Psalm Meditation 1136 ¶Fourth Sunday in Lent ¶March 27, 2022 ¶Psalm 15 1 O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? 2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; 3 who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors; 4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; 5 who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved. (NRSV) ¶Sometimes we make promises with the expectation that we will not have to do anything to keep those promises. And if we do have to keep our side of a promise, bargain, or bet, we find a way to weasel out of it with an excuse or rationalization that clears us of the debt as far as we are concerned. It will not haunt us or keep us up at night because we have been able to erase any sense of debt on our part. ¶The psalmist tells us that we need to keep those promises or stop making them if we have any intention of being in the presence of God. Sometimes keeping our oaths and promises can be painful. Marriage vows, ordination vows, other professional oaths and promises call for sacrifices from time to time. While we would rather do things our own way and for our own benefit, we do have to do things that go against our selfish desires for the sake of honoring our vows, oaths, and promises. ¶Though we tend to make it sound difficult to end up in the presence of God, the psalmist tells us that God wants us to be good to others, to be honest with the people around us, refuse to put up with evil things from others, and take our vows, oaths, and promises seriously even if we end up getting hurt somehow because of it. All of this built on a base of wanting to be as much like God as we possibly can be. ¶March 22, 2022 ¶LCM