A Generation Of Worshippers

We’re going to begin our message tonight by reading through our passage of Scripture, which is Psalm 24:3-6:

3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face. Selah

Who may ascend the hill of the Lord and stand before God’s presence? The answer to this question is that those who are of the generation of Jacob may stand in the beauty of God’s holiness. This passage reminds me of the praise song entitled “Give Us Clean Hands.”(1) The words to this song say, “Give us clean hands. Give us pure hearts. Let us not lift our souls to another. Oh God, let us be a generation who sees, who seeks your face, oh God of Jacob.” When I hear this song it makes excited to envision a new generation of worshippers arising who seek after God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength and who are willing to sacrifice their very lives to follow hard after Christ.

I believe that every so often a generation is born that truly runs after the heart of God. The evidence in Scripture is clear that some generations chased after idols and foreign gods, while others bowed down in submission to the God of Israel. For example, David was a man after God’s own heart and the people of his reign truly sought the Lord. However, his grandson Rehoboam sowed seeds of disobedience and ultimately bondage for Israel. Through a careful study of what it means to be the generation of Jacob we can learn some concepts that will help us understand how to be a generation who seeks the Lord and how to be someone after God’s own heart, as was David.

We need to understand that the term “Jacob” is a general classification for any generation in which many people turn to God and seek to worship Him. You have to wonder, though, why the term “Jacob” was chosen when the biblical character Jacob didn’t always demonstrate great faith. One example of Jacob’s lack of faith was when he panicked in the presence of God’s messengers, or angels, when he found out that his brother Esau was coming to meet him. Even though angels were in his presence, he divided his family and servants, relying on his own human reasoning for protection instead of trusting in God’s deliverance (Genesis 32).

Jacob may have experienced doubt at times, but he still understood how to worship God. As we will come to discover, much of his desire and understanding of how to worship came from his life experiences – from both time in the valley and on the mountaintop. There are some qualities that we can learn from Jacob that will help us understand how to be true worshippers. Some of our insight into worship will be taken from Psalm 24, verses 3-4, and other helpful information will be gained from viewing some selected Old Testament passages about Jacob.

Looking at Psalm 24:3-4, it says, “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.”

We read here that those of the generation of Jacob who are able to enter God’s presence must have clean hands, a pure heart, and have not lifted their soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. We are going to group “clean hands and a pure heart” together, and “idol worship and swearing deceitfully” together, and examine these concepts in this particular order.

Point # 1: The Generation of Jacob Knows Jesus Christ

There is an underlying message contained in the admonition to have clean hands and a pure heart. These words speak of the salvation that was to be later revealed in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. You see, the Hebrew words translated for us in the English as “clean” and “pure,” also have other meanings in the Hebrew. That word “clean” can also mean, “blameless, exempted, free, guiltless, and innocent.”(2) When Jesus died on the cross He took all of our guilt, and bore all of our sins so that we could be innocent and free from the wages of sin, which lead to death (Romans 6:23). Jesus did this so that we might be made free (John 8:36). If we have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord, then our hands are free from the chains of sin.