447_Who will abide with the Lord? Psalm 15 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 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. Years ago, a well-known British preacher was invited to speak at a large evangelical conference. As he stood on the platform before thousands, he asked: “If you could choose to spend a day with anyone in the world, living or dead, who would it be?” Murmurs and whispers filled the air. After a minute, he went on: “The God who made the heavens and the earth calls you, not just to spend a day with him, but to live with him forever. How will you respond to that invitation?” This is the very heart of Psalm 15. King David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, asks the greatest question of all: “O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” (Psalm 15:1). Who gets to live with God? It’s not merely about a visit to the house of the Lord, but remaining in close, ongoing fellowship with the Creator. This is the deepest longing of the human soul, though it often goes unrecognized. From the very beginning, God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. They were created to be in his image. They would come to see the world through his eyes. They would know reality through his wisdom. But sin entered the world through unbelief and disobedience. In eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they chose to know right and wrong apart from God. That choice broke apart their relationship with their Maker, and brought death into the world. The pain of this loss has never left the human heart. The ache in David’s question echoes this longing. And David answers by describing the qualifications - not in terms of nationality, status, achievements, or religious rituals, but of character. The first step is the visible life: “He who walks blamelessly and does what is right.” The one who seeks God lives with integrity. His actions reflect moral uprightness. The next words carry us from outward behavior to inner truth: “...and speaks truth in his heart.” Speaking truth in our hearts goes beyond verbal honesty. For the godly, life is shaped by inward sincerity, where motives align with godly values. The story of Doeg the Edomite illustrates the opposite of this. When David fled from Saul and sought provisions from the priest Ahimelech, Doeg witnessed the encounter. Later, when Saul asked his servants for information about