A Citizen of Zion

Introduction

There are generally two types of people in the world. Which one are you? And by the way, there’s only one right answer. People are generally either beach people or mountain people. And so, by a show of hands, how many people are mountain people? You’re drawn to the mountains and the beauty of the hills and the mountains. Okay, okay. How many of you are beach people? You’re drawn to the ocean and the waves and the sands, all right? By the way, you’re wrong. And I can prove that scripturally. Where did God make his presence known to Moses? The mountain. Where did God show his power against the gods, the false gods of Baal? It was in the mountain. Where did Abraham’s faith become fulfilled when he was willing to offer up Isaac?

It was in the mountain. Now I joke, of course, about only being one right answer to it, but I do want to talk to you about a mountain this morning and the beauty. And as you might have surmised from that quiz and my joke, I am a mountain person. Some of those beautiful scenes in my mind take place on the mountain. You can remember Deedra and I took a trip to the highest point in the state of Alabama. It’s Mount Chihuahua. And in Mount Chihuahua there are trails that you can follow. And I felt it was appropriate that one trail we walked on was called the Pulpit Trail. You walk about a mile and a half or two miles, which is about the length of my trail walking, and you just walk through woods, and you’re seeing nothing but trees and the ground beneath those trees until you get to the namesake of Pulpit Trail and you get to Pulpit Rock.

And that’s the scene you see at Mount Chihau. See, do you believe me? Alabama is just the best state there is. And for you beach people, we have both. But there’s just something about a mountain. And as scripture describes it so many times, God is found in the mountain. Whether it be Mount Sinai or Mount Carmel or the Mount of Transfiguration or in Mount Zion. I want to talk to you about one of those mountains or one of those hills. Would you go with me in your old testaments to Psalm 15? Our Bible readings this morning all came from the Psalms. This Hebrew poetry book, the Hebrew hymnal, the place of worship, and so many of these psalms were what we call didactic psalms. That is, they were meant to teach something in their worship service.

We follow that pattern today. Psalm 15 is one of those didactic psalms, and it begins by asking a question. And that question is this Are you with me in Psalm 15, verse 1? Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Or who may dwell in your holy hill? That parallelism, that progressive parallelism there, who may abide, that’s an idea of temporarily stay in your tabernacle, that’s a temporary dwelling, is followed up by the question that who may dwell, that’s the idea of permanently dwelling in your holy hill or in your mountain. There’s the idea of permanence. Who can be with you, God on that mountain? And then the verses that follow answer that question. And what I want us to notice in our lesson this morning is that God has some requirements.

1. He Walks Uprightly: An Upright Character

There are standards for those who would be citizens of Zion, who would dwell with God, who would live with God on that holy hill. It should come as no surprise to our audience this morning that God does have standards, that he has requirements, characteristics of those that he wants in his presence, that he demands of those who would abide or dwell with him in that holy mountain. And so let’s analyze Psalm 15 and make some lessons and some applications for us today. What are the requirements of someone who would dwell with God in that mountain, that holy hill? He says, first of all, he walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart. Another way we could say that is that God’s demand, if we’re to dwell with him, and really the whole point of this is not the geography of where we are, but that we are abiding in God’s presence, that we are fit to have fellowship with him.

And one of those requirements is that our character, that we have that upright character. Again, the translation says, He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart. He is pure and upright. Hold your finger there and let’s go to the New Testament in the book of 1 John, chapter 3. There’s so many passages of scripture, both old and new testament, that speak to the idea of our character and the character of those who are God’s.

Just as he, that is God, is pure. If we have the hope that we will see God, that we will dwell literally in his presence on that holy hill, then we must be pure as he is pure. That we’re going to have that type of character, that we will be upright and some translations say blameless in that character. We talked about that idea of blameless a little bit in our Bible class in 1 Timothy chapter 3. It was one of the characteristics or qualifications of a man who would do the work of an elder. And you remember we talked about blameless, was really had, I think, two applications, a narrow and a broad application. The narrow application of one who is blameless is one to whom an accusation will not stick.

Now we recognize anybody can level any kind of silly application or accusation. Someone could say, I’m an alien from outer space. But when you examine that and you look at the evidence, you’ll go, no, he’s not.

It’s an accusation that really is meritless or baseless. And so that accusation does not stick because we’ve examined it. And so the Christian, the citizen of Zion, is to be one to whom those accusations of sinfulness, wrongfulness, they do not stick. We can examine that person’s life. And the other idea is there’s no skeletons in the closet there. But also with the idea of blameless, comes with it just simply the idea, and remember we talked about this in Bible class, that the accusation can almost be just immediately dismissed before we even examine it, because we know the character of the person. And I’ll tell on myself, we use this illustration.

If I was accused of eating the last donut, you’d probably go, Yeah. I could see that. But what if somebody accused me of eating all the celery in the refrigerator? You’d go, nah. No, not Ken. And that’s the idea of blameless in its broad sense. Our character should be such that when an accusation is leveled, the first response is not him. That can’t be true of her.

2. He Does Not Backbite With His Tongue

That’s the type of character, the psalmist says, of the one who will dwell with God in that holy hill. They will work righteousness, they will speak truth in their heart. Secondly, go back to Psalm 15 and look at verse 3. He who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up reproach against his friend. Three statements in verse 3 that I believe all speak to our language, to our tongue. We will not, he says, backbite with his tongue. Your translation may translate that differently. Your translation may be use the word gossip or slander or take up a reproach. But I love the idea of backbite. Because bite carries with it that idea of something harsh, something mean, a biting tongue.

And then the back has to do with you’re doing that behind someone’s back. That you’re slandering that person, that you’re saying something. We might be shocked, maybe not, but we might be shocked if we did a count of how many times, both old and new covenants, that the scripture condemns the idea of gossip, or slander, or backbiting, or reproaching. There’s different words. But if we added them all up and counted how many times, it might surprise us. But we should come away, we should walk away from the text after having done that count of recognizing that God takes this very seriously. Now God only has to say something once for it to have meaning. But when God says something several times or condemns something several times, we better stand up and take attention.

Because that tells us two things. If God says it several times, that tells me two things. Number one is God’s serious about it. God doesn’t like this. God doesn’t want his citizens to do that, but it also maybe tells me that that’s going to be a problem. That it’s a temptation that’s going to be prevalent. And so God’s not saying it multiple times for his benefit, he’s saying it multiple times for mine, because he knows I’m going to have a problem with that.

Do not go to church every Sunday. And partake of the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. Don’t come every Wednesday night to the Bible class and have your Bible lesson done perfectly and all of the boxes filled in, including the true and false questions. Don’t do all of those things and let gossip keep you out of heaven. Because it will.

Powerful weapon God has given you. And that is your voice. And to use it for good.

I want you to recognize how powerful. And when I’m using the word tongue here or speech, I’m talking about whether spoken or written word. I think I’ve shared with you this with you before, but in my office I have a file folder that is simply labeled encouraging. And throughout my years of preaching, I’ve tried to keep every card or note, every written word that somebody sent to me that was positive, encouraging. I throw away the bad shred and throw away the bad ones. But the ones that are encouraging and uplifting, I put those in a file folder. And sometimes, and sometimes when I need it, I’ll open up that folder. And I’m going to tell you the power of words to uplift and to build and to help.

3. A Clear-Cut Allegiance

But this context also tells us the danger of the word to destroy, to hurt, to maim. Use this powerful weapon God has given you. Make yourself the type of person that God wants dwelling with him. Look at the next verse. He tells us also that a citizen of Zion, one who would dwell in his holy hill, verse 4 tells us that he’ll have a clear-cut allegiance, in whose eyes a vile person is despised. But he honors those who fear the Lord. He who swears to his own hurt and does not change. Verse 4 pictures the idea of here is someone that you know which side he is on. His allegiance is clear cut. There’s no question based upon again his language, based upon his action, the character that is demonstrated, that this person makes it clearly known where he stands.

This has to do with the idea of not just our action, not just our character, which is important. He’s talked about those before, but has to do with really our reputation of how people view you, your influence, the idea that people should be able to see you and observe you and know where you stand. Maybe more than ever, that’s important. Now, there has to be a little bit of balance here. We talked about that again in our Bible class this morning, Wednesday night and this morning, of Paul telling Timothy that he is to rebuke the older men, but he rebukes them as he would a father and the older women as his mother and the younger as his brothers and sisters, and so we do not let our faith just run roughshod over people.

But when we live in a time and a society and a culture that glorifies tolerance for every class of people except Christians.

We live in a time and a culture that is strongly, probably more than in any time in our lifetime, that is encouraging us to be silent about our faith. More than ever, God needs us not in some ugly, rough shod that would cause God’s name to be blaspheme, but in a measured, compassionate way to let people know where we stand, to make sure that our allegiance is everyone knows who I am and where I stand. Our society is losing that.

But when I used to go to the barbershop wherever I, whatever town I preached in, it took me a few years to figure out what was going on. But used to when I would walk into the barber shop, my barber would loudly say to me, Hey, preacher. And at first I thought he was being neighborly. But it took me a little while to figure out what he was saying. He wasn’t saying that to me, he was saying that to the other patrons in the barbershop. What he was saying was, watch your language. We’ve been cussing and telling bauddy jokes, the preacher’s in here. So hey preacher meant we don’t talk that way when the preacher’s here. We at least had respect in our society. If a lady was present or if the preacher was present, that we would, nobody announces my presence anymore.

It doesn’t matter.

4. Dealings Honorable and Above Board

But people still need to know where you stand. And God needs to know. Let’s look at our last verse here in Psalm 15. After saying, He who swears to his own hurt and does not change, verse 5, he who does not put out his money at usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. The point here is that here the citizen of Zion, the one who God wants in his presence, is one whose dealings are going to be honorable and above board. Let’s back up to the last part of verse 4 that we’ll include in this point, and that is that he swears to his own hurt and does not change. Here is a man whose word is his bond. That he says something, later figures out, that’s not going to be convenient for me.

It’s going to actually hurt me, but I said I was going to do it. What did Jesus say in the New Testament when he said, Don’t be the person who has to take an oath, who has to swear? He said, Let your yes be yes and your no be no. We don’t do a whole lot of preaching about gossip that we talked about earlier. We probably do far less preaching about lying and dishonesty. Maybe we just take for granted that we’re not going to have problems with that, but that’s not the case. He swears to his hurt and changes not. And then in verse 5, he says that he does not put out his money at usury, the new King James says. Some translations say with interest.

The old law forbade the idea of charging a brother interest. You could loan money, but you weren’t to do that as a means of making money. Now that wasn’t forbidding commercial trade and the idea of making a profit. What it was forbidding is mistreating and misusing your brethren. Someone needs to borrow something here, borrow it. Don’t see that as a means of making profit upon someone else’s hardship. That was the Old Testament law. Well, then the question always arises for us Christians well, what’s the New Testament equivalent of that? The New Testament equivalent goes even further. Jesus taught us not just do we not loan out with interest, but we just give.

Not the idea you can pay me back, but you don’t have to pay me back interest. The idea in the New Testament is you don’t even have to pay me back. We’re honorable in our dealings with our fellow man. So the new law surpasses that idea. And he finishes verse 5, it says, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. We talked again in our Bible class this morning of the idea of godliness, and Rufus talked about that in his talk. Godliness with contentment is great gain. And the idea of someone using godliness, or in Timothy’s case, the preaching of godliness as a means just to make money, that the danger of that, when that becomes our motivation, when it becomes our motivation, how can I profit from this situation?

5. A Secure Hope: Never Be Moved

It’s going to lead to not only charging interest of a brother or a friend, but it’s going to lead to the idea of accepting a bribe. It’s a dangerous pathway. And God says those that I want in my midst are going to be honorable. The last point that he makes is that a citizen of Zion thankfully has a secure hope. Finish verse 5. He who does these things shall never be moved. Here’s another reason. Mountains are better than the beach. Recent circumstances here in Florida have shown us that beaches can be moved pretty easily, can’t they? But not a mountain. Who shall dwell in God’s holy hill?

The one who has this type of character, this type of allegiance, this type of dealings, this person who restrains his tongue, and this person will become as secure as the mountain on which they dwell. They shall not be moved. What a wonderful thought that we can dwell with God. That we can be in his fellowship and his presence, and nothing else matters. Until we as children of God grasp that idea that I have God’s approval, I don’t need man’s. That I have God’s fellowship and understanding. I don’t need man’s fellowship and understanding. He who does these things shall never be moved. Anybody want to change your answer? Are you a beach person or a mountain person? It’s all right to prefer the beach and sunsets and sunrises above the ocean.

Conclusion

But when it comes to being a child of God, let’s be mountain people. Let’s want to dwell with God in his holy heel. I want to be the type of person that God wants to have around him. And I want to be secure in my faith and in my hope. Are you? Would you climb that mountain of faith with God this morning? Would you believe in him? Repent of your sins, confess your faith, and be baptized this very morning. And you’ll already dwell with God in his holy heel. You’ll be in his fellowship and in his presence today with the hope of spending an eternity with him in heaven. Would you begin that journey of faith and hope this morning? Can we help you in any way as together we stand and as we sing?