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sbm SusanBottgerMinistries |
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These first three verses of Psalm 15 have told us what a person who desires to live or remain on God’s Holy hill must NOT do. Now, starting in verse 4, in the second part of it, we see a shifting of the focus from the instruction of how not to act and what not to do, to HOW to act and what we ARE to do. We are seeing a totally different focus. We are being instructed as to how to live a Godly life. Psalm 15:4-5 VERSE 4 “In whose eyes a vile person is condemned. A vile person is one who tramples underfoot the things of God. One who makes jokes about the way you live or makes light of believers or the ways of Jesus Christ. Now condemned does not mean we are to hate them. It does not mean we are to despise them. We just heard in the previous verse that we are not to do that to anyone. What it means is that they are not to have any “weight” with us. They are to be thought lightly of. We are to be polite to them, be nice to them, but we do not take their counsel. They have no weight with us when it comes to making decisions of any kind. We don’t go along with their way of living and they have no influence over us. We can enjoy their company; They can be part of the family, close friends even, but we don’t take our counsel or suggestions from them, simply because they mock the things of God. Why would a Godly person take counsel from that kind of a person? “What have the children of darkness to do with the children of light?” Their jokes and their trampling underfoot of the precious things of God have nullified any possibility of our receiving any wisdom from them because it’s sure to be “worldly wisdom”. James tells us worldly wisdom is “demonic.” The believer, the disciple, the one who desires to live in the tabernacle of the Lord on Zion, on the Holy hill, he or she honors them that fear the Lord. They honor those that fear the Lord. That is an interesting word. In the King James English it says “honoreth”. It means to “give weight to.” To respect. We know that the Kabod, the glory of God is something that has weight to it. If you look up that word in the Greek or Hebrew it literally means that there is a weight or an anointing upon the word of God. When you look in the book of ECCLESIASTES, the priests were worshiping in the temple and the word says they could not stand up because of the weight of the glory or the kabod of the glory of God that had come upon them. They were down on the floor. This is what they are saying here. We are to give honor, to give respect. We are to listen to the words of the people who live in awe and fear of the Lord, because they have the wisdom of God. They fear the Lord and have His wisdom. Fear means to have awe and reverential fear. It is not terror. God does not want us to be afraid of Him. He is not a God that comes to His children with a rod and says “Oh you were wrong today, I’m going to beat you into submission to Me. I’m going to teach you how to obey Me.” That’s not what God is saying. He’s a God that comes and brings correction to His children, as any good parent should. He’s not a God that brings wrath upon His children. The wrath is reserved for the wicked. He brings correction, but it is administered with love to those who have reverential fear and awe of Him. It is always done with the understanding that reconciliation will be the result of the correction. We are to respect these kinds of people. The elders in the church and those who know and understand the Word of God. Even the younger ones in Christ, if they have the awe and reverential fear of God, we are to respect and honor them, because they have the very presence of God dwelling within them. They have the spirit of God living within them. So when we know they have the Spirit of God living within them, we are to respect and honor them and listen to what they have to say. Take their counsel to heart. Let it have “weight” in your life and in your decisions. Vs. 4 The bottom half of verse 4 says “he that swears to his own hurt and does not change.” He’s saying to the disciples that they are to swear to their own hurt. If they make a vow or make a promise they are not to back out of it, even if it costs them something. The word “swear” means to make an oath, using the name of God as their witness. To promise anything to anybody, i.e. to be bound by an oath. Hurt means a sense of crushing or breaking or trembling from having been struck. We have another example here. This type of swearing is a reflection of a type of a covenant kind of oath or promise. When God made covenant with us, Old or New, when He made covenant, He swore to His own hurt. He made promises to us that say, “No matter what it costs Me, I will keep My word.” We know that Israel broke every aspect of the Old Covenant. We know that as believers in Christ, and I’m speaking for the Body of Christ at large here, we have broken every commandment there is to break. We have broken every principle and still God continues to hold in faith His covenant. He hasn’t taken away His covenant, it is still in effect today. So He has sworn to His own hurt, hasn’t He? He has kept His word no matter how badly it hurt Him. This is what God is saying. We are to have the same characteristic in us. When calamity or evil strikes, the fleshly instinct arises. If you’re anything like me I want to say “Why you no good, look at what you’ve done to me. I’ll get even with you.” That’s the flesh. That’s what it wants to do; That’s human instinct. But the Spirit of God rises up in a disciple and they begin to say, “NO, this is not the way a Godly person responds. This is not the characteristic of God, this is the flesh. I’m not going to let the flesh rule me. I’m not going to make my decisions according to the flesh. I’m going to uphold my side of the bargain, the covenant of God. I’m going to trust God to help me fulfill this contract, this promise or this vow that I have made, no matter what. I’m going to call upon the Lord My God because He says “I am near you in your time of trouble.” He says, “You have not because you ask not.” “Call upon Me and I will hear you and answer you.” If we believe God’s Word, that means that even when we make a mistake or when someone does something evil to us, we can call upon Him and He will be there to answer us. The disciple of Jesus Christ keeps the covenant promise or vow, no matter what the other side does. That is the way a disciple is to live. We can see this also in Joshua chapter 9: 3-27 as the Israelites were going in to take the promised land. The Gibeonites had come to Joshua and the leaders of Israel and had deliberately deceived them. They had come wearing old clothing, carrying old wineskins and stale bread, so as to appear as though they had traveled a long way, trying to deliberately deceive them. They wanted to make covenant with the Israelites so that they would not be taken over by them. In actuality, they lived only two days march away. They didn’t want to die, so they lied to the Israelites. Joshua makes covenant with them, swearing upon the name of the Lord. Then, a couple of days down the line they discover this treachery, finding out that the Gibeonites lied to them. Now, in our day deception by one party of the covenant or contract would cause it to be null and void. "They lied to us, we’re out of here." But Joshua is a man of God and he says, “I cannot do this". I swore upon the word of the name of the Lord God almighty and I cannot rescind my vow. I will keep this vow, even to my own hurt.” Rather than break the word of God and bring shame upon the name of Jehovah, they did not kill them, but they did make them servants. They made them “drawers of water and hewers of wood” according to scripture. These Gibeonites were the ones that came back at the Israelis years later and were a constant thorn in their side. Joshua had kept his word, because he had given it in the name of the Lord Jehovah. When we speak, as disciples of Christ, we are giving our name and our word and people will believe and receive it because they know we are Christian. We must keep that word, even to our own hurt. I’m learning more and more that as I walk this way, as I live this way, God will honor it and protect me. God will back it up. And sooner or later, somewhere down the line, it comes back to you. It may not happen at the moment, but it will come back to you. God will restore that which was stolen from you. Now in verse 5 it says the disciple, the one that wants to live on the holy hill, that remains in the presence of God, and does not put out his money at interest. Interesting! In the King James it calls this usury. This word, this commandment is to disciples, to believers in Jesus Christ, it is not to the world. Don’t think the worldly bank will not charge you interest. He’s part of the world and unless it is his personal money, he has to do what the board of directors of the bank tells him to do. It’s not his money. But his own personal money, between a brother and a sister in Christ, we are not to charge interest. There are many, many scriptures that back this up. Usury, or the charging of interest, is discussed in Ezekiel 18. It’s mentioned three different times. It’s also mentioned in Exodus 22. You’ll find it in Deuteronomy and Leviticus and Jesus teaching that “neither a borrower nor a lender be.” He’s saying don’t take interest on money and don’t charge interest on money. When you have something going on between two believers, the word says this. I’m I hot water Gerie, I need ‘$20.00 until payday, can you loan it to me? The word says “If your brother asks of you and you have it, give it to him, and don’t expect it to come back to you. Give it to them as God gives to you. Don’t charge them interest, you don’t hold them in bondage, you don’t hold them in surety. You give out of the abundance.” Is this not the way God does to us? God does not charge interest to his children; He gives freely to His children. Now if you don’t have it to give, that’s a different story. You simply say I’m sorry, I don’t have it to give to you at this time.” Ask them to pray in agreement with you that God will supply their need some other way. But, Christian to Christian, we are not to charge interest. Now there is another interesting piece of scripture to deal with. In Deuteronomy 23 it says specifically that a believer can charge interest to an unbeliever. We can charge interest of the world because He said “You will be the first and not the last” but we are to give preference to the Body of Christ. They are not a believer, therefore we have the right to take interest from them. They are under the curse, not the blessings of God. There is a blessing promised in this word in Deuteronomy 23 which comes as a result of living this way. You are not only promised peace with your brother; you take the sword from their head when you don’t require them to return things to you. Verse 5b “Nor does the believer take a bribe against the innocent.” This one is pretty up front. It means a present, a gift, especially one that is given to you to cause you to sway your opinion one way or another. The innocent is one who is free from blame. It says we don’t take bribes or gifts that will shift the blame to the innocent man. We don’t take bribes to allow someone to escape military service. You say, “We don’t do that today.” Oh yes we do. It goes on. Years ago in they used to buy someone to take their place. In the revolutionary and the civil wars this was very common practice. It was also common practice for the wealthy to pay poor man money to send the poor man’s son instead of the rich man’s son off to war. It was very common in ancient cultures. It happens today with the selection boards. People pay bribes to keep their children from being classified 1-A or eligible to be drafted. It says we don’t take bribes that will cause us not to see truth. In other words, we don’t take a bribe and then turn our eyes away so that we don’t see what is going on in any given situation. We’re not to be influenced by money or gifts of any kind that will cause our vote or influence to shift a cause one way or the other. There’s something on the political agenda in Southern California that would be very beneficial to a certain age group and a certain income group. That was Us. I like that. Now, it would have taken away from every other group. This was not an equitable proposal. It was a self-interest act they were trying to put through. It was very appealing to me. I liked it. Along with it they were sweetening the pot. If you vote for this, you will get this. This is a bribe. This is a bribe. When we are voting for self-interest, turning our eyes away from what the majority of people would benefit from. God showed me we would be taking a bribe if we voted for this. So, when you are going to the voting polls watch what you are voting for. Ask yourselves, “Am I being swayed in any way for self interest, at the harm or detriment of others? As Christians we want to watch these things. God judges by these little things, these “little foxes.” Continuing in verse 5 it says, “He who does these things will never be shaken.” KJ says he will never be moved. Moved means he will never totter or shake. He will never waver; he will never turn aside from the right thing. He will stay in God’s presence. He will stay on His Holy Hill. Jesus was speaking to His disciples and He called them out from amongst all of the people. He said to them “You need to change your way of living. You need to change your way of thinking.” Now the disciples continued with Him for three years, didn’t they? I am sure that during that time they were not automatically changed into what Jesus wanted them to be. It took a course of time. It took three years and they still didn’t fully understand what had happened to them. They still didn’t walk in the anointing and the power. They still didn’t have all the knowledge that they should have, until Jesus died, was resurrected and gave them His Holy Spirit. Then the Holy Spirit began to give them the revelation of the things that needed to be changed. It’s the same with the Christian today. We come to Christ as little children and we see this process of change. That’s what God is speaking about here in the 15th Psalm. I’m going to make a suggestion to you about this. I believe that God gave me this as a word to you while I was working on this message. Go into this psalm and write down these twelve requirements. Make a list and put them on your refrigerator or on the mirror in the bathroom, or in your bedroom somewhere. Put these requirements of a disciple up in front of your eyes and ask the Lord, “Father, am I weak in any one of these areas? Is there any one of these that you are speaking to me about that needs to be changed? Is they’re anything in my inner heart that is not right with you.” What He is trying to say to us here is this. “Keep My word in front of your eyes.” Why? We need to be reminded of the fact that we are human beings and we make mistakes. While keeping our eyes on the word and trusting in it, thinking on it, meditating on it, that word is going to get inside of us and it’s going to change us. When we begin to fall back into a habit pattern, the word of God is going to catch us and say “NO! No! That’s not the way to live. Then you will go back to these teachings here and say; “I’m going to do it this way!” Every time we do something in this life, we have a choice. Even as a Christian, we can choose God’s way or we can choose our own way. So God is saying, “Put this book in front of your eyes! Learn it; hide it in your heart. Because when you hide it in your heart it will keep you from falling into sin. Even when you are not aware you are falling into something, it will take hold of your spirit and bring you back to the place where God wants you to be. Father, we want to thank you now for Your Word that is sharper and more active than a two-edged sword. It penetrates even between the marrow and the joints. It discerns in our thoughts. It changes us from the inside God. I pray that we will hide this in our inner man. That You will keep us by Your word so that we can become all the fullness of what You have created us to be. I pray a blessing over these people that this word will continue to penetrate and do the work. They are good people and they love you. I pray your love to them and we touch this in agreement by saying together “Amen!”
Blessings & Love,
Rev. Gerie Martin
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Website Revised: 10/22/2010. Copyright © 2005 [Susan Bottger Ministries]. All rights reserved. |