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Who Shall Ascend

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Daily Devotion With Pastor Dan Nickerson March 29th, 2022

(Psalm 24:3-6)…..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

We have heard and seen in God’s word that He alone is the Sovereign King, He Jesus, the Lord over all things (1 Timothy 6:15-16). This is seen and understood through the Lord’s Sovereign rule over His creation – even us (Psalm 24:1-2) (Job 38-39) (Colossians 1:16-17). 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? The hill of the LORD, what is that phrase 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 answer is found in (24:4)….”He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” This 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) (Genesis 32:24-32) – notice – he wanted God’s blessing.

Again look at (Psalm 24:4), if we are to be in the LORD’S presence we must have…..

  1. Clean hands – hands that are not dirty with sin – not soiled with the pollutions of the world and the flesh
  1. A pure heart – one not given to wickedness
  1. 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 – believing them to be – empty – uncertain – unsatisfying 
  1. Not sworn to deceitfulness – that is –  bearing false witness against anyone – cheating him out of his 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, absolute, perfect, undefiled righteousness. God is a holy God, and no sinner can stand in His holy place, no sinner can ascend into His holy hill by themselves. Without Jesus we are not righteousness – 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 and 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 another, the righteousness of Christ.

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