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“O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors … who stand by their oath even to their hurt” –– Psalm 15:1-3, 4b
Walk blamelessly. An impossible task but a worthy and essential effort. Through Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, but we can never claim to be completely blameless. Even when victimized in one part of our lives, we still carry some manner of blame in other quarters of life. As 1 John expresses so clearly –– If we claim to be without sin, we are self-deceived and strangers to the truth. Yet, we live in a time when the prevailing ethos is to place blame constantly and accept blame … never! It is an ethos that can shut down a government, divide a family, rupture a relationship, start a war, break a covenant, and wound without a hope of healing. Thus, the prophet confesses –– “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Hope, promise, and reconciliation all begin with this self-awareness. As Paul perceives it –– “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Our faith is never about being right, claiming the victory, or assuming purity is even a possibility when looking in a mirror. In this life, sin is never fully past tense. We will wrestle with it as long as we breathe. Neither is our faith about ferreting out the blameworthy. Most often, that job is not in our purview. The Psalmist proclaims –– “The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge.” Therefore, Jesus counsels –– “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”
Blameless? Not me. Not you. However, in the abundant mercy of our God granted to us in Jesus Christ, the call to walk blamelessly moves from impossibility to conceivability, not by our own strength, but only through Christ’s transforming love –– “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me”(Ps. 51:10); “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”(2 Corinthians 5:21).
In this light, Psalm 15 becomes, not a to-do list, but a prayer. Only through the grace of Christ at work in us can we begin to do what is right, speak truth from the heart, utter no slander with our tongues, do no evil to our friends, or take up a reproach against our neighbors. Lord, help us.
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