Psalm 24

According to the Commentary On The Psalms by George Knight, the Jews recite this psalm on the first day of every week, which is our Sunday; and Christians quote it on Ascension Day. He further supposes that the psalm was used when the ark was carried into the tabernacle and that this ceremony was repeated each year. There is, however, in the Old Testament no indication that such an annual ceremony existed. When the ark is brought to Jerusalem we read: "They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD."¹ When Solomon finished the construction of the temple, we read: "And they brought up the ark of the LORD and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up, and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted. The priests then brought the ark of the LORD's covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim."²

Adam Clarke's Commentary suggests that the psalm was composed for this occasion. It seems plausible that David originally wrote the psalm for the celebration of the first transportation of the ark, and that the psalm was used again at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem.

The whole psalm expresses the realization that the ark was only a symbol of the glory of God, and that this glory far surpassed our human comprehension. The paradoxical feelings of David's exuberant joy and awareness of his own unworthiness, such as was evinced when the ark was brought to Jerusalem the first time, parallel what is expressed in this psalm also. We are also reminded of Moses words as the ark moved about in the desert: "Rise up, O LORD! May your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you." And, whenever it came to rest, he said: "Return, O LORD, to the countless thousands of Israel."³

So when the ark entered its place of rest the choir sang: "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." The Lord was acknowledged as the God of all the earth. In this confession Israel far surpassed any other nation on earth, because they did not see God as a national, local deity, but as the creator of Heaven and earth. The whole Old Testament is full of confessions like this. It seems there for strange that Jesus did not contradict the devil during the temptation in the desert, when he said to Him: "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to."⁴ But the devil spoke only a half truth. God had given him the government of the world before he fell in sin, that was true. When he rose up against God, however, he should have turned in his mandate. At present he exercises and illegal rule of that which belongs to God. Also, the "authority and splendor" Satan speaks about is not the same as the majestic manifesto of this psalm: "The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein."⁵ From what the angel Gabriel (that is who we suppose he was) told Daniel, we gather that the prince of darkness stands behind the powers of this world.⁶ It was that kind of power behind the screens that manipulates the heads of governments and the affairs of nations, that Satan offered to Christ, if he would fulfill certain conditions.

The glory of this psalm speaks about fullness and abundance, not only of "everything in all the world," as TLB puts it. The fullness of the world is the result of the blessing of the Lord. The world as God created it contained an abundance of blessing for man and beast. Even after the fall and the subsequent curse that made the earth bring forth thorns and thistles for man, and make him eat his food by the sweat of his brow, we still live on a good earth. The psalmist recognizes that "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."⁷ God is Lord of the earth and Lord of all blessings. Not only the whole earth and all its blessings belong to the Lord, but also the whole world of men. The phrase: "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it," has meaning for us only if we apply it to ourselves. It is only if we confess that we belong to the Lord, and that we are God's property, that the collective picture of the earth and its fullness begin to have any meaning for us. A person, who understands and accepts that he belongs to God spirit, soul, and body, understands something of God's claim upon the lives of others in this world. This psalm says in different worlds what Jesus says in one of His parables: "The field is the world."⁸ That phrase was one of John Wesley's favorite slogans.

What the psalmist says is a phrase that has judicial value. Ever since the coming of sin, both the devil and fallen humanity have disputed this claim. It is our confession of faith that God's right to the whole of creation will become a reality in the Kingdom of Heaven, and as we said above, such a confession has only merit inasmuch as we acknowledge God's claim upon our own lives in an act of complete surrender.

The reasons for God's claim to the earth and all that live in it are further states in the opening verses of this psalm. God created this world and that is the reason that He has a right to it.

The thought that God "founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters" sounds strange to us, as if water would be the basis for all the existing land masses, and that the continents would be floating islands upon the oceans. We rather see reality as opposite to this, since there is a bottom to every sea. TLB circumvents the problem with the rendering: "He is the one who pushed the oceans back to let dry land appear." Our problem, however, is that we do not know what the condition of our world was before the Flood, and whether there were not, in fact, huge masses of water beneath the earth's crust. In the description of the flood in Genesis we read: "On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened."⁹ Who knows but that the condition of the floating islands C. S. Lewis describes in his book Perelandra was actually the condition of our planet also in it original state.

It is with those words that the psalmist announces who the God is, whose throne was represented by the ark which was being carried to Jerusalem.

The verses 3-6 deal with the question of how those, upon whose life God has a claim, come to the point that they enter into a personal relation with God. The fact that God has the right to rule over us does not mean that we automatically have fellowship with Him. The experience of fellowship is represented under the image of the mountain that has to be climbed. As David asks the question: "Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?" it sounds as if fellowship with God would demand the most strenuous effort on our part. The question is, however, not whether we are able to exert the effort to reach the top, but whether we are deemed worthy to even try the climb. He does not ask: "Who can ascend the hill of the LORD?" but "who may...?"

Before we enter into this question we should picture ourselves first as standing at the foot of the mountain and God living on the summit. Compared to this, the climbing of Mount Everest is easy! David suggests that standing in God's holy place means triumphing over all the elements. In this ascent, as in all mountain climbing, everything is against us. Moses ascended Mount Sinai and spent forty days in the presence of the Lord, but the Bible itself testifies that nobody else ever had such an intimate relationship with God. Climbing the hill of the Lord is an exceptional feat.

Vs. 4 indicates that our climbing to the top depends on the way we live in the valley. "He who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false" speak about the goal for which we live, and how trustworthy we are in our speaking. These are the factors, which determine whether God will have fellowship with us, or not. We would say that David reversed the roles, because purity of heart is a result of our knowing God, not a prerequisite. So, evidently, the point is not whether we reach the top, but whether we maintain the position in which God has placed us already. After all, the fact that the ark was being brought in, indicated that sin had been expiated and pardon received. None of the singers of this psalm doubted whether God was in their midst.

Ascending the hill of the Lord and standing in His holy place are poetical parallels, which means that we do not first climb up and then stand on the top, but both are images of the same act. The picture is dynamic, not static. Inner purity is both a condition and an effort on our part. God wants us to exercise holiness, not in order to be saved, but because we are saved. Our fellowship with the Lord is maintained in the purity of our deeds, in the singleness of our motives, in the goal we have set before us, and in the reliability of the way in which we live.

Having clean hands stands for our acts, and our acts are determined by the condition of our heart. Jesus said: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander."¹⁰ If our heart is pure, our hands will be clean also. Without purity of heart there can be no fellowship with God. Jesus said: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."¹¹ And the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says: "Without holiness no one will see the Lord."¹²

David's descriptive clause: "Who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false," as the NIV translates it, is rendered by the RSV as "Who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully." The idea is that the soul is not fixed upon God, but upon a lie. A false oath is evidence of the absence of truth in the heart. If God is the goal of our lives, we cannot lie. The original meaning of the word "sin" is "to miss the mark." When sin ripens in the heart of man, he does not only miss the mark but he hit the wrong target. He who does not have God as his goal reaches out to the devil. The tragedy of most people is that they do not realize they are doing this. Many people admit that they are not perfect and that their lives may be slightly off the right track, but very few understand that missing the right road means going in the opposite direction.

Swearing falsely means to call upon the Name of the Lord in order to give to our sins an air of legitimacy. If we lie under oath, we give proof of the fact that we have completely abandoned all ethical standards. To cheat, while using the Name of God, is one of the greatest sin one can commit. It means, "trying to make God pull our cart." No one who does this will ever escape the consequences.

Vs. 5 states that he who has his soul fixed upon God "will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior." This blessing cannot be separated from our fellowship with God. We cannot leave God and carry the blessing home with us. But there also is a passing on to others of the blessing. David said in the previous psalm: "Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life."¹³ Our ascending the hill of the Lord and our standing in His holy place will have its influence upon the world that surrounds us. After all, having clean hands and a pure heart, and not swearing false oaths pertains to our relationship to our neighbors. Loving God and loving one's neighbor cannot be separated.

The fact that David calls God his Savior proves that his ascending the hill and standing in God's presence were not the result of his own purity but of the salvation God provided for him. Nobody would be able to stand before God on the basis of his own purity. God is the source of our salvation, which brings about in our hearts changes that lead to righteousness and purity, and provides blessings that can be passed on to others.

David does not speak about individual experiences only; he addresses a whole generation, which he calls "Jacob." It is obvious that the nation of Israel as a whole could not be called a nation that was clean of hands and pure of heart. The land was full of people who may have been ritually clean but who were ultimately only interested in their own gain. Joab, David's general, who committed some atrocious crimes, is a good example in case. The designation of God as the "God of Jacob," therefore, suggests Jacob's crisis experience at Peniel.¹⁴ Jacob wrestled with God at Peniel, and according to the commentary of the prophet Hosea, he overcame by asking for grace.¹⁵ "The generation of those who seek him, who seek [the] face [of the] God of Jacob" is the generation of those who are conscious of their sins and who ask for forgiveness. Those who ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place are those who have received forgiveness of their sins in Jesus Christ.

It is generally supposed that at vs. 7, the procession that is carrying the ark has reached the gates of Zion. We hear two choirs singing an antiphonal chorus, one on the inside of the fortress and one outside the gate. The fact that the gates are called "you ancient doors" suggests the eternal character of the city, and elevates the place on earth to an image of the heavenly reality. The Old Testament is full of this kind of picture. We sometimes get the impression that the Jews had a mentality that was earthly, because, for instance, they expressed spiritual blessings in terms of material abundance. Yet, they must have had a clear concept of what the image expressed. Just as they knew YHWH to be the God of all the earth, and that His presence was not limited to the atonement cover on the ark, so they realized that there were gates in Heaven, of which the gates on earth were a vague image. Only from our New Testament perspective, however, can the true meaning of the words here can only be understood to the full. The Old Testament Jew could not have know why the God who was enthroned in Heaven would find Himself outside the gate and ask to be let in. We know now that the Word became flesh, and that He had to return to his heavenly glory after His death and resurrection.

But what a magnificent image! The ark is the representation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to earth to live as man among men, and who after effectuating the cleaning of the sins of the world went back to Heaven. In the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews: "After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."¹⁶

The gates are poetically personified, as if they are conscious of the fact that they open to let the Lord of glory in. Also the antiphonal singing, the question and answer suggest a certain consciousness, as if the gates are searching for the meaning of the events that take place. We see a parallel of this heavenly scene take place on earth when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem. Matthew reports: "When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, 'Who is this?' The crowds answered, 'This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.' "¹⁷ In the same context Jesus says to the Pharisees who wanted Jesus to rebuke His disciples: "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."¹⁸ Here the gates of Zion cry out. Is this a rebuke to men because they keep quiet? The gates have to be opened by human hands to let the King of glory enter human lives. This psalm expresses anew how solemn and glorious the experience of our conversion actually is, and what eternal life will be forever after. The Apostle Paul calls this: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."¹⁹

The Hebrew words for "King of glory" are Melek hakaabowd, which is comes from the word kabod, defined by Strongs as "weight, but only figuratively in a good sense, splendor or copiousness: "glorious, glory, honor." The word kabod is derived from kabad, which means "numerous, rich, honorable; causatively, to make weighty." So the phrase "the King of glory" could be translated with "the King of honor," or "the King who is to be honored."

It is difficult for us to describe "glory." We all recognize glory when we see it, but we cannot say what it is. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as "1 : renown 2 : honor and praise rendered in worship 3 : something that secures praise or renown 4 : a distinguishing quality or asset 5 : resplendence, magnificence 6 : heavenly bliss 7 : a height of prosperity or achievement," but this definition tells us very little about the content of glory.

The prophet Isaiah equates glory with holiness. In describing his vision he records the song of the Seraphim: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."²⁰ Glory, evidently, is the translation in earthly terms of God's holiness.

Paul calls Jesus "the Lord of glory." He writes to the Corinthians: "None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."²¹ "Lord of glory" is a divine title; it sums up all of His divine attributes and expresses the essence of His being. He is the Lord, the King, the Almighty. He has the right to rule over my life. I acknowledge this right in surrendering my rights to Him. I worship Him when I call Him "Lord of glory" or "King of honor."

When the choir asks: "Who is this King of glory?" they express some of the mystery of human life. Man is born in this world with an emptiness in his life, which can only be filled by an encounter with the King. To discover the answer to the question: "Who is this King …?" means achieving the goal of our lives.

What happens in the human heart on a small scale is an image of what happens on the cosmic level also. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews explains this so beautifully when he says: "When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, 'This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.' In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence."²² The entering of the ark on Mount Zion is the picture of an eternal event that is enacted both in the macro-cosmos, as well as in the micro-cosmos. Augustine's confession was: "Restless is our heart within us, o God, till it finds rest in Thee!"

The answer of the choir to "Who is this King of glory?" is "The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle." This speaks of the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ at Golgotha. It is the triumph of the Lamb that was slain. This victory is greater than any other that was ever gained in battles on earth. In this battle the archenemy, the instigator of all animosity in heaven and on earth, was conquered.

When the choir repeats the phrase, "the LORD mighty in battle becomes the Lord Almighty," they say that He is Yahweh Ts^abaa'owt, the LORD of hosts, the supreme commander. He possesses all power in Heaven and on earth. Jesus conquered death, which is the last enemy to be destroyed.²³ These verses celebrate the death, as well as the resurrection and ascension of our Lord. The call: "Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up…" is just as much a call to worship was the one John heard in Revelation: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" and "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"²⁴

² I Kings 8:4-6

³ Num. 10:35,36

⁴ Luke 4:6

⁵ (KJV)

⁶ See Dan. 10:12-21

⁷ James 1:17

⁸ Matt. 13:38

⁹ Gen. 7:11

¹⁰ Matt. 15:19

¹¹ Matt. 5:8

¹² Heb. 12:14^b

¹³ Ps. 23:6

¹⁴ See Gen. 32:22-32

¹⁵ Hos. 12:4

¹⁶ Heb. 1:3b

¹⁷ Matt. 21:10,11

¹⁸ Luke 19: 40

¹⁹ Col 1:27^b

²⁰ Isa. 6:3

²¹ I Cor. 2:8

²² Heb. 9:19-24

²³ I Cor. 15:26

²⁴ Rev. 5:12,13

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