Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?
Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
speaking the truth from sincere hearts.
Those who refuse to gossip
or harm their neighbors
or speak evil of their friends.
Those who despise flagrant sinners,
and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,
and keep their promises even when it hurts.
Those who lend money without charging interest,
and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.
Such people will stand firm forever.
Context: While I appreciate the New Living Translation (NLT) because of its dedication to inclusive language, gender sensitivity, and readability, there is a certain beauty and depth in older translations. If we seek to immerse ourselves in the oral tradition for reading and studying of the psalms, we find a certain poetic rhythm in earlier translations and versions that follow a more “word-for-word” technique of translation rather than a “thought-for-thought” technique. These techniques render more of a paraphrase rather than a translation. Yet the poetry of those earlier versions is still the poetry of the time they were created and not the poetry of ancient Israel.
The New King James Version (NKJV) is a “word-for-word” translation. The first verse of Psalm 15:
LORD, who may abide in your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in your holy hill?
Who may dwell in your holy hill?
The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) reads this way:
O Lord, who may abide in your tent?
Who may dwell on your holy hill?
Who may dwell on your holy hill?
The beautiful imagery that sets the context for this psalm can be missed without looking a little deeper into this first verse. Although the psalms are generally thought by scholars to have been gathered and compiled in the post-exilic period, they have a much longer oral history that can be discerned from the echoes into the life of the Hebrews as far back as Moses. Remember the wandering Hebrews with their “traveling” tabernacle. The tabernacle, which is referred to in Psalm 15, was a “tent-like” structure holding the spiritual treasures of the community. The tabernacle itself was systematically created after the Hebrew people escaped from the Egyptians. Gifted artisans followed specific instructions given by God so the tabernacle would serve as a visual reminder to the community of their need for a relationship with God.
The tabernacle was God’s “dwelling” place … God “traveled” with the people in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. We think of God as being everywhere, but the writers/readers/worshippers of God at the time the psalms were written thought of God as being “with” them through God’s presence “with” the Tabernacle/Tent … and later the Temple. When the psalmist refers to the “holy hill” it is possible that he refers to Mount Moriah, which is where the Temple itself was later built as a permanent dwelling place for God. The people of ancient Israel would most certainly have believed that any mountain or hill is a place close to God for they would have believed heaven lay just above the sky and clouds. The closer to got to the clouds, the closer you come to God ...
Temple Mount (present day) Image courtesy of BiblePlaces.com
For pictures, diagrams, and more information on the physical tabernacle and all of the elements found within, visit The Tabernacle Place.
Going Deeper: Righteousness means “being in a right relationship” with God. Psalm 15 reminds us that a right relationship with God depends on the way we live our lives and the way we treat other people. This psalm may have been an “entrance” psalm which means that as the people approached the tabernacle or the temple, they cried out:
“O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?”
The priests responded with the remainder of the psalm. So what does one do to get ready for entrance to the tabernacle, which in our modern-day context means a sanctuary or simply a place of worship? How do you prepare your heart for worship? What element of worship helps you to feel closer to God? What element of worship calls you to deeper living?
As you consider the responses of the priests that emerge in this psalm, we find eleven ways of living in “right relationship” with God (personally) and with others (communally). How are you doing? Where is God working in your life? What are the challenges you face as you consider these ways of living? Consider the way our relationships with others impact our relationship with God? How does one have a relationship with God and not live in community?
While we should not be encouraged to think of the words of the psalm as “requirements” for communal existence we can view them as a description of what a healthy community looks like. How does your community measure up to the “signs of health” that are found in Psalm 15? Where does your community struggle to be all God calls you to be as you live in community with one another?
Pondering: Using either the more contemporary version (NLT) at the beginning of your study or the following more formal translation (NKJV) or your own favorite translation … Read the verses of Psalm 15 aloud again and again as you engage in the art of Lectio Divina (divine reading) **If you are a female reading an older/formal version, you may find changing the “he/his” pronouns to “she/her” makes the psalm more personal for you and helps you to “hear” it speaking “to” you … this has helped me tremendously as I claim the psalms for my own life!
LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart;
He who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor,
nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the LORD;
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
He who does not put out his money at usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
Lectio=Listen to the words. Read the words slowly, repeating them again and again, allowing them to linger on the tongue, savoring their beauty ...
Meditatio=Prayerfully listen as you read until a small portion of the psalm (a word or a thought or a phrase) begins to draw you deep within. Turn your “portion” over and over in your mind and consider what God may be inviting you to think or feel or do or be … Write down what Spirit has given you:
Stay with your “portion” and commit it to memory as your thought for the day … Praying:
Oratio=Spend some time in prayer responding to God’s invitation … allow prayers of confession, petition,
intercession, thanksgiving, praise, or ... to emerge in this time you are spending with God.
Contemplatio=When you run out of words to say, simply rest in the presence of God, lingering with God in loving companionship …
Amen!
Experience a song inspired by this psalm on this YouTube video ...
Lord Prepare me to be a Sanctuary
Pure and Holy, Tried and True
With Thanksgiving, I'll be a
Living Sanctuary for you ...
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