In Judges 11 we read the following:

²⁹ Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites.

³⁰ And Jeph­thah made a vow to the Lord: 'If you give the Ammonites into my hands,

³¹ whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.'

³² Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands.

³³ He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

³⁴ When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter.

³⁵ When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, 'Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.'

³⁶ 'My father,' she replied, 'you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites.

³⁷ But grant me this one request,' she said. 'Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.'

³⁸ 'You may go,' he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry.

³⁹After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite tradi­tion

⁴⁰that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to com­memorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Keeping our oaths or promises is serious business according to the Bible. We learn from this event in Judges 11 that God expects us to keep our promises; but also that we should be careful about what we promise, because promises have consequences. Jephthah and his daughter were well aware of the seriousness of keeping promises before God.

Psalm 15 also talks about keeping our promises even if keeping them comes with a cost. Our integrity and our witness to the world about the good news of the gospel is at stake.

Verse one does not talk about who can enter, but who can dwell as a guest in God’s house. The question could also be put this way: who will enjoy God’s fellowship?

These are worshippers who are in a true covenant relationship with him. They understand what it means to love God above all and their neighbour as themselves.

To God it is never enough to be clean on the outside as a worshipper. God longs to clean our “insides” in order to produce a blameless walk and right­eous living. Satan continually tempts us to display external moral conform­ity divorced from the heart so that our consciences are calmed while we go on worshipping our idols. Ultimately this will lead us away from God. Satan also tempts us to make our faith one where we externally do the right things to earn God’s favour rather than live a life truly devoted to God. This will also lead us away from God. Those caught up in ex­ternal conformity or earning God’s favour will always be entering rather than dwell­ing in his house.

This Psalm also highlights the lord­ship of Jesus. Many Christians will accept that Jesus is their Saviour but when the challenge comes to obey Jesus as their Lord it becomes too much. When we understand the lordship of Jesus Christ we begin to grow in our devotion to God and grow in our understanding of the implications of how to live such a life. We need the Holy Spirit to teach us how all-encompassing the lordship of Jesus Christ is in guiding our lives.

We must be clear that the virtues mentioned in Psalm 15 are not the means by which we are saved but are evidences of what it means to be saved. They are not the conditions for acceptance with God, but the consequences of it.

The word blameless in verse two does not mean sinless perfection; it means having the desire to live a life that does not bring our faith into disre­pute. It means living a consistent life, not always changing the principles by which we live – unless compelled to do so by the Bible or by rational persuasion. We are to live with integrity.

Psalm 15 also speaks to the reality that we are a communal, relational people. As a community of believers we are in a relationship with Jesus Christ because we are his friends; and we are called to be in a relationship with our fellow be­lievers, since we are commanded to love one another and to serve one another.

Who shall dwell in God’s house? This question points us to Jesus, who is the only person who can truly dwell in God’s house blamelessly. Today he does not live in the tabernacle of the old covenant but in a in a spiritual house made of living stones. These stones are our fellow be­lievers. We are a holy priesthood where we offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. It is only because we have a saving relationship with him that we can dwell with God in his house. Jesus paid the sacrifice so that we can stand before God in the perfect righteousness of Jesus.

The Bible refers many times to the importance of keeping our promises as part of speaking the truth in love so that we are not found to be liars. James 5:12 and Matthew 5:33-37 says let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No” no, or you will be condemned. We have an obliga­tion before the Lord to make what we promise the truth. A person with integ­rity is prepared to make material and physical sacrifices to be honest. When we go through the refining fire of suf­fering for keeping our promises we learn what really motivates us.

Since we are in a relationship with all those around us, within and beyond the church, we need to take great care in what we say. If we are truly committed to honouring those around us then we will follow through with our promises. Many of the promises we do make we gladly follow through with, and this brings God the glory. But there are times when we do not lead a blameless life and we fail to keep our promises.

How often have we promised to have someone over for dinner or a coffee but we do not get around to it? What does that say about us? Often we make prom­ises in the presence of others to make us look like we are interested in people or to appease our conscience that we should have done this a long time ago. Is it that hard to follow our promises through even if it hurts us by causing us to give up our time?

When we have a voice mail message that says “I will get back to you, please leave a message”, how often do we ignore it and not ring back? Modern technology allows us to screen out those that we do not want to talk to. By not ringing back we give the impression that we are hiding something or we are not interested in those who ring us. Even if it is difficult to talk to this person we need to reply.

Marriage vows involve important promises that in this age seem to carry no weight since they are so easily broken by many. Jesus uses the marriage imagery to explain his love for the church as its head. Marriage is the crucible where re­lationships are refined, where sacrificial love is displayed and where forgiveness and reconciliation are worked out. This may mean hurt when difficulties come – but what a witness to the world when they are resolved in the way Jesus wants them to be.

If we are contracted to do a job or task, are we prepared to honour all of the clauses or do we look at the fine print to find a way to exit when it gets too hard – especially if there are mon­etary penalties involved? When we work for the Lord as men of integrity everyone benefits; and we witness to the source of our integrity.

As parents do we set an example to our children in keeping our promises to them? Do we faithfully teach them about walking with Jesus or is it too much like hard work? Do we follow through with discipline when we promise to punish them for breaking the rules? Our chil­dren can see through us very quickly when we fail to respond in an appro­priate way when they have broken the boundaries we have set for them. Dis­cipline hurts both the parents and the child but it produces a harvest of right­eousness.

As children do we help with the peace in our homes when we obey our parents or do we take forever to do our assigned jobs around home even if its costs us some of our time and in­volves no payment? Joyful obedience is a wonderful contribution to a peace­ful home. It builds trust and develops a servant attitude.

As we look at life we can see the effects of broken promises all around us. When a person repeatedly continues to make promises that are broken the trust we have in that person diminishes.

Communication often withers and rec­onciliation then becomes harder because the guilt of not keeping promises keeps the offender away from the offended.

As we look at these examples we can add many more to them. As we con­tinue to read and meditate on his Word the Holy Spirit will convict us of many more situations where we are called to keep our promises despite the difficul­ties they can bring.

Verse five says that he who does these things will never be shaken. Because we still sin we will not live a completely blameless life and we will be shaken. The question then becomes, who will we turn to when we are shaken? Take heart that God sees Jesus first, then us. He sees us as those whose walk is blame­less and whose righteousness is perfect, all because Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. Hallelujah, what a Saviour.