Oxygen from Psalm 15 (Mission)

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1 O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? 

   Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

 2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right 

   and speaks truth in his heart; 

3 who does not slander with his tongue 

   and does no evil to his neighbor, 

   nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 

4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, 

   but who honors those who fear the LORD; 

who swears to his own hurt and does not change; 

5 who does not put out his money at interest 

   and does not take a bribe against the innocent. 

He who does these things shall never be moved.

(Psalm 15)

This short psalm continues the thoughts of Psalm 14: the corruption of Second Temple Judaism and David's message to his descendant who would reign forever -- Messiah Jesus.  

Gracious God:

These Psalms appear on initial reading

simple peons to righteousness;

but they are so much more.

What looks at times like impossible behavior

was not written first for us, but for the Savior,

God's cryptic code, written centuries before,

Holy Spirit preserved, to guide the Lord

in His daily walk on earth, 

singing songs He himself inspired,

and left behind as crumbs might mark a path,

The Way back from darkness, back from death,

in this cold world foreign to His deity;

golden glimpses of the glory He will gain

from His mission against which flesh conspires 

to make His struggle all worthwhile.    (Hebrews 12:2)

He can not reform the wicked priesthood

who tore down David's Tabernacle  (tent)

that sojourned throughout the land,

in favor of Herod's rock-ribbed Temple,

squatting like a festooned bedouin

on the holy hill of Zion;

Messiah's mission, should he choose to accept,

is not reformation but destruction

of these stones piled one on another,   (Mark 13:1-2)

to leave standing the Second Adam,

Prophet-Priest-King Who binds up all Sacred Writ

in his risen body, spangled;

He does away with all pomp and ritual,

ends blood sacrifice with his own forever,  (Hebrews 10:12)

restores the remnant who trust in grace 

to new Covenant and Heavenly feast;

and ascends the Heavenly Throne,

Our one and only Priest,

forever like Melchizadek.  (Hebrews 7)

We read the description of the priesthood

qualified to ascend God's holy hill, 

and find their rightful place in worship,

and know it cannot be us of whom David writes;

my recent thoughts and deeds

match pretty well the vile sinner's plight.

You cannot our sinful nature reform,    (Epheisans 2:1)

it must be destroyed upon your cross,

to raise from my spiritual dross

the tent of faith in which You sojourn,

move in daily pilgrimmage,   

and like David danced before the ark,  (2 Samuel 6)

Your presence is all joy of Life.

Thank you, Jesus, for standing firm,

unmoved more than Herod's stones,

toppled every one and burned

by hordes of heathen fresh from Rome;

But You have won for us God's glory,

to lead us on our journey home.

Amen.