Week 16: Day 5

Intro: Hey I’m Nathan and today we’re going to hear from Psalm 15 which has a totally thought-provoking way at addressing the way we speak.

Bible: It says:

Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?

The one whose way of life is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbour, and casts no slur on others; who despises a vile person but honours those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things will never be shaken.

Thoughts: The questions posed by David here are important ones. He’s asking who may get to know God personally, and then more than just a brief dwelling with God in his tent, he goes on to ask who can live with him on his holy mountain. Big questions. But the response given in this psalm goes in an interesting direction.

As we have come to expect with God, the focus is on both the integrity of our hearts and the way we outwork that towards others. But so much of the emphasis of outworking righteous behaviour is focused on the way we speak.

The first way of speaking mentioned is the way we speak to ourselves, where the psalm praises the one “who speaks truth from their heart”. The Bible generally shows a strong connection between our hearts, which are our underlying thoughts and motivations and what we say.

One of the proverbs reads out of the heart our mouths speak. Let’s check the voice that we speak to ourselves and make sure that we’re neither overhyping ourselves with arrogance or condemning ourselves, ultimately what we want to say ourselves is the truth.

But then the psalm focuses on how we use our words towards other people. A person committed to knowing God’s presence is someone “whose tongue utters no slander” or “who casts no slur on others”. And we live in a time where it has never been easier to slander and cast slurs at people. Our culture sees it as normal to cast slurs at celebrities, politicians, but also in your school it may be normal to talk this way about teachers and someone in your year that no one likes. We come up with reasons to justify it, but the bible speaks plainly that we just shouldn’t do that, and even with our enemies we should have a posture of love and redemption.

But lastly, we’re not supposed to just be distinctive in what we don’t say about people, but also in what we do say. We’re called to “honour those who fear the Lord” which means two things for us. First that we should look out for people who have a love and respect for God. Secondly, we should appreciate them, part of expressing that appreciation should be in how we speak to them and what we say. These practices come with a promise, that when these are the characteristics of our lives, we “won’t be shaken” from living in the presence of God.

Prayer: Father thank you for showing us our hearts and how dependent we need to be on you. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you came down to earth and lived a life of integrity, you taught us to love and honour people and Lord we want you to turn us into people that are more like you. Help us to see the beauty of your image in those around us. Help us to guard ourselves from dishonouring people and help us to be proactive and appreciating those who appreciate you. In your name. Amen

Silence: There's now just a few moments of silence for you to pray, reflect on these ideas, or simply sit and be still.

Action: Maybe today a quick step for you is to think about two people that you believe live God honouring lives, two people that inspire you follow to Christ and tell them either face to face or over the phone that you appreciate them and what you love about them.

Outro: Thanks for joining me for Orbit this week! Take care.