Psalm 24:3-10: Who Shall Ascend? Who is this King of Glory?

Vs. 3-4 Who may ascend to the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 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.

In this verse we have moved from the universal rule of Yahweh over the entire world and its inhabitants to His local presence in Jerusalem. We move from the depths of the sea to the hill of the Lord, from a place of chaos and brokenness, to a place of holiness and life.

Who among the inhabitants of the earth is able to stand in the holy place of Yahweh? The requirements are four fold:

1. The one who has clean hands
2. The one who has a pure heart
3. The one who does not lift his soul to an idol
4. The one who does not swear by what is false

Clean Hands and Pure Hearts:

John Calvin said, “Clean hands and pure hearts comprehend all religion and denote a well ordered life.” The two ideas are largely about holy actions and holy intentions.

Interestingly, the lectionary associates this passage with the bringing of the ark into Jerusalem. The counterpart passage is the narrative where the Ox cart stumbles and Uzzah reaches out to stabilize the ark with his hand and when he touches it Yahweh strikes him dead.

You see, the action of Uzzah was not morally neutral or even good. No one is to touch the ark – that’s why the priests carry it on poles. Presbyterian theologian RC Sproul’s got it right when he comments that Uzzah’s assumption in touching the ark was that his hands were clean. His assumption was that his hands were clean while the dirt was not. But since clean is a moral category, this is a major problem for him – the earth has never morally rebelled against Yahweh. The earth has never disobeyed. The earth has never dwelt in sin. But Uzzah has done all of these – his hands are not clean.

Or consider the idea of a pure heart – the idea Jesus plays on in the sermon on the mount when he says those one with a pure heart will “see God.”  The idea here is that one must have a heart which has unmixed devotions or allegiances. It is a heart that lives under the reality of Yahweh as Creator and Redeemer and therefore does not bow to any other king.

This then make sense of the next two criterion for approaching Yahweh – one who does not lift up (that is, take a posture of worship) his soul or being to an idol, nor swear by what is false – that is, something which is contrary to the reality which God has set in place.

Vs. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his savior.

The Christian tradition has always held that there is only one who has ever qualified to mount the holy hill and stand in the presence of Yahweh. There is only one who has ever been blessed and has been vindicated – that is, pronounced as righteous, before Yahweh.

As we try move to the final section of this psalm, we note that the Christian church has always used this text in its Ascension liturgy. Christ, the only one to live with clean hands and a pure heart, the only one to orient the entirety of his being to Yahweh’s moral standards ordered in the very creation, the only one able to ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in his holy place, he and he only is the one who has ever been worthy to be called the King of Glory.

The Christian connection, then, is that the psalm not only indicates that the perfect Son of God is worthy, but that He is the same King who is entering the Temple gates.

For thousands of years those ancient gates stood still. Lifeless. Unmoving. No one was able to enter. No one worthy to mount the hill of Yahweh. No one worthy to stand in the Holy place – or see God.

The ancient gates grew rusty in their stillness – a continual reminder of human brokenness and a world gone awry.

But when the worthy one comes – fully devoted, fully clean, fully pure, without competing allegiances – even the allegiance of saving his own life – the heavens cry out to those ancient doors  – Lift up your heads in hope and anticipation of redemption, of expectation of creation (Eden) restored! Be lifted up you ancient doors that the King of Glory may come it.

AS the proclamation went  out for the first time in history, those old, telling doors slowly creaked open. Never has a human ever entered them. Never has flesh and blood ever been worthy. But now things will never be the same. There is hope.

This Christ, the chosen one of God who took on flesh, who through the power of the Spirit refused to bow down and worship the devil or give his allegiances to Rome, enters the gates as a representative of all humanity and all creation – THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S AND EVERYTHING IN IT! For the Son, through death, has mightily battled the devil, the principalities and powers, and has won! His victorious resurrection was God’s vindication of him – his pronouncement that this single man, of all people, is the one who is worthy. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, mighty in battle, having already defeated the devil and works in us rights to become children of God – princes and princesses, priests and kings.

Being Led into God’s Presence

We often assume the job of the worship minister is to “lead people into the presence of God.”

While on some level I understand what we mean by this, I also think there are some fundamental misunderstandings of both worship and God in a statement like this.

FIRST, the statement assumes that the presence of God is “out there”…wherever “there” might be. I’m afraid we have this abstracted notion of God that He is off in some distant, heavenly space far removed from our every day lives – almost like the God of Deism, only we can (sometimes) encounter our God on Sundays when we go into His presence.

But this is not the case. God is not “out there” somewhere waiting for us to invite him into our presence or waiting for us to come into his presence. God is with us, amongst us, inviting us to participate in what he is doing in the world. If the Bible teaches us anything it is that God desires to dwell among His people and within His people.

The practical implications of this faulty assumption are huge – It suggests God is not a participatory God.  Rather, He is distant and removed from our everyday experiences and therefore offers little if any help. He is high and lofty in this view, to be sure, but He is hardly helpful or intimate.

SECOND, notice how this statement makes humans, not God, the primary actor. It is our job to approach God. It is our job to lead others into his presence. It is our job to make ourselves worth of his presence.

But the biblical story is of a God who acts on behalf of humans, who lifts them into his presence, who calls, woo’s, and dies for us. In the biblical story God, not humans, is the primary actor. He does not need us to come into his presence; He dwells, willingly, among us. He has condescended to come and be with us. We do not approach him, he approaches us.

Again, the practical implications are huge. If we are the primary actors and movers in worship, then worship is about us. It becomes about whatever style suits our desire or whatever method makes us feel good. But if God is the primary actor in worship, then worship originates and concludes with Him. He is the creator of the story we live in as we worship and therefore he is the beginning of worship. We worship out of that story, His story, and therefore worship is all about him, from first to last.

When we realize that worship originates in God’s activity, not ours, we are able to delight in worship for what it is, not how it makes us feel or what style of music is used during a service. Worship becomes more than about my emotion or even my own theological statements – it involves participating in the story of the Triune God to redeem the world. Worship does not originate in me and therefore is not dependent upon me to be accomplished through technique or effort – as if God needed something from me. When the story of God’s redemption is in me and I am participating in it, my worship is an overflow of God’s activity within me, within us.

Therefore, we do not need anyone to lead us into the presence of God. We need worship “leaders” who exemplify for us what it means to dwell in God’s story of redemption. This also means that worship “leaders” are not just music directors. The worship leaders position is democratized – that is, applied to the entire church. Everyone who participates in the redemptive story of the Triune God is one who proclaims the truth that God is the primary actor in the Christian story, not me!

The Spirit and Ceaseless Prayer

I’ve always found impossible Paul’s imperative to “pray without ceasing.” I mean, seriously, who has time for that? Even Luther’s comment that he’s so busy that he feels he has to pray for 3 hours a day doesn’t quite get at Paul’s impracticable “without ceasing” requirement – 3 hours is hardly “without ceasing.” Surely Paul doesn’t expect me to kneel beside my bed for all 16 waking hours.

But what if “without ceasing” isn’t a measurable category? What if I can’t set my stop-watch count this kind of prayer? What if I can’t gauge it? What if it can’t be calculated by the time I spend on my knees next to my bed or verbalizing prayers from the Lectionary?

I had a liberating thought a while back: Unceasing prayer can only be done in communion with the Holy Spirit…..Here me out before you say, “Thank you Captain Obvious!”

You see, this kind of prayer cannot be put on our check-list of spiritual activities for the day. Rather, it is a continual and constant communion with the Spirit throughout the day. It is the recognition that the Spirit, as a person, is always present and always engaged with us. Like the face of the Deep in Genesis 1:2, the Spirit hovers over us, always drawing us out of the chaos and into communion.

This is also a recognition that all our mundane tasks – “when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Dt. 6:7) - can be done in communion with the Spirit, with an ever increasing awareness of the Spirit’s nearness. God is not distant, God the Spirit desires us to delve deep in Trinitarian fellowship.

So, while Luther’s 3 hours is important (especially as a discipline), we cannot restrict our communion with the Spirit of God to 1/8 of our day. The Spirit’s presence permeates every aspect of our lives. Every cry of our heart against injustice, even the ones we don’t utter prayers for, is heard by the Spirit as an appeal to the Father to set things right. When we hurt the Spirit groans and prays for us – even though we haven’t uttered a word.

No longer do I find Paul’s imperative an impossibility. No longer do I assume I don’t have time for that. No longer am I convicted by Luther’s prayer life in comparison with mine. Ceaseless is as simple communion with another person. It is the desires and thoughts which invite God to establish His kingdom on earth. It is our efforts to work with the Spirit to display, as true image bearers, God’s name in a chaotic and rebellious earth. It is the orientation of our being to God’s Spirit. It is our groanings to have heaven touch earth in such a way that Christ is revealed in all his goodness. In these things we draw deeper into communion with the Spirit, deeper into participation in the divine nature. In these things we pray without ceasing.