Psalms 15:1

More exactly:

Jehovah, who shall sojourn in thy tent?

Who shall dwell in thy holy mountain?

Who is worthy to be received as Jehovah's guest, to enjoy His protection and hospitality, to dwell in the place which He has consecrated by His Presence? Cp. Psalms 5:4. It is not as a mere form of speech that the Psalmist addresses Jehovah. By this appeal he at once places himself and his readers in immediate relation to Jehovah. The question is asked of Him, and the answer is given as in His Presence.

In thy tentmight be wholly metaphorical and mean no more than in thy abode, but here where it stands in parallelism to thy holy mountain, it is natural to see a reference to -the tent" which David pitched for the Ark on Mount Zion. Cp. Psalms 27:5-6. -Sojourn" commonly denotes a temporary stay, but not necessarily so (Psalms 61:4); the special point here lies in the protection which the guest in Oriental countries claims from his host. "The Arabs give the title of jâr allâhto one who resides in Mecca beside the Caaba." Robertson Smith's Religion of the Semites, p. 77.

Not merely ministers at the sanctuary or even worshippers are meant, but all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who were often too prone to assume that God's presence among them was a guarantee of security, instead of recognising that it demanded holiness on their part (Micah 3:11). Spiritually, the question concerns all who would draw near to God.