— A brief exposition of Psalm 15 —
“He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour,” verse 3.
In verse 3, the Psalmist returns to highlighting that which is not found in the character of those who shall abide in the tabernacle of the Lord or who shall dwell in His holy hill.
I. THE CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN IS AS COMPLEX AND AS ELABORATE AS IS THE GLORIOUS NATURE OF GOD.
That is because the true Christian, upon his regeneration, has become a ‘partaker’ of the nature of God. “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust,” 2 Peter 1:3-4.
Being a’ partaker of the divine nature’ is not to be understood as the Christian being ‘deified’! This is impossible, of course. The nature, perfections, and glory of God, are incommunicable to creatures. Rather, it means that by way of resemblance and likeness, we partake of the divine nature. The new man, being formed in the heart in regeneration, takes on the image of God, and bears a likeness to the image of his Son. It is the beginning of a gracious process by which the image and likeness of believers is more and more changed, from glory to glory, through the application of the Gospel, and the promises of it. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,” 2 Corinthians 3:18.
John speaks of that final transformation in 1 John 3:2. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
This Psalm therefore sets out the important features of one ‘born again’ from above.
II. GOSPEL HOLINESS IS SEEN IN A BELIEVER’S BEHAVIOUR TOWARD HIS NEIGHBOUR.
The term ‘neighbour’ appears twice in this verse three though all three statements within the verse relate to the believer’s attitude toward his neighbour. Both words which appear as ‘neighbour’, though different in the Hebrew, refer to those close by.
1. He backbiteth not with his tongue. It is usually with the teeth that we bite! But how hurtful and wounding can be the tongue. ‘Backbiting’ is a much more serious sin than many imagine! The word ‘backbiteth’ comes from a Hebrew root signifying foot. It most surely indicates a person who ‘foots it’, goes from one house to another, spreading ill reports.
It leads to the destruction of many a good name and character! It is placed amongst the most serious of sins by Paul.
“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them,” Romans 1:27-32.
How careful is the godly man or woman with regards what they say about others!
2. They are especially careful regarding their neighbours. The two words translated ‘neighbour’ in our verses refer first of all to those who are generally near to us and then secondly those who are our kin. There is really no distinction to be seen how we treat family or those outside of its circle.
Paul tells us that, “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law,” Romans 13:10.
This is Old Testament theology as well as that of the New Testament. “But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God,” Leviticus 19:34.
3. The Christian ought to be the best of all neighbours. It is rarely perceived in this manner. The gospel-loving neighbour with his or her attempts to lovingly witness to the salvation that is found ALONE in Christ, is usually deemed a meddling, trouble-maker! But God’s people are under an injunction to share the truth of the gospel with all around. From that day when the Saviour told His disciples to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” Mark 16:15, there has been a most solemn obligation upon all true believers to share with their neighbour the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. All are not preachers but all must be witnesses!
Many will have cause throughout eternity to rejoice in the fact that a faithful neighbour shared with them the ‘good news’ of the gospel as summed up by John.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John 3:16.
How different is repeating those words from ‘backbiting’!
III. TO BE A ‘DWELLER’ WITH GOD, WE MUST NEVER DO EVIL TO OUR NEIGHBOUR!
We are not to hurt our neighbour with our tongue nor move our hand against him!
1. The doing of evil is unavoidable by an unregenerate man! After the disobedience of Adam, mankind became instinctively evil. The whole world was corrupted by Adam’s fall, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” Genesis 6:5.
I have emphasised the three words in that text which indicate the total depravity of man’s heart!
Today, throughout the world we have neighbour doing evil against neighbour! Every war, every murder, every instance of abuse, unkindness and hurt is a case of neighbour doing evil against neighbour!
I believe it to be a common fact that in most murder cases the victim knew the perpetrator! It is likely only in war that hurt is done by one who did not know the person he or she sought to harm and kill. And yet, war is ever a case of ‘neighbouring nations attacking a neighbour! Just look at today’s news — Israel-The Gaza Strip and the West Bank; Russian-Ukraine; Pakistan-India; in past times, France-Germany etc.
Here in Ulster, it is even more close and personal! Quite frequently those in the same townland, in the sane village or town, even the same street, have been pitted against each other to mutilate and maim and murder!
Let us ever remember that the first murder was of a brother by a brother. “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous,” 1 John 3:11-12.
So began the history of man’s inhumanity to man!
2. Sadly, the doing of evil against a neighbour is to get worse as this age draws to a close! The false religionists within ‘Christendom’ have long proclaimed that mankind is becoming more charitable and kind toward each other!
THERE IS NO GREATER LIE TOLD TODAY!
Man is neither evolving physically nor morally. Indeed, the opposite is the truth in both instances!
It is especially obvious that mankind is declining morally. This is the evidence of our eyes and ears and is but proof of what the Bible has long predicted.
“Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth (hinder, restrain) will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,” 2 Thessalonians 2:5-12.
“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived,” 2 Timothy 3:12-13.
The world will be again what it was before the judgment of Noah’s flood!
“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth,” Genesis 6:11-12.
The next verse has the word translated ‘corrupt’ in the verses above, translated by the English word, ‘destroy’.
“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth,” verse 13.
That is what man’s corrupting ways bring about. The earth is being destroyed by man’s sinfulness. While many see alarming signs of destruction in the warming seas and melting ice caps and other environmental evidences of decline, there are none amongst the ‘eco-activists’ that link it all to man’s increasingly depraved activities. To therefore appeal to mankind to amend their ways in order to reverse this decline, as the ‘eco-activists’ do, is the equal of trying to lift oneself by one’s bootlaces or to make a rope of sand to climb to the moon!
Man will not, cannot, reverse the direction in which fallen man is going!
But it will be altered one day.
The old hymn has it right.
Sing we the King who is coming to reign,
Glory to Jesus, the Lamb that was slain,
Life and salvation his empire shall bring
Joy to the nations when Jesus is King.
Refrain:
Come let us sing: Praise to our King,
Jesus our King, Jesus our King;
This is our song, who to Jesus belong:
Glory to Jesus, to Jesus our King.
All men shall dwell in his marvellous light,
Races long severed his love shall unite,
Justice and truth from his sceptre shall spring,
Wrong shall be ended when Jesus is King.
All shall be well in his Kingdom of peace,
Freedom shall flourish and wisdom increase,
Foe shall be friend when his triumph we sing,
Sword shall be sickle when Jesus is King.
Souls shall be saved from the burden of sin,
Doubt shall not darken his witness within,
Hell hath no terrors, and death hath no sting;
Love is victorious when Jesus is King.
Kingdom of Christ, for thy coming we pray,
Hasten, O Father, the dawn of the day
When this new song thy creation shall sing,
Satan is vanquished and Jesus is King.
3. What the ‘dweller’ with the Lord would wish to see happen amongst men, will take place when ‘Jesus is King’.
What is today the desire of every true Christian, namely that: “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men,” Romans 12:17-18, will be so one day.
Presently, the Christian can only be at peace with one’s neighbour, “as much as lieth in” us! I cannot live in peace with those who are bent on your destruction!
When faced with such a threat or denial of their lawful freedom, it is the right of the Christian to demand that his lawful liberties be preserved and protected by ‘the powers that be’!
Such was the action of Paul when he was unlawfully handled. This the apostle did at Philippi and again at Jerusalem
“And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go. And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace. But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. And the serjeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city. And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed,” Acts 16:35-40.
“And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him,” Acts 22:25-29.
“ . . . For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,” Isaiah 2:3-4.
Every aspect of life here on earth will be altered for the better.
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea,” Isaiah 11:6-9.
Such a scene of peace and harmony is beyond even the dream of the ‘environmentalist’! However, it is the hope of the true child of God.
IV. TO DWELL IN THE LORD’S PRESENCE REQUIRES US TO BE A GUARDIAN OF OUR NEIGHBOUR AGAINST ILL REPORTS
“Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.”
C H Spurgeon says of this phrase: ‘If there were not gratified hearers of ill reports, there would be an end of the trade of spreading them.’ CHS quotes John Trapp, the commentator. ‘The tale bearer carrieth the devil in his tongue, and the tale hearer carries the devil in his ear.’
1. That does not mean that sins should not be publicly condemned. Such condemnation is found in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation! No, sin is to be condemned, even as Paul commanded Timothy.
“Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear,” 1 Timothy 5:20. That is the purpose of publicly naming the sinner and publicly rebuking their sin. It is not necessarily the procedure in all cases but it may be required in the case of a very prominent transgression such as that committed by an elder, as verse 19 directs.
All too often ministers shy away from such public rebukes. They thus show favour or fear! What would we think of a judge who shied away from performing his duty simply because they did not wish to embarrass the person before them? We would call that a gross dereliction of duty, would we not?
No, we are to “exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee,” Titus 2:15. The servant of God has God’s authority to rebuke! Preaching the gospel entails rebuking! “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine,” 2 Timothy 4:2. Ignoring sin is a failure in faithfulness to God and the call to preach!
2. What it does mean is that the child of God is not to be a ‘gossipmonger’! A love for the honour of the Saviour should seal our lips when it comes to repeating to others the foolishness of a fellow Christian. A sense of our own propensity to sinful and foolish actions should silence us with the thought, ‘There go I but for the grace of God’!
Gossip is never intended to heal but that it is a base enjoying of the pain and shame of another. That is most pitiless and inconsiderate.
The tendency to see false reports spread far and wide is evidenced by what Matthew records.
“Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day,”Matthew 28:11-15.
‘This day’, the day of Matthew writing his gospel, was some thirty years after the event of the Saviour’s resurrection, yet the lie was still being ‘commonly reported’!
3. While it may be tempting to write or report or pass on to others that which will hurt one deemed an ‘enemy’, it is not pleasing to the Lord. Such an action is easily justified to a fellow man but not to the Lord. He does not want the ‘company’ of such a person!
That is not how he treated us when we were “alienated and enemies” in our minds “by wicked works,” Colossians 1:21.
The Lord wants in His company only those who treat others as He treated us in our days of sinful rebellion! “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus,” Romans 15:4-5. Surely the
‘God of patience and consolation’ would have us share in His mind and attitude toward us as we act toward others!
This then is what the dweller with the Lord must seek to live by.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
16 May 2025