2 Psalms ; 4 Interpretations

Good morning everyone
This morning for my devotional study message that I recorded for our church app, I looked at Psalm 24 and Psalm 15 and outlined 4 ways people have interpreted these passages. Let me share the relevant scriptures:

Psalm 24:3-5 King James Version (KJV)
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Psalm 15 King James Version (KJV)
15 Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
5 He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

Now just a casual reading should give everyone an idea of the possible problem one can face in interpreting them. They clearly could be read to imply a salvation based on what we do and our moral condition. That of course would be in conflict with the clear biblical teaching that we are saved by Grace alone Through faith alone because of Christ alone.
Now The last thing I want is to spark an unprofitable debate. I do however, want to challenge people to dig into the text and consider different commentaries etc and offer up what they feel would be an appropriate interpretation of these text. I prefer people working together to understand the text vs fighting against each other to prove themselves right. I know, lofty goals. Lol. I hope people find this exercise edifying. God bless

Trevor

Hi Trevor:

both Psalms deal with the second greatest commandment
"love thy neighbor as thyself".

Ps 24 is much more general, clean hands and purity of heart denote actions and motives for how you live and the negative vain actions and impure motives...being deceitful.
These words direct us toward how our eternal destination is going to be judged. Those acts and motives derived from God will be rewarded by God even when they didn't originate from us.

Ps 15 is more detailed in it's injunctions toward living rightly with our neighbor, it adds the negative that evil men are to be despised for their actions and they that fear the Lord are to be honored.
Again, the destination of such a man/woman who's heart is right toward God and his neighbor is promised by a constant abiding in thy temple.

Jesus gave similar in Matt 25 where he tells us his sheep will visit the prisoner, the hungry etc. Their hearts can also be said to be pure and their actions righteous, and their destination everlasting life.

There is no works rewarded with righteousness= salvation being claimed in these texts, these texts are not written to make men mercenaries by doing good. It is the opposite, Godly men have the love of God in them and act accordingly. because of that, God will everlastingly abide with them.

Trevor, Im your worst offender, I do not apologize for taking my stance on biblical issues, whether you interpret it as 'trying to prove myself right' is your own issue.

If there is no "right" then why bother seeking other opinions?

I never said there wasn’t a right answer. I simply offered up a challenge for people to look at the text and find the most biblical interpretation. It was to be an edifying exercise not a chance for people to turn it into something negative. I thought I made that pretty clear. I even offered my own criticism of certain approaches to the text in the message I recorded this morning. Struggling with a text and working on possible interpretations, is not the same as claiming there is no right answer. It is simply being humble and working on the text in a careful manner. Working with others and listening to the input is also beneficial to spiritual growth. No one asked you to apologize. I never said, don’t take a stand. Lol. Maybe I should do a post on possible interpretations to my original post. I truly have no idea how you interpreted it the way you did, I simply wanted to post an edifying challenge for people to dig into two psalms and work on interpreting them. It looks like maybe my attempt failed. Lol

I personally don't even try interpreting scripture, I'll leave that to the Bible Scholar Guru's, I just let the scriptures personally minister to me as I read them. Praise Jesus!

Hi Trevor:

Sorry if you felt I was being negative.

My interpretation is simple, all the texts you gave in those two Psalms has to deal with mans relationship with man. Since we are in the new covenant, we interpret the old testament in the light of new covenant revelation as well as the context of old covenant commands upon Israel.

If I leave the Psalms in the Old covenant, I will come away with little more than some moral code or some injunctions to morality and community living.
But the Light of the new covenant takes us beyond morality, it takes us into 'Christ living in us and through us'.

So, I interpreted it on the basis of the 2nd greatest commandment "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself".
This makes these numerous injunctions (especially Ps 15)applicable by way of loving my neighbor as Christ also enjoins us to do.

In doing this, it removes any works based righteousness or salvation and sets forth a clear picture of the man of God who by the Spirit is loving his neighbor.

The important connection necessary in old testament interpretation is how Christ fulfills or enables us to fulfill commandments or works of faith or loving one another. Without Christ overlaying our interpretations, we will simply be preaching moral platitudes...or simply the law rather than a gospel to the believer.

Thank you for offering your interpretation, I appreciate it.