Psalm 15: What Shades of Truth Say About Our Heart

Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?

The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on  others; who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath  even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; who lends money to the poor without  interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things will never be shaken. - Psalm 15

"...who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander."

In the Bible, the will is the confluence of our desires is centered in our heart. So when this psalm praises those who speak from their heart, it is not just recommending passion but integrity. That our hearts would line up with the truth and that this would be reflected in our speech. Our words come in many shades, some of which are designed not to reveal but to conceal--not necessarily false but also not forthcoming. Sometimes not false but not leading to the truth. Maybe it is fear of rejection, maybe it is to support a goal-there are lots of reasons for how we shape our words other than truth. But love is not one of them. The Bible says, "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth." (1 Cor. 13:6) 

Romans 16:17-19: Truth as a Passport or Badge

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naïve people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. - Romans 16:17-19

There are people who take up an opinion, not because they think that that opinion is correct, but because it gives them an opportunity for power and significance. 

Sometimes, they will choose an wrong-headed opinion, not because it is right, but because everyone will be forced to deal with them. If I say exactly what is already being said, people can ignore me. But if I say something outrageous or wrong, they will have to-at least-react to me. 

Sometimes, they will choose to the same opinion, because the person whose opinion they share is embattled and by joining them, they will be embattled. They can take up the rallying cry and wear that badge of persecution and injustice proudly. 

In both cases, they don't care about the truth. They care about their own desires. The emotion that is fed into an issue can become the fuel that feeds their ego-on either side of the truth. This is true in peoples' lives or people's life in church. When we start to use the truth as a passport or a badge, we no longer care about the truth but what it can give me. When we start to use God as a passport or a badge, we no longer care about God but what he can deliver to me. And that is the death of truth in me.

Proverbs 24:32: We Can Only Possess What We Experience

We can only possess what we experience.

Truth, to be understood, must be lived.

There is a difference, a qualitative difference,

Between what I know as a fact and what I know as truth.

It stands as a great divide to separate my thinking

From when I'm thinking foolishly and when I've understood.

- Charlie Peacock, Experience, The Secret of Time

My wife worked for the Department of Agriculture in a rice-growing country. As a young, unassigned researcher, she was the chosen recipient of a bag of potatoes and a guide to growing potatoes. She read the book intently, from cover to cover, because she had no real experience with potatoes or their requirements. Potatoes weren't like rice. There were few potatoes available in the markets. Her family's generations of rice-growing experience was of little use.

So, book in hand, she experimented, planted, harvested and presented her results. Some things worked. Other things didn't. The book had word and diagrams that pointed at truth. But it did not become truth for her until those tubers and that soil and that fertilizer passed through her hands.

Life works this way. We have guidelines-heuristics-rules of thumb-proverbs-that others have gathered for us, that we use to shortcut decision making and bypass mistakes all the time. These guidelines are necessary, but it is experience that leads us through that to the other side. "As long as 'received teaching' doesn't become experiential knowledge, we're going to continue creating a high quantity of disillusioned ex-believers. Or on the flip-side, we'll manufacture very rigid believers who simply hold on to doctrines in very dry, dead ways with nothing going on inside."[1]

The book of Proverbs is wonderful. It shortcuts straight to the bottom line in life. It distills pages of theology and hours of reasoning into a few words designed to instruct. Those words point the way, but you have to watch a few fools in their folly, or be one yourself before the gut level impact of the truth comes home.  The pattern of the wise can be described, but its rewards require first-hand experience.

Truth cannot grab us until it has been filtered through our lives-until our lives have depended upon it. Consider: It is one thing to know that poverty exists, know the effects of poverty and the means of its alleviation. It is another to be poor.

Experience requires time. I often wished I was more mature than I am, where the truth I knew flowed seamlessly into the choices that I made. I wish that there was never a time when I was not mature (mainly so I wouldn't need to forget my penchant for the epic faux pas). Thankfully, though, time and the grace of God have smoothed some rough edges and weathered away stubborn flaws.

Proverbs says, "Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness." (Proverbs 16:31) Living in an age that idolizes youthfulness, we sometimes forget that the core problems for people have not changed: anger, love, selfishness, bitterness, grief, desire, self-deception, envy and malice. Those dynamics have not altered, and wisdom acquired in those storms still holds true.

I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: - Proverbs 24:32

 What I experience now is really all I will carry with me into eternity.  I pray that my hard-earned graying hair speaks to truth that has settled deeply in my soul. Amen.

[1] Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance (What Hods Us Back from Genuine Spiritual Experience?)