Psalm 15

[0:00] So it takes me a lot of time, and it often comes down to the wire to five minutes before leaving printing.! So last night I was feeling pretty anxious about everything, and I texted quite a few friends within this church and just requested prayer.

[0:16] And I don't know, God sustained me last night in a long night. He gave me joy, a nearness to Him, and I know that this was a result of prayer of people within the church.

[0:30] So I guess I'll talk loud for now. Oh, turned off. I'll just talk loud. So, that's cool. I don't know, we see the baby hard tongue and just how our congregation has just kind of bathed that child in prayer.

[0:48] And to see that child growing healthy and surprising nurses, and then just another avenue of our God's kindness. Just to reach into our lives and to bless us with Himself.

[1:01] So, I just didn't want to skip that opportunity to thank those in this church who prayed for me and thank our Lord for His kind answers to prayer. So it has nothing to do with Psalm 15, but we'll get into that.

[1:14] So, questions. There's a lot of questions in life. Life is full of questions. These questions can be exhausting. Sometimes they can be annoying.

[1:27] Sometimes they lead us to greater understanding. Sometimes they can be quite insightful and encouraging. Those of you with little children like I have, sometimes you just get exhausted by all the questions.

[1:43] Mommy is, why is the sky blue? Why are we going to the store? Is it Christmas yet? But it's a good thing. Parents of young children are happy for the questions because it's a part of their learning and their development.

[1:59] And so we get questions in the learning process. It's kind of fun. So, James, I was reading to him the story of the fall of man in Genesis from the storybook Bible.

[2:13] And I was talking to him, I was reading about how God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden because of their sin. And that promptly ended the discussion and started a new discussion on Adam kicking Eve.

[2:26] Or Nagwe, Jess was reading the story of Noah to Nagwe. Getting through the story and Nagwe decided to interrupt to ask the very important question about Noah getting shots, like shots from the doctor.

[2:40] So, it can be creative and fun to try to redirect these questions back to the point. But the point of the fact is, humans ask a lot of questions. We ask questions like, why are all the foods I enjoy unhealthy?

[2:59] Right? How can I better balance my work and home life? How can our politicians can't figure out how to create a tax plan without loopholes?

[3:14] What is the purpose of this trial in my life? How can God be good and let me go through this struggle? But as we observe life and observe questions, we recognize that all questions aren't created equally.

[3:26] And it's not always the people who have all the answers that are the most insightful people. Sometimes the most insightful people are the people who ask the right questions. So, we get a look here at David. David starts Psalm 15 with a question.

[3:40] So, we get a divinely inspired question, which we can chew on and see where it leads. So, my goal today is to first consider the psalmist question.

[3:51] Next, we're going to examine the psalmist, which is David. We're examining his answers. And then kind of see how those answers apply to our life. And then kind of the idea of this series and kind of the crux of this message and this text is that things are solved in Christ, right?

[4:13] And so, we can handle the dynamics, the questions of the text through the gifts of our coming King. So, I'll go ahead and pray and then we'll get right into it.

[4:25] Dearly Father, Lord, we thank you just for this chance to open your word. Lord, we thank you that you have divinely given us your word to help us to think, to think well, to consider difficult questions, and to consider you.

[4:39] Lord, I pray that you would just bless us as we consider this all-important question that the psalmist raises for us. Lord, lead us in understanding. But Lord, not understanding that skips our heart or bypasses our heart.

[4:52] But Lord, understanding that leads us to worship and thankfulness to you and leads us to right action. And a love for you that is just pervasive in this world.

[5:03] We thank you for your goodness and for your word. And we thank you for our Savior. We thank you for our King. Lord, this time we get to celebrate his coming as a baby to be with us.

[5:16] And Lord, we just thank you for the greatest gift of all in Jesus. Amen. So, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to look at the psalmist question.

[5:30] But we're going to start out by reading the whole text. All right. So, the question happens in the first verse. So, listen for it. We'll come back to it, though. Psalm 15, verse 1. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?

[5:42] Who shall dwell in your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart. Who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against a friend.

[5:56] And whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord. Who swears to his own hurt and does not change. Who does not put out his money on interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent.

[6:11] He who does these things shall never be moved. So, what is the question? What is the question? We see it in the first verse. The psalmist says, O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?

[6:23] And who shall dwell on your holy hill? While the question leverages some Old Testament symbolism, the metaphors are clear. Sojourning in your tent, dwelling in your holy hill, these show nearness, proximity.

[6:39] They show intimacy with the Lord. So the question at hand really is, who has the right to live in the presence of God? Who can dwell with the Lord? And as we think about it, in reality, could there be a better question to ask?

[7:01] For this question points us, on one hand, to the purpose for which we were made. We were made for relationship with God. The God of the Bible does not just come and save us from our sin, save us to heaven.

[7:16] He saves us to himself. He saves us for an intimate and personal relationship with himself. So in this question on who will dwell with God comes in this purpose why we were made, that we would be in relationship with him.

[7:30] It touches on key results of the entire redemptive story of the Bible. Nearness and likeness to the perfect and all-powerful God. And based on our biblical understanding of redemptive history, the question has impact both on the here and now and unto eternity.

[7:45] And not only asks who, when it's all said and done, will dwell with the Lord, but it also shows who will enjoy nearness to God here and now. Touching on both our redemption from sin and death, but also our salvation unto relationship with him, unto righteous living.

[8:05] So we would do well to pay attention to this important question, not for much of his sake. I want you to think about this. This is not just some intellectual discourse, right? It is a question of life and death.

[8:17] For life, according to the Bible, is being with God. And death, according to scripture, is separation from him. So this is an all-important question. So we should be intentive to listen to the psalmist's answer.

[8:30] And finally, this type of question, it kind of causes us to consider our own lives. You can't really answer this question without kind of bringing yourself into it.

[8:41] And so it's a very self... It invites each one of us to examine our own hearts and lives and to consider where we fit in within the context of this question.

[8:52] Who will dwell with the Lord? Who will ultimately be with him? Who will enjoy a relationship with him? But before we get into all those details, before we look at all of David's answers, we'll just talk a little bit about context.

[9:09] Right? So, Psalm 15, some people say that it was... There's kind of two camps on the purpose behind Psalm 15 and when it was written.

[9:22] Some people say that it was written by David when the ark was returned to Jerusalem and taken up to Mount Zion. And some say it was written by David just as a liturgy for the people as they came to worship the Lord.

[9:37] A liturgy for them to recite, to remember that the call to moral uprightness before the Lord. What is unique and what is interesting is that this Psalm touches nothing, doesn't touch at all on the ceremonial law or the rituals.

[9:57] So in the Old Testament, we know that the children of Israel needed to come before the Lord in order to come to worship in this temple. They would need to have sacrifices. And that showed that their sin needed to be paid for.

[10:09] Their atonement needed to be made in order for them to approach the Lord. So this is interesting because this Psalm talks about approaching the Lord, dwelling with him. But it does not touch on this sacrificial or ritual system. And I don't think this is for the pointers of minimizing that.

[10:22] Right? I think this is a purpose for David to kind of kick back against Israelites, legalists, all of us. Right? That want to say, hey, our righteousness, our life is really all about the external observance of rituals, of doing things.

[10:38] And so I think David's answer here, David's answer to this question, is an answer that really calls out our hearts. We don't see a lot of external things that David is pointing at here, but he's pointing at the internal.

[10:49] He's pointing at the character of the man that dwells with the Lord. So I think it's important, both in that time and in our time, because it is our tendency as human people to say, hey, we're meeting our check boxes.

[11:00] We're doing what's right. Meanwhile, we're going off and living with sinful hearts. And this Psalm really kind of pulled these people out of it.

[11:11] Right? So they would come before the Lord. They would offer their sacrifices, but then be reminded of the need to be people of moral purity. So let's dive into the details of this.

[11:22] We will look at starting in verse one. So I'll go ahead and read the text for us again, just so we know where we're going. But then we'll jump in and we'll look at David's answers to these questions.

[11:34] Let's read the text. Let's read the text. Let's read the text. Oh, Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.

[11:46] Who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes a reproach against a friend. And whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord. Who swears to his own hurt and does not change.

[11:58] Who does not put out his money at an interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. So right now we're looking through just kind of the answer to David's questions.

[12:10] Again, the question is who has the right to be in the presence of the Lord? Who has the right to dwell with God? Right? And he answers in these series of questions or in these series of answers. So we're going to first look at verse number two.

[12:22] It says he who walks blamelessly and does what is right. So we see that the man who can dwell with God is one who walks blamelessly and does what is right. And so we're going to look at these things and then also consider our lives. Right?

[12:33] So the Hebrew word translated here as blameless means to be whole or sound. The man who has the right to dwell with God is a man whose character is morally well-rounded and morally grounded.

[12:44] The person that's not strong in some areas of his life and weak in others. He is complete, right? He is complete in his moral pursuits and his blamelessness.

[12:56] The text also says his walk is blameless. So this is kind of the idea of a continual walk. So this is a man who's firmly committed to righteousness. He does not change hour by hour or day by day.

[13:08] So he is the same character of a man Monday through Saturday as he is on Sunday when he comes to church and worship. Right? So the second emphasis is that this man is active in doing good.

[13:25] We see this second part of that verse, verse two. The text says he does what is right. He is actively engaged in doing righteousness. In the New Testament, this concept expresses itself in a person who feeds the hungry, gives drinks to the thirsty, welcomes a stranger, clothes the naked, cares for the sick, and visits the prisoners.

[13:43] So more than just being a man who is internally pure, he is a man who is actively engaged in doing righteousness towards others and caring for the people he is supposed to care for and responding well to other people's needs.

[13:58] So how about you? How do we stand in comparison? Are you walking in comprehensive righteousness?

[14:09] Or do you excuse areas of weakness in your life? Do you make moral excuses? Do you say, well, I can take my coworkers' candy because after all I've been helping him all week on his project and without me he'd be stuck?

[14:28] Do we make moral compromises? How about you? Are you consistent in character? Moms, do your children wonder if they're going to wake up and have angry mom, an irritated mom, or a loving mom?

[14:45] Or a loving mom and thankful mom? Are we consistent in our character? Are you actively seeking ways to love others and to care for others and to meet other people's needs?

[14:57] Or are you frankly just too busy? Are you too blind to it because you're too busy caring for your own needs? Too busy thinking about yourself? So the psalmist continues.

[15:12] We get to verse 2 and 3. We see that in verse 2 it says he speaks truth in his heart. In verse 3 it says, who does not slander with his tongue?

[15:27] So what does it mean to speak truth in his heart? Right? So we see a man who is honest both inwardly and outwardly. Well, the first thing that's important for you to recognize is that you all the time are in consistent dialogue with yourself.

[15:42] It is your internal conversation. It is your heart that is directing your behavior. Right? I think this is important. The Bible focuses on your heart as a source of your behavior.

[15:56] Right? So contrary to what we want to believe, contrary to what our deceitful hearts want to say, our deceitful hearts want to say, no, my bad behavior is because of that guy.

[16:07] Or my bad behavior or my anger response or my impatience with my children is because my children are ridiculous. Right? No.

[16:18] What the Bible says is that those stem from your own heart. They are not impacted by other people. Your bad choices are because of your own brokenness. Right? So this man is the one who recognizes his need, recognizes his responsibility to believe right things within his heart that lead to right actions.

[16:41] So husbands. You can't blame your lack of love for your wife on their potential lack of respect.

[16:52] Wives. You can't excuse your lack of respect for your husband based on a felt deficit in his love towards you. Children. You can't blame your parents.

[17:04] Workers. You can't blame your boss. Citizens. You can't blame your government. You can't blame your elected leaders. Our behavior stems from our own hearts.

[17:15] The man who walks blamelessly before the Lord is one who understands that and believes true things within his heart that lead to true and right actions. But we see that this truthfulness doesn't just end in the heart.

[17:31] Right? This truthfulness leads. It says, it goes on, who does not slander with his tongue. So this truthfulness, this truthfulness of heart leads itself out to truthfulness before others.

[17:43] And as I was thinking through this text, I think this is one that we all struggle with. Right? This truthfulness has become such a currency of our culture. Right? We look at the news. We look at foreign discourse. We look at our companies, oftentimes.

[17:54] And we just see that we are often bathed in this culture of dishonesty, of deceitfulness. Right?

[18:05] So, diplomacy, oftentimes the details get skewed for the right, the higher cause of patriotism. Right? Politicians, news anchors, they spin stories to get more views, to get more votes.

[18:23] Right? Our companies, we're taught to present information in a politically correct way.

[18:34] We are applauded for focusing on the positive lights, the positive accomplishments, which simultaneously negates maybe some of the bad stuff that's going on.

[18:47] Right? It's just an emphasis, but it is deceitful. Right? And I think this actually sneaks into our own hearts a little bit. I don't think it's just out there. I think it's in here. I think we, as Christians, have oftentimes bought into this cultural narrative that the end justifies the needs.

[19:03] We tell little lies to save face. Right? We present ourselves in such a way. We choose which information to share and which information not to, so that we can present ourselves to other people according to the way that we want to present.

[19:19] Maybe not according to the way that is accurate. And so I think this honesty is something that really hits us all. Right? I think it hits our culture, but it has seeped into our own hearts. The man that this psalm is describing is a man who is utterly honest in all ways.

[19:35] And what is the problem with our dishonesty? Right? The next verse goes on and tells us that in this person, this person does no evil to his neighbor.

[19:46] So one of the real reasons that dishonesty is such a big deal is that it's taking what I present of the world and it's placing you, the person I have lied to, into my realm.

[20:00] It's bringing you under my desires to manipulate you in the way that I want. Right? And so ultimately it's unloving. Right? So this doing of evil is the opposite of love.

[20:12] Right? And so we call it as Christians to love. And when we lie, no matter how big or how small it is, we are pulling the wool over the eyes of our friends and our brothers and saying, no, I'm not going to give you a picture of reality.

[20:26] I want you to submit to my reality. And it's actually enslavement and it is demeaning and it is unhelpful. Right? So this standard of honesty, right, this standard of honesty that it calls for is utter honesty.

[20:41] And, you know, I was, it snowed on Thursday. I love the snow. I love playing the snow with my boys. So it started snowing. As soon as it started snowing, I got a ditch.

[20:53] I wanted to go home. Right? We got three kids. We got three kids. Yeah, let's talk loud. We got three kids, right? Okay, a little one.

[21:04] Oftentimes, I got to leave work for, you know, for doctor's appointments, whatever. Thursday, I just wanted to leave because I wanted to go home and be with the family.

[21:15] Right? I had been working a lot. I had been tired. You know, that's what I told my boss. I was like, hey, you know what? My wife needs me. I got to go. Not true at all. Right? Why did I do that? There was no point.

[21:26] My boss wouldn't have cared. But I wanted to present an image of myself that seemed more socially acceptable. Hey, all right. Can people hear? Yes. Right? And it's uncalled for.

[21:37] And I don't meet the standard of this text. So as I read this text and I question, am I the man that's going to dwell with the Lord?

[21:50] I say no. Right? I didn't have the moral commitment to say, I just want to go home and spend time with my kids. I had to hide on the excuse of my wife needs me.

[22:02] Right? And that makes me not this man that stands before the Lord. And that should concern me and that should scare me. Right? And I think these all kind of highlight us.

[22:14] Right? This isn't just basic like, do the right thing, say the right things, you're good to go, check the boxes. This is seeking into our hearts and saying, hey, what I, the Lord, require of you is purity through and through.

[22:29] So let's keep going on. These hit me in a lot of ways this week. So hopefully, we'll see. Yeah. Keep going. Now, one other thing that we do with honesty, and I think this is an important part.

[22:50] Right? So, so it's not, it's not only what we say. Right? So, so I think what we do a lot as a church, as people, as moral people, we say, hey, I technically said the right thing.

[23:04] But the intent was to see. So let's say you have man A, you have Mr. A, you have Mr. B, you have Mr. C. Follow me on this. I think it's not too confusing. Right? And then, Mr. A, Mr. B, and Mr. C all know one thing.

[23:19] They know that Mr. X didn't rob the bank. Right? They all brought into questioning. They all know the same fact. Mr. A says, yeah, he robbed the bank. I saw him.

[23:30] Straight out lying. Right? Mr. B says, well, I saw him at the scene late last night. Technically, he might have, right?

[23:41] That could be technically correct. Mr. C says nothing at all. He just sits there silent. Right? What have they all done? They have all deceived.

[23:53] They have all led people to believe a truth about Mr. X that is slander and as demeaned and as harmful. But I think we as Christians say, nah, I technically said the right thing.

[24:05] You know? But deceit was my purpose. We do that with our kids all the time. We make up stuff that they'll leave us alone. Or we say technically accurate things but throw them off the chase.

[24:17] Right? So, James, he's got like an eighth sense for any kind of candy wrapper. Right? So, if anything rustles, he's like, what's that? And I know he's going to ask me like 70 times.

[24:29] And I'll just say, yeah, it's, you know, something in the cover. Right? Technically, it's true. But my goal is to mislead him. Right? My goal is to use him for my own purposes, which at that point won't comfort more than my son.

[24:44] Right? And so, we see that God's word calls us, this psalm calls us, not to just some surface level honesty. It calls us to honesty through and through.

[24:56] And so, as I consider my own heart, I realize, whew, this is tough. All right, let's move on to verse three. We see the phrase, he does no evil to his neighbor.

[25:09] So, a person whose heart is ruled by God would never seek ill against someone, would never do anything that God would say is evil to his neighbor. No act of selfishness, no moment of impatience or irritation, no lashing out with unkind words, and no bitter judgment.

[25:26] I mean, this is tough, right? So, God, this is a man that God would thoroughly approve of every way that he treats other people. So, my impatience with my boys this morning when they wouldn't get in the car and buckle the seatbelts, probably didn't meet that, right?

[25:45] I probably didn't live up to that standard of not doing anything evil before the Lord, before my boys. All right, let's continue on.

[25:59] As this all wasn't enough, verse three continues, explaining that God is a dweller, or that this God dweller is one who does not take up a reproach against their friend.

[26:10] So, the reproach here is the Hebrew verb means to strip. So, this meaning is, it means that I would never do anything that would strip a person of their reputation in any way, shape, or form.

[26:22] This is a powerful metaphor for what gossip does. Gossip strips a person of their reputation for the sheer selfish delight of telling a story. Sorry, this sermon is getting a lot about me, but God really convicted me of this.

[26:40] I was talking to a friend about a co-worker. He just asked me, how's the co-worker doing? I then proceeded to kind of explain the differences I had with this co-worker, a difference of approach, how maybe things haven't worked out as we had planned.

[26:59] And I kind of, my time with this friend was short and precious. And so, in hindsight, I looked back and I was like, why did I spend 15 to 20 minutes talking about this co-worker dynamic that my friend didn't care or ask for any of those details?

[27:16] And as I really assessed my heart, it was because there was pride that I wanted to exalt myself over my co-worker. And so, this, why I technically tried to say true things and didn't take a side, right?

[27:29] I said, ah, we have differences, or I didn't say, my way is better than his way, right? But the whole thing is, my whole rant was completely unwarranted, completely unasked for, and it was stripping up his reputation, right?

[27:43] Because as I realized it, like, there was no point. None of these questions were asked. And I think we do that all the time, right? We want to assert our opinion in a lot of different ways.

[27:55] And I think if we're not careful, we're actually stripping people of their reputation. We're getting involved in things that we have no place to be involved in, and our pride likes to work in there and sneak in ways to say, oh, you know what, I'm actually better than that guy, which is stripping this individual of their reputation.

[28:13] Now, so this man that dwells with the God is one who does not harm others' reputation.

[28:24] So maybe you, like me, haven't failed by going off on a self-aggrandizing rant against a co-worker.

[28:39] But coupled with the paragraph before where it says, and does no evil against his neighbor, right? We would be expected, as people who are committed to not slander, to be committed to stopping slander, right?

[28:56] So maybe you allowed people to indulge in slanderous comments or reputation-stripping kind of conversation.

[29:09] But if you were a man who was committed to righteousness before the Lord and committed to loving that person or that individual, you would have been also a man who would have stopped that conversation from happening.

[29:21] And so I think these things can go really deep, right? They can really get at the nuts and bolts of how we work. Well, verse 4 states that this man is a man whose eyes a vile person is despised, but one who honors those who fears the Lord.

[29:44] So this person is so deep in their moral commitment to the Lord that he is reviled, revolted, and turned away by sin as much as the Lord is. Sin is not attractive to him.

[29:55] He wants to be with people who are moral because he loves the call of God to righteousness. How about you?

[30:07] Do you consider the movies you watch, the things you laugh at, the people we esteem? Do you spend time on Facebook wishing you could go on that epic trip, or have kids that seem so well-behaved in pictures?

[30:22] Are you more interested in the antics of President Trump, the wit of Saturday Night Live comedians, the football dominance of Tom Brady, the inspiration of those featured in Time Magazine's most influential of 2017?

[30:37] Or are you interested in the mind-boggling wealth of those currently sitting on top of Forbes' richest people list? Or, as this psalmist points, are you one who honors people who fears the Lord?

[30:50] This psalm describes a righteous man as one who is blameless in his conduct and character. One who seeks out and does righteousness, is truthful inwardly and outwardly, despises what is wrong, and honors what is right.

[31:03] One who holds his promises and refuses to take advantage of the weak. This is not the path to fortune or fame in this world. It is not the path to wealth, but it is the path to God.

[31:15] Are you like the man described in Psalm? Do you honor those who fear the Lord? Or do you find people of this world more impressive and give them your time, thoughts, and aspirations?

[31:27] We must remember that Jesus was born in a lowly manger. He was not esteemed according to the values of this world. He was not wealthy, attractive, or firm by the masses.

[31:38] Yet he was righteous and pleasing to God. Do you find yourself more stimulated by the people of this world than your Savior? And because you are not more enamored with your Savior, you show little honor to those who are marked by his characteristics.

[31:54] You lack esteem for those who fear the Lord. Your lack of esteem for those who fear the Lord shows your lack of esteem for your Savior. Once you've developed a taste for fresh pineapple, you don't keep buying the canned stuff.

[32:06] Likewise, once you've experienced the true beauty, power, goodness, and glory of Jesus, you lose your infatuation with the broken heroes of this world. So are you like this man in song who honors those who fear the Lord?

[32:19] Or in all functionality, do you spend your time seeking after worldly heroes, successful people in this life?

[32:31] Does that consume your time? Or are you consumed with the character of your God? So finally, we'll get through all of these. Finally, verse 4 and 5. This person is also a person who is absolutely faithful to his word, whose business dealings are always upright and pure.

[32:48] He swears to his own hurt and does not change. He is good to his promises, even when his promises hurt. When things start going sour in his promises, he doesn't balance, he doesn't live for ways.

[32:59] He owns up to his promises and finalizes his commitments. We see that this man does not put money out at interest. He does not take a bribe against the innocent.

[33:12] So really, what's at play here is not the fact that he's not loaning money at interest. It's the fact that he's not taking advantage of people. In the law, in ancient Israel, they weren't forbidden from having business transactions with interest.

[33:29] But they were forbidden from taking somebody who was at need, loaning them money, and receiving interest. So the whole idea here is usury is taking advantage of those who are weaker than you to gain a financial advantage.

[33:45] We see that this man doesn't take a bribe. That means he prefers justice over his wallet. So how about you? How are you doing in these things?

[34:03] How did you do last week? If anybody lived up to these standards, could you please stand? So look around you. Well, what does that mean for us?

[34:15] What does that mean for people who are very interested in the answer to this psalm? Very interested in being people that dwell with the Lord. What does that mean for us? And I think this should hurt a little, right?

[34:30] Because we want to please our Lord. We want to dwell into his presence. And the fact that we are not living up to a standard shouldn't just be something that doesn't bother us. It should bother us. But this psalm is ultimately a psalm of comfort, right?

[34:51] This psalm is a comfort because it is not about us. It is about another. The he in this psalm is Jesus. The he in this psalm is our Savior.

[35:02] The he in this psalm is the one who lived perfectly. Who cared for others. Who stopped to care and help for the poor. He is the one who made a promise and followed through on that promise even unto his death.

[35:19] He is the one who, though he was offered the world, offered all the kingdoms of this world. He wouldn't be bought.

[35:32] He wouldn't take the easy way out. Instead, he rejected this offer so that he could pursue true justice. And he pursued true justice through his own life and through his own death for our behalf.

[35:47] So as we read this psalm, we're brought to comfort and we're brought to see our Savior, who is this one who lived this moral uprightness. He is the one who is the he of this psalm.

[36:00] He is the one that we can look to. And he is the one that we ought to run to as we recognize our inability. But my fear is that we only like the comforts of the gospel.

[36:21] We like to be people who have been redeemed by the blood of the son, who can stand before God, stand before his presence, not in the merit of our own righteousness, but in the merit of our Savior. But we forget the call of the gospel.

[36:36] We forget that we are called to live righteously. We forget that we are called to take on his character. And we forget that we are empowered to live for him through his provisions, through his means of grace, through his spirit.

[36:52] And so you can't accept the comfort of the gospel without also accepting the call of the gospel. And this psalm makes that very clear.

[37:05] This standard is still the standard, right? This is still what we're called to live to. Now we can on our own. And what this should remind us is that we need to abandon our own righteousness and seek the Lord for his righteousness and seek the Lord for his power.

[37:21] But we must be involved in both these activities. We must dive ourselves into the comfort of the gospel and remember the call of the gospel.

[37:34] So I think sometimes it is our tendency to remember the comfort of the gospel and thus we live lives that are very unpleasing to the Lord, that are very unempowered. Or on the other tendency, and I think this is actually a tendency where I've been at, and so this message of grace has been really great for my soul this week, is that we remember the call of the gospel.

[37:54] We remember that we're called to live godly lives, but we forget the comfort of the gospel. And so we look like Christians who have no joy. We look like Christians who are not thankful. We look like Christians who are beat up.

[38:06] And if our lives are supposed to be a representation of what it looks like to know Jesus, people around us are being like, I don't want any of that. Because we're working so hard in our own strength. We have forgotten to abandon our own righteousness and to dive on the provisions of Christ, who is our Savior, who has made us clean, who has brought us before the Lord, and therefore empowers us through his spirit to live for the Lord.

[38:30] And so we read this text, and it's a hard call, but it's a call that we are empowered to live. And so we continue on, day after day, diving ourselves upon God's grace, repenting of our failures, repenting of our dishonesty, repenting of our unkindness, of our impatience, and asking God for empowerment the next day, so we might walk and live according to him.

[38:52] You can't separate, you can't separate the call of the gospel from the grace of the gospel, because it doesn't work that way. We need to be people who love the Lord and pursue him with all of our worth, who study his word, who look for his provisions, who dive into his graces, but also remember that the free, forgiving sacrifice, the forgiveness that we have, the righteousness that we have, and we can honor and glorify the Lord.

[39:17] And so I think this psalm was great. This psalm was great for me, because it had beat me up over my sin. It showed me areas of my life that I was like, I didn't even know. I didn't even know how far off I was. Right?

[39:28] And it's not okay. It's not okay to walk in undergenerate ways. We've been made new. We've been redeemed, not so that we can sin, but so that we can live righteously, so that we can bring our God glory.

[39:40] And that's the message I hope that we come with. If you keep yourself one, at the end of the psalm it says, and this person shall not be moved. That is the very final.

[39:52] Psalm with promise. And so if we as Christians have one foot planted firmly on the comfort of the gospel, and one foot planted firmly on the call of the gospel, we will be people who are unmoved.

[40:05] Because what we'll find is that our feet are planted firmly on the rock, on our Savior. If our feet are planted firmly on Him, and we're coming to Him for help, and coming to Him for forgiveness, we are people who will not be moved.

[40:23] Because He is our victorious Savior. He is the one who defeated death. He is the one who defeated the grave. And He is the one who brought us into His presence and into relationship with Him. So as we go about today, consider seriously your sin, and jump on the grace of the cross, and jump on the empowerment of Christ and His Spirit to live righteously, so that we might honor Him and have an impact in this world.

[40:47] Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you just for your word. Lord, we thank you for the great grace that you've shown us. Lord, when we consider our lives, we see how short we fall.

[41:01] How short we fall. But we thank you that you've given us a perfectly righteous Savior, a beautiful redeemer, one that we can trust, one that we can abandon our own righteousness, and firmly trust in your continued grace.

[41:17] Lord, help us to remember the call of the gospel, and remember it as you that then empowers us to live rightly. So Lord, may we not continue on in our own strength, because we're just going to get worn out, and we're not going to bring you glory.

[41:34] But Lord, if we remember the strength that you give, the fact that you've called us to victory, the fact that the power that raised Christ from the dead is at work in us, Lord, then we can continue to strive with confidence that the one who backs our efforts is none other than the king of the universe, the redeemer of our souls.

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