I have started reading a book by Rick Warren called Bible Study Methods. In the back of the book there is a 5 years study plan that I am going to attempt to follow. This first week I am reading Psalms 15.
O 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; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in 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 at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. (Psalm 15:1-5 ESV)
At first glance, I turned it into a checklist. My initial outline looked kind of like this,
• Who shall come near the Lord?
o He who is blameless.
o He who does what is right.
o He who is honest.
o He who does not slander.
o He who does no evil to his neighbor.
o Who does not get back at a neighbor.
o “…in whose eyes a vile person is despised…”
o “…who honors those who fear the Lord…”
o Who doesn’t take advantage of people.
• “He who does these things shall never be moved.”
In the book it references the importance of applying what you read. This was right up my alley, I love checklists. So my goal was to apply these concepts. This wasn’t thought out very well. To start off let’s take being blameless off the lists. I found myself slandering before lunch time. I didn’t “honor those who fear the Lord.” I wasn’t doing a very good job on my checklist.
I read this chapter again today and the Holy Spirit led me to a different conclusion. Instead of making a checklist, I asked myself the points as questions,
o Am I blameless? Undeniably, no!
o Do I do what is right? Not all the time.
o Am I honest? Not all the time.
o Do I slander? Yes.
o Do I do evil to my neighbor? I don’t think so.
o Do I get back at people? Yes, sometimes.
o Do I stay away from vile people? I try to. I’m not sure about this one.
o Do I honor those who fear the Lord? Not as I should.
o Do I take advantage of people? I think I can say no to this one.
According to my count, I have failed. Nuts. So I am (shockingly) unable to perform the tasks necessary to sojourn in the Lord’s tent and visit his holy hill. Good thing I know someone who is able. Good thing he is willing to take all my failures and give me his success. This scripture isn’t about me it’s about Jesus.