March 24, 2002 Psalm 24
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?
4 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.
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. Selah
7 Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you 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 you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. Selah
“This stands for wisdom, and this stand for strength,” the commander said to his troops as they stood before a huge pole beaming into the sky. He had shot an arrow up into the top of the pole, and challenged his men to climb the pole to get the arrow. One man said, “no problem girly man, I’ll get your arrow.” There were two problems however. The commander said they had to carry two weights up to the top of the pole with them - one standing for wisdom, and the other for strength. So they began trying, and one after another, they fell. The weights kept dragging them down.
The Psalmist in today’s text asks the question - “who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The “holy place” was in reference to the temple of the LORD. The basic idea is, “how can we stand in the presence of the LORD?” Whether he was referring to the physical temple in Jerusalem or heaven - it doesn’t matter. The main question is - how do we get in the presence of the LORD? The only way is by climbing the hill. The only problem is, that like the soldiers, we have huge weights tied to our hands. And so the Psalmist asks -
Who May Ascend the Hill of the LORD?
I. The credentials
In today’s Psalm David lays out four things needed to ascend the hill of the LORD. 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.
1) clean hands and a pure heart
I felt that these first two were intimately connected, and I’ll show you why. That term “clean hands” is a neat illustration - just in the physical sense. At any given time your hands can have millions of disease causing bacteria on them. Right now you have more bacteria on your body than there are people in the world. Your hands are the hardest things to keep clean, because you use your hands to open doors and shake hands, etc. Yet they are so important, for we often use our HANDS to put things in our MOUTHS, which then effect our bodies.
In the same spiritual way - our hands have an intimate connection with our hearts. Eve used her hands to eat from the fruit which she God told her not to - and she used her hands to then give the fruit to Adam to eat. How many times have you used your hands to change the TV channel to a wicked TV show? How many times have your hands been used to intimately touch someone that you had no permission to touch? Have you ever used your hands to strike someone? To connect to a perverted web sight? And then the slime on TV or the Internet entered your eyes and your heart?
So the Pharisees naturally then thought, “if we wash our hands and can refrain from eating unclean foods, then our hearts will be clean.” Jesus said, “don’t be so naive!” “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’” Sin doesn’t actually start with the actions of the hands. The hands are only motivated by what is within - from your heart. So you need clean hands AND a clean heart.
David obviously knew that he didn’t meet the qualifications. He certainly didn’t have clean hands. With his hands he groped and molested Bathsheba, after lusting after her with his heart. With his hands he wrote the death sentence for Uriah, and then sent Uriah’s own death sentence with him into battle. With his own hands David patted Uriah on the back and pretended to be his friend, whereas his heart secretly plotted to kill him. And we know that our hands and our hearts are not any better. Who of us can say that our hearts and hands are pure? God said in Genesis 6 that, The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
2) who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.
Both of these sins have to do with God’s reputation. God is known as a “jealous” God - in the sense that he will not share his glory with any other false god. He demands your exclusive worship and devotion. He is the only true God and the only God of truth. Therefore, you need to be devoted only to him and call on him to speak the truth. When the rich young man came to Jesus and wanted to follow him, Jesus said to him, “sell all your possessions and give them to the poor, and then come follow me.” He didn’t just want the man’s mouth or his hands or his feet - he wanted his riches as well - EVERYTHING that he had. When the Israelites decided to worship him in the form of a golden calf, He would have no part of it. You see, God doesn’t just demand an hour of your time. He wants your mouth to always speak the truth - especially when you swear. He wants your all out effort. He wants your soul to be solely devoted to him. He wants your pocketbook. He wants it all.
If we take David’s psalm to the ultimate conclusion, what does this mean? It means that we will never be able to enter into God’s sanctuary. There is no way that sinners can stand in the presence of holiness. It is as if we are standing at the bottom of the Rockies with two broken legs, having suffered a heart attack, two fifty pound weights tied to us, and filthy hands that can’t grip anything. It’s like going mountain climbing without any equipment. Like Jack and Jill, we may try to go up the hill to fetch a crown of glory, but we will fall down and break our crowns. The hill is too steep. We can try to wash our hands as Pilate did, but it won’t make us clean. If we take God’s Word at face value, it means we will never go to heaven. We will end up burning in hell on Judgment Day - because as David said,
I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
II. Praise him
The captain had challenged his soldiers to get to the top of the pole. Nobody could climb the pole and get the arrow. But then, finally, someone figured out. The two weights had two ropes attached to them. So one of the soldiers thought, “if I tie the weights together and use them as a grip for the pole, I will be able to shimmy my way to the top of the pole much easier.” Before long, the soldier made it to the top. From that time on, the army came together and became a well oiled machine. Mulan and her army were ready to fight the huns.
David realized that he didn’t have the hands or the heart to enter God’s presence. He needed someone with more wisdom and strength to climb the hill and enter God’s presence. And so in His Psalm he said:
Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you 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 you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. Selah
Jerusalem is up on a hill. When you enter it from the east there is a steep incline leading up to it. It has two huge gates on one side called the Golden Gate, where legend has it that Jesus entered through on what we now celebrate today as Palm Sunday. If these gates were not opened, traffic could not enter through. The doors were open this day, but even if they weren’t Jesus would have broken through. Hell itself could not have kept him from entering Jerusalem that Sunday. Many people had entered Jerusalem through this way. But none of them had clean hands and a pure heart. When Jesus entered through these gates, the prayer of David was partially answered.
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
The gates lifted up their heads and welcomed Jesus to their town. Why did they respond to Jesus this way? He had shown his power. He had shown his might. He had chased out their demons. He had healed their diseases. He cared for them with clean hands and a pure heart, whereas their leaders had abused them with filthy hands and impure hearts.
But Jesus was not done climbing the mountain. He was only at the foothills. He was just beginning the ascent. He still had to climb a different mountain - a huge one at that - called Golgotha. This mountain would be muddy, grungy, filthy, disgusting, and steep. The only way that he could reenter the Most Holy Place that he had come from - was if he - like the priests of the Old Testament - would offer a sacrifice - not for his sins - but for the sins of the world. And the only way this could be done was if he would climb on top of the cross, and be crucified. It was on that cross that Jesus pure hands were nailed with impurity. His heart was stabbed by the spear of our sins and contaminated and poisoned with our sinful blood. God would accept no other sacrifice - than that of a pure Lamb - to enter into that Holy Place. This was the battle that Jesus came to fight - the hill that he came to climb. Not to fight against the Romans. But to fight against sin. To conquer Satan, and suffer through hell itself in our place.
When I go sledding with my children, they love to go down this hill in front of the church. It isn’t a very big hill. But when it is slippery, the only way they can make it up the hill is when I drag them up in their sleds. Sometimes it gets rather tiring. But they sure do love it. And it helps when they cheer me on - “come on dad, you can do it!” It’s all worth it when I can then travel down the hill with them and have a good time.
We just got done singing the song, “ride on, ride on, in majesty. In lowly pomp, ride on to die!” It sounds like a strange song. But like my children at the bottom of a slippery hill, that’s the only way that we could get to be in God’s presence. Our legs were broken. Our heart was impure. Our hands were filthy. All we can do is cheer Jesus on - “Ride the donkey! Enter Jerusalem! Go die!” Why would we cheer this on? Because we know that when Jesus went to the cross, he took us with Him. He exchanged His holiness with our sinfulness. He gave us the pure heart and cleansed our hands of any sins that were needed to enter God’s sanctuary. So not only did Jesus climb the mountain, but he carried the whole world behind Him - over the mountain of God’s wrath. God’s law may say, “you’re going to hell because your hands and heart are unclean!” But the message of the cross will say, “you already went to hell when Jesus went to the cross. Your hands and heart have been purified in Jesus’ blood. Believe in him and the law is nullified and void. Believe in him and live forever in God’s presence.” If you do this you will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God (your) Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.
When David looked at this world, he compared it to an uphill struggle. God never said life would be easy. But many times, it seems like we’re at the bottom of a mountain. How will I ever get through these health problems? How will I ever raise these kids in a right way? How will I ever stand before God’s judgment when I have so many evil thoughts and deeds? The mountains are high, and we don’t have the equipment to climb with. Who May Ascend the Hill of the LORD? On Palm Sunday, the King of Glory answers it - not just with words - but with actions. Jesus rode into Jerusalem to die. And so when David asks, “who may ascend the hill of the LORD?”, you know the answer to that question. You may. And you will - because you are in the hands of Christ. Amen.
