This psalm is almost never on lists of Messianic psalms because the commentators are looking for something specific to match a particular event in Christ's life, or they are looking for a clear allusion to Him and so they skip over Psalm 15. And at first, Psalm 15 does not appear to be about Christ at all. But as soon as you consider His perfect character, the bell should start going off. Who other than the sinless Jesus Christ qualifies to abide in God's tabernacle or dwell in His holy hill? We can compare ourselves to this list and say, well, I come up a little short there, especially using your tongue and backbiting against your neighbor and all those other things.
And so what David is doing here in the psalm is outlining the perfect character of Christ, the Standard. He does it in his own literary way. These are not all the things that describe the character of Jesus Christ, but it does describe the character of a person who keeps primarily the second great commandment perfectly. There are also parts of the first great commandment, but this is how He acts in community or acts toward other people. And this is the goal then for the rest of us because we all want to dwell in God's Tabernacle, His eternal Temple, do we not? Of course we do.
And so what we have here is a description of the way a godly person acts, the way a godly person would behave on earth. And who did that? Who was a God that came down and took on flesh and made an example for us of how to live? Obviously, that is Jesus Christ. So I think a quick read through like we did verifies that He checks all the boxes for having done all of these things that are listed in these four verses, 2 through 5. Only He has done them all perfectly. And all the rest of us fall short and so we have something to work on.
Now verse 4 is the only one I think that someone might have a problem with and say Jesus is not like that when it says, "in whose eyes a vile person is despised." Did Jesus despise vile persons? Is not Jesus love? Is He not kind and never said anything mean? Well, the translation really does not help us here a whole lot. But we have to understand that this is poetry and David is showing a comparison, because look what he says there the next little bit, "but he honors those who fear the Lord." And so what he is setting up here is a contrast, a contrast of the kind of people that he comes across and a contrast of how he reacts to those people. The gist of this—without getting into the nitty-gritty, all the details of the Hebrew—is that this worthy person has perfect judgment. That he, I will just use the language here in the New King James, despises the evil person, the vile person, and he honors the one who fears the Lord. He has perfect insight, if you will, into the type of people he reacts to or he interacts with.
So he despises the vile person, that is, the wicked person. I do not want to go into the Hebrew words again, but this vile person is a truly evil person, a person who is consumed by sin, who has contempt for God. And so he makes a perfect judgment about that person. And of course, we have to remember who Jesus Christ is. He said, all judgment has been given into My hands. So Jesus Christ is pretty much the only one who fits this description, that He will condemn the wicked and He will honor and glorify those who fear the Lord. He has that power.
Think about this. The one who dwells with God, this worthy person who is able to live with God in His sanctuary, unerringly sees into the hearts of others and makes true judgments. Now how many times does the gospel show that Christ knew what was in people? He knew what was in their hearts. Similar statements are made about eight times between Matthew and John. Eight times the gospel writers say Jesus knew what these people were thinking. He knew what was motivating them and He responds appropriately to that.
