Integrity on Display
Psalm 15
Danny Foley was a sophomore at the University of Virginia, and he just wanted to be part of his school’s men’s basketball team – even if that meant faking his way onto the court. He wasn’t a very good basketball player. At least not good enough to play division one college basketball. But he noticed that all of the team’s assistant coaches wore the same suit with a bright orange tie. So before Virginia’s conference championship game against Duke on March 16, 2014, he and his friends went searching for some cheap knockoffs. He found everything he needed at Walmart – a suit jacket, suit pants, dress shoes, dress socks, a white dress shirt, and the orange tie.
The next morning, he bought $30 nosebleed tickets just to get in the door and headed to the game. During a TV timeout, he made his move, confidently marching past an usher and onto the court. Danny said, “I walked right behind the cheerleaders and onto the court and joined the [team’s] huddle on the court.”
Following Virginia’s big win that day, he went for an even bigger thrill. When the game’s final buzzer sounded with Virginia defeating Duke 72-63, Danny joined his “teammates” in the handshake line. As the confetti fell around him, Danny got to shake hands with “Coach K,” Mike Krzyzewski, the legendary coach for Duke. Photos from the end of the game show Danny wearing a championship t-shirt over his suit and smiling in the middle of the confetti-covered arena. After celebrating with coaches and players, he was caught by a member of Virginia’s staff, but he quickly climbed the railings and disappeared into the stands.
He looked like a coach. He was dressed like a coach. He acted like a coach. So much so that he walked right past an usher and onto the court during the ACC championship basketball game. But he wasn’t a coach. He was just some college kid. A relatively harmless prank to be sure, but still … it leaves me wondering … wondering how many of us do the same thing? We come to church. We dress the right way. We say the right things. We do the right things when we’re here. We know the words to the songs and when to stand, when to sit. When to sing, and when to be quiet. We LOOK like disciples of Christ. But is that what we are? Or are we, like Danny Foley, just fooling everyone?[i] In the 15th Psalm, David invites us to ask that question of ourselves, and it is a penetrating question.
Turn with me to Psalm 15.
Look back up at V. 1. Look at how David begins the Psalm. What’s a sojourner? It’s someone who’s not a local, right? The Hebrew word we translate as “sojourn” here has two layers of meaning. The first is of not belonging by rights. It means to dwell among as a resident alien.
We have a word here in Traverse City for sojourners, don’t we? Come on, you know what we call them. We call them fudgies, don’t we? When I first moved up here 27 years ago now, I was told that not only are the temporary vacationers fudgies, but so are people who move here but who aren’t from here, and I was told that I would always be a fudgie. Earlier this summer I was chatting with a doctor and he asked me about where I’m from, and I told him I’m from southwest Ohio but I’ve lived up here for 27 years now. And he said, “Oh, so you’re a ‘Perma-Fudge.’” Someone on Mackinac Island told me the same thing three weeks ago when we were up there. So I guess I’m a Perma-Fudge. I live here, but I don’t really belong, a point my Ohio State fanaticism makes very clear. I am living among you as an alien.
The second layer of meaning for the word “sojourn” is of being there at the pleasure of the owner. Sojourners are resident aliens who reside with the host, or on the hosts land, because the host allows it. God has invited us to be with him. He reaches out to us in Christ, inviting us into his presence not because we are worthy, not because he needs us, not because it benefits him, but simply because he loves us. We’re welcomed into God’s presence not because we deserve to be there, but because that’s where God invites us to be.
Now look! Look at the word David used to describe the dwelling place of God. He used the word “tent.” Now, this psalm is attributed to David, and we know that the temple, a structure made of wood, stone, and mortar, was not built by David but by his son Solomon. In David’s day God’s people met with God in a large tent, a tent similar to the one they would have used during their wilderness wanderings after leaving Egypt in the time of the Exodus. In a time when the people wandered the wilderness as sojourners themselves, living their entire lives in tents, God too symbolically dwelt in a tent. In a foreshadowing of the Incarnation, God become man in Christ, He became like them. He met them on their level, and yet retained every ounce of his Godness.
And then the psalmist asks, “Who shall DWELL on your holy hill?” The word dwell has a sense of permanence to it. The word “dwell,” or “dwelling,” has a sense of permanence to it, doesn’t it? Not so much a temporary camp but a permanent home, right? Oh, we’re still thought of as sojourners, but we are sojourners who dwell with God at God’s invitation. And this dwelling is to be a permanent state of affairs. Not visiting with God occasionally, maybe on Christmas Eve and Easter; not even a once-a-week appearance at church. No, we’re talking about God’s constant presence in our daily lives as we dwell with God and God dwells with us.
So, what does someone who sojourns in the tent of God, who dwells with God, look like? What is the picture the psalmist wants us to see? It’s not the kind of picture many might expect. It’s certainly not the picture the church has put forward over the centuries. We’ve focused so much on looking the part, on appearing to be a disciple of Christ, that we’ve often sacrificed actually being a disciple. It’s human nature, I guess. We tend to focus on externals. We’re visual creatures, we depend on our eyes a lot, and it takes a special kind of vision, and a whole lot of patience, to see below the surface, and most of us don’t take the time to do that. We tend to stop with how people dress, how they present themselves, how they talk, things like whether they use foul language or not, instead of focusing on the deeper aspects of actually being a disciple of Christ.
And this is a truth David the warrior king and psalmist knew all too well, because when God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint David king over Saul, the current king, God had to remind Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). Saul looked the part. He was tall, handsome, strong, cunning, and gregarious. David was none of those things. But he was the one God chose to lead, to fight for, and to provide for his people.
So, let’s get to the picture David is painting here. In painting this picture for us, he weaves three strands together. They aren’t independent of one another. They go together and influence on another. And he starts with RIGHTEOUSNESS. Look at V. 2. We need to understand something here. We are not talking about perfection. We’re talking about hearts that have a desire to please God, to do what God wants, to live the way God wants us to live.
And remember, we dwell with God at God’s invitation, an invitation presented to us in Christ. When Christ died on the cross for our sins, every unrighteous thing we have ever done and will ever do was placed on him and died with him. That doesn’t mean we can behave perfectly. But it does mean that when God looks at us, he sees Christ’s righteousness. That’s what we mean by substitutionary atonement. Christ, who was sinless, took our sin on himself, and he gave us his righteousness in return. And that trade takes place when we cry out to God to save us in Christ and begin to learn how to bow our knee before him as lord.
Righteousness also an attitude toward evil that mirrors God’s attitude toward evil. Look at V. 4. We aren’t supposed to be naïve. Some people cannot be trusted and we can acknowledge that. We’re never supposed to write someone off as unreachable by God’s love. But we can certainly protect ourselves and others from the terrible things others are capable of doing.
This is not a naïve righteousness that tries to do nothing but think positively about everyone. One thing the psalms do well is force us to come to grips with the reality of evil in the world, to grieve and to mourn, to cry out to God for relief, to honestly express to God what we are thinking and feeling. But while we are doing that, we also remember that not one person alive is beyond the reach of God’s grace. We aren’t arrogant. We aren’t holier than thou. We turn our nose up at anyone. We aren’t afraid. We’re simply aware of what’s happening around us. The first strand is righteousness, the righteousness of Christ given to us, the righteousness of Christ at work in us.
The second strand is TRUTH. Look at the end of V. 2. Truth starts in your own heart. This is someone who does not lie to herself or himself, but is willing to honestly face life’s challenges, particularly the challenges present in his or her own character and being. It also pictures someone whose internal character is constant. Unlike the two-faced, or two-hearted people we’ve talked about whom the psalmist has so often cried out against, the people of God are known for their trustworthiness and constancy, and that constancy comes from deep inside them, from their hearts. From there it flows outward in the words they speak to others.
We speak positively of others. This doesn’t mean that if you have a concern about someone, you can’t work it out. But you do that gently and directly with that person, “speaking the truth in love,” as Paul tells us in Ephesians (4:15). To slander, biblically, is to spy on someone to gather information about them and then share it with others. It’s to have conversations with someone only with the purpose of gather information you can use against them. Today in some cases we might call that gossip. The point is that when someone shares something deeply personal with you, maybe a hurt or something they’re struggling with right now, or perhaps a spiritual or emotional battle they’re fighting, as might happen in a small group or Bible study, and as is supposed to happen in loving community, even at the church level, you don’t use that information against them.
We are to be transformed by the Truth of Christ when his truth lives within us, we are honest and sincere, both with ourselves and with others. And that leads to a transparency that comes across like a breath of fresh air to others. It’s a transparency in our purpose, and in our being, as we become people who say what we do and do what we say. David illustrates that point beautifully. Look at V. 4. The picture here is of someone who keeps oaths and promises, even at great personal cost AND with the opportunity to legitimately back out of the promise. You say what you do and do what you say. Why? Because the Spirit of Truth lives within you (John 16:13).
Taken together, those two strands, RIGHTEOUSNESS and TRUTH, take on the character of the third strand, and that is INTEGRITY. To have integrity is to be integrated, to be the same person on the inside as you are on the outside. That means the masks come off and you allow yourself to be seen as you really are. No hidden agendas. No secret motives. No leveraging personal information for private or public gain. Transparent. Authentic. Truly yourself in relationship in the church with others who are truly themselves.
But we have to understand something here. This isn’t rocket science. It isn’t new. It’s been an intended characteristic of Christ’s church for 2000 years. But we’ve almost never lived this out. As a people, Christians by and large haven’t been known for being transparent. At times, the church has been downright sinister. But God has never left himself without testimony nor without an authentic mouthpiece. Often throughout history that voice has been whittled down to one or two people, but the Truth has always been spoken. Still, largely both as individuals and as churches we haven’t gotten this one right. People who speak the truth, even in love, aren’t always popular. Often they’re anything but popular. But we’re to be a people who do not shy away from the truth. And David reminds us that this journey toward Truth begins not with our words to others, but in the recesses of our own hearts and the things we say to ourselves.
And in people with integrity, that inner truth comes shining forth. Look at V. 5. The poor and the needy are specifically in view here. At times a well-to-do Israelite might be approached by one of his countrymen, maybe a subsistence farmer, in need of money, probably so as not to lose his home and to be able to feed his family. And that well-to-do person filled with integrity was to loan that person the money without interest. This speaks to the cycle that keeps the poor down as they come out of the transaction temporarily eased but in more debt that when they went in. This person also refuses to accept gifts and bribes intended to keep another person down, either in court as a judge or in any other arena of life. And she does not celebrate when others are spoken of poorly, even if those other people might be considered enemies. Now again, the call here is not to be naïve.
As a pastor, I’ve often been the one having to make decisions about what individuals the church can help, perhaps with a gas card or groceries or clothing for children. Sometimes I’ve been asked, “How do you know they’ll be responsible with it?” Often that question comes with a reminder that we’re supposed to be good stewards, and to some, stewardship means stinginess, and often masks an attitude toward the poor that says “Hey, you got yourself into trouble. You get yourself out.” And of course we never want to waste the resources God blesses us with, but we are to USE those resources and use them for his glory and his purpose. And so my answer has always been, and continues to be, “We do our due diligence on everyone who comes in, but there are no guarantees. So we get as much information as we can and, lacking more, we do our best to make the right decision. And my prayer is that we’ll always be known as a people who, when they err, err on the side of grace, and not judgment. I mean, isn’t that what you hope others would do for you?
So what happens with those who sojourn in God’s tent, who dwell on his holy hill, whose lives are marked by the righteousness of Christ, the truth of Christ, and integrity of being? They’ll always be happy? No. Things will always work out for them? No. Look at V. 5. The phrase never be moved carries with it the sense of not being shaken by an earthquake or landslide. In other words, people whose lives are marked by integrity, and the righteousness and truth of Christ have lives built on a solid foundation that can survive whatever shaking happens in their lives, and will avoid the slippery slopes that lead to landslides.
We all want lives that will not be shaken. We all want to be people who will not be moved. And taken as a whole, the psalms are clear that not being moved has nothing to do with falling apart emotionally when facing great and terrible things. I think many of us want to be known as people of integrity, people marked by the righteousness and truth of Christ visible in our lives. But do we cooperate with the work the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives? Do we allow the word of Christ to dwell deeply within us? What avenues exist in your life for the seed of the word of Christ to go down deep where it can sprout and grow and bear fruit?
This fall, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in a class called “From the Inside Out: Discovering a Deeper, More Transformative Life with God.” It’s put out by the same people who developed The Apprentice Series that we’ve run several times here at Christ Church. So if the 3-book, 18 months (on again off again) commitment to the Apprentice Series was a little too intimidating or just too much for where you are in life right now, this will be a shorter, 6 session series that will be offered this fall, possibly in conjunction with another church in town. We’ll be putting out more information about that when we have it available.
But for transformation to happen, we have to be working for the real thing, not a pretend mask or costume people are expected to put on – something that stays on the surface and doesn’t penetrate deep. That means its okay to struggle, and to admit you’re struggling. This is a place where you can be real about your struggle and your pain and not be judged for it. Not be lambasted or looked down on or pitied. Because the truth is, we all struggle.
Several years ago, Becky was sitting in my office thinking about Christ Church, and she wrote this description of us on the white board in there: “We are a beautifully diverse group of people who are all some kind of me and, because of our identity in Christ, are unified in our love for one another.” I love that. Because we ARE all some kind of mess. And if we’re going to have integrity and be a transformed and transforming community, it has to be okay to be real here. No costumes. No masks. No faking it. Let us pray.
[i] Joshua Gardner, “Hidden in plain sight: Student uses orange Walmart tie to help him sneak into UVA huddle just before historic ACC win,” Daily Mail (3-20-14)
