(Psalm 24:3-10)…..Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah
7 Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall 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 up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah
We have heard and seen in God’s word that He alone is the Sovereign King, the Lord over all things. This is seen and understood through the Lord’s Sovereign rule over His creation, which includes even us (Psalm 24:1-2) (Job 38-39). But just how majestic is God (Isaiah 6:1-5)? Notice the question set forth in (Psalm 24:3) as the ark is being brought to Jerusalem, “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?” “Who shall stand in His holy place?”
What is this verse referring to? It is a reference to Zion. What is Zion? Zion is the name of one of the hills of Jerusalem the biblical capital of Israel. It was the site first conquered by King David (2 Samuel 5:6-7) (1 Chronicles 11:4-5). Zion often refers to the entire city of Jerusalem (Psalm 48:1-2) (Psalm 65:1) (Psalm 102:20-21). So we can see that this is a reference to Jerusalem and even more specifically the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah) – “who shall stand in His holy place?” The place of the ark, the place of God’s presence on earth at that time.
The answer is found in (Psalm 24:4)….”He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” This verse sounds a lot like (Psalm 15) (Matthew 5:8). This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob (God of Jacob). If we are to be in the LORD’S presence we must have (1.) Clean hands, hands that are not dirty with sin, that not soiled with the pollutions of the world and the flesh. (2.) A pure heart, one not given to wickedness. (3.) A soul not lifted up in vanity (worthless things), that is, not enticed by the wealth of this world, the praise of men, given to idolatry, and believing all these to be empty, uncertain, and unsatisfying. (4.) Not sworn to deceitfulness, that is, bearing false witness against anyone or cheating him out of his/her substance through lies.
But we have a problem, there is no one with clean hands when it comes to sin (Romans 3:23). No man has a pure heart naturally and of himself (Genesis 8:21) (Jeremiah 17:9) (Mark 7:20-22) (Romans 3:10-18). Our souls have been lifted up to worthless things that don’t profit for eternity. We have all lied (Psalms 101:6-7) (1 Peter 3:9-10). What is necessary to ascend into the hill of the Lord? – What is necessary to stand in His holy place? Righteousness, those who are absolutely perfect, those who are undefiled. God is a holy God, so no sinner can stand in His holy place. No sinner can ascend into His holy hill. Perfect righteousness is necessary for that to even be possible. But without Christ we are not righteous, we do not have the right to ascend the hill of the Lord, we do not have the right to stand in His holy place. We must seek our righteousness in another (Philippians 3:8-9) (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is to Christ that (Psalm 24) points us to, so that only those who cling to Him, as Jacob clung to God, may ascend the hill of the Lord. Only those ascend who depend fully, entirely, and utterly upon the righteousness of Christ can come.
Today if you are born again, and have had His righteousness imputed to you (2 Corinthians 5:21), the shout for joy because you have access to the living God.