The Joy of Glory

Psalm 15 (click here)
O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the LORD…
(Psalm 15:1-4a)

Reflection
How would you define what it means to be blameless before the Lord?

Does such a question immediately cause you to think about the way you love and care for other people… especially other believers? I think for many, myself included, we often think of our relationship to the Lord detached from our relationship to people… but, Scripture is constantly connecting the two.

In Psalm 15, we are basically given a list of evidences that show up in the life of one who is in a proper relationship with the Lord. They don’t slander others out loud or in their heart. They do no evil to their neighbor, nor become the accuser of friends. This doesn’t mean that they do not have a proper sense of justice, for the vile-evil person they want to see caught and corrected. And concerning those who fear the Lord… they especially show them honor. In other words, their attitude towards people matches the attitude of God himself…

…there is love and care for all, justice towards evil, and a special covenantal relationship with his own people.

Does this describe the way you relate to people in your own life? If you have been filled with the very love of God, then it makes sense that love would flow out of you in the same way it flows out of God himself.

Romans 5:5b, “… God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit…” so we are to love one another as he loved us (John 15:17).

This is the evidence by which people will know that we belong to Jesus… by our sacrificial love for each other that mirrors his sacrificial love in the cross (John 13:35, 1 John 4:11 and 20-21). The world  will know that we are truly the people of God when we are a cruciform community.

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.