Podcast Introduction Our reading today is Psalms 15-17, and I’m calling the episode “Who Can Come Into God’s Presence?”.  Thoughts on Psalms 15 David begins this Psalm with two questions: Lord, who may enter your Temple? Who may worship on Zion, your sacred hill? These questions show the desire of David’s heart. He longed to be in God’s presence. The Temple (or actually in the original language the word “Temple” in our translation today, is tent, or Tabernacle) represented the place of God’s presence.   He answers his own questions, and it is important for us to remember that he wrote from the perspective of the Old Testament, or Old Covenant. Obedience, or the lack thereof, determined the blessings or curses that a person could expect. The person who was not in obedience to God could not expect the blessing of God’s presence. The New Testament gives us a different basis for receiving God’s blessing and being able to be in His presence, doesn’t it? Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, faith in Him is the ground on which we receive blessings and come into relationship with God.  It is very important to understand, however, that obedience or rebellion is an indicator of whether we actually do have a relationship with God. Or put another way, if we have a genuine faith. 1 John 1:6 tells us, “If we say, ‘We have fellowship with Him,’ yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.  7But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” In other words, if we say we believe, but our life doesn’t reflect a changed heart, we are liars.  In David’s list of attributes the righteous person should have (which is only a representative list, not an exhaustive one), he says, “They despise those whom God rejects…”. That sounds harsh to our ears today, doesn’t it? From childhood, many of us are taught not to “hate” anyone. But listen to Proverbs 8:13: To honor the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil ways and false words.  The person who does evil habitually is in fact rejected by God. The righteous man must also reject such a person. Listen carefully, though. I am not saying that we are to assume that this person is beyond God’s ability to forgive if they come to Christ. I like the way Matthew Poole, the 17th century commentator put it: “He doth not admire his person, nor envy his condition, nor court him with flatteries, nor value his company and conversation, nor approve of or comply with his courses; but he thinks meanly of him; he judgeth him a most miserable man, and a great object of pity; he abhors his wicked practices, and labours to make such ways contemptible and hateful to all men as far as it lies in his power.” So what are we to do with this person? We should pray for them. Verse 4: They despise those whom God rejects, but honor those who obey the Lord. I love Spurgeon’s comment on the second half of the verse: “We must be as honest in paying respect as in paying our bills. Honour to whom honour is due. To all good men we owe a debt of honour, and we have no right to hand over what is their due to vile persons who happen to be in high places.” In our culture today, it is the person in high places who receive honor, regardless of their character. And the most honorable among us is often overlooked. Let us not fall i