Psalms 15: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The psalm opens with a question: who may stay in God's tent and live on his holy hill? The rest of the psalm answers with a list of the kind of person who may. The list covers honest speech, fair treatment of neighbors, keeping a promise even when it costs, and refusing to profit off others through interest or bribes. It closes by saying that the person who lives this way will never be shaken.

Claim by Claim

1. 15:1
   • The psalm is ascribed to David.
   • The speaker addresses the LORD.
   • The speaker asks who may sojourn as a guest in the LORD's tent.
   • The speaker asks who may dwell on the LORD's holy mountain.
2. 15:2
   • The one who walks blamelessly may dwell there.
   • The one who does what is righteous may dwell there.
   • The one who speaks truth in his heart may dwell there.
3. 15:3
   • He does not slander with his tongue.
   • He does no evil to his neighbor.
   • He does not take up a reproach against the one close to him.
4. 15:4
   • A person who is despicable is regarded as worthless in his eyes; it is ambiguous whether the one despised and rejected is another person or the speaker himself in his own estimation.
   • He honors those who fear the LORD.
   • He swears to his own hurt.
   • He does not change what he has sworn.
5. 15:5
   • He does not lend his money at interest.
   • He does not take a bribe against the innocent.
   • The one who does these things will never be shaken.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

15:1

"Tabernacle" translates a word meaning tent. It refers to the portable tent-shrine that housed the ark of the covenant during Israel's early history, and by the time of the psalms the word was still used for God's dwelling place even after the temple was built. The "holy hill" is Zion, the ridge in Jerusalem where the temple stood. The verb behind "abide" is the one used of a guest or resident foreigner taken under a host's protection, someone who has no claim of his own and is admitted by the householder's welcome. Verses 1-5 follow a form scholars call an entrance liturgy: a question asked at the sanctuary gate about who may come in, answered by a list of conditions.

15:2

"Walk" is the standard Hebrew idiom for the whole conduct of a life, not for physical walking. "Heart" in Hebrew usage is the seat of thought, intention and decision rather than of feeling; "speaks the truth in his heart" means his speech matches what he actually thinks, with no gap between the two.

15:3

"Backbite" renders a Hebrew phrase meaning roughly to go about on one's tongue, to carry damaging talk from person to person. "Neighbour" here does not mean the person living nearby but any fellow member of the community. "Taketh up a reproach" means picking up a piece of disgrace attached to someone and passing it on; the accusation may even be true, and the fault is in repeating it.

15:4

"Contemned" is an old word meaning despised or held in contempt; it is unrelated to "condemned". The Hebrew of this line is compressed and disputed: it can mean that the worthless person is worthless in his eyes, or, with a different division of the words, that he is lowly in his own eyes: that is, he does not think much of himself. "Fear the LORD" is a standing Hebrew phrase for reverence and loyalty toward God, not for being frightened of him. To "swear" was to bind oneself by an oath sworn in God's name, which made the promise legally and religiously unbreakable; "to his own hurt" means the promise turned out to cost him, and he keeps it anyway.

15:5

In 1611 "usury" meant charging interest of any kind, not, as it does now, charging an unreasonably high rate. Israelite law forbade lending at interest to a fellow Israelite (Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:36-37); such loans were emergency relief for a neighbor in distress rather than commercial finance, and profiting from them was treated as exploiting a person's misfortune. "Reward" is the older English word for a payment or bribe, here money taken by a judge or witness to give a verdict or testimony against someone who has done no wrong. "Never be moved" uses the image of a thing so firmly set that it cannot be shaken loose or dislodged from its place.