Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 15 (April 24, 2025)

April 24, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 15

This is the Day that the LORD has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Good morning to all of you. In prayers today, please keep Donna in your prayers as she recovers from a cardiac ablation to get her heart back to a steady regular beat. Also Please pray for our Jared who broke his arm last Saturday playing basketball with his Upward Basketball program. He is now in a cast on his left arm and wrist. Pray too for Paul who is most hopeful that he will be released from prison to go to a halfway house sometime in June. That will be a 5-month delay from what was supposed to be done in January. Pray that this time everything moves forward for his release. And pray for all moms as Mother's Day approaches on May 11th this year.

Today we are moving into the 15th Psalm which scholars believe was composed by David. This is an interesting Psalm considering the socio-political divisions that exist today in our nation, and quite frankly, never went away but just slipped into the background of our nation's power scene. We cannot separate David from his relationship with God, nor should we try. Unlike our nation with separation of church and state, David's kingship was deeply founded with a strong relationship with God. Though the language of tents may seem a bit antiquated, it is clear that David is writing about the assurances that come from being a truly God fearing, faithful man in every relationship where God has been appealed to for His presence, power, and perhaps for David in his kingship most of all, love!  Probably the best thing that we can do today with this Psalm is to list the characteristics of the genuine leader whose life is surrounded by God, compared to the leader whose life is not surrounded by God.

The truly faithful leader:

• Each day's journey must be filled with integrity and faithfulness to God.

• This leader must speak the Truth of God all of the time. (this is tough because of sin)

• This leader does not gossip, nor does he/she do any wrongful actions toward people.

• This leader sees contemptable people as abhorrent!

• This leader honors those who in awe of God instead of in themselves.

• If he/she offers to help a person out with loans, they require no interest in the repayment of the money.

• This leader will not act with disregard for the innocent and poor.

• Following these guides the king or queen of a nation, in this case Israel, will not falter in any way.

I probably don't need to list the other side of these behaviors and choices that others often live every day of their lives. We know from this Psalm that David is working hard to please God with his political and personal life. This entire list of character qualities is a great guide for how we make decisions and choices in whom we choose to trust politically, religiously, and socially. Maybe I should put this list out as we consider who will lead in our community. Let me say here that a truly faithful person who is Christian, Moslem, Jewish, or one of several Eastern religions could indeed meet this guide for character about which David writes.

I will be back with you Monday morning as we continue our study of 1st Thessalonians.

 With love in Christ for our journeys of faith, Pastor Kim