Who May Dwell?
who lends his money without interest and refuses a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken. Psalm 15:5 · Berean Standard Bible
Finally, this person doesn't exploit others financially and can't be bribed to harm the innocent. When you live this way, you're built on something solid that nothing can shake.
Lending with interest to poor Israelites was forbidden by God—it was predatory then, just as it can be now. And taking a bribe against an innocent person? That's when money becomes a weapon used to destroy someone who doesn't deserve it. David is saying: this person lets their values guide their pocketbook. They won't use money as a tool for power. In a world where money talks louder than anything else, that kind of integrity makes you stand out and makes you genuinely secure.
David, completing the picture of who belongs in God's presence.
This lands where it needed to land—at stability and security. When you live with this kind of integrity, you're not constantly terrified of being exposed or caught. You're building your life on rock. Jesus said something similar: build your house on the rock of His words, not on shifting sand. That security comes from alignment with truth, not from hiding behind false fronts.
The righteous person extends financial generosity without exploitative interest and refuses bribes that would pervert justice. The promise is that such a person achieves unshakeable stability, rooted in alignment with God's moral order.
The prohibition against neshekh (נשך—'interest' or 'usury') appears repeatedly in Torah (Exodus 22:25, Deuteronomy 23:19-20), though permitted against foreigners. The underlying principle, articulated by medieval commentator Maimonides, is that the poor are your brothers; extracting interest constitutes a form of predatory harm against the vulnerable. The refusal of shochad (שחד—'bribe') connects to the kingship ideology: justice belongs to God alone, and those administering it must not allow financial incentive to distort judgment. The concluding promise—'will never be shaken' (לא ימוט לעולם)—employs the language of cosmic stability; such a person participates in the immovable foundations of God's created order.
The psalmist, completing the portrait with economic ethics and affirming the ultimate security of the righteous.
This fusion of economic justice with spiritual stability expresses the biblical conviction that moral and material realities are inseparable. Proverbs, Job, and the later prophets all wrestle with this connection—Proverbs asserting generally that righteousness brings prosperity, Job questioning that assumption, and the prophets denouncing those who 'oppress the poor and crush the needy.' The New Testament will radicalize this concern in Luke's account of Jesus's teaching on wealth, particularly the Magnificat's promise that God 'has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.'
3who has no slander on his tongue, who does no harm to his neighbor, who casts no scorn on his friend,
4who despises the vile but honors those who fear the LORD, who does not revise a costly oath,
5who lends his money without interest and refuses a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.
Read all of Psalm 15 — Five verses that answer one question: who gets to live in God's presence? The answer isn't about ritual. It's about character.
This page covers one. BibleKey does all 31,102 — tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and keep reading without leaving the chapter.
Not just the famous ones. BibleKey is free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on the App StoreFree on iPhone & iPad