Psalm 15

1 Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? who may abide upon your holy hill?

2 Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right, who speaks the truth from his heart.

3 There is no guile upon his tongue; he does no evil to his friend; he does not heap contempt upon his neighbor.

4 In his sight the wicked is rejected, but he honors those who fear the Lord.

5 He has sworn to do no wrong and does not take back his word.

6 He does not give his money in hope of gain, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.

7 Whoever does these things shall never be overthrown.

(This year, Monday Matters will focus on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen. Please note that these days in the church, there are two tracks of readings in the lectionary, offering a choice of psalms. Your church may or may not have read the psalm included in this email.)

Psalm 15:1 poses these questions: Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? Who may abide upon your holy hill? The psalm goes on to list qualifications for that person, the price of admission if you will. My reaction on reading those attributes make me think that it won’t be very crowded in that tabernacle or on that holy hill. I’m not sure who makes the cut. I’d be outside looking in.

Which brings me, of course, to baseball. As I look out the window at a goodly amount of snow (the most that has landed in the Southeast since 1989), I have this good news. There are only 52 days until the opening of baseball season. And with baseball comes this deep learning offered by former Baseball Commissioner Frances T. Vincent, Jr:

“Baseball teaches us, or has taught most of us, how to deal with failure. We learn at a very young age that failure is the norm in baseball and, precisely because we have failed, we hold in high regard those who fail less often—those who hit safely in one out of three chances and become star players. I also find it fascinating that baseball, alone in sport, considers errors to be part of the game, part of its rigorous truth." 

Our Christian faith echoes this baseball wisdom. Failure, falling short, messing up, missing the mark, sin, whatever you want to call it, they’re all part of the game, part of the rigorous truth of our faith. If you take the tradition that King David wrote this psalm, it’s pretty clear that he himself might not have made the cut of Psalm 15. He was an adulterer, a murderer, a liar, on occasion a coward. If this psalm was a test, he might have failed. He, like most other biblical characters, was not perfect.

The good news is that this rigorous truth is built into our faith. I’m struck with the baptismal promise that invites us to repent and return to the Lord whenever we sin. Not if ever we sin, but whenever. It will happen. And there will be a way to start over. In the Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage, we pray for the couple that they will offer forgiveness whenever they hurt each, not if ever. It will happen, as sure as the sun rises. And they can find a way to start over.

So while Psalm 15 gives us laudable aspirations, indeed, as the psalm describes what a whole person looks like, the entire witness of scripture is that while we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, there is a wideness to God’s mercy. There is hope for us miserable offenders.

Where does this leave us this Monday morning? For starters, we recognize that the high standards outlined in Psalm 15 are aspirational. We need not deceive ourselves that we can fulfill all of these standards on our own steam, based on our own merit. That’s why the Confession is such an important part of our liturgy. In a nutshell, it reminds us that we have not loved God with heart, soul and mind. We have not loved neighbor as self. That’s true of each one of us each day. How might we simply acknowledge that this morning?

Then once we embrace the rigorous truth, we also are called to praise the God whose quality is always to have mercy, whose mercy is expressed in the life, ministry, witness, self-offering of Jesus. I have a feeling that our embrace of that grace is the thing that can free us to move closer to those aspirational goals described in the psalm. Not so we can earn God’s favor, but so that we can reflect it. So it’s worth asking this morning: What is your experience of God’s mercy? How has that changed you? How has that shaped you?

And finally we are called to live into that forgiveness by extending it to others. As Anne Lamott said: Earth is forgiveness school. Who do you need to forgive? Who do you need to ask for forgiveness?

Following Jesus sets us on a journey in which we grow more into his likeness. As we grow in that way, we simply come closer to realizing (i.e., making real) the aspirations of Psalm 15. Can you take a step in that direction this week? Play ball.

 -Jay Sidebotham