Psalm 15: Here is a prayer about stability and security.
The question that kicks this off is essentially, God, what does it take to hang out with you? Or even, what qualities might God look for in a roommate?
The answers certainly don’t undermine the idea that God accepts sinners, but it affirms the idea that God isn’t content for us to stay that way.
Just like we might not tolerate certain behaviors in a roommate, so does God. If we want God to enjoy our presence, we have to bring honesty and integrity to the table.
Psalm 17: Here is a prayer about contentment and satisfaction with God.
I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
That’s a bold statement when the narrative of the world around us seems to be just the opposite, that in God we can’t find anything good or pleasurable. But if this psalm is true, then that restlessness deep in our soul is only satiated in the presence of the Almighty.
Psalm 17: Here is another prayer about justice and fairness.
It’s a pleading with God that though the world is deeply not right, God is the one who can be trusted to make it right again. It’s a psalm where the fallenness of humanity, the brokenness of the Image-Bearers of God, hovers in the background. Like the writer, we have a deep longing to not be broken anymore. We have this haunting feeling that the way things are is not the way things are supposed to be.
When our reputations are smeared, when we are victims of gossip, when it feels like everyone we’ve trusted piles on against us, God knows what is true and can reveal that truth to others. Our relationships with others can be healed when our relationship with God is healed.
Fiftyeight 