Psalms in Worship—Psalm 15 as a Prayer of Confession

I wonder if we aren’t too nonchalant about worshiping God. “Going to church” on Sunday is often little more than a routine, something we do—a habit. It happens to be a good habit, but we don’t often give it much thought. We are churchgoers. On Sunday we go to church and worship God. Psalm 15, however, suggests that our entering into God’s presence isn’t necessarily a given. 

“O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?” the psalmist asks. Nancy deClaissé-Walford in her commentary on the Working Preacher points out that it is a resident alien or foreigner who requests permission to abide. Such a person wouldn’t have an inherent right to residence. Therefore, the implication of Psalm 15’s opening questions is that the psalmist has no right to entrance and by wondering who gets access is requesting entrance. More than that, the psalmist desires a place to dwell, a place to call home. The psalmist is approaching the Lord as an outsider without any assumptions of a positive response.

What would change if we began worship with this question? Too often those who have a history of attending worship consider themselves the insiders who welcome outsiders. Somehow we believe that we, the “belongers,” get to be the gatekeepers and discern who gets to abide and eventually dwell in our church’s presence. Psalm 15 challenges this perspective with the two opening questions. We all start outside the tent. 

The answer that follows in the remaining verses is not meant to be prescriptive as much as descriptive. The person who may dwell in God’s presence is a lover of justice for all people. If we are honest, we quickly realize that this description only perfectly fits one person: our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

The only reason we can enter the “tent,” to worship our God, the only reason we can be at home in God’s presence is through our unity with Christ. Recognizing our dependence on God’s grace, we should approach worship with a deep sense of gratitude and privilege rather than as a mindless habit. When we gather, we must recognize that, at our core, we are no better than those who might not yet belong but are still beloved and invited in. When we gather, we are also confronted with the call of Psalm 15 to emulate Christ in living lives marked by justice. Psalm 15 says more about how we act than about what we believe. It is in our actions that we will find strength and a foundation that will make us unmoveable. 

While Psalm 15 can be an “entrance hymn,” it also functions as a call to holy living which is how it is used in the litany below. In this case, that call to holy living happens within the context of a prayer of confession for a leader or reader and congregation. The text of Psalm 15 is found in the brown font. 

A Prayer of Confession with Psalm 15

Revised Common Lectionary: Epiphany 4A, Season after Pentecost Proper 17B, Proper 11C