Don't Miss It - Psalm 24

It was 7:51 in the morning on a normal January day.

A young man wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and a Washington Nationals baseball hat began playing his violin in a Washington DC subway station.

He played for the next hour, performing six classical pieces. During that time 1,097 people passed by.

Some even tossed money into his violin case, to the tune of $32.17.

Of those 1,097 people only seven paused longer than sixty seconds.

Who was playing the violin in such a strange place? It was Joshua Bell, a Grammy-award winning violinist who had just filled Boston’s Symphony Hall.

Though Bell’s talents typically command $1000 a minute, that day in the subway he made $32.17 for an hour’s worth of work.

You can’t fault his instrument. It was a violin worth $3.5 million.

And you can’t fault the music.

Bell played a piece from Johann Sebastian Bach that is called “one of the greatest achievements of any man in history.”

There were shoe-shine stands on either side of Joshua Bell. People were buying lattes and lotto tickets. Besides, who had time to stop?

Who could afford to be late to work? Not expecting majesty in the midst of the mundane—people missed it!

It’s Christmas Eve just before Christmas day, a day filled with presents and parties and lots of pecan pie. We hear the cacophony of choruses, “Thank you so much,” “You shouldn't have,” “It just fits.”

We delight in the lyrics, “Chestnuts roasting on open fire,” “I’m dreaming of white a Christmas,” “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.”

Under the holiday spell we shelled out over $460 billion on toys, turkeys, travel, tinsel, and beautifully decorated trees.

But with all of the hype and hoopla it becomes so easy to pass by what Advent and Christmas are called to point us to, Jesus Christ.

It is so easy to miss it!

Tonight we come to Psalm 24

Since God’s revelation on Mt. Sinai the LORD had lived in a mobile home called the tabernacle.

But now David is moving the ark of the covenant from Gibeah to the capital city, Jerusalem.

Soon a temple would be built for his God.

This is why David composes Psalm 24.

Focus your attention on the psalm’s last verse which begins with a question and ends with grand affirmation.

“Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory!”

Israel had seen a lot of kings come and go.

Abraham encountered monarchs called Melchizedek and Abimelech.

Moses and Aaron confronted Pharaoh King of Egypt.

Joshua defeated Pagan kings.

And then the Book of Judges tells us about the kings of Canaan and Moab.

So who is this King of Glory?

It is the LORD of hosts, coming to Jerusalem, in, with and under the ark of the covenant.

He is the King of Glory!

But so often this King comes and we miss it.

In the baptismal flood you and I were called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light.

In communion we are fed and nourished for the way.

God has again and again delivered us, saved us and come to us.

And yet we still miss it!

Why?

Hear the word of the LORD from

John 3:19: “This is the verdict, light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

We love the darkness of self-centeredness;

live in the darkness of lies and half-truths;

long for more of the darkness that feeds our flesh.

The Prince of Darkness mocks our feeble discipleship, our failed relationships, and our fatal attractions.

Advent is a time when we feel the darkness, we see the brokenness of our world and with anticipation we ask the question David asks

Who is this King of Glory? We need to know.

Oh God, we need to know!

That’s why David begins Psalm 24 with the words,

“The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.”

He is setting the stage right here that The King of Glory is the King of creation!

The world is secure because God has established it by the word of his power

“The earth is the LORD’s!” He is the King of Glory!

The psalm continues: “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?”

The questions are significant.

The King of Glory calls for clean hands and a pure heart.

He rejects what is false and deceitful.

He wants every person to seek him, to seek the face of the God of Jacob.

These convicting words invite us to confess, repent, and humble ourselves before this great King.

They set in us the longing Israel had in the first Advent.

How can we be made right?

How could we approach a Holy God?

In the third movement of Psalm 24 the questions change from “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?”

to the psalm’s most important question, “Who is this King of Glory?”

Israel had multiple opportunities to get this right.

From a a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire that led the people for forty years.

To Isaiah announcing that the whole earth is filled with God’s glory

Or David in Psalm 19 marveling that the heavens declare God’s glory.

All through out the history of the Old Testament they missed it.

They wanted a human king to fix their woes and missed the king of glory over and over.

“This is the verdict, light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

How would the world ever be set right?!

The King of Glory would come again—

not to Jerusalem but to Bethlehem

and not in the ark of the covenant but in the flesh and blood of a real person.

“For us men and for our salvation he came down”

in the silence of a night, in the warmth of a candle, in the whisper of a baby.

This Baby exchanged the robes of eternity for swaddling clothes.

He exchanged his golden throne room for a dirty sheep pen.

Worshiping angels singing “Holy, holy, holy” from eternity past were exchanged for bewildered shepherds.

Here is majesty in the midst of the mundane;

holiness in the filth of manure.

The King of Glory comes into the world on the floor of a stable,

through the womb of a teenager, in the presence of a carpenter.

Jesus took on flesh and blood so that he could take you into his arms,

heal your hurts, forgive your filth and destroy your darkness.

He took on flesh, not to demonstrate the innocence of infancy,

but to live the life we could not and die our death so we need not.

And catch this…Jesus isn’t an assistant to the Father.

He isn’t the vice-president of the world.

Jesus isn’t a junior partner to the Father.

No.

He is a full-fledged member of the godhead,

equal with the Father in every way, from eternity past.

“Being of one substance with the Father.”

John says, “Through him all things were made.”

Paul proclaims, “He is the image of the invisible God.”

And the writer of Hebrews says Jesus is, “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.”

There it is again, Jesus is the King of Glory!

It was on the cross that Jesus fully disclosed the glory of God.

Any idea of divine glory needs to adjust to Jesus’s willingness to humble himself to death, even death on a cross.

Paul tells us that the leaders of this age “crucified the Lord of glory.”

The source of light, for three hours he hangs in the darkness.

The source of life, he’s crucified, dead, and buried.

This is no sentimental or syrupy love.

But a fierce love for you;

driven by nails, marked with scars, crowned with thorns

sealed with resurrection power

The King of glory comes to set us right with God, to make all things new…

Do you see it?

Art Holst, a veteran NFL referee, tells about a Sunday when Kansas City Chief tight end Fred Arbanas was tackled so hard that his artificial eye popped out.

Soon the missing eye was found.

Arbanas popped it back into place and was eager to resume play.

The Ref then said to Arbanas playfully, “I’m impressed with your courage, Fred. But what would you have done if you had lost the other eye?”

“That’s easy,” snapped Arbanas, “I’d become a referee!”

Referees aren’t the only ones who live in the dark.

So do we!

Listen to Psalm 24:10 one more time. “Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory!”

Don’t miss it!

John 1:9 (ESV)

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.