I Will Not Be Shaken!: Living in the Shadow of the Almighty, Part 1

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.