Psalm 15 – I Will Not Be Shaken!: Living in the Shadow of the Almighty

I made a little list. What if the economy collapses? What if my children reject Christ? What if America implodes morally and culturally? What if there's persecution widespread in America in the future? What if I lose my job? What if I lose my reputation? Uh, what if I lose my house or my retirement?

What if war breaks out, I mean, full-blown, in the Middle East, that impacts me and my world? What if war breaks out in Europe? What if some crazy person pushes a button and launches a nuke? What if there's another terrorist attack in America? Or, what if there's a school shooting and it's where my child or my grandchild goes to school?

You see, what-ifs can paralyze us. What-ifs can get our minds and our hearts paralyzed by fear and anxiety. And in the midst of all the variables of life, God calls us to be strong and courageous, not to tremble, and not to be dismayed. And this whole series is about, well, how do you do that? We're going to look at Psalm 15. And the message of Psalm 15 is this:

God will be your closest friend and your fiercest protector.

And in, in Psalm chapter 1, I said, "I have a declaration. I will do life God's way. I will choose to walk in the way of God and His Word." And in this, it's "I will not be shaken. I will not be overcome with the fears of circumstances and things that might happen someday, some way to me or the people that I love." And so, I declare, "I will not be shaken."

And you say, "Well, Chip, how can you say that? In Psalm 15, that's what David prays. And let's remember David's life. He's dodging spears. He's been betrayed. His wife, early on, even turns on him. He finds himself in desperate situations. And this is what he says when he asks a question in Psalm 15, and then he gives us the answer, and there's a promise at the end. Follow along as I read the passage.

"O LORD, who may abide in Thy tent? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?" Answer, "He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up an approach against his friend; but he honors those who fear the Lord; he swears to his own hurt and does not change; he does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken."

So, here's what I want you to get. There's a lot in life. And even as I was going through those what-ifs, I apologize. Some of you haven't thought about some of those things, and you're thinking, "Oh, I haven't thought about another terrorist attack in a while," or, "I haven't thought about a war here or a war there."
So, let's, let's all come back, and what I want you to understand is you can declare in your heart, "I will not be shaken." Things can change anywhere and everywhere. It doesn't mean we won't go through challenging times, but the very last promise is he, or she, who does these things, literally the word is, shall not be moved. You won't be moved off center.

And the question is a fundamental one. David is asking of the Lord: Who could be a guest in Your house?

Who, in the midst of an absolutely holy and pure God, could be at home, could be a sojourner,
could do life where an intimate, ongoing relationship with You is possible?

And then the second word is, who could dwell,

who could have ongoing intimacy where God is at your right hand, that you can see all the variables and all the challenges? Because the reality is, some of those what-ifs are going to happen to us.

I have had the "what if your wife gets cancer?" And I've been down that road, and I didn't know how it would turn out. And by God's grace, that was 15 years ago. What if one of your child rebels? I've been down that road. Uh, what if you don't have any money? I've been down that road. The fact of the matter is, I can't control the future or circumstances or tragedy or difficulty, but I can control where my heart is. I can control my perspective.

And in the midst of any and every situation, God is calling us as believers, especially now, especially with where the world is, to be strong and be courageous. And so, he asks that first question, and then he's going to go through and he's going to answer the question. And by the way, these verses, these are pictures of what a wise, godly person, how we live out our life that allows us to stay connected deeply with Jesus. These are not a list of things you need to do to, quote, "get saved" or, or be forgiven.

He's talking as a believer, as a worshiper. The very first word is "O LORD". And you'll notice in your text, it's all capital letters. It's Yahweh, the personal God, the I am that I am. He's saying, Lord, how, how can I, just a normal, human, fallen-being, how can I be your guest?

And beyond being a guest, how could I live my life where we can enjoy intimacy, unbroken fellowship? Yes, I'll have ups, yes, I'll have downs, but You're a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast, loyal love. And then notice what he does. He talks about our speech, our relationships, our values, our integrity, our money, and then this promise, "He who does these things will never be shaken."
So, what I want to do is, let me walk through the passage and explain first and foremost what it actually says. And then I want you to lean back, and I want to ask you and me some diagnostic questions like, how's this really going with us? Sitting yesterday with a friend, having a cup of coffee. And, you know, he's involved in the church, he's an elder, and, he said, "You know, as I'm around sort of what's happening, there is such a powerful ‘Jesus loves us, and Jesus is for us, and Jesus is loving, and love is love.’"

And he said, "You know, as I'm discipling some of these, you know, younger people, late teens, early 20s, early 30s," he says, "part of it is they kind of miss the part where you can't keep living in a way that where God says: This is wrong, and I love you so much. This is sin. Don't go there." He says, "As I'm meeting with them, there's sort of this flavor of the day like, 'Because Jesus loves me, I can keep doing whatever I want, however I want, and He'll love me.'"

And are you ready? Yes, you're right, He will love you, but His blessing and His provision and His protection, He gives us His Word and His commands so you get the kind of life He wants to give you. And I meet a lot of people, unfortunately, who, have got the love part down and "God's for me", but haven't understood that there's some criteria about living a holy life that protects us, and that's God's plan. Those are the guardrails so that you will not be shaken regardless of what you go through. So, the first condition here is basically an overarching one. And he talks about who we need to be, our character, and then he talks about what we need to do, our behavior.

And so, the first condition answering the question, well, who can have this intimate relationship, ongoing, powerful, rock-solid relationship with God? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous. So, a walk - it's a metaphor for how you live your life.

And he says, "Your walk is blameless." And, and by the way, it's a very positive word. It means your walk is whole. It's in alignment with God's will. It means you're a person of character. It doesn't mean you never make a mistake, but it's a person who, when they speak, they're telling the truth and they're, as far as they know, they're walking in a way that honors people, that this is a person whose walk isn't perfect, that's not the word, but it's whole. It's in alignment. There's not duplicity. And then he goes on and talks about actual behavior,

“and he does what is righteous.” I mean, there's certain things you know and I know I need to do. I need to treat certain people a certain way. I need to obey certain laws. I need to do some things with my money that are very helpful and I need to avoid some things with my money that aren't very helpful. I understand there are certain things I can put into my mind that are very helpful and encouraging, and, believe me, I know there's things I can put in my mind that take me in places that are far, far from God.
And so, first and foremost, he gives us this sort of canopy, this overarching "the person who can have this 'I will not be shaken' kind of life," is a person who progressively has a character that is walking with God and whose behavior is righteous. In other words, as far as we know, we're seeking to do what God wants to.

And then the rest of this little psalm will start asking some very penetrating questions about, why don't we do a little evaluation? And we'll look at your speech, and then we'll look at your relationships, and, and we'll look at sort of your personal integrity. And then we'll look at, you know, do you keep your word? And then we're going to look at where your money goes, and then you'll know for sure whether you're really walking blamelessly or not." So, let me explain them, and then we'll ask the diagnostic questions.

So, the first test is our speech.

It says, "He who speaks truth in his heart and has no slander on his tongue." Literally, it's your words and your behavior are telling the same story. But it's not just what you actually say; notice, “who speaks truth in his heart.” This is about internal integrity with our speech. I don't slander. The word is, literally, in Hebrew, it was a word for like a spy or someone who goes around and sort of finds out things about people and then gossips about people and sort of stirs up conflict in relationships. And he says: A person who's righteous speaks truth in his heart and doesn't slander with his tongue.

It's just when we find ourselves, maybe because we were hurt or wounded, maybe because we're jealous of someone and we're having a little private conversation, and we're at a coffee shop, and you're sharing your struggle, and I'm sharing my struggle, and in a moment of weakness, you say, "I'll tell you, my husband, he's just, he doesn't lead. He doesn't step up. He's not the kind of man that I really, you know, can respect at times. And I've got all the work, and, you know, he spends money he shouldn't have. And, you know, I've got all kind of needs, and he's going out and playing golf. And..." It's called slander. In other words, you're speaking evil of.

Now, there, there’s a time and there's a place to share your heart and "these are my struggles" and couching it in a “I know these attitudes aren't what I want." I get that. There's a time for a, a good friend or a counselor. But there's a lot of our speech that we say one thing, but in our heart, you know, we, you know, right? But I think we all struggle with that, don't we?

Sometimes we say things we don't really mean. Sometimes, we flatter people to manipulate and get something from them. And the kind of person that can declare, "I will not be shaken," is the kind of person that you look at your speech and you say, "What I say outwardly and what I'm thinking and saying inwardly are by and large telling the same story, and my speech doesn't put down other people, and I don't pass on untested information and talk about other people." He says that's sort of a quality of a godly person who, because of that kind of relationship, you're not putting barriers between you and your intimate relationship with God. And he goes on from speech, and then he looks at our relationships.

This person does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellow man. The word "neighbor" here, it just means anybody. You're not the kind of person that puts other people down and treats people bad and uses people. When you do that, your world does get rocked. And so, he goes from our speech, and then he looks at our relationships, and then he goes to our values.

It says "…who despises a vile man,” or the - I love the translation I earlier read. It says, “… but He honors those who fear the Lord". And he's talking here about values. He says: you know, the people that are doing horrendous things, the people that are violent, the people that are anti-God, the people that are just blatant in hostility toward all that is good and right, the psalmist says: I distance myself from that. I despise it when people turn away, and say things about God, and live in ways that are corrupt and hurt people, and abuse kids, and... This is looking at people like the sex trade, and corruption in business, and doing things that literally are just me, me, me, me, me, and putting people down. He says, I hate that.

He says: I want to bring about what is good. And by contrast, he says: The saints, just holy people, godly people, He says, they're My delight. I want to honor them. I want to encourage them. And so, he's just going through a litany of our speech, our relationships, our values, and then, notice, he gets right down to our integrity. He says, “He honors those who fear the Lord,” and then, notice, “… he swears to his own hurt and does not change.”

In other words, this is a picture of a person who gives you their word. And they give you their word, and then circumstances change. And they agree to buy something for a certain price, for example, and then the market completely changes, but they said they would give you X amount of dollars for that car or they would pay you X amount of dollars for this or they said, "Hey, you can count on me. You're moving that weekend? I will be there," and then they get tickets to the Super Bowl. (laughs) Now, you can obviously go and say, "Hey, you know I got tickets to the Super Bowl.

Is there any way that you could let me out of helping you move this weekend?" But the point is, this is the kind of person, when they give you their word, they keep it, and they keep it even if it's to their own hurt. He says there's something about how you speak, there's something about a righteous life, there's something about your values and your relationships, there's something about when you give someone your word, you keep it even if it doesn't work for you. And finally, he goes on, "And you don't lend your money at interest."

Now, the Old Testament was very clear. You could charge interest, but you couldn't charge interest to a fellow Hebrew. It's a picture of taking advantage of people financially when they're down. And he says: This person that can have this kind of fellowship with God, this unbroken support, he says, they don't do that. In fact, the big promise then is, “He” - or she - “who does these things will never be shaken.”

Now, what I tried to do as I went through this passage and looked at my own speech, my own relationships, my values, do I keep my word or not, and where does my money go? I made a little list of very practical questions. I call it a diagnostic test.

And so here are some questions I want to ask you that have been very helpful and a bit painful for me. First question is, honestly, in your heart of hearts, are you living a righteous life?

Are you honest with yourself and are you honest with God? And here's sort of a little indicator, if you find it pretty hard to pray very long or very deeply, if you find yourself very, very busy, if you find that, you know, things are kind of superficial with God and you're sort of catching Him on the run, do an honest inventory and just ask God to search your heart on the issues of character.
Now, what I tried to do as I went through this passage and looked at my own speech, my own relationships, my values, do I keep my word or not, and where does my money go? I made a little list of very practical questions. I call it a diagnostic test. And what I'd like to do is just have you kind of lean back a bit, and if the what ifs that we started with tend to rattle around in your mind and you want to declare, "I will not be shaken.” I can't control those things out there, but I will not be shaken because I will have the Lord as my front and my rear guard. I will have God's perspective in the midst of whatever circumstance.

I will be experiencing His power and His presence. I will have nearness. I won't be wondering where is God when it all falls apart, because difficult things are going to come, and He calls us to persevere, to be bold, to be courageous in the midst of those things. And so here are some questions I want to ask you that have been very helpful and a bit painful for me. First question is, honestly, in your heart of hearts, are you living a righteous life?

Are you honest with yourself and are you honest with God? And here's sort of a little indicator, if you find it pretty hard to pray very long or very deeply, if you find yourself very, very busy, if you find that, you know, things are kind of superficial with God and you're sort of catching Him on the run, and when you really, really stop, turn off the TV, there's no Netflix, not even music in the car, and you're quiet, and you feel this dis-ease, this un-comfort. I’ve found that one of the most important things we need to do at times is just pause and say, "Search me, O God. I feel out of sync. I'm not even sure what's wrong, but I don't have peace. The connection with important people in my life, it's not like it's bad, but I know it's not where You want it to be. I mean, we all live here. And what we tend to do is eat or get busy or medicate.

And if you want a life where you can take up the promise I will never be shaken, I'll be bold and strong and courageous in the midst of whatever, do an honest inventory and just ask God to search your heart on the issues of character. Something that has helped me, 'cause I'm a verbal processor, has been, when I have that unrest and I can't quite figure it out, sometimes I just start writing, because I don't know what's wrong, but what I know, when I'm honest, is I don't feel very connected to God. Not like I've sinned or done some terrible thing. I don't feel real connected with people and I don't have peace in my life.

And so, this was not a very long time ago, but it was a window of time where we were experiencing a leadership challenge, and I was not at peace, and I was really, really struggling. And I wrote this in my journal on this particular day - "Holy Father, I am weary. The dread and the guilt of the blind spot that I've now seen in my life and the negative impact on others feels so discouraging and demotivating. I am in such great need of Your mercy, Lord. Much of the dysfunction and problems are of my own making, me trying to fix things in an area that lack leadership. I really don't know the path forward for me. A big part of me wants to just retreat."
Now, any of you ever kind of feel like that? I can't tell you how liberating it is to get that from "I'm not sure what's going on" to "Man, I'm weary. I'm tired. Some people have pointed some things out. I don't really like what they're saying, but I've taken them to the Lord and they're true."

It says, "In my most objective moments, I think, my greatest strengths are also my greatest weaknesses. I've failed once again in this area, and I seem to repeat some of these leadership mistakes over and over. I've asked for Your forgiveness, and I know I've received it. Your hand of favor has been supernaturally on the ministry and on my life, and yet, boy, part of my role and part of this path, I honestly don't know the way forward. It's just not clear to me."

Can I tell you something? The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and He saves those who are crushed in spirit. You know, we can talk about being holy, we can talk about being righteous, we can talk about being blameless, we can talk about our speech. The core of your relationship with God is being honest.

Psalm 145:18 is a verse that's just meant a lot to me, especially when I struggle and I know I've blown it. It says, "The Lord is near to those who call upon Him," and then here's the condition, "to those who call upon Him in truth."

I mean, I couldn't figure out what was going on, and I was processing information, and there were some things that weren't going very well. And then I wrote down, kind of like a psalm, I came out the other end, "Thank you, Jesus, for reminding me, this morning through my wife, that I'm not in this alone, that You are mindful that I am human, that You know when I mess up, and that when I come to You like this, that You forgive." You see, If you don't want to be shaken, you can't fake it. So, step one is do an honest inventory and just ask God to search your heart on the issues of character.

The second is, I would say, this is a tough one, do a ruthless evaluation of your speech. Jesus said in Luke 6, "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man brings forth what is evil; for the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart."

This has been painful, but helpful. According to Jesus, the words that come out of my mouth and, we'll learn a little bit later, where my money goes are probably the two most objective means of evaluating where you're honestly at in your relationship with God. Because if there's negativity, if there's slander, if there's complaining, if there's whining, if there's blaming, if there's calling other people out, if there's critical words, if there's sarcastic words, passive-aggressive words, thoughtless words, those are the kind of things that say something's wrong in your heart. And this passage says if you want to be rock-solid with God, he says: First of all, you’ve got to be honest and be a person of character.

And I hope... The only reason I read my journal, I just want you to know that that's a journey. That doesn't mean you've got it all together. That means when things aren't quite right, you go to God and figure out, what are the issues? Jesus was so clear. He longs for us to be perfect even as your Heavenly Father is perfect, but as AW Tozer said so wisely, "God's desires for us are very great and His expectations are very reasonable." He understands we're human. He understands we struggle. It's when we won't admit it, it's when we lie to ourselves and we start posing and image management, that's when we lose, that's when we lose the relationship.

So, what does your speech say about you? What comes out of your mouth? People say you're a positive person, an encouraging person? Let me just encourage you to listen. Listen to yourself in conversation. Like, God, I want to know. See, the pure in heart, right? Jesus said the pure in heart see God. And you can know what's going on in your heart when you do a little analysis of your words. Third is some probing examination of your loyalty. I think one of the things that's happened in our world of media and, don't let me put this on you, but I have found myself like watching a movie, and because of the way it gets set up, there's like this guy treating his wife like dirt, and so she decides to have an affair, and I find myself rooting for someone who's really doing some things that are really bad and really wrong. This isn't taking me down a great path.

What goes into our mind… what we admire. Ask yourself, what kind of movies do you watch? What excites you? See, over time, little by little, you can find yourself rooting for the wrong team, and your allegiance becomes in directions that are unhealthy. And it can happen 90% in your mind, 90% in just what you watch and what you listen to. And God says, "I want your mind and your heart and your speech and your loyalty. I want you to see the things that are good and pleasant and beautiful and noble. I want you to set your mind on these things and not on things that pull you away."

One of the questions I try to ask myself, whether it's a conversation, whether it's a book, whether it's a movie, whether it's a series, as I'm in it, because there's a lot out there, is this experience drawing me closer to God or farther away? And when I find myself coming to, you know, this is not drawing me closer to God, that's when I say, Okay, Lord, there's an allegiance issue. There's a loyalty issue. Help me. I don't know if you're listening carefully, but when you start going through speech and relationships and our values, it is really hard. It is somewhat overwhelming to live a pure and godly and holy life. But I think there might be a connection between, yes, it's hard, but it's possible, and the number of fellow believers that find themselves, when a "what-if" happens, their life craters. The cancer comes, and they fall apart. The problem in the marriage gets difficult, and they run and flee. They have an issue with one of their kids, and everything falls apart.

We can't be bold and we can't be courageous unless our lives are rooted in alignment with God. And Psalm 15 says, "Check these things out." The final one here, he says, "What about your money? Behind it, it's more than interest. Are you using your money to help and encourage people or are you taking an advantage of people with your money? And as I said earlier, there's probably nothing more revealing than knowing, where does your money go?

About every five years or so, it's painful, but I have a financial planner, and, uh, he asks me to do a little exercise. And he says, "You know, just for a month. Just for 30 days." And I'll go, "Aw, no, I don't want to do that. I, you know, I got a semi-budget and things are working out okay." He says, "No, no, no, just for a month, I want you to track 100% of where all your money goes. Whether it's on a card here, just... and, in 30 days, write down all the categories of where it goes. Food here, entertainment here, giving over here, bought that over here… and don't feel guilty. All I want you to do is do a sober self-assessment of where does your money go?"

And even when I start in on that, like I'm three or four or five days into it, I'm starting to analyze, well, gosh, why am I, (laughs) why am I spending this here or why I'm doing that here. And it's always revealing. And it just allows me to kind of reset and just stop and say, "Okay, this is how much money's coming in. And this portion is going here, and this is going here, and I had no idea I was spending that much money on, you name it," right? Sports, coffee, entertainment. Not bad things, but I just had no idea.

So, here's what the psalmist is saying to you and to me. God loves us so very, very much that He has created a means and a way called living a godly, righteous, or holy life, and that as we seek to do that imperfectly, with a merciful and kind and compassionate heavenly Father, who really gets we won't be perfect, but as He sees the intention of our heart, as He sees a character of righteousness in general, of speech that we want to align that reveals a pure heart, with our money and with our relationships and with our values saying, Lord, I'm Yours, and I want my life, my speech, my values, my relationship to reflect the person of Jesus. And I know the journey will be forever and ever and ever, but I'm consistently leaning, moving toward doing that. He says, "In My great grace, you'll never be shaken."

And there is one passage that is a bit of a parallel to this. And this passage is a passage that I have memorized, and talk about meditating. I've gone over this one over and over and over, taking a walk, driving in my car, because it sets something up, but it gives me such hope. Listen carefully as Isaiah answers the question in chapter 33. In chapter 33, verse 14, the question is raised, “Who can live in the presence of God?” The exact same question. And then he answers it in verse 15 and 16,

"He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, he who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; he who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil."

That line alone, I cannot tell you how many times I've been on planes, and I've started to watch a movie, and I'm 10 minutes into it, or 15 or 20, and it says "stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed... shuts his eyes from looking upon evil." And I click, and I go, You know, Lord, that will not help me be the man You want me to be.

I actually have to load stuff up on my iPad that'll be good and encouraging and wise. Notice what he goes on to say. After you walk in righteousness, speak with sincerity, reject unjust gain, you stop your ears from hearing about bloodshed and you shut your eyes from looking upon evil, listen to this, "He will dwell on heights, his refuge will be the impregnable rock; his bread will be given him, and his waters will be sure."

Do you get the picture? You can live above all the what-ifs because of something deep and powerful inside, as the Spirit of God, takes the Word of God and gives you a perspective and a relationship. And not only that, you'll be an impregnable rock. I mean, it's just like you are rock solid. You'll never be shaken.

Could I encourage you to be bold and courageous, to say to God, "I want to develop the most intimate relationship with You that I can. And I'm going to do an honest test and assessment of my life, my character, my speech, my values, my money, because You made a promise through David, he who does these things will never be shaken." It will give you a sense of confidence, a sense of rock-solid belief that you won't be moved. The world's going to move.

The what-ifs, some of them are going to come into your life, they're going to come into mine, but it's who you're connected to, the perspective you have, and the grace that is available that will allow you in the midst of that to not just survive, but to actually thrive. That's God's game plan. He's done it throughout history. He's done it in the Old Testament, He's done it in New Testament, and He wants to do it in your life, and He wants to do it in mine. Never has the world needed these kind of followers of Jesus than right now.