Psalm Meditation 1311 ¶Proper 13 ¶August 3, 2025 ¶Psalm 15 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2015&version=NRSVUE ¶To me, it seems the height of hubris/pride/arrogance to believe that any of us has earned the right to dwell in the tent of the LORD or anywhere near where God is. Yet, in the time of the psalmist, psychology had not been founded as an art or science. Outward appearance was all that anyone had to go on in judging behavior. There was no guessing what a person’s motivation might be to do or say the ‘right’ things. We judged others, and probably ourselves, on what we did and not why we did it. ¶By the psalmist’s standard there are plenty of people who match the attributes set out in this psalm. As long as we go through the motions when we are out in public, no one really needs to know that we have to bite our tongues to keep from saying some wicked cruel things about others. Neither does anyone need to know that we have to fight to keep from kicking, biting, scratching the people we think of as foolish, and/or wrong. Nor do others need to hear how secretly jealous we are of the people who get away with the mean, spiteful things that cross our minds on a regular basis. ¶This does not excuse us from giving the blameless life our best effort. We are to act, think, and speak as people of God because God loves us rather than to earn God’s love. Those who want to convince us that we have to earn God’s love are caught up in a web of lies built by those who can’t imagine that there is anything that can’t be bought or earned. God loves us, simple as that. All of our efforts at earning or deserving God’s love are chasing shadows and fog. God loves us, and all of our thoughts, words, and actions are our response to that love. ¶July 28, 2025 ¶LCM