Psalm 15 is a short chapter, but it is straight to the point. Following Psalm 14 about a man foolish to God, 15 talks about a man God would welcome as a guest in His house. It’s a list of traits God looks for in a holy person, but it isn’t written as a list of laws. It is simply a list of character traits.
We don’t get to heaven by following laws
“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:21-24
God gave the Old Testament Jews a lot of laws to follow to keep God as the center of their life. He knew how hard it would be to not follow the other nearby religions if life got hard, so He gave detailed laws to follow. He knew that no one could follow those laws perfectly, so He sent Jesus. Through Jesus’ perfection, we are granted entrance to heaven, by grace. We didn’t do anything to earn heaven, we are given it by faith.
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love.
Galatians 5:13
Christians use guides to honor God.
When Jesus rose from the dead, the Old Testament laws were fulfilled. We no longer need them, but they are great ways to remember how God wants us to live. We were created for perfection and our best selves are the perfect selves God made us to be. In gratitude for Jesus’ gift of perfection that covers our imperfection, we want to strive to be the perfect person God wants us to be.
According to Psalm 15 that is a person who does what is right, even when it doesn’t benefit them. They don’t lie and never break a promise, no matter what the promise was. They take care of their neighbor and don’t gossip. They dislike bad people and surround themselves with fellow Christians. They also help people with money, loaning money without intending the loan to destroy other people.
Even though we no longer live by laws to please God, we still want to honor Him. We know that what we do won’t get us honors with God, but striving for God’s version of our perfect selves makes us focus on God so we don’t fall away like the Old Testament people kept doing.