and will be made on the basis of a man's fully lived life. Only in the Kingdom age will "the vile no longer be called liberal" (Is. 32:5). "Reprobate silver shall men call them, because Yahweh has rejected them" (Jer. 6:30). Only if God rejects someone can we call them "reprobate". And that will only be after judgment day. This is why there will be a public element to judgment- so that we enter eternity understanding each other. We cannot come to that understanding by our own unaided judgment. David was judging men whilst they were still alive, unaware of how they might later change. He offers few appeals for repentance to men; his Psalms tend to simply categorize men as they are right now, in his opinion. 

However the word translated "vile" is that rendered "rejected" about God's rejection of David's older brother and also Saul (1 Sam. 15:23,26; 16:1,7). David speaks of "a vile / rejected man" rather than the vile / rejected man, so he has talking in general terms. But surely he has Saul specifically in mind. And he urges men to do as he does, and 'despise' him. We wonder therefore to what degree his lament over Saul was political and theatrical, if in fact he so despised Saul. But with Saul, it was not over until it was over. While there's life there's hope, spiritually. We may despise those whom God has finally rejected- but only after they are dead, and if we know from God's word that they are indeed rejected. God "rejected" [s.w. "[made] vile"] all the seed of Israel (2 Kings 17:20; 23:27; Ps. 78:59) but still loves them with an everlasting love, and surely doesn't despise those He rejects; and He goes on to say that this 'rejection' had only been temporary (s.w. Is. 41:9 "I have chosen you and not cast you away / despised", also Jer. 31:37; 33:24,26). David claims that God "despises" people (Ps. 53:5). But God doesn't despise any (Job 36:5). Throughout David’s Psalms in Ps. 1-72, he repeatedly asks for torture upon the sinners and blessing upon himself as the righteous. He speaks of how sinners should be “despised” in the eyes of the righteous (Ps. 15:4), the gatherings of sinners should be “hated” and sinners should not be fellowshipped (Ps. 26:4-6; Ps. 31:6) and how God’s uprightness is shown to the upright and His judgment to the judgmental (Ps. 18:25,26; Ps. 33:22). He invites God’s judgment upon himself and others according to their and his works (Ps. 28:4). Frequently he alludes to Saul as “the violent man”- even though David committed his share of violence- and asks judgment upon him (Ps. 18:48). Only those with clean hands and pure heart like himself could have fellowship with God (Ps. 24:3,4). Psalm 37 doesn’t indicate any desire to convert the sinners but rather an expectation of their judgment and destruction. God and David laugh at the wicked because their day is coming (Ps. 37:13). There’s no spirit of grace here at all- perhaps that’s why Zech. 12:10 specifically says that the spirit of grace will have to be poured out upon the house of David in the last days. This attitude changed after the sin with Bathsheba, but still something of the old self righteousness and judgmental attitudes are to be found in David in Psalms written after that.

He who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn’t change- Ps. 15:4, in evident allusion to Jephthah, describes those who will attain the Kingdom as fearing Yahweh, and swearing to their own hurt and changing not. Some may swear and change and attain the Kingdom; but we are invited to follow Jephthah to the highest level. The principle of Jephthah's vow is seen in many other Bible characters.

 

Psa 15:5 he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken- This appears to be commentary upon the state of affairs under Saul's kingship; and therefore his kingdom and dynasty was "shaken" and removed. Bribing judges and lending money for interest were only possible for the wealthy. This leads us to think, as discussed on :4, that although David speaks in general terms of the man who will be accepted by God, he seems to have an agenda of proving that therefore some specific wealthy, powerful individuals like Saul will not therefore be accepted by God. This is an inappropriate pre-judgment of men. And yet, on the other side of his character, David did have great love and grace toward Saul. In this he presents as so realistic. We have the possibility to show love and hate, grace and condemnation, to the same person at pretty much the same time.

At this point, David prides himself for not doing sins which actually he had little chance to commit anyway. For David whilst on the run from Saul was poor, so he had no opportunity to bribe judges nor lend money for interest. He states that he who refrains from doing these things "shall never be shaken". But he later admits that he had wrongly said "I shall never be shaken" (Ps. 30:6), and at the time of his sin with Bathsheba he openly admits that he was "shaken" (Ps. 38:16; 94:18). So to never slip / be shaken is unrealistic, just as is the attainment of the requirements for this.