He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
He that lives with upright integrity, active goodness, and inward truthfulness is the one who may abide in God's presence and dwell with Him forever, and such a life shall never be moved. To walk uprightly is to keep the mind stayed on God with His fear continually before the eyes, to work righteousness is to do what is right with cheerful wholeheartedness and faithful skill, and to speak truth in the heart is to hold sincerity and purity within that governs both conduct and words. This character was perfectly fulfilled in Christ's life of strict obedience, kindness, impartial justice, and vindication of truth. Above all it forbids harming a neighbor by speech, refusing to backbite, to do evil, to sow distrust, or to take up or even listen to a reproach against another, and instead requires going privately to restore a brother and barring the heart against accusing suggestions. It likewise requires honoring those who fear the Lord, keeping a sworn promise though it brings loss, and dealing honestly without exploitation or bribery, and to such God guarantees lasting safety, provision, and blessing.
Dwelling Question Answered
Psalm 15:2 gives the answer to who may abide in God's tabernacle and dwell in His holy hill, His holy place, His holy presence, and His heavenly courts, including the mansions prepared for the redeemed. The one permitted to dwell there is the one who walks uprightly with integrity, works righteousness by doing what is right, and speaks the truth inwardly in the heart. That dwelling requires a life that does not slander with the tongue, does no evil or harm to a neighbor, and refuses to pick up, repeat, or spread a reproach against a neighbor, even when the reproach was begun by another. It further requires despising what is vile, honoring those who fear the Lord, keeping a sworn promise even when it brings hurt or loss without changing, dealing honestly without usury or exploitation, and refusing bribes or reward against the innocent.
The same character is the character that ascends into the hill of the Lord and stands in His holy place with clean hands and a pure heart. Clean hands and a pure heart mean freedom from vanity, deceit, guile, professional falseness, and hollow hypocrisy, with truth kept in the heart rather than deceit practiced. Its purity of heart is the purity that will see God, and it is the plain duty required of all who desire the blessings of meekness, hunger for righteousness, and mercy. Such a person receives blessing and righteousness from the God of salvation, maintains principle at all hazard because God commands it, follows Jesus, and if suffering comes for truth's sake shares Christ's suffering now and His glory afterward.
Whoever lives this upright, righteous, truthful life shall never be moved. That steadfastness belongs to the one who works in harmony with cheerfulness and wholeheartedness, follows God's opening providences, does the very best, refuses complaint, peevishness, murmuring, and accusing, and firmly closes and barricades the heart and soul against Satan's suggestions whether sent directly or through associates, including father, mother, brother, sister, friend, or enemy. It belongs to the one who humbles the heart before God, examines self closely, does what Christ says and follows in His steps, has no time or desire to weaken confidence in others, refuses to pick flaws, pronounce judgment, denounce, condemn, or uproot confidence in men placed in trust, and presses together in love as Christ loves in fulfillment of His prayer for oneness.
Uprightness Defined Inwardly
To walk uprightly is to live with integrity with the mind stayed on God and His fear continually before the eyes, and this is the first step in the path to life. He that walks uprightly walks surely, while a single departure from moral integrity blunts the conscience and opens the door to the next temptation. To work righteousness is to do what is right and to do the very best with cheerfulness and wholeheartedness in harmony, following God's opening providences. It is done with skill and ability given by God for sure and solid work, daily formed in the divine image.
To speak the truth in the heart is inward truthfulness, sincerity, and purity held in the heart. That inward truth governs both conduct and words, distinguishing righteous speech from unrighteous speech and requiring integrity to rule what is done as well as what is said. Words reveal what rules the heart, so a life shaped by Christ speaks with purity and avoids evil and deceit. A merely nominal religion does not produce this purity and Christlikeness, which must be lived out as practical lessons. Truthful speech therefore belongs with the upright life God accepts, marking the citizen of Zion and the one fit to dwell with God.
This character means clean hands and a pure heart, with freedom from vanity and deceit. It means freedom from guile, professional falseness, and hollow hypocrisy. It is inward purity expressed in honest and righteous conduct, living uprightly, doing what is right, and speaking truth from the heart and sincerely from the heart.
Christ Embodies Character
Psalm 15:2 describes the character fit to dwell in God's holy presence and abide in His tabernacle and holy hill, one who lives uprightly, does what is right, and holds truth sincerely inwardly in the heart. Christ's perfect life and character from childhood and youth answered and fulfilled that question. His strict obedience and integrity were evident throughout His life from childhood and youth onward.
Walking uprightly and working righteousness and speaking truth in the heart meant being always kind and courteous. It meant taking the side of the oppressed whether Jew or Gentile, keeping the Father's commandments, and always vindicating truth. It meant refusing to favor His own family by natural ties or to excuse them when guilty of injustice or wrong. This course fulfilled the condition for abiding in God's tabernacle and dwelling in His holy hill, and it enabled Him as teacher to call His disciples to abide in His love by keeping His commandments as He abode in the Father's love.
The verse defines the character of the class who possess the character of Christ and represent that character in the world. Faithfulness and integrity must mark such a person's character, and Jesus showed this through the care and exactness of His work. Those words have power to turn criticism and quarrels toward praise.
Speech Toward Neighbor
To walk uprightly and work righteousness and speak truth in the heart forbids backbiting with the tongue in every form, including whispering about supposed errors, commenting upon them, magnifying and exaggerating them, criticizing motives and works, judging without right, spreading false and inaccurate reports, and using speech to discourage God's servants. It forbids doing evil or harm to a neighbor and forbids sowing distrust, jealousy, or enmity. It forbids taking up or repeating a reproach against a neighbor, and even listening to and accepting a charge or report makes a person share in that reproach and brings condemnation, so that both the false witness and the listener who accepts the report are condemned.
Taking up a reproach includes treating a fellow worker with sneering contempt, criticizing and finding fault, attacking his work from a distance and making it out to be as bad as possible on reports brought by another without going to the field to see for oneself and make a true report. It includes carrying evil reports from church to church and conference to conference, watching and criticizing fellow workers, weakening churches, institutions, and conferences, and hindering the gospel work where it already moves heavily. It includes voicing complaint, peevishness, murmuring, accusing, transmitted suspicion, envy, jealousy, evil-surmising, mourning, and complaining, even when such words come through father, mother, brother, sister, friend, or enemy.
Instead, one must refuse to dwell on others' faults but keep Christ as the example. When a brother is believed to be wrong, one must go privately to him and talk with him as brother with brother with counseling and prayer, and be reconciled to a brother before offering a gift. One must firmly close and barricade the heart and soul against Satan's suggestions whether sent directly or through associates, refusing to voice them, reaching up to take hold of Christ by faith and becoming strong because Christ is strength and rooted and grounded in the truth.
The backbiter is excluded from abiding in God's tabernacle and holy hill and cannot receive God's approval. Backbiting and taking up reproach bring God's displeasure, displease God, grieve Him, and God is not with those who do it. Such speech weakens and annoys those who might be strong in the Lord and causes the world to judge the professed truth by the weak and evil fruit seen in those who claim to believe it. Thinking and speaking evil builds worthless material on the foundation that will be consumed by the fires of the last day, and God hates such work and will call every person engaged in it to account.
This standard also qualifies a person for the society of the truly cultured and refined in this world and for association with the holy ones of heaven, and indulging in backbiting, gossip, and ungenerous criticism reveals lack of culture and refinement and lack of true goodness of heart.
Integrity in Dealings
The upright person despises what is vile and worthless while honoring those who fear the Lord, condemning evil yet esteeming the godly. He keeps a sworn oath and promise even when keeping it brings hurt, loss, and suffering to himself, without changing or turning back. He deals honestly in money matters, refusing to exploit by usury and refusing to take bribes or reward against the innocent. This keeping of the promise at personal cost and this honesty without usury or bribery belong to holding fast to truth and righteousness even at cost of life.
Speaking truth in the heart is inward uprightness and honesty in business, not merely avoiding detection by others. Deceptive advertisements, exacting dealing with workmen, miserly clutching of money gained at the cost of character, and secret fraud and acting a lie for gain all break this truthfulness even when concealed and excused as successful business. The doer knows he is no longer walking uprightly, for God reads hearts as an open book and the record of deeds will be made manifest before all, so that what is sown in dishonesty will be reaped. No temporary success pays for parting with rectitude and a clear conscience for a little worldly wealth. Uprightness in deal and moral integrity secure the favor of God and make a person a blessing to self and to society. Amid varied temptations on every side it is impossible to keep a clear conscience and Heaven's approval without divine aid and a principle to love honesty for the sake of the right, for the law to love God supremely and the neighbor as self is disregarded in daily life.
Walking uprightly and working righteousness means inward purity free from lustful passions and corruption of heart joined to outward strict integrity, and none but the pure and lowly can dwell in God's tabernacle, holy hill, and presence. God will prove professed Sabbath-keepers who profess truth while corrupt at heart until their folly and sin are made manifest. Solomon's fall through indulgence of lustful passions warns that even the wise and beloved fall without this character. It means not concealing conviction of duty for fear of persecution but maintaining principle at all hazard because God says so, following Jesus. If suffering comes for truth's sake, such a one shares Christ's suffering now and His glory afterward, with pure and uncorrupted principles cherished keeping him riveted to the eternal Rock as Daniel was kept. These traits of character cannot be bought or sold, and a person may possess such a character daily formed in the divine image that God can use in His service.
It describes the men the world needs most: men who will not be bought or sold, who are true and honest in their inmost souls, who do not fear to call sin by its right name, whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, and who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. To have this character is to have the Spirit of Christ and not do the works of Satan.
Promise and Application
The upright, righteous, truthful character is true insurance for the future, carrying God's guarantee of lasting safety. It secures an inheritance that lasts forever, freedom from shame in evil times, and satisfaction in days of famine. The one who so walks will dwell on high with food and water made sure, will see the King in His beauty, and will behold the land that is very far off. The same life ascends into the hill of the Lord and stands in His holy place with clean hands and a pure heart, free from vanity, deceit, guile, professional falseness, and hollow hypocrisy, and receives blessing and righteousness from the God of salvation with His approval. Such a person abides in God's tabernacle and dwells in His holy hill and shall never be moved, while the backbiter who whispers about supposed errors, comments upon them, magnifies and exaggerates them, does evil to a neighbor, and takes up a reproach against a neighbor is excluded from that abiding and cannot receive that approval, bringing God's displeasure, weakening and annoying those who might be strong in the Lord, and causing the world to judge the professed truth by the weak fruit seen.
To walk thus is to keep the whole law of God, the first four commandments in supreme love to God and the last six in love to neighbor as self. It is to keep Christ's new commandment to love one another as He loved, pressing together in love and refusing evil surmising, backbiting, doing evil to a neighbor, and taking up reproach, while condemning vileness, honoring those who fear the Lord, keeping oath though to one's own hurt, and refusing usury and bribes against the innocent. While living in transgression of those commandments the Lord can do very little for a person, but obedience to this love is a step heavenward. That step gives God's people supremacy and fitness to dwell with Him in unity and perfect oneness, that the world may believe.
The verse calls every person to attend to his own case before God, to humble the heart, to examine the self closely, to confess his own sins with humility of mind, to do what Christ says and follow in His steps, and to appropriate the rich promises of God's Word. While working out his own salvation with fear and trembling he is to labor for the salvation of others as well. He will then have no time or desire to weaken confidence in others, to stand ready to pick flaws in men placed in trust, to pronounce judgment, to denounce and condemn, to talk of supposed defects and mistakes, or to uproot confidence. Holding fast to truth and righteousness even at cost of life, keeping promise though it brings hurt, and refusing to exploit with usury or to take a bribe against the innocent, he will displease God no longer and shall never be moved.
Those acknowledged as God's children must undergo a thorough change of character that shapes conduct in the church and treatment of fellow believers. Its instruction is plain guidance and plain duty for all who desire God's blessings, including meekness, hunger for righteousness, and mercy, and it is linked to the purity of heart that will see God. Man may possess such a character that God can use in His service, daily formed in the divine image, with skill and ability given by God for sure and solid work. These traits cannot be bought or sold, and pure and uncorrupted principles if cherished ensure faithfulness and keep one riveted to the eternal Rock as Daniel was kept, even maintaining principle at all hazard because God says so, following Jesus, and if suffering comes for truth's sake sharing Christ's suffering now and His glory afterward.
He that lives with upright integrity, active goodness, and inward truthfulness is the one who may abide in God's presence and dwell with Him forever, and such a life shall never be moved. To walk uprightly is to keep the mind stayed on God with His fear continually before the eyes, to work righteousness is to do what is right with cheerful wholeheartedness and faithful skill, and to speak truth in the heart is to hold sincerity and purity within that governs both conduct and words. This character was perfectly fulfilled in Christ's life of strict obedience, kindness, impartial justice, and vindication of truth. Above all it forbids harming a neighbor by speech, refusing to backbite, to do evil, to sow distrust, or to take up or even listen to a reproach against another, and instead requires going privately to restore a brother and barring the heart against accusing suggestions. It likewise requires honoring those who fear the Lord, keeping a sworn promise though it brings loss, and dealing honestly without exploitation or bribery, and to such God guarantees lasting safety, provision, and blessing.
Dwelling Question Answered
Psalm 15:2 gives the answer to who may abide in God's tabernacle and dwell in His holy hill, His holy place, His holy presence, and His heavenly courts, including the mansions prepared for the redeemed. The one permitted to dwell there is the one who walks uprightly with integrity, works righteousness by doing what is right, and speaks the truth inwardly in the heart. That dwelling requires a life that does not slander with the tongue, does no evil or harm to a neighbor, and refuses to pick up, repeat, or spread a reproach against a neighbor, even when the reproach was begun by another. It further requires despising what is vile, honoring those who fear the Lord, keeping a sworn promise even when it brings hurt or loss without changing, dealing honestly without usury or exploitation, and refusing bribes or reward against the innocent.
The same character is the character that ascends into the hill of the Lord and stands in His holy place with clean hands and a pure heart. Clean hands and a pure heart mean freedom from vanity, deceit, guile, professional falseness, and hollow hypocrisy, with truth kept in the heart rather than deceit practiced. Its purity of heart is the purity that will see God, and it is the plain duty required of all who desire the blessings of meekness, hunger for righteousness, and mercy. Such a person receives blessing and righteousness from the God of salvation, maintains principle at all hazard because God commands it, follows Jesus, and if suffering comes for truth's sake shares Christ's suffering now and His glory afterward.
Whoever lives this upright, righteous, truthful life shall never be moved. That steadfastness belongs to the one who works in harmony with cheerfulness and wholeheartedness, follows God's opening providences, does the very best, refuses complaint, peevishness, murmuring, and accusing, and firmly closes and barricades the heart and soul against Satan's suggestions whether sent directly or through associates, including father, mother, brother, sister, friend, or enemy. It belongs to the one who humbles the heart before God, examines self closely, does what Christ says and follows in His steps, has no time or desire to weaken confidence in others, refuses to pick flaws, pronounce judgment, denounce, condemn, or uproot confidence in men placed in trust, and presses together in love as Christ loves in fulfillment of His prayer for oneness.
Uprightness Defined Inwardly
To walk uprightly is to live with integrity with the mind stayed on God and His fear continually before the eyes, and this is the first step in the path to life. He that walks uprightly walks surely, while a single departure from moral integrity blunts the conscience and opens the door to the next temptation. To work righteousness is to do what is right and to do the very best with cheerfulness and wholeheartedness in harmony, following God's opening providences. It is done with skill and ability given by God for sure and solid work, daily formed in the divine image.
To speak the truth in the heart is inward truthfulness, sincerity, and purity held in the heart. That inward truth governs both conduct and words, distinguishing righteous speech from unrighteous speech and requiring integrity to rule what is done as well as what is said. Words reveal what rules the heart, so a life shaped by Christ speaks with purity and avoids evil and deceit. A merely nominal religion does not produce this purity and Christlikeness, which must be lived out as practical lessons. Truthful speech therefore belongs with the upright life God accepts, marking the citizen of Zion and the one fit to dwell with God.
This character means clean hands and a pure heart, with freedom from vanity and deceit. It means freedom from guile, professional falseness, and hollow hypocrisy. It is inward purity expressed in honest and righteous conduct, living uprightly, doing what is right, and speaking truth from the heart and sincerely from the heart.
Christ Embodies Character
Psalm 15:2 describes the character fit to dwell in God's holy presence and abide in His tabernacle and holy hill, one who lives uprightly, does what is right, and holds truth sincerely inwardly in the heart. Christ's perfect life and character from childhood and youth answered and fulfilled that question. His strict obedience and integrity were evident throughout His life from childhood and youth onward.
Walking uprightly and working righteousness and speaking truth in the heart meant being always kind and courteous. It meant taking the side of the oppressed whether Jew or Gentile, keeping the Father's commandments, and always vindicating truth. It meant refusing to favor His own family by natural ties or to excuse them when guilty of injustice or wrong. This course fulfilled the condition for abiding in God's tabernacle and dwelling in His holy hill, and it enabled Him as teacher to call His disciples to abide in His love by keeping His commandments as He abode in the Father's love.
The verse defines the character of the class who possess the character of Christ and represent that character in the world. Faithfulness and integrity must mark such a person's character, and Jesus showed this through the care and exactness of His work. Those words have power to turn criticism and quarrels toward praise.
Speech Toward Neighbor
To walk uprightly and work righteousness and speak truth in the heart forbids backbiting with the tongue in every form, including whispering about supposed errors, commenting upon them, magnifying and exaggerating them, criticizing motives and works, judging without right, spreading false and inaccurate reports, and using speech to discourage God's servants. It forbids doing evil or harm to a neighbor and forbids sowing distrust, jealousy, or enmity. It forbids taking up or repeating a reproach against a neighbor, and even listening to and accepting a charge or report makes a person share in that reproach and brings condemnation, so that both the false witness and the listener who accepts the report are condemned.
Taking up a reproach includes treating a fellow worker with sneering contempt, criticizing and finding fault, attacking his work from a distance and making it out to be as bad as possible on reports brought by another without going to the field to see for oneself and make a true report. It includes carrying evil reports from church to church and conference to conference, watching and criticizing fellow workers, weakening churches, institutions, and conferences, and hindering the gospel work where it already moves heavily. It includes voicing complaint, peevishness, murmuring, accusing, transmitted suspicion, envy, jealousy, evil-surmising, mourning, and complaining, even when such words come through father, mother, brother, sister, friend, or enemy.
Instead, one must refuse to dwell on others' faults but keep Christ as the example. When a brother is believed to be wrong, one must go privately to him and talk with him as brother with brother with counseling and prayer, and be reconciled to a brother before offering a gift. One must firmly close and barricade the heart and soul against Satan's suggestions whether sent directly or through associates, refusing to voice them, reaching up to take hold of Christ by faith and becoming strong because Christ is strength and rooted and grounded in the truth.
The backbiter is excluded from abiding in God's tabernacle and holy hill and cannot receive God's approval. Backbiting and taking up reproach bring God's displeasure, displease God, grieve Him, and God is not with those who do it. Such speech weakens and annoys those who might be strong in the Lord and causes the world to judge the professed truth by the weak and evil fruit seen in those who claim to believe it. Thinking and speaking evil builds worthless material on the foundation that will be consumed by the fires of the last day, and God hates such work and will call every person engaged in it to account.
This standard also qualifies a person for the society of the truly cultured and refined in this world and for association with the holy ones of heaven, and indulging in backbiting, gossip, and ungenerous criticism reveals lack of culture and refinement and lack of true goodness of heart.
Integrity in Dealings
The upright person despises what is vile and worthless while honoring those who fear the Lord, condemning evil yet esteeming the godly. He keeps a sworn oath and promise even when keeping it brings hurt, loss, and suffering to himself, without changing or turning back. He deals honestly in money matters, refusing to exploit by usury and refusing to take bribes or reward against the innocent. This keeping of the promise at personal cost and this honesty without usury or bribery belong to holding fast to truth and righteousness even at cost of life.
Speaking truth in the heart is inward uprightness and honesty in business, not merely avoiding detection by others. Deceptive advertisements, exacting dealing with workmen, miserly clutching of money gained at the cost of character, and secret fraud and acting a lie for gain all break this truthfulness even when concealed and excused as successful business. The doer knows he is no longer walking uprightly, for God reads hearts as an open book and the record of deeds will be made manifest before all, so that what is sown in dishonesty will be reaped. No temporary success pays for parting with rectitude and a clear conscience for a little worldly wealth. Uprightness in deal and moral integrity secure the favor of God and make a person a blessing to self and to society. Amid varied temptations on every side it is impossible to keep a clear conscience and Heaven's approval without divine aid and a principle to love honesty for the sake of the right, for the law to love God supremely and the neighbor as self is disregarded in daily life.
Walking uprightly and working righteousness means inward purity free from lustful passions and corruption of heart joined to outward strict integrity, and none but the pure and lowly can dwell in God's tabernacle, holy hill, and presence. God will prove professed Sabbath-keepers who profess truth while corrupt at heart until their folly and sin are made manifest. Solomon's fall through indulgence of lustful passions warns that even the wise and beloved fall without this character. It means not concealing conviction of duty for fear of persecution but maintaining principle at all hazard because God says so, following Jesus. If suffering comes for truth's sake, such a one shares Christ's suffering now and His glory afterward, with pure and uncorrupted principles cherished keeping him riveted to the eternal Rock as Daniel was kept. These traits of character cannot be bought or sold, and a person may possess such a character daily formed in the divine image that God can use in His service.
It describes the men the world needs most: men who will not be bought or sold, who are true and honest in their inmost souls, who do not fear to call sin by its right name, whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, and who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. To have this character is to have the Spirit of Christ and not do the works of Satan.
Promise and Application
The upright, righteous, truthful character is true insurance for the future, carrying God's guarantee of lasting safety. It secures an inheritance that lasts forever, freedom from shame in evil times, and satisfaction in days of famine. The one who so walks will dwell on high with food and water made sure, will see the King in His beauty, and will behold the land that is very far off. The same life ascends into the hill of the Lord and stands in His holy place with clean hands and a pure heart, free from vanity, deceit, guile, professional falseness, and hollow hypocrisy, and receives blessing and righteousness from the God of salvation with His approval. Such a person abides in God's tabernacle and dwells in His holy hill and shall never be moved, while the backbiter who whispers about supposed errors, comments upon them, magnifies and exaggerates them, does evil to a neighbor, and takes up a reproach against a neighbor is excluded from that abiding and cannot receive that approval, bringing God's displeasure, weakening and annoying those who might be strong in the Lord, and causing the world to judge the professed truth by the weak fruit seen.
To walk thus is to keep the whole law of God, the first four commandments in supreme love to God and the last six in love to neighbor as self. It is to keep Christ's new commandment to love one another as He loved, pressing together in love and refusing evil surmising, backbiting, doing evil to a neighbor, and taking up reproach, while condemning vileness, honoring those who fear the Lord, keeping oath though to one's own hurt, and refusing usury and bribes against the innocent. While living in transgression of those commandments the Lord can do very little for a person, but obedience to this love is a step heavenward. That step gives God's people supremacy and fitness to dwell with Him in unity and perfect oneness, that the world may believe.
The verse calls every person to attend to his own case before God, to humble the heart, to examine the self closely, to confess his own sins with humility of mind, to do what Christ says and follow in His steps, and to appropriate the rich promises of God's Word. While working out his own salvation with fear and trembling he is to labor for the salvation of others as well. He will then have no time or desire to weaken confidence in others, to stand ready to pick flaws in men placed in trust, to pronounce judgment, to denounce and condemn, to talk of supposed defects and mistakes, or to uproot confidence. Holding fast to truth and righteousness even at cost of life, keeping promise though it brings hurt, and refusing to exploit with usury or to take a bribe against the innocent, he will displease God no longer and shall never be moved.
Those acknowledged as God's children must undergo a thorough change of character that shapes conduct in the church and treatment of fellow believers. Its instruction is plain guidance and plain duty for all who desire God's blessings, including meekness, hunger for righteousness, and mercy, and it is linked to the purity of heart that will see God. Man may possess such a character that God can use in His service, daily formed in the divine image, with skill and ability given by God for sure and solid work. These traits cannot be bought or sold, and pure and uncorrupted principles if cherished ensure faithfulness and keep one riveted to the eternal Rock as Daniel was kept, even maintaining principle at all hazard because God says so, following Jesus, and if suffering comes for truth's sake sharing Christ's suffering now and His glory afterward.