Psalms 15 – 17
I love reading the Psalm’s, they are easy to understand and absorb, for the most. These three discuss our relationship with God. How we need to seek Him (15), have faith (16) and know His protection is always there (17). When you look at 15:2 & 3, one can only hope they fall into that mindset:
2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
3 who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbour,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
No one can walk blameless in the world, but we can confess and shed the shackles of sin. Jesus died for us so this would be easy. Next we need to focus on truth and filling our hearts with that. God will set His truth on your heart, but you have to know it and be able to live it. The only way I know to do this is by reading the Bible each and every day!
The book of James goes into detail on controlling what you say and can be read along with this Psalm. Often if we just let our mouth go, we destroy things quicker than a sword! So “be slow to speak.” Doing no evil to your neighbor or friends is more easily said than done. I know more than one I have inadvertently wronged a friend. It’s easy to do and hard to unwind after the fact. So again be slow to act.
We wander into verse 16:10 and we see a prophecy of Jesus:
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
This is fulfilled in Mark 16:6-7. I know his may be difficult to connect the dots here, but many scholars have and we need to really dwell on this connection to see a real world prophecy example.
Now how many of us can proclaim 16:8?
I have set the LORD always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
If we set the Lord at our right hand we will not be shaken. Now it does not say life will be easy either, but whatever comes our way will not remove us from our faith in God. We need to know God is with us and with him we will never fail. We may have a season of poverty or pain, since most of the time that is just the world by design.
Take natural disasters, you cannot have the beautiful Rockies without massive earthquakes. You can’t have lush tropical islands without a volcano. Hurricanes are needed to flush out swamps and coastal regions. You add the toils and labor caused by Adam’s first sin and you get the world today with its ups and downs.
Don’t become 17:10:
They close their hearts to pity;
with their mouths they speak arrogantly.
Once you think you know it all and remove God from the equation things get mighty strange. This all gets spelled out in James and at least spoke to me clearly about one’s mouth. We need to understand we don’t know it all, and should always maintain a humble spirit. We also need compassion with a discerning spirit so we can have pity and help those truly in need. Once we know we have God and know He is with us, problems become manageable. So take to heart these Psalms, because David had the same feelings you and I do!