The Righteous Person by David Cambridge
THE RIGHTEOUS PERSON
Psalm 15
Introduction
1. David asks, “Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may
dwell in Your holy hill?” (Psalms 15:1).
O Zion, Zion
I long thy gates to see
O Zion, Zion
When shall I dwell in thee? 
a. The psalmist is not asking who may abide in the literal
tabernacle or dwell in the literal holy hill. Such a literal
interpretation is simply too superficial, uncharacteristic and
inharmonious with the spiritual nature of this psalm.
1) The “tabernacle,” throughout the Old Testament, refers
to God’s dwelling place, where He had recorded His
name, and where He promised to meet and to bless the people (1 Kings 14:21; Exodus 20:24; Deuteronomy 12:5-7;
14:23; 16:2; 2 Samuel 12:12-13; 1 Kings 5:4-5; 8:26-30), and the “holy hill” (or Mount Zion) was regarded as the
dwelling place of God (1 Kings 11:36; 14:21; Psalm 9:11).
2) “Lord who may abide…”. The word “abide” (NKJV) or “sojourn” (ASV) is a translation of the Greek word
gur and the basic meaning is to dwell in a place on a temporary basis. This may lead one to believe that
David is asking, “Who may abide temporarily in Your tabernacle”, but the word “dwell” in the following
question negates this thought1. The word “dwell” here means “to settle down, to dwell” (CWD). The idea
is of dwelling in a place permanently. Psalms are poetic in nature, and so we should not apply words,
terms, and phrases too literally; we must allow for poetic license2. The context must be the determining
factor in arriving at a correct interpretation.
b. The tabernacle and the holy hill represent the dwelling place of God, i.e., heaven. The psalmist, then, is
asking, “Who may abide in heaven?” or “Who may go to heaven”.
2. The psalmist then answers the question he poses. It should be noted that this is not an all-inclusive list of
requirements or as Coffman says, “By no means could these items be understood as the sum total of godliness”.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS
1. “He who walks uprightly” (2a). To “walk” denotes one’s manner of life, and the word
“uprightly” (NKJV) or “integrity” (NASB) means that which is complete in all its
parts; where no part is missing or is defective3. It refers to a man’s character being
complete in all in parts (cp. Job. 1:1). One cannot be said to be upright if he always
speaks the truth but backbites with his tongue. “Whoever walks blamelessly will be
saved, But he who is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall” (Proverbs 28:18 NKJV).
2. “And works righteousness” (2b). This simply means to do what is right. One who
merely thinks about doing right is not righteous; it is the one who works righteousness who is righteous. As John
says, “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is
righteous” (1 John 3:7 NKJV).
3. “And speaks the truth in his heart” (2c). This describes a person whose speech is sincere. A wicked person speaks
with a double heart: “They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they
speak” (Psalms 12:2 NKJV).
1
Barnes’ notes, “It should not be inferred, however, that it is meant here that the residence with God would be ‘temporary.’ The idea of
permanency is fully expressed in the other member of the sentence, and the language here is only such as was customary in speaking of the
righteous - language derived from the fact that in early times men dwelt in tents rather than in permanent habitations.”
2
A poet will often depart from the normal rules of grammar and ignore the strict definition of words, etc., in order to produce a desired effect.
Many religious errors can be traced to doctrines being drawn from poetic language.
3
See Barnes.
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The Righteous Person by David Cambridge
4. “He who does not backbite with his tongue” (3a). The word “backbite” means to
“I said, I will guard my ways,
censure; slander; reproach; speak evil of4. Perhaps a few examples will help to
lest I sin with my tongue; I
understand this sin: You say to someone, “To be honest, I think Tom is probably
will restrain my mouth with a
having an affair”, “Becky buys a new pair of shoes every week…that’s such a
muzzle, while the wicked are
before me” (Psalms 39:1).
waste of money”, “It’s not that there aren’t any jobs, it’s just that he’s too boneidle to go and look for one”, “She just isn’t spiritual, and you have no idea how
much she disappoints me”. Regardless of whether these statements are true or false, a Christian is prohibited
from such slander, gossip, backbiting, censuring, and bad-mouthing. Someone has rightly said, “If you don’t
have anything good to say about someone, then don’t say anything”. Why do people engage in gossip, slander,
bad-mouthing, backbiting, etc.? There may be one or more underlying causes: low self-esteem, jealousy, hatred.
What is certain is that such a person’s heart is corrupt (Luke 6:45).
5. “Nor does evil to his neighbor” (3b). We tend to think of a neighbor as someone living in close proximity to us,
but Jesus taught that all men are our neighbors (Luke 10:30-37). We must avoid doing harm of any sort to our
neighbor; whether in word or deed. If we love our neighbor, then we can be sure we are doing him no harm (Luke
10:27; 1 Corinthians 13:3-7).
6. “Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend” (3c). We saw above (#4) that we are not to be the author of
gossip, slander and backbiting, and here we are admonished against receiving such a reproach. For some people,
backbiting is their daily work (cp. Proverbs 4:16) and taking up reproaches is their daily food (Proverbs 26:22). If
someone begins to gossip, slander, backbite, etc., you can deal with them in one of the following ways: (i)
Rebuke them, (ii) Suggest that they confront the person directly, (iii) Change the subject, (iv) Start saying positive
things about the person their talking about, and (v) Before they get started, tell them you are going to report back
to that person and tell them everything they’ve said about them. The character and personality of the person will
dictate the best approach. When all else fails, a direct rebuke may be the only way to stop their mouth5.
7. “In whose eyes a vile person is despised” (4a). The word “vile” means “to reject,
“The LORD tests the righteous,
but the wicked and the one who
to despise, to abhor, to refuse” (CWSD). It describes an amoral person who has
loves violence His soul hates”
no fear of the Lord; he is an enemy of the Lord (Psalms 10:4). A righteous man will
(Psalms 11:5).
despise such a vile person (Psalms 101:4); he is one with whom we have no
unnecessary words or dealings; we have no business socialising with vile persons (Psalms 26:5; 141:4; Proverbs 12:26).
8. “But he honors those who fear the LORD” (4b). A righteous man will despise the vile person, but he will honor all
those who fear the Lord (Acts 4:32; Romans 12:10; Galatians 5:13; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:22; 3:8-9; 1 John 5:1-2).
9. “He who swears to his own hurt and does not change” (4c). This simply means that a righteous man will keep his
promises, even if it means some loss or inconvenience. A righteous man’s word is his bond and no persuasion or
circumstance will cause him to break it. A couple of points to remember: (i) If someone asks us to do something
and we say “yes”, then this is a promise (Matthew 5:37; James 5:12). (ii) People often feel a greater obligation to keep
“big” promises and a lesser obligation to keep “little” promises. But in the eyes of the Lord a promise is a
promise and we are obliged to keep all our promises.
10. “He who does not put out his money at usury” (5a). The Israelites were accustomed to lending money and
charging interest. The Law forbade them to charge their brethren interest, but permitted them to charge a
foreigner interest (Deuteronomy 23:19-20). So we are not to understand this as forbidding a man to charge interest on
a loan. What is forbidden here is charging excessive interest. The modern-day “loan shark6” violates this
principle.
11. “Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent” (5b). A righteous man seeks justice for all, regardless of a
person’s age, gender, race, relation or position. Further, he will not be persuaded to pervert justice by bribery or
blackmail.
4
Ibid.
Bear in mind that some people who gossip and backbite have some serious issues; the underlying cause being an emotional imbalance that is
affecting their behavior.
6
A loan shark refers to a company or individual that offers loans at extremely high interest rates.
5
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The Righteous Person by David Cambridge
THE PSALMIST’S CONCLUSION
“He who does these things shall never be moved” (5c). A person who walks uprightly, works righteousness, speaks
sincerely, despises the enemies of the Lord, honors his brethren, keeps his promises, and if he refrains from
backbiting, doing evil to his neighbor, listening to backbiting, extortion, and perverting justice, then he will never be
moved or fall (cp. 2 Peter 1:1-11).
This describes a person who is working out his own salvation (Philippians 2:12-13). Notice, it is not the person who
“believes”, but the person who “does” these things that will never fall. This reminds us that faith without works is
dead (James 2:20, 24, 26).
“A Psalm of David. LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who
walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; He who does not backbite with
his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a
vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the LORD; He who swears to his own hurt and does
not change; He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He
who does these things shall never be moved” (Psalms 15:1-5 NKJV).
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