Psalm 15 · Passage · Integrity
Who May Dwell on Your Holy Mountain?
Psalm 15 puts a question to the LORD in its first verse and answers it in the four verses that follow.
Charles Spurgeon wrote of the man this psalm describes, "In perfection this holiness is found only in the Man of Sorrows."
O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy mountain?
- The passage
- Psalm 15:1 to 5, Psalm 24:3 to 5
- Book
- Psalms
- Hold in memory
- Psalm 15:1 to 2, Psalm 24:3 to 4
Summary
The psalm's answer begins with a whole walk, righteous deeds and truth spoken from the heart. It moves outward to the tongue and the neighbour, to whom a man honours and the oath he keeps, and to money lent and bribes refused. Its last line promises a life that stands firm. Each mark is a test a worshipper can put to his own conduct.
- The marks of Psalm 15 echo the law of Moses on interest, bribes and vows.
- Readers differ on whether the oath of Psalm 15:4 is costly to the one who swore it or sworn to a neighbour.
- The psalm describes the life God welcomes, and the New Testament finds that life whole in Christ.
A Question Put to the LORD
The first line is addressed to God Himself.
Psalm 15 is a portrait of character in five verses. It belongs to the value of integrity, because its first mark is a walk with integrity, and every mark after it carries that wholeness into speech, friendship, promises and money.
The question this study answers is whom Psalm 15 admits to God's presence and what each of its marks asks of him. It gives the shape of the psalm, reads its marks in four groups with the law behind them, and sets Psalm 24 beside it. It closes with two readings of the costly oath and with the promise of the last verse.
The Shape of Psalm 15
The psalm is short enough to hold in the mind whole.
Psalm 15 answers one question with eleven marks in four groups and closes on one promise.
| Mark | Verse | The Berean words | What it asks |
|---|---|---|---|
| The question | |||
| The dweller | Psalm 15:1 | “Who may dwell on Your holy mountain?” | Each reader must put this question to himself first. |
| The walk and the heart | |||
| The walk | Psalm 15:2 | “He who walks with integrity” | He lives one life with no hidden second self. |
| The deeds | Psalm 15:2 | “and practices righteousness” | He does what is right day after day. |
| The heart's speech | Psalm 15:2 | “who speaks the truth from his heart” | His words match what he believes. |
| The neighbour | |||
| The tongue | Psalm 15:3 | “who has no slander on his tongue” | He repeats no damaging report about anyone. |
| The hand | Psalm 15:3 | “who does no harm to his neighbor” | He does no injury to anyone near him. |
| The friend | Psalm 15:3 | “who casts no scorn on his friend” | He pours no contempt on his companions. |
| Honour and the oath | |||
| The vile | Psalm 15:4 | “who despises the vile” | He gives no honour to the wicked. |
| The God-fearing | Psalm 15:4 | “but honors those who fear the LORD” | He respects believers of every station. |
| The oath | Psalm 15:4 | “who does not revise a costly oath” | He keeps his sworn word when it turns against him. |
| Money | |||
| The loan | Psalm 15:5 | “who lends his money without interest” | He helps the needy without profiting from them. |
| The bribe | Psalm 15:5 | “and refuses a bribe against the innocent” | He takes no payment to pervert justice. |
| The promise | |||
| The end | Psalm 15:5 | “will never be shaken” | He has a footing before God that lasts. |
The neighbour, The tongue, The hand, The friend, Honour and the oath, The vile, The God-fearing, The oath and 5 more
The Marks in Four Groups
Each group of marks applies the whole walk of Psalm 15:2 to one part of daily life.
The walk and the heartPsalm 15:2
The word for integrity in Psalm 15:2 is tamim, entire, and the law uses it for an animal fit for sacrifice. The Passover lamb had to be unblemished (Exodus 12:5), and Genesis 6:9 calls Noah blameless with the same word.
Augustine of Hippo, in his Exposition on Psalm 15, wrote, "For some have truth on their lips, and not in their heart."
The tongue and the neighbourPsalm 15:3
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.Another psalm gives the same rule for the tongue as a command, so the mark of Psalm 15:3 binds every hearer.
Charles Spurgeon, in The Treasury of David (1869), wrote of the backbiter, "Some men's tongues bite more than their teeth."
Honour and the oathPsalm 15:4
Psalm 15:4 asks a right judgment of people, contempt for the vile and honour for the God-fearing whatever their rank. It then asks that a sworn word stand even when keeping it brings loss.
If a man makes a vow to the LORD or swears an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word; he must do everything he has promised.The law of vows binds the one who swears to do all he has promised, and the psalm counts that faithfulness among the marks of the guest.
Money and the bribePsalm 15:5
If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest.The command stands in the laws given at Sinai, and the psalm turns it into a mark of character.
Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.Moses gave this command to Israel's judges, and the psalm asks the same of every worshipper.
Spurgeon read the mark on lending as a rule against lenders who live on the need of the poor.
“‘He that putteth not out his money to usury.’ Usury was and is hateful both to God and man. That a lender should share with the borrower in gains made by his money is most fitting and proper; but that the man of property should eat up the poor wretch who unfortunately obtained a loan of him is abominable. Those who grind poor tradesmen, needy widows, and such like, by charging them interest at intolerable rates, will find that their gold, and their silver are cankered.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 · on Psalm 15:5
The Same Question in Psalm 24
A second psalm of the sanctuary sets the same test.
Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from the God of his salvation.Its question matches Psalm 15:1 almost line for line, so the two psalms test the same worshipper.
Both psalms answer with a life whose hands, heart and oath are clean.
A Portrait and Its Fulfilment
The New Testament names the one in whom the portrait of Psalm 15 is whole.
The psalm describes the life of the one God receives and leaves to the rest of Scripture how a sinner comes to live that life.
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!The letter answers how a sinner may draw near, the question the psalm leaves open.
The integrity study gives Christ's own practice and teaching of integrity beside His cross.
To Whose Hurt Is the Oath Kept?
Readers of Psalm 15:4 agree that the oath is kept and differ on whose loss it names.
John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), read the line of an oath that turns out costly to the one who swore it. Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), read it the same way. Augustine, in his Exposition on Psalm 15, read it from a Latin psalter as an oath sworn to a neighbour and kept without deceit.
A Place That Stands
The last line of the psalm promises stability.
The psalm asks who may dwell on the LORD's holy mountain and ends with one who cannot be moved.
Surely he will never be shaken; the righteous man will be remembered forever.Psalm 112 gives the righteous man the same promise, so the two psalms describe one kind of life.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, Translators Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Hebrew (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0.
- OpenBible.info, cross references with readers' votes.
- Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 15 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, volume 8)
- Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, volume 1 (1869), on Psalm 15.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), on Psalm 15:4.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Psalm 15:4.