“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? … Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honour the faithful followers of the Lord, and keep their promises even when it hurts.”
Psalm 15:1, 4 NLT
We spend another day looking at the qualities required for those desirous of worshiping the Lord in His presence. David wrote that those who make promises must keep them “even when it hurts”. From God’s perspective, the Bible is full of His promises. Take 1 Chronicles 16:34 for example, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever“. God promised to never stop loving human beings, and yet, when we see the hurt that we have caused Him, we perhaps think that this is one promise too far. Look at Genesis 6:6, “So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart“. What a poignant response to the way the ones He loved were treating Him. But nevertheless, God never stops loving us.
We too have an opportunity to make a promise to God. The writer to Ecclesiastes noted, “When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5). The writer implied that those who fail to keep a promise are fools and shouldn’t have made a promise at all if there was any doubt that they would keep it. Notice too that the writer said “When” and not “If”. Promises should be made to God, and especially the one that we made when we knelt at the cross in repentance, asking for forgiveness.
There are too many examples of broken promises in the world today. Take for example our politicians, quick to make all sorts of promises in the run up to an election, but forgetting they ever made them once elected. Another common example is a promise made by a couple getting married, only to find that the promise, “to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow“, is abandoned at some point down the road when the going gets tough. Apparently, 42% of marriages officially end in divorce, but many more happen in people’s hearts, I’m sure.
David wrote that a prerequisite to being able to worship the Lord in His presence is being able to keep a promise, no matter what it takes. From Gotquestions.org, “Promises can be beautiful and honourable and made for the good of others. But they must be kept. As we are imperfect humans, we should only make promises with care and introspection so they do not turn into sin. Promises can be easily broken or made with the wrong motivation, which may result in damage to ourselves or others”. So there we have it. But we pilgrims are promise keepers, no matter what, because we want to worship our amazing Saviour in His sanctuary.
Dear Father God. We make this promise today, that we will follow You all the days of our lives. For Jesus’ sake, amen.
Being a Pilgrim 