Psalm 15- Characteristics of the Godly.

Psalm 15

1 God, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on your guest list?

² “Walk straight,  act right, tell the truth.

^3-4 “Don’t hurt your friend,  don’t blame your neighbor; despise the   

     despicable.

⁵ “Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living,
     never take a bribe.

“You’ll never get blacklisted if you live like this.”

The above is from the message translation. Now let us look at the King James version.

¹ Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?

² The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the        
   truth from their heart;
³ whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur    on others;
⁴ who despises a vile person  but honors those who fear the Lord;
who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind;
⁵ who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.  Whoever does these things will never be shaken.

As I was reading this portion of the Bible yesterday. I realised that this is a very simple instruction set being given to us by David to follow. My Open Bible describes  Psalm 15 as Characteristics of the Godly.

 I was at a cross roads of thinking about the past life and the new future in store and how to improve myself when I just got this very SIMPLE INSTRUCTION from God.

 Many a time it is DIFFICULT to follow the simple things, while we enjoy and get around doing the COMPLEX things. Think about it. The simple things we generally tend to keep aside but work hard on the complex things. Look back into our life and this is what we generally do. 

Let us learn to do simple things.

What does this portion of the scripture tell us to do?

Vs. 2 “Walk straight, act right, tell the truth.

 A   Walk straight –Many references in the bible leads us to the path of the ungodly. The places we go to should be leading us toward Christ. Are our Socialising friends leading us to a sinful life? Are our Habits leading us to a sinful life? 

  B    Act Right. Always do the correct things only. Many a story tells us of standing up for our values and truths. We see a lot of acts of injustice around us do we stand up for it or we also be part of the crowd of onlookers?

  C    Tell the Truth.  When I was small I always used to hide a lot of things and tell lies. But invariably I would get caught in my lies. That uncanny feeling of telling a lie and getting away does not help. Today we are in a world full of lies. Everyone around us lies to some extent. How do we as a Christian differentiate ourselves from this?

Vs. 3-4  Don’t hurt your friend,  don’t blame your neighbor; despise the despicable.

D  Don’t hurt your friend

   Your neighbour is referred here, I would classify it as a friend, relative, anyone whom we have been in touch with. How do we hurt them- through our words and actions? We should follow the example of Christ in this. Today’s world is talking about revenge at all stages. Right from School, we even prod our children to do it. That is why our society is becoming so violent and full of vengeance. Any small altercation and people are ready to kill each other.

Vs. 5  Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living,
never take a bribe

 E  Keeping our word and Honesty

 The Bible tells us to keep our commitments. Do not do anything dishonest. Today the world is full of corrupt people. I recently met a young man of around 35 years who quit a high paying government job because the job process that he was in was not a clean environment. Bribery was the rule. Today he is a successful entrepreneur. Money gained through dishonest means will also go away very rapidly.

These are five simple things to follow. How many of us can do this from today. Small corrections can help us to achieve great milestones.

God bless you.

Abba Father, Help us to live our lives worthy and pleasing to you. Keep us Father safe in your loving care. Give us the strength needed to follow these simple instructions you have given us .Help us when we feel let down by others, Guide our paths in your ways. We look forward to your blessing in to our lives this day.

We ask all this in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ. AMEN