Thursday, 18 August, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

Psalm 24

¹ The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
² for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.

³ Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
⁵ He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

⁷ Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
⁸ Who is this King of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle!
⁹ Lift up your heads, O gates!
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
¹⁰ Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
he is the King of glory! Selah

There are a lot of similarities between this Psalm and Psalm 15. Both ask the question of who can approach God, and both give the answer that a person must be blameless in their words and deeds.

What do we learn from this?

This Psalm certainly is a challenge to us as we seek to be pleasing to God. We desire to have clean hands and a pure heart. We seek after truth and try to avoid what is false. We set a guard over our mouths to not swear deceitfully.

But just as in Psalm 15, we find that we fall short of this standard of perfection and are driven to Christ in repentance for our sins of missing the mark of perfect obedience in our words, thoughts and deeds.

Where is Christ in this passage?

The encouraging thing in this Psalm is how it clearly tells us who the one with clean hands and a pure heart is: The LORD Jesus Christ. As the rest of Scripture tells us, we are acceptable to God because the righteousness of Jesus Christ is credited to His people. Since we are clothed with the perfect righteousness of Christ, we are just as acceptable to the Father as Jesus Christ the Son.

We can see this as a Psalm of the incarnation, as Jesus Christ came to the earthly temple in Jerusalem, and the gates and doors are called to honor Him at His appearing there.

Also, we can see this as a Psalm of the ascension, as Jesus Christ returned to heaven, the true temple, of which the temple in Jerusalem was just a shadow and copy.

In either case, we see that Jesus Christ is honored as both the perfect Man and as God. He is acceptable and can stand in the presence of God the Father. And we can also stand before God the Father as the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ is credited to us by faith.