Ps 15:1,2 LIVING IN GOD’S HOUSE

LIVING IN GOD’S HOUSE

“Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle?… He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.”

Ps 15:1,2

This is a description of what it is like to live in God’s house, literally, God’s tent. Where is God’s house? Is it a church building? Not really! Otherwise we all would move there so that we could be with God all the time. Our Savior answered this question for us when He said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” The Savior makes it plain that where God lives is a spiritual house. This all sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? I am God’s house? Indeed, you are! Since through the Holy Spirit God lives in every believer’s heart, our heart is His house.

Notice carefully that here the Psalmist asks the Lord a question and then promptly answers it himself! It is as if he knew the answer before he asked. What is this person like who lives in God’s house? He walks, he works and he speaks. He “walketh not in the counsel of the ungoldly,” but is directed in His life by the holy will of God; he “worketh not evil in the sight of the Lord,” but does with his hands those things that are pleasing to his heavenly Father; he ”speaketh not lies,” but his heart is filled with the truth of God’s word.

What a beautiful description of the wonderful things that the Spirit works in the child of God. His motives, his actions and his words are God-pleasing and right. The only reason that we fall so short of this spiritual ideal is because of the carnal forces constantly at work to draw us away. The devil, the world and our own sinful desires move us to do anything but what is spiritual and right in God’s eyes. Because we are thankful to our God for saving us, we desperately try to please Him, but even our best spiritual efforts are tainted by sin. It would be hopeless if it were not for the work of our Lord Jesus Christ through which we can please God. No one has summarized this truth better than the Apostle Peter when he wrote: “Ye are built up a spiritual house…to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”