Friday Meditations, 5/8/2020

Psalm 24
A Psalm of David.

This is called by some “a psalm of ascents” or “a psalm of going up” picturing, if you will, the approach to the temple which sat on the temple mount. But it is also a perfect companion to Psalm 23 where David affirmed his confidence in God that he, David, would “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” A logical question that might be stirred by such an affirmation is, “and who is allowed to do that?”

The Temple in Jerusalem sat on a hill which anyone might climb but as one got closer and closer to it the restrictions became more and more stringent until finally there was that “Holy of Holies” into which only one specially designated man might enter and that only once a year and only with the blood of a proper animal carefully slain and offered. And this was only the Temple on earth. Who gets to ascend that Temple Mount of Heaven and dwell in the House of the Lord?

It is believed that the occasion of this Psalm was the return of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem from the house of Obed Edom where it had been since David’s first attempt to retrieve it (2 Sam 6:10).

2 Sam 6:12-18
12 And it was told king David, saying, The LORD hath blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with gladness.
13 And it was so, that when they that bare the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings.
14 And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.
15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
16 And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.
17 And they brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it: and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
18 And as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts. KJV

Apparently, David was caused to reflect on many powerful truths as he approached the city with the ark, the city which would ultimately become the home of Solomon’s Temple in which the ark would be kept. Even though the vicinity of the ark was a truly special place, he remembered that the whole earth is truly a special thing as well, the Creation belonging to Our God.

And, now, the question.

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

In those few words, he voices the profound curiosity of every cogent soul, “Who will get to approach God.” The pagans were answering it in myriads of bizarre ways. The descendants of Noah through Shem had known it since the flood and the children of Seth had know it before that. (Noah was a descendant of Seth.)

Hills in scripture are symbols of loftiness, authority, power and excellence. The Lord is described as sitting ‘high and lifted up.’

Isa 6:1
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

David mentions two things in regard to this that are problems for man: (1) it is a high place, and (2) it is a holy place. It is a place too high for man to climb and the holiness of it is out of reach to sinful man. Therefore he must be lifted to that place by God Himself.

4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

Such a simple statement but Oh so profound. In NT language we would categorize this theoretical person as “the repentant man.” But we understand that his cleanness does not come from his Repentance nor his
Faith nor His obedience but from the same source upon which David and his ‘father’ Abraham had received it.

Rom 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (Counted, reckoned, imputed)

It is the man who has believed God, repented of his sins and taken up a life of obedience unto whom God accounts Righteousness, “clean hands and a pure heart.” In the Jewish religion it was the man who had been properly chosen, properly trained and who had carried out the details given by Moses for the preparations of the Day of Atonement. But David knew this was only a picture and a set of symbols. In reality the door was open for every man if he would but repent of his sins and truly believe the Great God
of Heaven.

5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

We are to read “he and he alone shall receive the blessing.” God does not have multiple roads of access, only one and this is it. He shall “receive” righteousness, he does not earn it even though every one who does have this “righteousness” Reckoned to him is a person of the same sort as described in v.4, one who has had spiritual life given to Him by God through the enabling (Grace) he receives in the New Birth.

6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

Vs. 4-6 form what is possibly the most succinct answer to the great problem of man ever penned. The “Selah” demands that we stop, given attention and powerfully ponder what he has just said. It is one of the mightiest arrangements of truth in short form ever presented to the mind of any person curious concerning God.

In the KJV it sounds as if David is speaking to Jacob rather than God, but the punctuation should be changed. “This is the company of those who see Him, who seek Thy face — (that is) Jacob.” But, the NT will ultimately reveal that this “Jacob” means all of the sons of Abraham by faith.

7 Lift up your head, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye 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 ye gates; even lift them up, ye 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.

As David thought of the ark entering the city, the most powerful representation on earth of God, he thought of the Lord Himself (as every person ought to do with every symbol – meditate on the reality it pictures)
entering the city in triumph, “strong and mighty… mighty in battle… the King of Glory.”

He had, by the spirit of prophecy, caught sight of the return of Our Lord to His City after the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, His Ultimate Conquest, which is one of the powerful reasons He should and must be worshiped.

— May 8, 2020