O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
Psalm 15:1-5
and speaks truth in his heart;
3 who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the Lord;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be a person who has the privilege of sojourning in the Lord’s tent and dwelling on his holy hill. These are metaphors for living and abiding in his glorious presence. To use New Testament language instead of the language of the Psalmist, I want to walk in the Spirit, filled with his Spirit, consciously aware of his presence and power at all times. It is to have a passionate love for God and to enjoy him always.
The following four verses describe the kind of person who can sojourn in his tent and dwell on his holy hill. This person has amazing character. Since this kind of person can have this life, I aspire to live like that. I want to walk blamelessly and do what is right, and speak truth in my heart. I wish never to speak slander or treat my neighbor with evil or repeat smack talk against my friend. I want to honor those who fear the Lord, be generous, and never get able to be bought off. Have I been able to live like that? I hope that I have, to a large degree, but clearly, I have not lived this out perfectly.
To sojourn in the Lord’s tent and dwell on his holy hill, what percentage of the time must I live this way? 90%, 70%, 50%, or maybe even 20%? To be sure, I’d better live this out 100% of the time. In that case, I am not admitted to this glorious place of living with God.
So, who has lived this out successfully? Only one person in human history. His name is Jesus. He has lived this life perfectly, and as a perfect and fully human man (while continuing to be God, the second person of the trinity), he is able to dwell on the holy hill and sojourn in the Lord’s tent. Now, I have access to this beautiful, glorious life because I am in Christ and am a co-heir with him through faith. What he inherits, I inherit. Because he dwells in the presence of the Father, I, in him, also dwell in the presence of the Father. Only being in Jesus gets me there. I get nothing from personal merit.
While it is true that I only get to dwell in God’s tent because I am in Jesus, I find that I am driven to aspire to be the kind of man who measures up as best I can. I know it will not earn me God’s presence, but I am aware that the character described above will be pleasing to my Father, and I want him to be happy with me. This is a beautiful theological exercise and encourages me in my sanctification, i.e., becoming more like Jesus.
Justification
The first theologically significant word for a believer to understand is justification. It means that I am declared perfectly righteous purely because I am in Christ. This righteousness has nothing to do with my conduct or character. It comes to me purely by faith as a matter of grace. I can’t earn it, and I can’t lose it. Every born-again believer in Jesus is justified or declared righteous.
Sanctification
The follow-on to justification is sanctification. Sanctification is the working out in practical terms of our justification. Our justification has declared us righteous. Our sanctification is the process of becoming righteous in our conduct. It is a work of the Holy Spirit.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
The classic New Testament description of a person who exemplifies this character is the fruit of the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:22-26
Our culture is crass. We as a culture do not honor things like faithfulness and goodness. I would venture that if you asked 25 people on the street to define goodness, no more than one or two at the most could tell you that it refers to the moral character of a “good” person. It would probably be defined as a boy scout helping an elderly lady across the street, doing “good” acts.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit who transforms us into the image of Jesus. This is the meaning of sanctification.
Aspiration
Aspiration is the heart’s motivation to be like Jesus, to be a person who, to the degree possible, lives like one who can dwell in the Lord’s tent and sojourn on his holy hill. It is the changed heart that the Holy Spirit has transformed. Sanctified aspirations are those driven out of love for the Lord and what he has done for us to be the kind of person whose conduct is pleasing to the Lord. Sanctified aspirations are those that have a desire to make Jesus happy. We aspire to be who and what Jesus designed us to be from before the foundation of the world.
Justification and sanctification can be just theological categories. Aspirations are the motivations of the heart. Aspirations are powerful motivators that drive us along life’s path.
Aspire to live as one who can live on his holy hill and sojourn in his tent.
