Welcome The King Of Glory!

Preparation. Expectation. From today until the “big day” in December those are the two things most of us will be experiencing. If we are adults, we will probably put some time into preparing for Christmas. Maybe we have already invested a few hours in the upcoming holiday. Many of us did that last Sunday as we set up the Christmas trees in the sanctuary and set out the Advent wreath. But I think you would agree that in the weeks ahead things like shopping, cleaning, decorating, baking, and perhaps traveling will all be a part of our pre-Christmas preparation. Even the young people here this morning will spend some time preparing for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Although this year the Sunday school Christmas program is the week before Christmas our children will continue to spend time learning their songs and recitations. Perhaps some of them will be working on special Christmas projects at school or even doing a little shopping of their own. Yes, preparation is part of this season.

And it doesn’t matter what age we are, we all will have feelings of expectation in the days between now and December 25th. The adults here may act like we aren’t all that excited about Christmas. But deep down we are. Yes, our expectations may be different than those of children, but we have expectations, nonetheless. I imagine that some of the young people here this morning are already finding it hard to wait four whole weeks as their expectations for Christmas continue to grow every day.

As we begin another Advent season let’s turn our thoughts to a portion of God’s Word that will guide us in our preparation for Christmas. This Scripture will also provide us with correct expectations for our celebration of Jesus’ birth. We turn to the Psalm for this Sunday and ask the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts through it. Listen again to Psalm 24. (Read text.) Preparation. Expectation. This Psalm touches on both of those thoughts under the general thought of God’s people welcoming the LORD—the King of Glory. I pray that these words would help us to:

“WELCOME THE KING OF GLORY!”

I. With proper preparation (vv. 1-4)

II. With enthusiastic expectation (vv. 5-10)

A lot of ink has been put to paper by pastor’s and Bible scholars speculating about Psalm 24. For what occasion did the Holy Spirit move King David to write this Psalm? What was its purpose? Some have said that Psalm 24 was composed for the time that David brought the Ark of the Covenant out of storage at the house of Obed-edom and took it to the capital city of Jerusalem. The Psalm does fit that setting. The people of Israel would have been welcoming a visible symbol of God’s presence into their capital city. The words of this Psalm could certainly fit such a celebration. On the other hand, perhaps the Holy Spirit prompted David to write this Psalm simply to encourage his people to welcome God at their worship and into their hearts and lives with proper preparation and enthusiastic expectations. We know from history that the Jews regularly used this Psalm in their worship where they were in a sense celebrating God’s coming to them.

Although their original purpose is uncertain thousands of years later these words still speak to the people of God. They take on a special meaning for us during Advent. As we look back on Jesus’ first coming, we recognize what made him the King of Glory. He shared our humanity to serve as our Savior. And as we look ahead to Jesus’ second Advent at the end of time we recall what he is coming to do. He will judge all people and establish his eternal kingdom of glory. Whether we are looking back or ahead, both Advents move us to proper preparation and enthusiastic expectation.

I.

A woman was in a mall doing her Christmas shopping. She was tired of walking through every aisle of every store to find just the right present. She was stressed out by the mounting debt on her credit card. She was tired of fighting the crowds and standing in lines for the registers. Her hands were full and when the elevator door opened, it was full. “Great!” she muttered and the occupants of the elevator, feeling her pain, graciously tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her load. As the doors closed, she blurted out, “I think whoever came up with this Christmas junk ought to be found, strung up and shot!” A few others nodded their heads or grunted in agreement. Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator came a single voice that said, “Don’t worry. They already crucified him.” I doubt that we would ever get to that point where we wished there was none of this Christmas stuff. But sometimes if our preparation is misplaced, we may have feelings like that. In these weeks before Christmas let’s focus on proper preparation for welcoming the King of Glory and let some of the unnecessary things slide.