Book of Psalms - Psa. 24, vv. 1-10

Psalm 24 as a Celebration of the Ark and the Coming King

Pull up we'll be in psalm chapter 24 today. And I'm gonna try my best to get through this whole chapter. There is a lot There's a lot here and I typically only get through two or three verses. But I really want to get through the whole thing today because There is a singular message That just has the coolest ending I think.

And So I want to get through Psalm 24. We've been for those of you are joining us for the first time we have been going through the Psalms just verse by verse starting with Psalm chapter 1 and We've been doing this for a long time now over a year a couple of years at this point.

I think the gentleman that was Teaching This and started this before me got through the first chapter and then the Lord took him home. And that was brother Bill and brother Bill Nichols it was an elder in our church and He died in his in his chair with his Sunday school lesson in his hand.

She's pretty cool. But um it fell to me and to my brother Ben to kind of take over the duties for a little bit and it has been a tall order trying to to do this, but it has been a true blessing To me.

But man, it's gonna happen so, all right, here we go. Starting in verse 1. Psalm 24 verse 1. Now this is a psalm That is written for a very special occasion. What is this occasion? Well verse 7 and 9.

Tell us so we'll skip on down to verse 7 and 9 and we'll come back to this here in a second lift up your heads Oh ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the king of glory Shall come in you'll notice that verse 9 says exactly the same thing lift up your heads.

Oh ye gates even lift them up ye everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in. Who is this guest the king of glory? What do you guys think? Who is it? It's just God right now, it's Jesus who is the Son of God.

He thought it not robbery to consider himself equal with God. He is a part of the triune being of God. But when this psalm was written it was written at a time in the Old Testament when Israel was inviting the Ark of the Covenant in so this is when the Ark of the Covenant is coming in is the it is The physical representation of the presence of God with his people and so that's why this is being Being written by David you can read that that story if you'll flip over to 2nd Samuel 6 with me real quick 2nd Samuel 6.

Or 1st Chronicles 15 you can read it in either one. I'm going to paraphrase for sake of time, but David sends his men out. They're going to come and bring the Ark and if you'll remember They decide to do it in their own way.

They're gonna make this process a little more convenient and So they put the Ark on wheels, which they're not supposed to do. They're supposed to carry the Ark by hand and when they don't do it God's way something pretty bad happens.

One of the wheels one of the wheels. Topples just a bit the Ark starts to fall and with all good intention one of the men Puts his hand on the Ark in order to keep it from falling. He is instantly struck dead.

Says that the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and the man just fell as dead. This saddens David that. This point David says man What have we done? What have I done? The Ark ends up being put in.

The house of Obed-Edom and. And The house of Obed-Edom it resides there and his house just receives tons of blessing from the presence of the Lord and Finally after some time David goes, you know what it belongs with us.

Gotta go get it. He goes and he gets it and does it the right way and he brings it in so after a time of mourning and after a time of repentance David gets right with God and He invites the presence of the Lord into Israel and that is what's happening here.

So this is like a celebratory Psalm but it's not just celebratory. It shows us something that's really important. We're gonna see that as we go through it. It's gonna teach us a lot because it's basically divided into three parts.

It shows us a description of the Lord. It shows us a description of his people and Then it describes the arrival of the king. All right. So a psalm of David flip on back over to Psalm chapter 24. This is a psalm of David.

The Earth Belongs to the Lord and He Established It on the Floods

The earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell therein. What is the Lord's? The earth all its fullness. God is the owner of all things. When Jesus came to earth to begin his ministry and established his church.

It was commonly thought that only the Jews belonged to God and Israel alone was his land. That's God's people. That's God's land. But what does that mean for the rest of the world? Oh, they're not God's people.

Those are not God's lands. Now this is when Jesus comes to earth to start his ministry several like many many many many many years after this psalm was written. So Israel's understanding of God Has already started to wane a bit because they go.

Oh, that's God's people and this is God's land. Therefore the rest is not God's people and the rest is not God's land. Yet David generations before Christ's arrival wrote this psalm and he proclaimed that all lands were God's and All people belong to him not just the richest mines and the fullest orchards.

Not just the cattle's upon a thousand hills not the largest lakes or the fertile fields. We're not talking about the biggest mountains nor the smallest of the microcosms in the universe. No, what is his?

The earth and all its fullness. It's all the mines and all the orchards and all the cattle's and all the fields and All the hills in every lake in every mountain in every microcosm. It all belongs to the Lord.

Now you might say like Israel did. But God does have a chosen people. He does have his people. The elect the chosen the predestined children of God and It is true that there is a specific people. That will that he will call that he will save.

But as it turns out all people Both the goats and the sheep belong to God. They are all here for his glory. Now does this mean that everyone's going to heaven? No. But everyone plays a part in the work in creation and plan of God.

Even Satan Unknowingly to him does the will of God. Look look at Job. Satan was gonna go and he was going to attack Job. He had to first ask permission from God to do it. He can do nothing Without permission from the father and you say well, hold on now.

Wait a minute. Does that mean God? Put Job through all of that stuff. Yes. It's a hard truth. But yes God put in fact it was God's idea. Satan didn't come and say hey, can I go and attack Joe? That's not how he asked for permission first God says to Satan.

Have you considered my servant Job? Whoa. Why would God do that? Have you considered but like hey Satan check this guy out. Wow. So when we read that the earth is the Lord's in all the fullness thereof.

There is nothing left out of that all of it belongs to God. Even the Prince of the power of the air the one who has usurped authority on earth. Old Beelzebub. He belongs to God. He's not gonna go to heaven.

He's not gonna be saved. He's not gonna be Regenerated. He's not going to be Experiencing God's mercy the scripture tells us that God created vessels for honor. That's us, but he also created vessels for dishonor.

All people are made by him. We know this because Scripture tells us that there is nothing that is made that is not made by him. What does that exclude nothing. Everything's made by God. Even Lucifer who was originally created as an angel of light and All things come from him for the purpose of good.

God put man in the garden knowing man would sin. Why did he do it? Because all of it is designed to teach us more about God. And how do you teach people about an infinite love without a need for an infinite love?

You got to have the need for someone to really understand it like this infinite love which is an agape. Oh love a sacrificing love. Requires sacrifice to show it. There would be no need for sacrifice if not for sin.

Verse 2 for he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. This is why God is the owner of all things. It's why he is. Because he is the founder as some of you came from a trade way of it.

We were all there this weekend, right? Who's the founder of trade way. David Mitchell guess what? He's the owner of trade way because he's the founder of trade way. This is telling us right after the fact that God is the owner of all things.

It's telling us why cuz he found it all things. But then it shows us how crazy impossible it is to found what he founded. Because he didn't just found the earth and all the fullness thereof he founded it upon the seas.

It means he created a foundation upon the water. Think about that for a second. We think it's a great idea to build a foundation on a rock and it may be I Recently built a house. Our our soil is mostly sand.

You know what the builders told me that is the perfect soil for building and I said what? But I thought the I thought the wise man built his house upon a rock and the foolish man built his house upon the sand.

They said well, we're gonna put the rock in the sand. Oh. The foundation I got you. What's interesting about that is that it is a picture of what God does here because what's more Tumultuous than sand water.

And yet God can lay a foundation on water and he Establishes it that means he makes it stable on this floods. Now when you think of flooding do you think of stability? No, we've been getting a whole lot of rain here in Texas a whole lot and Things aren't too stable.

In fact currently Laying over my driveway is my favorite tree. It did not break it just uprooted from the sand because it became so heavy from the water and so it just went Really sad about that. I'm hoping some that we're gonna see if we can get someone to hoist it back up because it's alive.

See if we can hoist it back up and maybe prop it up and see if it'll stay but it's a big tree. So I don't know we'll see. One of the few elms we have too and it grew right over our our driveway so you could drive under the pretty tree.

Can't drive under it now. You gotta drive around it. But God makes stable upon the floods. That's incredible. Water flows it flows over under through around. It does not stand strong it bends it shapes it molds.

We read in Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said this is verse 6 skipping down a bit in Genesis 1 and God said let there be a firmament in The midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters.

God brought form from the formless Water shapes to an immovable object. This is why rivers flow. Water begins to conform to the things That God establishes so like if you ever I grew up swimming in a river grew up in San Marcos, Texas.

I Love the river. I love it and it's it's fun to watch the water flow and it's so powerful. Water is powerful and Yet when it meets an immovable object It is directed and it flows in in a certain direction.

The San Marcos River starts in San Marcos with natural springs and it flows and its Directions change with whatever objects are in the way. But it flows all the way to the coast or the the Gulf of Mexico and You say well, what about a flood that doesn't necessarily flow form.

Go around it destroys Immovable objects, doesn't it? It topples. That's because when water shapes or conforms There is direction. But when water does not conform there is destruction. There's a reason why I'm telling you this and I'm gonna bring up a quote From a very famous martial artist.

I did martial arts growing up. And so Here's a quote from a famous martial artist named Bruce Lee. You may have heard of him. He says empty your mind be formless. Shapeless like water. If you put water in a cup it becomes the cup.

You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot and it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend now. If we are water, we have the opportunity to flow and conform or we have the opportunity to crash.

We can have direction or destruction Romans 829. Before we go there. I want you to think about this for a second if we were water We are 95 water. Our bodies are made up of like 95 water, which is interesting to me.

And it is also interesting to me that we were made To be conformed to the image of Christ Romans 829 for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate To be conformed to the image of this of his son. That he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

See if you conform to Jesus you will have Direction, but if you decide not to conform and to try to form others in your image There will be destruction in your life. You'll be like a flood instead of a river.

Clean Hands, a Pure Heart, and the Difference Between Confession and Conformity

So God who owns all things and can make stable upon the chaos of the waters He is the immovable object that we as water must conform to verse 3. Who shall ascend now? We've just described described God as the owner of all things the maker of all things the immovable object that all things should conform to.

Now we're gonna describe God's people but it starts with a question who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or Who shall stand in his holy place? Who can do it who can climb that mountain to be with God?

Man has a natural tendency to desire ascension. We just want to we want to ascend and we look at as at ascension as The reward for our unbendable resolve to not conform to the thing. That we ascend above.

So we go like I'm going to be tougher and stronger than the thing in front of me and I'm going to ascend above it. And we think of ourselves as this is how you ascend by our strength by our resolve. Especially men.

That's how we want to do it. Accidentally. Hit a button. It made my thing scroll. Hold on one sec. We say things like I didn't let the workout break me. I Ascended above it. I didn't conform or bend to my opponent.

So I beat him. Isn't it interesting that we think ascension is about being tougher than the other guy or smarter than the other guy stronger. Faster we think of rigidity we think of strength we think of resolve.

That's how we reach ascension, but look at who gets to ascend to the most high. Verse 4. Here's who ascends he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully?

What does that mean. Well, it sounds like oh, well, I've got to work really hard to have the clean hands and the pure heart and I've got to be very careful not to lift up my soul in vanity. So it kind of feels like oh, that's what I have to do.

But our righteousness is filthy rags. You can't have clean hands. You can't have a pure heart. Clean hands and a pure heart the man that will ascend will not only do good clean hands. But he will be good pure heart and if you've got to have both You're in trouble and the way you have to have both is that you can't be lifting your soul unto vanity.

Nor swearing deceitfully. So what does it mean to lift up your soul to vanity? Well vanity is all about self-promotion. It's all about like what can I get for me? It's self-serving. It vaunted itself.

It's the opposite of love. It's working all things together for your own good. This is quite the opposite of what God does because he works all things together for the good of those who love the Lord and Are called according to his purpose.

So he is working all things together for someone else. Not for himself. Notice how he works things for you. It's a selfless work and we are supposed to imitate that work which means we're supposed to work things together for someone other than us so Lifting up your soul and vanity is doing something for yourself.

We'll get to that a little bit more of that in a second. Nor sworn deceitfully was that mean deceit is all about self-reliance. You tell a lie to get yourself out of trouble. You make a promise to help others to be seen as good and you do that in the moment and Then when the time comes you make up excuses to wiggle out of it.

Right because you made the promise because you wanted to look good. It's self-reliance. You're you are relying on yourself to look good to others and That's just another form of swearing deceitfully.

These are devices people employ to direct their own paths to take. To take ownership of how their life will turn out. Now, I don't want to discredit the fact that we do have responsibility. But look at what we have the responsibility to do.

It's gonna show us here in a second. We are commanded in all our ways to acknowledge him and He will direct our paths which means The people who don't do that. They see themselves as the teapot not the water.

They don't conform and If they don't conform they don't get direction. They get destruction. How do we achieve clean hands in a pure heart? We get a glimpse of how to do that in first John 1 9 if we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Oh. So I confess my sins and I achieve the clean hands and pure heart. Not quite. See confessing my sins doesn't make me clean. Jesus makes me clean. See confess your sins and he is faithful and just.

To forgive us and cleanse us. So we think confessing makes me clean. No confessing Makes me conform. That's it it is confessing is just an agreeing with God that what you did was wrong you are now conforming.

He does the cleaning. We can't make our hands clean no matter how much good you do. It won't happen, but you conform to the immovable object of Christ be water. Right. And then he does the cleaning if any man be in Christ.

See Christ is the teapot. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things pass away. Behold all things become new. Something changes. We conform. Verse 5 he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and Righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Now, there's something interesting. Sounds to me like you have to have clean hands and a pure heart to receive righteousness. But how do I do righteousness? To get righteousness thing is as I Don't do righteousness to get righteousness first.

John 2 29 says if you know that he is righteous. You know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. So I do righteousness Because I have righteousness and I have righteousness Because I have Jesus Who gave it to me.

It can only be achieved after it is received. The only way you can achieve righteousness and do righteousness and Practice righteousness is God has put his righteousness on you and you are just conforming it to it.

See it doesn't say he that hath made his hands clean and his heart pure. It says he who hath clean hands and a pure heart. He gave us the clean hands and the pure heart. Those are things we receive from Jesus when we have a true conversion.

When God touches our heart and causes a change in our life. When he causes us to truly cry out and ask for forgiveness and sincerely submit and conform to him. That's when we get the clean hands and the pure heart.

Says who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully. See it's not a fake conversion for show. There is the heathen that will reject God and his promises. There are people like that out there.

I know some I'm even related to some I'm praying for them. They reject God and his promises. That's a pretty bad heathen, isn't it? You know, what may be worse. The heathen that will reject God but desire his promises.

So he will say the words and he will lift up his soul and attempt to make gain for himself. Instead of losing his life that he may gain it he attempts to save his life through his own actions. No, I prayed the prayer.

I I'm doing the things and so now I'm saved because I said the words. This is why you can have two people pray the same prayer and one will spend eternity with Christ. And the other will spend eternity from Christ.

This is why some people pray the prayer and they look like they didn't change. I was talking about people some people like that with some of our students this weekend this one lady heard David talking about priest.

Destination. She said it just bothers me though this idea because I have I have some people that I know that they they believe in Predestination like brother David does and and they believe that they're just predestined to go to heaven and they pray to prayer.

But I look at their lives and there's nothing that's changed and I said, well, that's simple. They may be predestined in a way that they're not aware of. They think they're predestined and they all they are they all are.

We all are predestined. It's just some are vessels for honor. Some are vessels for dishonor. So we pray for those people. That the Lord will open their eyes and see that without works their faith is dead.

Because God gives the one a pure heart and clean hands. That man receives righteousness from the God of his salvation and the other one believes himself righteous of his own actions and his own behavior.

And he becomes his own Savior. This is Self-promotion it is lifting a soul up in vanity and this man will quote swear his life to Jesus. With no intention of losing his life to Jesus he swears deceitfully.

He tries to save it for himself. And he swears deceitfully. Verse 6. This now we're talking about the man who has the clean heart or the clean hands and the pure heart. This is the generation those with clean hands and pure hearts.

This is the generation of them that seek him. These are God's true people. The ones that don't lift up their souls in vanity. They don't take on the name of Christ in vain to run with the crowd that. That looks good.

It has the smart business people. Some people go to church to do business. Just to make connections and promote their business and no, I'm a Christian too. Yeah. I love the Bible. I I love God. Here's my card.

You know. Yeah, call me. Let's do business and I'm not saying it's wrong for Christians to do business with each other. I think that's a great thing. I mean, that's what we do with trade way, right? But we don't lift up our souls in an attempt to look like a Christian.

So that we get gain. That's not how it works we lose our souls to Christ and We Gain our life in return. This is the generation that seek him. These are the regenerate the regenerate the generation that earnestly Pursues him and seeks him out the relationship that they desire.

They search for it because he has put it in their hearts to desire him. We love Christ because he first loved us and then it says Oh Jacob. It's weird. It's a weird way that they write this. This is the generation of them that seek him that seek thy face.

Oh Jacob. Salah, that's weird. You'd think it'd say Oh God, right and in some translations it says Oh God of Jacob and you go. Oh, okay. Well, that's what it means. It means Oh God of Jacob. And yes, that is true because it is talking about God, but the way the King James Version translates.

This is beautiful. It says Oh Jacob. Why does it do that? Because it doesn't depict an infinitely powerful creator of the universe being sought by a people that could never hope to attain him. Not at all.

Rather it depicts an infinitely power Powerful creator of the universe that condescends to his people and takes on their name. God takes on the name of Jacob. There's a passage in Scripture that depicts this perfectly.

It's when Jesus is praying in the garden you see. We think of we're supposed to take on the name of Christ and we do but this is a covenant relationship with us and God and when The Israelites would do a covenant They would I'm not gonna go through the whole thing but it's this big thing where they brought animals and they sacrificed animals and they walked around the animals and they cut their hands and they put their hands together that their blood would intermingle and they tie a rope around their hands to show that they were bound together by this covenant and they would take on each other's name like if I had a name I Had a covenant with Ernie it'd be my name would become like David Ernie Huber and your name.

What is your last name. Ernie Clark. Ernie would be Ernie. David Clark we would take on each other's names and become covenant brothers. This is a covenant between us and God we take on his name. He takes on ours.

And there's a passage in Scripture that depicts it Perfectly and it's when Jesus is praying in the garden John chapter 17 verses 21 through 23 and the glory. This is what he's saying to his father in the glory, which thou hast given me.

I Have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and Thou and me that they may be perfect in one. You see all of us in one together us one with Christ Christ one with us The Father one with Christ us one with the Father Covenant and that the world may know that thou hast sent me.

There's the descending down to his people and has loved them as Thou has loved me. What a beautiful humble servant of a master we serve. And it is unfathomable that he would do this that while he gives us his name he takes on ours.

Like that covenant ritual between two men. This is what the God of the universe did with us. This is why verse 6 ends with my favorite word in all of Scripture Salah. It doesn't have a meaning. It is a musical connotation that brings Inflection to whatever was just said before it like the crescendo in a song like a it can be a dramatic pause.

You know. Someone says something and there's like a mic drop moment. Salah denotes the mic drop. And so this ends this this verse ends with the mic drop. God took on our name Salah. It's like just think about that.

Wow the psalm begins to transition here from talking about who God is and Who his true believers are to the arrival of the those believers. King? Imagine the joyous occasion of the gates being lifted up for the presence of the King the Ark of the Covenant Coming into Israel.

That is a physical depiction of what happens with us. Lift up your heads. Verse 7 lift up your heads. Oh ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors. And the King of glory shall come in gates create separation.

They are a defense they keep things out and None of us are in of ourselves worthy to enter upon the eternal gates of glory. We are shut out. We cannot go in. But the king descends from his throne and he approaches that Separation and the watchers of the gate they lift their heads and they see him coming.

They asked themselves. Who is this king of glory that approaches? But wait a minute. They know who it is and They say the Lord strong and mighty. You see they know him and yet he is infinitely unknowable.

So while they say who he is they ask who is this guy? He is that awesome. Is that cool, you know what you can you can see someone that's pretty impressive and you go. I know him but man, who is this guy?

Right, I Do that with my kids. Sometimes my daughter was singing over here and practicing. Brought me to tears while I'm trying to do my Sunday school lesson and I'm going who is this girl? I Know her better than most people in the world know her and I'm like is this that you've given me to raise God like she's.

I Can't do this. I need you to help me. She's too awesome. The watchers of the gate That keep us separated from the father. They look up and they see the king of glory coming. The Lord strong and mighty.

He is the one who is worthy to command the gates. Lift and open he says and let my people in Verse 8 and say it again. Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord Mighty in battle.

Who has won the war. This is Jesus. He descends from his throne. He makes covenant with his people. He lives a perfect life for 33 years. Comes from heaven to earth. That's a spiritual sacrifice. Lives perfectly.

Every moment of every day of his whole life. That's a mental sacrifice and then the whole thing is culminated on the cross. A physical sacrifice and he wins the battle. And the watchers shout again Lift up your heads.

Oh ye gates even lift them up the everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in. He's coming in. Who is the king of glory. The Lord of hosts. He is the king of glory. Salah. I drop it's all about Jesus.

We can't lift up our Souls and do anything or look good enough. Or try hard enough to gain salvation. It is as filthy rags. We cannot give ourselves clean hands. We can't clean our hands. We don't have the water to do it.

We don't have the soap to get them clean. It's like trying to wash mud off with mud. All we can do is Become like water and conform To the image of Christ. Agree with him that what you've done is wrong.

That's it. Let him do all the rest. Salvation is the operation of God and when he puts it in your heart To conform guess what he already started the operation. He's already Turned something on. He's enlightened you and caused you to want him.

The scripture says Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But if you look at how it's written in the in the original language It actually means who shall up whosoever shall desire to call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

That desire Only comes from God in the moment. You have that desire. You are saved all of the Cleaning of the hands and the walking in God's righteousness and obeying his commands and doing what we're told and getting baptized and Asking God to come into your heart and save you that's all just a response To the desire he put in your heart.

Like Saul on the road to Damascus. He's going to kill Christians and God Shown from heaven on him. And Saul says Lord What would you have me do? He saved he just wants to he wants to do The will of God in that moment because God put it in his heart to do it in That moment Saul is saved then God says here's what you do now that you're saved go and get baptized.

Go do these things All right. The only reason why Saul said Lord, what would you have me do is because God put it in his heart to say this those words Because he knew what he was gonna do. He's gonna go kill Christians.

That was in his heart till something changed. It's all God. It's all Jesus. He is the immovable object. We must conform to him and that Is Psalm 24. Anybody have anything you want to comment on before we pray and dismiss That cool, it's just part of the covenant relationship.

Usually it's between two men and two men make an equal commitment but when God made that commitment he put Abraham in deep sleep and God was the one that walked around. The father and the son God made the promise and we'll keep the promise.

Salvation is not based on something that is palpable. It's based on the infallible God.

Good calls and well, that's so good. That's so good. So think about this for a second if God made the covenant with Jesus his son and he put Abraham to sleep and the covenant ritual was Sacrifice animals walk around the animals come to the middle cut your hand mix the blood tie the rope around.

So you show that you're bound in covenant. I take on your name you take on my name, right? Jesus was doing that in place of Abraham and Here's what they would say in this covenant with these mutilated animals behind them.

If I don't keep my word to you, may I be like that animal? So when Jesus makes this covenant as a substitute for Abraham What are you saying is if Abraham? Doesn't keep this covenant May I be like this animal.

Which is why he was mutilated on the cross by the wrath of God. The punishment that we deserve. Yeah. All right, well shall we pray Heavenly Father we thank you so much for the infinite sacrifice that you made for us.

The perfect sacrifice you are the king of glory. We don't deserve Your dissension to us. We don't deserve to take on your name or to have you take on ours, but you desired to do that. Thank you so far so much father.