(Here’s the 13th post in my continuing series on the Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class I co-teach with Andrew Friend. Each week we sing psalm settings from Psalms for All Seasons, Lift Up Your Hearts, and other CRC hymnals. Previous posts is the series focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122, Psalms 2/99, Psalm 72, Psalm 95, Psalm 147, Psalm 112, Psalm 29, Psalm 40, Psalm 23, Psalm 27, and Psalm 130. On Nov. 24, we tackled Psalm 15, which the Revised Common Lectionary assigns to the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany in Year A (this coming Sunday) as well as on Ordinary Time Sundays in Years B & C.)
Psalm 15 is a psalm that enumerates the qualifications to worship and was probably used as an entrance liturgy. The Psalm opens with a question—“Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?”—and then answers it with list of positive and negative qualifications:
The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart;
whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others;
who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord;
who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind;
who lends money to the poor without interest;
who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
“Whoever does these things,” the Psalm concludes, “will never be shaken.”
Psalms for All Seasons contains three hymns based on Psalm 15.
“LORD, Who May Dwell Within Your House” (PFAS #15D/LUYH #612) is the only complete Psalm 15 hymn in Lift Up Your Hearts. It has modern lyrics, consisting of three short stanzas, by Christopher Webber set to CRIMOND, the tune of “The LORD, My Shepherd, Rules My Life” (PFAS #23B/LUYH #732/PH87 #23). A sample is here.
LORD, who may dwell within your house or on your holy hill?
Those who do good and speak the truth, whose lives are blameless still.
“LORD, Who Are They That May Dwell” (PFAS #15A/PH87 #15), the setting found in the gray Psalter Hymnal, has five (non-rhyming) stanzas with the middle three covering the psalm’s ethical demands for worship and the first (“LORD, who are they that may dwell within the courts of your house?”) and last (“Now these are they who may dwell within the courts of the LORD”) providing a frame. The tune (STELLA CARMEL) was composed for the lyrics; they were first published in 1973.
They lead an incorrupt life
and do the thing that is right.
They speak the truth from their heart
and use not their tongue for harm.
“Lord, Who Shall Be Welcome” (PFAS #15B) is a 21st Century hymn with a refrain based on verse one (“Lord, who shall be welcome in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy mountain?”) and three stanzas that each conclude “they will stand with the Lord forever.” A sample is here.
Those who walk without blame,
those who walk with the righteous,
who speak the truth from their heart:
they will stand with the Lord forever.
My original plan for our using Psalm 15 in our upcoming worship service was as an opening song, but none of these three hymns strike me as a strong opening hymn. So I decided to use it as a confession instead. In our upcoming service for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, we’re using “LORD, Who May Dwell Within Your House” as a call to confession and “A Prayer of Confession” (PFAS #15E) as a unison prayer of confession. The prayer combines some references to the ethical demands of Psalm 15 with language from Psalm 23 and ends with the final verse of “The LORD, My Shepherd, Rules My Life,” which is sung to the same tune (CRIMOND) as “LORD, Who May Dwell Within Your House.”
The responsorial setting for Psalm 15 is “I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me” (PFAS #15C/LUYH #854), a lively African-American spiritual. (The refrain of “Lord, Who Shall Be Welcome” is suggested as an alternative.)
The Psalm 15 setting in the blue Psalter Hymnal, “Who, O Lord, with Thee Abiding” (PH57 #20), is set to HELEN, which seems more energetic than the settings in PFAS, but I wouldn’t use it because all of the masculine language, e.g., “Doing this, and evil spurning/He shall nevermore be moved:/This the man with Thee sojourning/This the man by Thee approved.”)