The Climb (A Journey Through Psalms for Men)

Psalm 15

A psalm of David.

Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?Who may live on your holy mountain?

The one whose walk is blameless,who does what is righteous,who speaks the truth from their heart;whose tongue utters no slander,who does no wrong to a neighbor,and casts no slur on others;who despises a vile personbut honors those who fear the Lord;who keeps an oath even when it hurts,and does not change their mind;who lends money to the poor without interest;who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these thingswill never be shaken.

I’m not exactly sure when I started watching The Masters.

Unlike some of my friends, I didn’t grow up with a golf-watching dad. My guess is that some spring while in high school, home alone, I turned on the TV and stopped flipping through channels when I heard that familiar piano melody start playing. If you know the one, you can hear it in your head. I was hooked, and ever since then I’ve looked forward to what I call, “the best week in sports,” every year. I make everyone be quiet when Masters commercials come on, I watch old Masters footage on YouTube reliving tournaments from before I was even born, and my two-year-old son knows that the Masters logo means, “golf game!” I tell you all of this so you’ll understand what I mean when I tell you that when my father-in-law handed me a pass to Augusta National for the 2017 Masters, I held it as if I was holding the Hope Diamond. Surely there was nothing more valuable in the world than this piece of paper. This golden ticket would allow me to simply walk into a place I had only dreamed about before that moment. Here’s the thing: I could have never played my way into Augusta National. And similarly, none of us could ever earn our way into the Holy presence of God.

Look at the requirements listed in Psalm 15 to enter the sacred tent, to dwell on the Mountain of God. Could you make your way through that list and check every box? The stunning truth of the Gospel is that the only One who could have, did, and then He chose to pay the price of entry on your behalf. The righteousness that was on Jesus, His perfect record, was gifted onto us through His sacrifice.

This doesn’t mean that as men of God we don’t try to live out the tenets of Psalm 15. We should do our best to do what is righteous, to speak only the truth, to refuse to slander our neighbors and to properly fear the Lord. But in doing so we should seek to understand our rightful place in the equation of Heaven; that we did not earn our ticket; our entrance was purchased by Jesus and given to us through Him. There was no performance worthy of dwelling in God’s sacred tent. We were invited in through the blood of Jesus. Thank you, God.