Psalm 15

Commonplace –

“He that doeth these things shall never be moved” (Psalm 15:5).

Psalm 15, an exploration on righteousness, is in direct response to Psalm 14, an exploration on wickedness.While Psalm 14 focused on the general truth that all men are wicked or as Paul puts it in Romans 3:23, “…all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, Psalm 15 explores the righteous man. Herein David searches out the qualities of the righteous.

Question

David begins his study of a righteous man with two questions.

1. Who shall I abide in God’s tabernacle?
2. Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

Response

David then begins to list the qualities of a righteous man.

1. He walks upright.
2. He does good.
3. He speaks truth in his heart.
4. He doesn’t gossip.
5. He doesn’t do evil to his neighbor.
6. He doesn’t complain or express disapproval of his neighbor.
7. He looks down on the vile.
8. He honors those who fear God.
9. He doesn’t swear to his own hurt.
10. He does not change.
11. He doesn’t lend money at interest.
12. He doesn’t hurt the innocent.

Psalms 15 and 14 are a continuation of the theme of the psalms presented from Psalm 1. Psalm 15 is what the path of goodness looks like and Psalm 14 is the evil path.

Here is a short excerpt from Matthew Henry’s summary of Psalm 15:

“The scope of this short but excellent psalm is to show us the way to heaven, and to convince us that, if we would be happy, we must be holy and honest” (232).

Works Cited

Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 15.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

© 2025 Angela Hormberg