“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? 2 Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. 3 Those who refuse to slander others or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. 4 Those who despise persistent sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the Lord and keep their promises even when it hurts. 5 Those who do not charge interest on the money they lend, and who refuse to accept bribes to testify against the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever.” (Psalm 15:1-5 NLT).
Let’s wrap this up. Who may worship? If we could sum up the answer to that question as found in this Psalm it would be that only those who horizontal relationships (man to man) are right can stand before God in the vertical relationship (man to God) and worship. How easy it is for us to forget or ignore this concept. So many of us think nothing of coming into God’s presence in corporate worship when we have unfinished business with those around us.
The first two requirements of the worship relationship are positive. Those who live right (in relation to their fellow-men) and those who speak right (in that horizontal relationship) have met the first two requirements for coming into God’s presence.
The third requirement seems negative at first glance. “Those who despise persistent sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the Lord.” These two phrases are not separate ideas, notice the joining conjunction “and.” What does this mean?
We have in our society become enamored with celebrities. It doesn’t matter how they live or what they stand for, our tendency is to worship them, idolize them and emulate them. I think this is most clearly seen in the dress of young people who follow the fashion design if they are females of Brittany Spears (there’s a role model if there ever was one) or young men, of the “gangsta rappers.” These young people haven’t stopped to consider the message they are receiving and the life-style they are portraying. Not done. Show this to your teenager or pre-teen and watch their reaction. They will become immediately defensive claiming “this is the style,” and “everybody's doing it,” and “it looks cool.” Bottom line there will be a role-reversal that occurs: they will honor the persistent sinners and despise the faithful followers of the Lord!
Now I use this for illustration purposes only. The same thing is happening in different ways across all age groups. We have people who despise George W. Bush for his right stance on abortion and cheer Barak Obama for his wrong stance on this subject. (Those same people are now censoring me for such a comment). See how easy it is to get it backwards?
God’s word is clear: Who has the right and ability to worship? “Those who despise persistent sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the Lord and keep their promises even when it hurts.” That last phrase could easily stand alone, but our text links it with this one thought. Let me summarize this point. It’s pretty hard to worship a Holy God when we are enamored with unholy people and their actions; when our secret desire is to be like them instead of pleasing the Father. It’s pretty hard to worship a Holy God when we dishonor those who faithfully follow Him in obedience calling them square or out of touch or goody two-shoes. It’s pretty hard to worship a Holy and faithful God if we are unfaithful to Him when times get tough.
To “despise persistent sinners” does not mean that we treat them badly, Jesus ate with persistent sinners. This phrase does not mean that we are not to associate with ungodly people, it means that we are to be sure that we remember who they are. We love the sinner but hate their sin. Jesus ate with sinners but he did not participate in any of their sins. We have professed believers today who have lost their focus on this subject.
Who may worship? The final requirement is found in verse 5: “Those who do not charge interest on the money they lend, and who refuse to accept bribes to testify against the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever.” Who may worship? Those who emulate the Father’s love and are generous and honest. Those who can remain steadfast and faithful in the storms of life, the attacks of the evil one and resist the pull of temptation.
How will you approach worship this Sunday?
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