Psalm 24 | Prepare to Meet the King of Glory

Intro

Passage

Psalm 24:1–10 “1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. 3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah 7 Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may 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 gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah”

Glory is usually used as a divine attribute (i.e. Psalm 19:1)

The word “glory” (Heb. kabod) literally means “weight” or “heaviness” which developed into the idea of describing something important.

The related meaning of “important” arises because what has weight is perceived as important (as in our expression of throwing one’s weight around). Allen Ross

When it comes to God’s glory, we are are referring to God’s weighty nature which speaks of his supreme importance and beauty.

“So the glory of God is the supreme importance and His absolute ultimate beauty.” Tim Keller

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2016–2017 Sent to Show Christ’s Glory (John 12:27–36)

Well, the word kabod means weight. The Hebrew word for ‘glory’ means weight, heaviness, weightiness. And what’s interesting is we actually have an English word that operates something like that word, we have the word ‘matter.’ So when you talk about matter, matter can mean something solid, something substantial or something weighty, but matter can also mean what? Importance and when the Bible says God is weighty, God is glorious when it talks about His kavod, it means He is more important than anything else in the world, and He should be more important than anything in your life. He matters the most.

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2016–2017 Sent to Show Christ’s Glory (John 12:27–36)

You don’t just see God as supremely important but you see Him as beautiful, desirable, that He attracts you. Put it this way, Edwards is saying, if you obey God, because you ‘have to’ that’s not really grasping the glory of God as much as if you obey God because you want to; see, if you obey God because you have to, you’re actually not giving Him your whole self, you’re giving Him your will, and you’re basically being selfish. If you obey God because you have to, say, ‘Well, I got to do this if I’m going to get, you know, all the blessings I want’, then you’re using God; God’s not beautiful to you, He’s useful. He’s not an end of itself, He’s a means to an end.

You’re using Him to get the things that you really rejoice in. But to see the beauty of God is to be so attracted to Him, to obey Him for himself, you love Him for himself. That is you don’t say, ‘well, I want to please God so I can get this thing or that thing, to know that you please God because He is that beautiful and you are that in love with Him, is the greatest happiness you could know.

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 1989-2011 David Prepares His People

Just as the Babylonians are coming and Nebuchadnezzar is coming to invade Israel, God gives Ezekiel a vision of the glory of God, the kabod, the royal presence of God, leaving the temple for good because of the immorality, because of the idolatry, because the children of Israel said, “We’re going to do the rituals.

We’re going to do the sacrifices. We’re going to do all the stuff, but we’re still going to live the way we want.” Magic, controlling him, mechanical. He left, he was gone, and the Babylonians razed the temple to the ground.

When the Israelites came back from exile, they rebuilt the temple, and there was no glory in there. There was no ark in there. There was no shekinah glory, because guess what? We can’t, we will not, be totally consecrated. We cannot come up with what we need to really invite the presence of God into our lives.

We really won’t. Nobody is wholly devoted. Nobody is completely consecrated. Nobody has a heart of pure integrity, willing just one thing. So are we stuck? Are we lost? Are we forever on this side of the gap, no one to bridge the gap between us and God? No.