Who Is This King Of Glory?

Who is this King of Glory?

Psalm 24

Good morning.

In Medieval times, a King had total dominion, and giving an order to kill a subject was completely at a king’s discretion.

Paying homage to a king involves a subject, publicly declaring their total allegiance to a monarch, and the king had the power and the right to do whatever he pleased with his subjects.

As a citizen under a king, a subject was to have reverence and serve the king, while the king in turn, was to protect and provide for the needs of the citizens in his kingdom.

In 1995 the movie, “First Knight” came out. The storyline was that Lancelot, (Richard Gere) falls in love with Guinevere, who is due to be married to King Arthur (Sean Connery).

At that time a warlord tried to seize power from King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and the warlord tried to kidnap Lady Guinevere. But by chance, Lancelot was there to save her.

Lancelot fell in love with Lady Guinevere at first sight and although she was attracted to him, Guinevere would not allow herself to fall for another because she was to be wed to Arthur.

After the battle, King Arthur becomes indebted to Lancelot for saving Guinevere, and she ends up falling in love with Lancelot.

After learning of their love for each other, the king charged Lancelot with treason. But then Arthur was shot with a crossbow and taken to the castle, where he died.

While on his deathbed, King Arthur named Lancelot as his successor to the kingdom and gave Guinevere to him as well.

Please open your Bibles to Psalm 24 as we continue in our current series surveying through that book.

Last week we studied Psalm 8 about how God’s glory is far above the Earth.

Majesty brings together both might and goodness, both strength and beauty. The Lord God is awesome beyond our understanding, and He alone is worthy to be praised.

The summary of Psalm 8 is King David reflecting on the Lord’s majesty displayed in the creation and when compared to His glory, man is insignificant.

Even with man’s insignificance, the Lord chose the man to rule the earth and have dominion over its creatures. Man was clothed with glory before the fall, and someday Jesus will restore man.

Jesus Christ left heaven and became a little lower than the angels by becoming a human while remaining God. Jesus is worthy of all praise, glory, honor, strength, and power.

Today, in Psalm 24, we will learn about the King of Glory, Who owns the universe because He created it and loves His subjects.

I. Everything belongs to the Lord.

Read Psalm 24:1-2

Most commentators say David wrote this Psalm during the time he brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem.

The Ark of the Covenant was a box made to go into the Temple and the lid of the box was known as the Mercy Seat. The box contained the two tablets with the Ten Commandments on them.

Also within the Ark was Aaron’s rod and some of the Manna from the Children of Israel’s time in the desert.

The Mercy Seat was considered God’s holy throne because the Lord spoke to Moses from between the winged cherubim in the Most Holy Place, where the Ark was placed.

The Children of Israel were instructed to sprinkle blood from the animal sacrifices on the Mercy Seat because it foreshadowed the ultimate sacrifice for all sin, the shed blood of Christ.

In 1 Samuel, the Philistines had won a battle against Israel so, Israel decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant into their camp.

Initially, the Ark provided an advantage for the Israelites, but the Philistines ended up winning another battle and took the Ark.

The Philistines put the Ark in the house of their god Dagon, but the idol kept falling on its face before the ark.

The Philistines moved the Ark to various cities, and the people in the different towns got ill and started to develop tumors.

Eventually, the Philistines offered the Ark of the Covenant back to Israel, and all the people of Israel cried out to God as they acknowledged their sins before God.

Psalm 24 was later sung every Sunday, after the ascension of Christ, because the early Christians connected this Psalm to the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday.

Notice, “The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness”

Warren Wiersbe said, “Of all the heavenly bodies created by the Lord, the earth is the one He has chosen to be His own special sphere of activity.”

The Lord owns the Earth and everything in it, because He created it.

We know that with the fall of man through Adam, Adam forfeited the dominion of the Earth over to Satan.