Monster Meditation: Psalm 15

¹ LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?

² He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart

³ and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,

⁴ who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,

⁵ who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be shaken.

Along every Christian walk (or for any other religion I suppose), people want to know about the specifics. The "What must I do to be saved" mentality floats around the consciousnesses of millions. Strangely enough, though, most people don't speak it aloud. Aside from the rich, young ruler and a handful of other Biblical folk, you won't hear very many people plainly ask, "What do I have to do to be at peace with God?" Anymore, I think this sprouts from a fear of following a religion from fear instead of love. I think it sounds that way. If you do such and such a thing, you'll have eternal happiness. Choosing a religion sounds like too much of a self-centered choice.

But maybe that's why we get our instructions in these kind of vague terms. Psalm 15 is a decent sized list that doesn't offer any specifics. Despite this, I think the message is very clear. Really the self-centered issues comes up when you struggle with these ideas. Do we know what it means to walk blamelessly? Probably, if we think about it for a little while. What about not casting slurs on our fellow humans? I think that is quite plain. Despising that which is vile? If we take a moment to think of these things, we should be able to find a path that leads to God's throne.

Maybe we want something simpler. By breaking down these ideas to smaller bits, we find an instruction manual, something we can follow without thinking. With God, however, thinking is where He meets us. It's where He wants us to be. Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, mind, and body. The rest is just details.

That's Creepy.

I had a student say that pure water tasted like crap.

"How do you know that?" I asked. He was stumped and the class laughed.

I don't mind the occasional butchering of language. As an English teacher, I try to keep in mind that language evolves, and there's not much I can do about it. But I have to wonder how so many think so little about what they say. When profanity becomes the every-word, it doesn't bother me that vocabulary skills are so low or that it can be offensive. It bothers me more that it sounds stupid. So stupid, that I have to take them seriously.

Nobody likes when a person takes everything literally. I say, though, you have to do what you can when a person says, with passion and conviction, that they have put something in their mouth and that something reminded them of feces.