— A brief exposition of Psalm 15 —
For ease of reading, I am splitting this first study into two parts. Below is the first part.
By Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
One Commentator introduced his thoughts on this Psalm 15 with these words: ‘This psalm refers to a single subject, but that the most important which can come before the human mind. It is the question. Who is truly religious? who will enter heaven? who will be saved? The psalm contains a statement of what real religion is; one of the most explicit and formal of the statements which we have in the Old Testament on that subject.’
There indeed can be no more important subject than how a sinner can be right with God!
Job
In his contentions with his ‘comforters’, Job asked the question and gives an answer: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one,” Job 14:4.
This question comes up again and again in the book of Job.
“What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?” Job 15:14.
“How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?” Job 25:4-6.
A Guide Needed
Man is at a loss to find the way of redemption in and of himself. He needs a guide, a guide and teacher! The Saviour said: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” John 3:6. The plain implication of these words is that there is a great chasm between the ‘flesh’ and the ’spirit’, that is, the Holy Spirit.
Man, by his natural birth, and as he is born according to the flesh of his natural parents, is a mere natural man; that is, he is carnal and corrupt, and cannot discern spiritual things; nor can he, of himself, enter into, and inherit the kingdom of God.
‘A man that is regenerated by the Spirit of God, and the efficacy of his grace, is a spiritual man; he can discern and judge all things of a spiritual nature; he is a fit person to be admitted to spiritual ordinances and privileges; and appears to be in the spiritual kingdom of Christ; and has a right to the world of blessed spirits above; and when his body is raised a spiritual body, will be admitted in soul, body, and spirit, into the joy of his Lord. ‘Spirit’ in the first part of this clause, signifies the Holy Spirit of God, the author of regeneration and sanctification; whence that work is called the sanctification of the Spirit, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,’ (Dr John Gill).
I. THIS QUESTION IS ADDRESSED TO JEHOVAH.
1. Praise God, we can take our questions to the Lord for proper, authoritative answers. The Saviour was ever ready to respond to honest and sincerely asked questions. Matthew 24:3-4 is an example of this fact. “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered . . . . ,” Matthew 24:3-4.
We should follow the example of the Psalmist whenever we encounter a spiritual problem!
The hymn writer was correct.
Take your burden to the Lord, and leave it there
Leave it there, leave it there
Just take your burden to the Lord and leave it there
If you trust and never doubt,
He will surely bring you out
Take your burden to the Lord, and leave it there.
2. It is a question asked amidst the Psalmist’s awareness of the dreadful corruption of mankind. He is acutely aware of his own corruption and that of all mankind. Therefore he cannot trust to human reasoning and ‘wisdom’!
The preceding psalms indicate the mind of David on the natural, boastful, arrogant, cruel and atheistic state of unregenerate man’s heart.
“The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God,” Psalm 9:15-17.
“For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it,” Psalm 10:3-11.
“For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart,” Psalm 11:2.
“«To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.» Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak,” Psalm 12:1-2.
“Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved,” Psalm 13:3-4.
“«To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.» The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one,” Psalm 14:1-3.
Mind of the Psalmist
These verses give us a view of the mind and heart of the Psalmist as he ponders the question which he sets forth in verse 1 of Psalm 15.
3. It is a question only the Lord can truly answer. As a compass that is incorrectly set, our hearts will always give a false ‘reading’ on the right path we should take with regards obeying God and starting for heaven!
The wise man said: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,” Proverbs 14:12.
This truth is repeated again in Proverbs 16:25 for man needs convincing of this truth.
Paul urged upon the members of the Corinthians church, a church which was terribly corrupted by backsliding and departures from God’s Word: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Corinthians 13:5.
How confused and wandering astray were the disciples at the time of the Saviour’s crucifixion and resurrection, all because they relied upon their own depressing and deluded notions of what was happening rather than upon what the Saviour had taught them from the Word of God.
He rebuked two of the disciples who were on the road to Emmaus, confused and despondent as a result of the events surrounding Calvary!
“Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself,” Luke 24:25-27.
The blessed results of the Saviour’s rebuke and instructions are recorded for us in verse 32. “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?”
The disciples immediately reversed the direction they were travelling in and returned to Jerusalem with the good news. “And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon,” Luke 24:33-34.
When we are instructed and taught by the Lord we are delivered from our own foolish notions and can become instructors of others!
II. THE QUESTION INDICATES THAT THE PSALMIST WAS AWARE OF THE NEED FOR CONSISTENCY IN ONE’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
“LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?”
1. The religion of most people is one of inconsistency! I recall my own ‘religious habits’ before conversion. My ‘remembering’ of my duty to the Lord was most imperfect and defective! I believed that if I turned up ‘occasionally’ to church and ‘endured’ the hour of religious exercises that took place in my local Church of Ireland service, I would have pleased the Lord and fulfilled my duty to Him.
How repugnant and insulting to the Almighty was such a depraved notion!
2. The words ‘abide’ and ‘dwell’ indicate a relationship with the Lord that was lasting and remained unchanged. The Psalmist David realised that a right relationship with the Lord was one of ‘permanency’!
The Hebrew words underlying our English words ‘abide’ and ‘dwell’ show us this truth.
The first appearance of the Hebrew word ‘רּוּג’ (guwr, goor) is found in Genesis 12:10. “And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.” It is here translated by the English words – ‘to sojourn’. Abraham intended to ‘stay’ in Egypt while the famine lasted in Canaan. The word appears again in Genesis 19:9, where it refers to Lot’s residence in Sodom.
Just as there was a putting down of ‘roots’ by the pilgrim in the land of Canaan, when they set up camp, erecting their tents and driving in their tent pegs, etc, so a true and proper relationship with the Lord consists of a continuing and abiding communion and fellowship with Him.
The Saviour taught this by His allegory of that relationship, using the vine.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing,” John 15:1-5.
3. Such an abiding, dwelling relationship entails a ‘following’ of Christ. As the Saviour indicated when He first called His disciples: “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” Matthew 4:19. This following is also taught in the parable of the ‘sheep’. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me,” John 10:27.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
16th April 2025