Mike Gilland
Athletes, business owners, and hard-working citizens usually share one common goal: a desire to be the best at what they do.
It is pretty safe to say that few people would ever be happy if their reputation could be described as something like this: “He’s a pretty average to below average guy!”
Here is a good Sunday morning question to ponder. What would the ideal worshiper of God look like? What would be the distinguishing characteristics of someone that would be commended by the Lord for their faith-based actions?
The best place to go for that answer is, not surprisingly, the Bible. And one chapter in the book of Psalms is pretty rich in its description of the ideal worshiper of God. King David penned many of the Psalms, and Psalm 15 holds his thoughts on this subject.
Verse 1 begins with the question, “O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” The rest of the chapter contains David’s answers to these questions, and theologians have long marveled at these five verses that make up Psalm 15.
There is much to see in verse 2 alone. In that verse, David starts his answers with a major statement—one that is so desperately needed in our culture today: “He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.”
Wow! In that one short verse, there is a three-point sermon just waiting to be preached. The first two statements are more general, while the third and following concepts are much more specific, and very helpful in our goal to be the kind of worshiper commended by the Lord. They all deal with our inward character.
According to King David, the ideal worshiper of the Lord is one who lives his or her life in such a way that no one could accuse the person of an action that would be wrong, sinful or hurtful. One who understands the need to do what is right. One who puts a very high value on spoken words, aiming to speak only the truth.
This is why we need the Bible. Without it, we don’t really know what is right, or how we can walk in such a blameless manner. As Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us, the human heart is deceitful and wicked. Were it not for the Word of God, we wouldn’t know truth when we saw it, much less be able to speak it.
The good news is that we have the Bible, and we are blessed to have access to its teaching. A couple of generations ago, a common synonym for the Bible was “the Good Book.” That is not a cliché. It is the only source given to us by God, a gold standard on which we can rely.
Said simply, the Bible is enough. It is all we need to start our journey in becoming the kind of worshiper that pleases God.