Psalm 15

This Psalm helps me be thankful for Jesus. I want to dwell with God. I want to be on the holy hill. Yet I know that my walk is not blameless. I do not do what is righteous all the time. These standards are high. And I don't want to say that because I cannot attain them, that they aren't important. Every time my walk moves into the realm of "blame," my walk is hurting someone else. Even when it's hurting just me (if that were possible), none of God's creatures, none of God's children, deserve that kind of treatment.

So how does this Psalm make me thankful for Jesus? Because Jesus did all of those things. And in doing these things, offers to me an inheritance of life on this holy hill. And he offers you the same inheritance. Not an inheritance that frees us from recognizing the consequences of our actions, for that would be a license to harm other people. The inheritance of life is the possibility of restoration and that we might be restored to one another and to God. And at the foot of the cross, that restoration is possible.

So let's remember today that this psalm was sung by a worshipping community that not only wanted to live in the dwelling place of the Lord, but also wanted to live there with their community.