“Psalm 15:1 A psalm of David. LORD, who may be a guest in your home? Who may live on your holy hill?

  2 Whoever lives a blameless life, does what is right, and speaks honestly.

  3 He does not slander, or do harm to others, or insult his neighbor.

  4 He despises a reprobate, but honors the LORD's loyal followers. He makes firm commitments and does not renege on his promise.

  5 He does not charge interest when he lends his money. He does not take bribes to testify against the innocent. The one who lives like this will never be upended.” (New English Translation)

“Psalm  15:

1 God, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on your guest list? 

2 ‘Walk straight, act right, tell the truth. 

3 ‘Don't hurt your friend, don't blame your neighbor;

4 despise the despicable. ‘Keep your word even when it costs you, 

5 make an honest living, never take a bribe. ‘You'll never get blacklisted if you live like this.’” (The Message)

The story is told of a pastor who showed up for Sunday morning worship, only to find a long line of people waiting to enter.  They were being questioned by one of the deacons, and then they were being turned away.  No one was entering.

When the pastor got to the door, he was really angry.  “What are you doing?!” he asked the deacon.  It was not a question; it was an accusation.

The deacon calmly explained, “Oh, pastor, I’m asking people how they have lived this week.  Only those who have made a serious attempt to live the Christian life are being allowed in.”

“Oh!” said the pastor, somewhat mollified.  He started to walk past the deacon to enter the sanctuary, but the deacon put out his arm to stop him.  “No, pastor, I’m sorry, but you can’t go in either.”

At this point, the pastor awoke from his dream.  Or was it a nightmare?

Now, in a sense, the story is way off-base.  Jesus welcomes sinners of all kinds, even us religious ones.  Jesus came for riff-raff like you and me.  In fact, even those of us who are the most riff-raffy are greatly beloved and accepted.

In another sense, perhaps the story of the pastor’s dream is pretty biblical.

Take Psalm 15, for example.  Scholars often refer to as an “Entrance Torah/Teaching.”  Some have argued that the worshipers asked the questions in verse 1, and the priest or temple official (or officials) responded antiphonally with vss. 2-5.  Only after this could people enter in order to worship in the temple.

I don’t know if that is true.  Maybe so, maybe no.  But what is true is that this psalm closely links our worship with our daily lives.  Whether we’re telling the truth, honoring the right people, being kind and generous—these matters are radically important when we go to worship God.

And it’s not just a matter of external “good deeds.”  Notice vs. 2.  In Hebrew, it sets forth as one of the entrance qualifications “speaking the truth in his heart.”  There is a profound truth implied in that little phrase: We always lie to ourselves first.  Real worship begins with telling ourselves the truth.  We all delight in telling other people the truth about their lives (or, at least, what we think is the truth about their lives.) However, it is recognizing the truths about ourselves that is part of the qualification for worship.

The Hebrew in vs. 2 is very interesting.  Each of the verbs is a participle—“living” (literally, “walking”), “doing” and “speaking.”  In Hebrew, participles sometimes suggest ongoing or continual action that flows out of the very being of a person.  This verse may be reminding us that their needs to be a consistency to our lives.  This is a consistency of both doing and being.

The ending of verse 5 also has a participle.  This may serve to drive home the point that, if we do not wish to be “shaken,” we need to be unshakably consistent in our daily living, if we wish to worship God in a meaningful fashion.

So, does this amount to “salvation by our own works”?  I don’t think so.  In point of fact, I believe that there is only One Person since the Garden of Eden who really had the right to worship God in the temple or anywhere else, and that his name is Jesus.  He is the only qualified worshiper.  He opens the door for the rest of us rag-tag worshipers.

However, Psalm 15:2-5 still stands guard over true worship.  If we want to worship God, we had better at least be striving to be consistently people of integrity.