The Fear of the Lord

Heavenly Father, by your Spirit and through your holy Scriptures, please make us wise for salvation. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

How much do you care about God?

In our series on the Psalms we come this evening to Psalm 15. Please turn to that. You’ll find it on page 549 in the Bibles in the pews. And my title is ‘The Fear of the Lord’. I don’t know if you were here last Sunday evening – I wasn’t as a matter of fact – but this Psalm fits well alongside Psalm 14 that we looked at then. Psalm 14 is about the foolish. Psalm 15 is about the wise. As Michael Wilcock (who was speaking here a few weeks ago) puts it in his helpful commentary on the Psalms in the Bible Speaks Today series:

the ‘foolish’ are not necessarily stupid; rather they are those who care nothing about God. Similarly, the ‘wise’ are not necessarily brainy; rather, they are those are those who care a lot about God. [Michael Wilcock: The Message of the Psalms]

Psalm 14 is all about those who care nothing about God. It begins:

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”. They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no-one who does good.

There are different ways of being atheist – different ways of being foolish. As Ian put it last week, you can be a theoretical atheist – saying, ‘God does not exist’. Or you can be a practical atheist – saying ‘God does not matter – nothing will happen if I ignore him.’ All ways of being atheist are foolish and lead to disaster.

The opposite of theoretical or practical atheism is what the Bible calls ‘The Fear of the Lord’. “The fear of the Lord,” say Proverbs 9.10, “is the beginning of wisdom.” Or as Proverbs 1.7 puts the same thought:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Psalm 15, then, is all about those who fear the Lord – those who care a lot about God. It begins with a vital question. And that question raises other questions. So my four headings are four questions. You can see them on the outline on the back of the service sheet. They are these. First, Who can live with God? Secondly, What does righteousness look like? Thirdly, who is totally righteous? And fourthly, how can we live with God? So:


First, WHO CAN LIVE WITH GOD?

Psalm 15 opens with that question, and the rest of the Psalm answers it. Take a look at how the Psalm starts. Verse 1:

Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?

It’s a question that needs a bit of translating into a New Testament context if we’re going to make sense of it ourselves. It talks about living in God’s sanctuary. That’s the temple, or literally the tent of God. And it talks about living on God’s holy hill – the mountain of God. They both are the places where God said he would meet with his people, and where he said he would live. But they could only come near him on his terms. So this question is asking, “Lord, who can approach you? Who can meet with you? Who can remain in your presence?” In other words, “Lord, who can live with you?”

It makes me think of trying to get on board a plane. Which is on my mind as we’ve just come back from a week abroad. We turned up at the airport. There was the plane on the tarmac. It was going to take us home. But we couldn’t just march up to it and get on. Oh no. We had to do it on the terms of the airport and airline authorities. Otherwise we’d have been kicked out. It took hours. There were the queues. There was the queue for the check-in where we had to show that we had the right ticket, all booked and paid for, and our names were on the list. There were the luggage restrictions. We had to discard what wasn’t allowed. Then to security. We and our stuff was scrutinised and scanned and opened up for checking. There was the passport check – more queues – and we had our photo taken and compared to make sure that we were who we were supposed to be. Then – guess what – we queued for boarding. Checking and rechecking. And all the time the basic question was: did we and what we had with us belong on that plane?

How much more is it true that you can’t just march into the presence of God. The clue is in that little word ‘holy’ in verse 1. “Who may live on your holy hill?” And of course it’s not really the hill that’s holy. It’s God. God is a holy God. And a holy God can only be approached on his terms. When the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai to meet with God, the Lord said to Moses:

“Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death…’”

That’s Exodus 19.12. A generation later Moses said (in Deuteronomy 4.23-24):

“Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you … For the Lord your God is a consuming fire…”

And God does not change. 1500 years later, the New Testament said:

let us … worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

That’s Hebrews 12.28-29, quoting Deuteronomy.

So what kind of person is going to ask that question: “Lord, who can live with you?” Not a fool, for a start. This is someone who knows that God is there; and who knows that he needs to live with God – life without God is too dreadful a thought to contemplate. This is someone who knows that God is a holy God – a consuming fire; who fears God because he’s learning to be wise; but who also knows that he’s sinful. He’s not holy.

So there’s this key question. Maybe you’re asking it yourself. Who can live with God?

What then is the answer? The answer is there at the beginning of verse 2 and the end of verse 5. Take a look. Who can live with God? Verse 2:

He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous…

And the end of verse 5:

He who does these things will never be shaken.

Who can live with God? Only those who are totally righteous. Blameless.

And just in case we think that’s an Old Testament answer and it’s different in the New Testament, let’s be clear that this is a New Testament answer as well. Hebrews 12.14:

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no-one will see the Lord.

And Jesus says this in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5.20):

“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Who can live with God? Only the totally righteous. Now that raises big questions, above all for those who know that they’re sinful. So the next question – and my second heading on the outline – is this:


Secondly, WHAT DOES RIGHTEOUSNESS LOOK LIKE?

Psalm 15’s answer to that is there in verses 2-5:

2He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart 3and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbour no wrong and casts no slur on his fellow-man, 4who despises a vile man but honours those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts,5who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Now, let me draw your attention to a few things about that description of righteousness.

For one thing, searching as it is, it’s not comprehensive. There is even more that’s not spelled out here but is elsewhere.

What this picture of righteousness does do is make it clear that it’s a matter of what’s in our hearts, what we say, and what we do. It’s thoughts, words and deeds. It’s not enough just to do the right things. We have to say the right things as well. And it’s not enough just to say the right things. We have to think the right things as well.

Though the truth is that what we say and do flows from what’s in our hearts. James says:

If any one is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

And he adds:

My brothers, can a fig-tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?

That’s James 3.2 and 12. In other words what we say shows what’s in our hearts. If we’re going to talk and indeed act right, then our hearts have to be right.

On holiday last week we saw fig trees. Guess what kind of fruit that they had on them. Figs. We also saw grapevines. Guess what kind of fruit they had on them. Grapes. If we’re going to say righteous things and do righteous deeds then we have to have righteous hearts. You can see the same thing in Psalm 24.3-4:

Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart…

Note also what Michael Wilcock draws attention to, which is that this section (I quote):

looks forward to the beatitudes of Matthew 5 and back to the commandments of Exodus 20. Like the latter, it may be seen as ten easy-to-remember watchwords for the righteous life: integrity, well-doing, truthfulness; no scandal, no unneighbourliness, no defamation; discernment, faithfulness; no greed, no graft.[Michael Wilcock: The Message of the Psalms]

Discernment is the right way to understand what’s described in the first part of verse 4:

[He] who despises a vile man but honours those who fear the Lord…

Can it be right to despise anyone? Not in the sense of looking down your nose at them from a position of moral superiority. But that’s not what is meant here. It’s crucial that when we see evil and immoral living we recognise it for what it is – in ourselves as well as in others. It creates a stench in the nose of God, if I can put it reverently that way. And we need to develop something of the same sense of smell and revulsion. We need moral and spiritual discernment.

What does righteousness look like? Here in Psalm 15 is a portrait. And it’s a picture of someone of total integrity. That is the kind of person who can live with God. Which raises my next question. You can see it there on the outline.


Thirdly, WHO IS TOTALLY RIGHTEOUS?

To answer that we have to move beyond Psalm 15 and put it in a New Testament context. And in fact, as so often in the Old Testament, we’re pointed in that direction here. That’s not by Psalm 15 itself, but by the fact that it’s right next door to Psalm 14. That’s no accident.

Who can live with God? Only the totally righteous. Who is totally righteous? What does Psalm 14 say about that? Look back to Psalm 14.2-3, that we thought about last week.

The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no-one who does good, not even one. None of us is righteous. Quite the opposite. We’re corrupt. Without God’s intervention in our lives we don’t even ask that question: “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary?” We don’t want to know.

But by his grace God makes us aware both of our desperate need of him and of our lack of righteousness.

It’s that combination of knowing that God is holy, that we are not, and that our lives depend on being able to live with God, that creates the holy fear within us that causes that urgent question to arise: “Who can live with God?”

There’s an example in Isaiah 33.14, which says:

The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”

You see it again in Mark’s Gospel 4.41, when the disciples in the boat with Jesus watch him still the storm with a word:

They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

I think of the young monk Martin Luther, desperate to be right with God, overwhelmed with an awareness of his own sinfulness despite all his religious observances, tormented by the question of how he could possibly stand before a holy God.

I think of the young John Wesley returning to England across the Atlantic after failing as a missionary to the American Indians, in despair because he knew he didn’t even have himself what he wanted to give to them – peace with God.

Is that you? Has the Holy Spirit so worked on your heart that this question fills your mind as well. “Lord, who can live with you? Because I want to and I need to.”

I remember a time in my late teens when I knew God was there, I knew I wanted to live with him and for him, but I also seemed to be getting worse and worse as I became more and more aware of the depth of my sin. Far from drawing near to God, I seemed to be getting further and further away. It was a miserable time.

None of us is righteous. Quite the opposite. We’re corrupt.

Except one. There is one who was not one of us but who wonderfully became one of us. And that, of course, is the Lord Jesus. The righteous one. The sinless one. He alone is righteous. What we’ve got in Psalm 15 is a portrait of him. That’s his heart, and how he spoke, and how he lived. And God the Father said to him, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Who is totally righteous? Not us. Only Jesus. Final question:


Fourthly, HOW CAN WE LIVE WITH GOD?

Answer: only by being in Jesus. Only through him. He and he alone makes us righteous, and makes us able to live with God. And that, of course, is the heart of the New Testament Gospel to which the Old Testament including Psalm 15 points.

There are four aspects to how Jesus makes us totally righteous and able to live with God both now and for all eternity.

First, through Jesus, God forgives us by grace. He deals with our unrighteousness. At the cross he takes the punishment we deserve. The holy fire of God’s anger against sin falls on him. And by grace through faith the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us even though we are sinners. So when God looks at us he sees Jesus. We are forgiven by grace and made acceptable to God.

Secondly, we’re given the Spirit of Jesus. He comes and lives in us so that we can come and live with him. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Thirdly, the Spirit empowers us to learn to live righteous lives now. This is always a work in progress. But when we’ve been forgiven and given the Spirit, the progress is real – even if at times we don’t see it, or we feel as if we’re going backwards. More and more, our lives begin to bear some resemblance to the picture in Psalm 15. And more and more we can learn from the likes of Psalm 15 about how we should live, and we can put it into practice with the help of the Spirit of Jesus within us.

Fourthly, the day will come at the end of the age when in a moment we will be made totally righteous once for all. All the sin and corruption will be purged from us. Will be like Jesus. And we will live with God for eternity, face to face with Jesus our Saviour. No-one in the end will enter the kingdom of God who is not totally righteous. That is the message of Psalm 15. And by grace through faith in Christ, that is what we will become. 1 Corinthians 15.51-52:

… we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

1 John 3.5, and then 2-3:

… you know that [Jesus] appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. … we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

So it’s obvious what we need to do, isn’t it? Who can live with God? Those terrified disciples in the boat with Jesus learned the answer. Martin Luther learned. John Wesley learned. Have we learned? Who can live with God? Those who are trusting in Jesus as their Saviour and learning to obey him as their Lord. Trust and obey. There’s no other way. Let’s do it.

Lord God, holy and merciful God, please teach us, rebuke us, correct us and train us in righteousness, so that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Please make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.