January 15, 2017: Day 15 – Psalm 15
January 15, 2017This is a really nice Psalm. We find a listing of qualities of a person who can be considered blameless and walking in the way of the Lord. Here are some of the qualities of that person and let’s just see how many of these we can check off.
The person needs to be someone who speaks the truth from their heart (not a phony). The person needs to be someone who doesn’t slander or speak unkind and damaging things about people. The person needs to be someone who does no evil to their friends. The person needs to be able to forgive their neighbor for whatever slights that they may felt from them. The person needs to not take joy in evil or wicked actions against others. The person needs to honor and respect those people who love God. The person needs to keep a promise even if it hurts him in the long run. The person needs to be able to lend money without interest. The person needs to be able to turn down a bribe from an innocent person who thinks that may be the only way they can get ahead in a culture where bribes are commonplace.
If a person is able to check all of these things off then he or she will be well grounded. Remember what Psalm 1:3 says about a tree that is planted by the water? It is well established and it shall not be moved. I just want to pull out one of those statements and that is the one about lending without interest. There are certainly statements in the Old Testament against usury. Usury is where you are lending money at exorbitant interest rates. That is our definition for today. But in the Old Testament usury is considered anytime you lend money and you charge interest.
You can find charging interest being condemned in the following Scripture: Exodus 22:24, Leviticus 25:36-37, Deuteronomy 23:20-21, Ezekiel 18:17. Just think, we would have all of our loans at 0% interest. Sounds good unless you are a banker, or a mortgage broker, or anyone who deals with money for a living. But isn’t it interesting that what was condemned in the Old Testament is oftentimes common practice for us. Don’t let anyone tell you they take the Bible literally. Here is an example where that simply isn’t the case.