Psalm 15:4 “who despises a vile man”

[You see all; nothing is hidden from you; you know what is vile and rightly reject it. In righteousness you despise what is unrighteous, while somehow still loving every sinner and seeking to bring them, into your Forgiveness, into your Family, into your Kingdom.]

“but honors those who fear the LORD,”

[You are able to discern what really motivates a man: fear of people or fear of God (Psalm 34:11-14). And you will give glory and honor to those who walk in your ways because they love you and trust you.]

“who keeps his oath even when it hurts,”

[You are the One who always keeps your Word—you kept your Word to be a Savior who could only redeem through intense, infinite suffering, and you, Lord Jesus, followed through by submitting yourself to anguish, pain and an unjust punishment of death. Praise you for your faithfulness.]

Psalm 15:5 “who lends his money without usury”

[You are generous and gracious, pouring out your riches on us without thought of profit.]

“and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.”

[You are absolutely just, you cannot be swayed by any bribe. No one can bribe you to move against your children. And we believers can’t get you to change your mind with our “good works,” our fasting or self-denial; we can’t twist your cosmic arm, to “make” you answer our selfish prayers. Praise be to you for your unbending goodness and purity.

Lord, help us to live like you, to follow your example in each of these wonderful qualities and thereby bring honor to your name by showing your glory to all those around us.

Psalm 15:1 “LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?”

[Praise be to you, Lord God, the High and Holy One, who invites us into your sanctuary, to live with you on your holy hill–through believing on the risen Jesus.

This possibility is a delightful demonstration of your deep delight in sharing your glorious grace and your generous goodness with us, offering us life and love even while we were still dead in sins. This is your pure and positive Character at work in the midst of a broken, twisted and destructive world.

Psalm 15:2-4 “…who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?

–The one whose walk is BLAMELESS,

–who does what is RIGHTEOUS,

— who speaks the TRUTH from their heart;

–whose tongue utters NO SLANDER,

–who does NO WRONG to a neighbor,

–who CASTS NO SLUR on others;

–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….”

Wow! What a list! Breath-taking standards.

Each of these conditions for living in close relationship with you, Lord, is unreachable for us in our own strength; our sinful flesh prevents this, even when our spirit is willing.

But, in the face of our inability, you, Lord God, in your rich and powerful, persistent and active agape love have, through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, provided these qualities for all who believe. “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Pet. 1:3).

You have imputed the qualities of Christ to us and have made us qualified to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of light! This is against all logic, all normal justice, all human reasoning and contrary to even the heavenly expectations of angels.

This grace–giving us the opposite of what we deserve–is more than marvelous. It is the demonstration of your infinitely loving, lovely and lustrous Character at work in mysterious and majestic ways, moving us from hopelessness and despair to certainty and safety.

I praise you for the great and transforming truth of your total commitment to save all who are willing. Therefore, we can trust you totally, rest in you fully and follow you wholeheartedly.

May we honor you today by resting in your goodness, obeying in your power and living as carriers of light and hope to all around us. Praise you for what you will do today!

Psalm 14:4 “Will evildoers never learn—”

[Lord, this means you are consistently working at teaching all rebels the error of their ways by letting them suffer the consequences of their destructive choices. In your faithfulness and love You are calling them to repentance and surrender–but they are not listening!]

“those who devour my people as men eat bread and who do not call on the LORD?”

[These rebels commit two evils: they abuse people, and they trust in themselves, rather than you, Lord. They delusively believe they are in control, able to handle life on their own as they bully all those around them.]

Psalm 14:5 “But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous.”

[In spite of their bravado, inside they have dread because they sense God’s presence among believers. That’s why they so viciously attack those who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ. This has happened repeatedly all down through history and we see this today as religious terrorists and leaders try to wipe out all Christians in their territory. And how leftists seek to disempower Christians.

Such evildoers are afraid of death. They may be aware of the coming judgment, and that because of their stubborn selfishness they are set apart from the righteous–those have surrendered to Christ–but in spite of this they do not repent and shake their fist at God.]

The Lord was busy working in other people, too. The little photocopy business on the ground floor of our bookstore building was put up for sale.

Since we were looking for new means of income in order to make our business platform self-sustaining, this looked like a good opportunity for us. The location would be another plus; having the bookstore on the third floor meant people had to look up before they would see our sign. Owning the business at street level would allow our sign to be easily seen by anyone passing by.

After we bought the photocopy business, Freedom, the young fellow who was already employed there said, “I’ll work for you for a month until you hire someone and I’ll stay to train that person. This sounded good to us, so I accepted his offer.

After nearly a month of looking, we hadn’t been able to find anyone suitable among the available believers to do the job, so Freedom made us another offer: “I like you. I think I’ll keep on working for you!”

So he essentially hired himself, and we were not sorry. He was creative, pleasant, hardworking, and honest. Those last two qualities were rare ones around us.

After three months of getting to know him, we began to talk with him about spiritual things. He engaged eagerly. Later he told me the reason for his interest. He’d been a thinker from childhood and had looked carefully into the faith of his fathers. After thinking long and hard about it, he’d rejected it in his early teens and became an atheist.

Then at age eighteen, while serving his military duty, he was on patrol, sitting on a mountainside around a campfire with his fellow soldiers and he said he suddenly realized that atheism was not an honest stance for anyone to take.

“No one can know for sure that there’s no God,” he said out loud to himself. Looking up at the star-studded sky, he added, “Maybe He lives on the back side of the moon!”

That was pretty impressive to me, to see how God had been working in Freedom’s life long before we met. Here was a fellow with a 6th grade education who had more insight than many professors with doctorates who persist in holding onto the intellectually dishonest position of atheism.

Freedom then went back and reexamined his family’s form of religion, but ended up rejecting it again. He was now actively looking for direction.

After moving to our city he had joined a Mafia group in the neighborhood of our shop and was working toward a leadership position. However, as we shared the gospel with him, he became aware of the vast differences between what the Word says, what his father’s religion says and what the Mafia had to offer.

One Monday after attending Salvation Fellowship with us, Freedom surrendered himself to Christ. With him was a friend, Falcon, who had heard the gospel in another city; he also prayed to accept Christ. These two, along with three other new believers became the core of our new fellowship plant. The Lord was answering our prayers!

Picture: Freedom working with me

The Gift of God’s Faithfulness 2

Psalm 13:6 “I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.”

[David here still did not have an answer, he was still in danger, but this is a declaration of his trust in God to answer and save–based on his past experience of God’s help.

We also can sing now in praise and thanksgiving to you, Lord, before you act in our troubles, knowing that you will come and work things out, to rescue and save, to empower and carry us through–just as you have helped us in the past, always acting out of your pristine character and your powerful faithfulness to your Word.

It is in this certainty that, while still in trouble, we can sing in praise for the help you will bring. Help us to persistently praise you in every difficulty, Lord God, before we see any answers, resting and reveling in your full faithfulness. May you thereby be glorified before the people and the spiritual powers around us today.