I delivered this sermon on August 15, 2010, at the Olivet New Church in Toronto.<\/p>\n
DWELLING WITH THE LORD<\/p>\n
A Sermon by Rev. Coleman S. Glenn<\/p>\n
15 August 2010<\/p>\n
Olivet New Church, Toronto<\/p>\n
Sometimes the Word is hard to read.\u00a0 In the books of Moses, we find histories that might seem irrelevant to our modern times.\u00a0 In the prophets, we see predictions of events that never seem to have come to pass.\u00a0 In Revelation, we are confronted with cryptic imagery that defies comprehension.\u00a0\u00a0 In these cases, finding meaning in the Word takes work<\/em>.\u00a0 But there are other places in the Word that are different.\u00a0 There are places in the Word where we see plain truth, plain and simple statements of who the Lord is and how He can draw us into heaven.\u00a0 The psalm we read earlier \u2013 and that you can read in your handout \u2013 is one of these places.\u00a0 In simple terms, the psalm lays out a path to the Lord\u2019s tabernacle, to the mountain of Jehovah, to a life of heaven.\u00a0 Let me read the psalm again, and notice how much simple, literal truth we find here.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1. O Jehovah, who will sojourn in Your tabernacle? Who will dwell on the mountain of Your holiness?<\/p>\n 2. He who walks in wholeness, and does righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart.<\/p>\n 3. Who does not slander with his tongue, and does not do evil to his companion, and does not bear reproach for his neighbor.<\/p>\n 4. The rejected is despised in his eyes, and those who fear Jehovah he honors. He swears to afflict himself and does not change.<\/p>\n 5. His silver he does not give at interest, and he takes no gift against the innocent. He who does these things will not be moved to eternity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Who will live with the Lord?\u00a0 Those who do good things to their neighbor and who do not do evil things to their neighbor.\u00a0 It\u2019s simple.\u00a0 It\u2019s powerful.\u00a0 It\u2019s true.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s more to this psalm than first meets the eye.\u00a0 This psalm, in fact, lays out a path for us.\u00a0 It is a path that can take us to heaven; and not only heaven as a place that we will go after we die, but heaven as a state in our lives.\u00a0 This psalm lays out the path to true peace in our lives.<\/p>\n The psalm begins by describing our intended destination: the tabernacle of Jehovah, and the mountain of His holiness.\u00a0 The psalmist asks, \u201cWho will sojourn in Your tabernacle?\u201d\u00a0 Picture the Children of Israel in the wilderness journeying from place to place, setting up their tents, and in the middle of them all is Jehovah\u2019s tent, the tabernacle.\u00a0 We are asking how to live in<\/em> that tabernacle, to walk with the Lord.\u00a0 The tabernacle represents the Lord\u2019s goodness and love; and we are asking how to walk<\/em> with the Lord, how to bring his love into the actions<\/em> of our lives.\u00a0 \u201cWho will sojourn <\/em>in Your tabernacle?\u201d\u00a0 But we are not only looking to sojourn in the tabernacle; the psalmist asks, \u201cWho will dwell on the mountain of Your holiness?\u201d\u00a0 Now picture Mount Zion, the seat of Jerusalem, the site of Jehovah\u2019s temple.\u00a0 Picture this rock, this foundation of worship for all the land of Israel.\u00a0 This rock, this foundation, is the Lord\u2019s truth, His wisdom; and with this question, we\u2019re asking to dwell in wisdom from the Lord; to have our minds<\/em> and thoughts<\/em> ordered by the Lord from love.\u00a0 And so with our destination firmly in mind, we set out on our journey in answer to these questions.<\/p>\n In verse two, the psalmist begins to describe the person who can reach this destination.\u00a0 If we think of the psalm as a story, this hypothetical person is our hero.\u00a0 Also in this verse, the general roadmap is laid out for our responsibilities.\u00a0 What do we have to do to dwell with the Lord?\u00a0 We have to walk in wholeness<\/em>.\u00a0 This word is also translated as \u201cperfection\u201d or \u201cintegrity.\u201d\u00a0 What does this mean?\u00a0 We have to walk in a harmony<\/em> of good and truth.\u00a0 We have to live<\/em> by what we know; we have to learn<\/em> how to express our love.\u00a0 Goodness needs truth, and truth needs goodness.\u00a0 We have to do righteousness \u2013 that is, act out love for other people \u2013 and we have to speak truth in our hearts \u2013 that is, to learn what is true and live by it so that we can better express that love.\u00a0 So far, this is still a pretty general picture.\u00a0 We know where we want to go, and we have a general idea of how to get there.\u00a0 But how<\/em> do we live in love?\u00a0 How<\/em> do we put truth into our lives?<\/p>\n Now we come to verse three.\u00a0 We have a destination in mind, we have a roadmap; the rest of the psalm gives us the details of walking in the path.\u00a0 So what do we do to set out on our journey to the Lord\u2019s kingdom?\u00a0 Three things: we must not \u201cslander with our tongues,\u201d we must not \u201cdo evil to our companions,\u201d and we must not \u201cbear a reproach for our neighbor.\u201d\u00a0 The first thing we have to avoid is slander.\u00a0 Think about this literally.\u00a0 The Writings for our church tell us that there are many literal truths in the Old and New Testaments.\u00a0 This is one of them.\u00a0 This is a powerful tool, and next time you are thinking about talking about someone behind his back, think of this passage.\u00a0 But this extends to beyond just literally badmouthing someone.\u00a0 What are the states of mind that lead<\/em> to this?\u00a0 If we\u2019re talking badly about someone, chances are we have some idea of them as being bad, or evil, or stupid.\u00a0 We construct an image of them in our head, and we want to spread it.\u00a0 We think we know who they are at heart.\u00a0 And we think that it is somehow okay<\/em> to talk about this<\/em> person, that this<\/em> person isn\u2019t in the image of God.\u00a0 And this is a falsity.\u00a0 We often think about falsity in abstract terms, as theological misconceptions.\u00a0 And this is a part of falsity.\u00a0 But the more pernicious falsities are the falsities that disguise themselves as truths.\u00a0 Slandering with our tongues is the same thing as bearing false witness; because even if the facts of our slander are true, we present them in such a way that we hope to distort the image of our victim.\u00a0 And so this description of the heaven-bound person as not slandering means that he rejects falsity anywhere it shows up in his life.<\/p>\n The next statement in this verse is, \u201cHe does not do evil to his companion.\u201d\u00a0 Again, this is a plain, literal truth.\u00a0 The word \u201cevil\u201d can also mean \u201charm\u201d in Hebrew; so, in another translation, this could be rendered, \u201cHe does not hurt his companion.\u201d\u00a0 Think about all the ways that you can hurt someone.\u00a0 You can subtly try to hurt them with your words.\u00a0 You can steal something from them.\u00a0 You can murder them.\u00a0 The range of hurting is enormous, but the point is this: any desire to hurt<\/em> is a desire to do evil<\/em>.\u00a0 So this statement means that we have to avoid doing evil.\u00a0 We now have two counter-examples to the good man of verse two: instead of loving what is good, and loving what is true because it helps him be good, the bad person loves falsity and loves to do evil, to hurt the people around him.\u00a0 These two negative qualities are summed up in the final line of the third verse: \u201che does not bear a reproach against his neighbor.\u201d\u00a0 A reproach<\/em> is similar to slander; but in this case, it is said that he does not \u201cbear it\u201d, that is, lift it up or carry it.\u00a0 A person who is carrying<\/em> or lifting up<\/em> a reproach isn\u2019t simply harboring false ideas; he is living them.\u00a0 And he is now carrying it for his neighbor<\/em>.\u00a0 A \u201cneighbor\u201d in the Word means love and goodness, whereas a \u201ccompanion\u201d mean truth.\u00a0 So now this person is not only attacking truth, he is attacking also goodness and love, both in himself and others.\u00a0 These are the things we must reject if we are to dwell in the tabernacle and on the mountain.<\/p>\n It is good to reject these evil things against the neighbor; but there is more to the psalm.\u00a0 So far it has been about loving our neighbor.\u00a0 But the two Great Commandments teach us that we are to love our neighbor and<\/em> to love God.\u00a0 So this verse tells us the final component for living a heavenly life: we have to reject these things not just for the sake of rejecting them, but because they are sins against the Lord.\u00a0 Verse four begins \u201cThe rejected is despised in his eyes.\u201d\u00a0 This is often translated as \u201ca vile person\u201d or \u201ca reprobate\u201d; but in Hebrew, the word simply means something or someone that has been rejected.\u00a0 The implication is that he despises the things that God<\/em> has rejected.\u00a0 And so in our own lives, we need to reject evil not just because it is harmful to society, not just because it makes us unhappy, but because it is a sin against the Lord<\/em>.\u00a0 What does this mean?\u00a0 It means that it hurts the Lord when we sin.\u00a0 Why is this?\u00a0 Because the Lord is Love itself.\u00a0 He is the most loving person you can imagine, only infinitely more loving.\u00a0 And He wants nothing more than to make people happy.\u00a0 When you break one of His commandments, you do two things: first, you make it so He cannot act through you to make another person happy.\u00a0 In fact, you\u2019ve twisted His life, which he gives you, to make it hurt someone else, which is the last thing He wants.\u00a0 And second, in doing so, you\u2019ve made it harder for Him to bring you<\/em> into eternal happiness, which is what He wants.\u00a0 This is why it is so important that we reject evil as a sin against God; because unless we acknowledge that sinning is never<\/em> okay, we will allow ourselves to be turned away from His love, and this is contrary to everything He desires.\u00a0 This is why we must despise the things that He rejects.<\/p>\n But this message is not all negative.\u00a0 Not only does our hero despise what Jehovah rejects; he also honors those who fear Jehovah.\u00a0 Again, start from the literal sense.\u00a0 What does it mean to honor someone who fears the Lord?\u00a0 We know from the Writings for our church that fearing the Lord in the truest sense is fearing to harm Him, to sin against Him.\u00a0 We are to honor those who act from love to the Lord, who serve their neighbor in humility.\u00a0 But what is it that we are really honoring?\u00a0 We are honoring that person\u2019s love, that person\u2019s kindness, that person gentleness.\u00a0 And all of these things are from the Lord.\u00a0 To honor one who fears the Lord in fact means to honor the Lord Himself, since He is the source of all things good and true.\u00a0 In this verse, we see the marriage of love to the Lord and love to the neighbor: we love the goodness in our neighbor, and that is<\/em> the Lord\u2019s.<\/p>\n