The Godly Life in an Ungodly World
Psalm 15
May 5, 2024
Gracie Allen, an actress from a couple of generations ago and the wife of comedian George Allen once received an alligator as a gag gift. What do you do with a gift alligator? Who knows? So she put in the bathtub and left for an appointment. When she returned home, she found this note from her maid: “Dear Miss Allen: Sorry, but I have quit. I don’t work in houses where there is an alligator. I’d a told you this when I took on, but I never thought it would come up.”
We could say that about many things in life, couldn’t we? All we want is simplicity and ease. We don’t want to create problems for others, and we don’t want problems for ourselves. Yet, that’s not the reality for us: “Life is not a straight line leading form one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road switchback after switchback.” [Piper, Sweet & Bitter Providence, 101.] Difficult jobs, meddling bosses, taxes, financial pressures, miscommunication, sinful communication, broken relationships, broken cars, house repairs, temptations of a thousand kinds, moral failures, wars, and the list goes on. I didn’t sign up for that when I signed my adult papers, and I don’t think you did either.
How do we live in this ungodly world? For a few weeks we are looking at songs to sing to put our hearts at rest and to stabilize our souls. This morning we look at Psalm 15, a wisdom psalm of David.
As a wisdom song it provides direction for the reader for how to live. And as a song, it is to be sung to transform hearts and desires. This psalm appears to be a song worshippers would sing on the way to Jerusalem for one of the annual feasts. It was a reminder for the Israelites of the requirements of those who would worship the Lord corporately in Jerusalem. And it serves as a reminder for us as well of the kind of worshippers God calls all men to be — and what fellowship with God looks like.
Perhaps you are a little confused in your spiritual life — what does the Christian life look like? how are we sanctified and what does sanctification do? and what’s the advantage of living for God? These are the kinds of questions that this psalm answers; if you have these kinds of concerns today (and all of us have these or some variation of them), then this psalm and message are for you. In this psalm, we will find that —
When God declares one to be righteous, his entire life will be changed.
The psalmist reveals what a godly life is like with a question, an answer, and a promise.
- Question: What Kind of Life is a Godly Life? (v. 1)
- Answer: A Godly Life is a Sanctified Life (vv. 2-5a)
- God sanctifies one’s character (v. 2)
- God sanctifies one’s communion (vv. 3-4b)
- God sanctifies one’s contentment (vv. 4c-5b)
- Promise: A Godly Life is a Stable Life (v. 5c)
Download the rest of this sermon on Psalm 15.
The audio will be posted on the GBC website by Tuesday.
Jon Tyson jontyson, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Words of Grace 
