Faithful in keeping promises

Psalm 15

A Psalm of David.

1 O Lord, who may abide in your tent?
    Who may dwell on your holy hill?

2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
    and speak the truth from their heart;
3 who do not slander with their tongue,
    and do no evil to their friends,
    nor take up a reproach against their neighbours;
4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised,
    but who honour those who fear the Lord;
who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
5 who do not lend money at interest,
    and do not take a bribe against the innocent.

Those who do these things shall never be moved.

This psalm outlines some of the ways the Fruit of the Spirit can be lived out in our lives. Vs. 3 – do not slander with their tongues – that requires at least the fruit of kindness and of patience to be lived in our lives.

But it is to the end of vs. 4 that I am particularly interested in turning – “who stand by their oath (promise) even to their hurt”. It is easy to make promises, it is not always easy to keep them. We make promises and then when the time comes to live up to our promises, we discover that the promises is harder to keep than we thought.

Sometimes that is because we made the promise too hastily not thinking through what was entailed in keeping the promise. Which is a reminder to think before we make promises. But other times we make a promise and then the situation changes, and we are left scrambling because the promise has suddenly become much more difficult to fulfill.

It is in this second set of circumstances, that the question arises – will we be true to our word? Will we do what we promised? Be those promises to other people or to God.

Promise keeping is a measure of our faithfulness to the words we speak. The words we speak matter, they are taken seriously by others, and so we should take them seriously ourselves. For as this psalm reminds us we will be held to the words we speak in making promises. 

I am always struck by a line in one of the service orders for weddings that I like that says, “Before God and these witnesses the couple has made their vows (promises).” All the promises we make have an audience – God included. Promise-making and promise-keeping are things that God cares about.

PRAYER:

O Lord, we make promises easily, and then forget we have made them. We make promises and then discover they are difficult to keep. Shape us into people who not only make promises but also keep them. In Jesus’ name. Amen.