Sermon Tone Analysis
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(24:1) Of/For David.
A Psalm.
For Yahweh, The earth is,
and its fullness.
The world,
and the ones dwelling in it,
Everything in this world belongs to Yahweh, and exists for Him.
Yahweh is the focal point; He is the end goal.
We have a tendency to lose sight of this.
We get caught up in everyday life; we start to think that we are the end-all be-all.
That the world revolves around us.
But we, along with the rest of the world, are "for Yahweh."
In verse 2, the psalmist explains why this is the case:
(2) because He upon the seas has laid a foundation,
while upon the rivers he is establishing it.
In science class, you maybe learned that beneath the world's crust, there is extremely hot magma, and different layers of this and that.
I'd say more, but science class was a long time ago.
But in biblical times, they understood how the world was made very differently.
If you asked the psalmist what was underneath the earth, the answer you'd get, was the primordial sea/waters (Gen.
1:6; 7:11; Exod.
20:4; Deut.
33:13).
The world, at the beginning of God's creating it, was a watery, soupy, dark mess (Gen.
1:1-2).
And Yahweh separated out these lower waters and seas, from the upper waters (Gen.
1:6).
And then Yahweh, like a skilled engineer, carefully built the world on top of it.
The picture is something like an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
He drove the foundations down deep, making the earth secure (Ps.
104:5; Job 38:4ff).
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H. Kraus, Psalms 1-59, 313:
"Verse 2* takes up conceptions of ancient Near Eastern cosmogony.
Below the world lies the primal sea, which is here indicated by the words ימים and נהרות (on the conception, cf.
Gen. 1:6*; 7:11*; Exod.
20:4*; Deut.
33:13*).
Like a house on stilts, the earth has been built on piles in the water (cf.
Ps. 104:5*; Job 38:4ff.*).
The verbs יסד and כון (polel) describe the founding and securing of the structure of the earth.
The OT praises Yahweh as the creator who through his work gave the world a firm solidity (Psalm 93)."
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So why does the world belong to Yahweh?
Why does everything revolve around Him? It's because Yahweh is a Master Engineer.
Everything exists, securely, because Yahweh is a Skilled Builder.
Let me just pause here, and say that this should be an encouragement to you.
Lots of people worry that this world is all going to fall apart, for one reason or another, at any moment.
A supervolcano will go off.
A meteor will hit.
There will be global warming, and kill us all.
Or global cooling, and kill us all.
Lots of people "know" we are all going to die, sooner than later.
If you picture the world like an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, you might think that all of life is a little iffy.
You wonder how big of a hurricane the world can ride out.
But the world was put together, and is being held together (and maybe that's why an imperfective/open-ended verb is used for the second line?), by Someone who knows what He's doing.
So at this point, we should have this picture of God in our heads.
God is the One who skillfully established the world, and continues to uphold it.
And it's for this reason that everything on earth, including us, exists "for Yahweh."
This brings us to verse 3:
(3) Who may go up on the mountain of Yahweh?,
and who may stand in his holy/dedicated place?:
The entire world belongs to Yahweh.
But Yahweh, in the OT, designated one particular place as being dedicated to Him-- Mount Zion, and the temple in Jerusalem.
This was the place you'd pray toward.
This was the place you'd seek God's face.
This was the place you'd worship (1 Kings 8; contrast John 4:21-24).
Given God's glory, and majesty, who is allowed to enter Yahweh's special place?
Approaching God is a serious business.
And we expect God to be picky about who He will allow to be close to Him.
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The second line talks about "standing" in his holy place.
What does this mean?
Four possibilities (based on a quick and dirty search of "to stand"):
(1) The posture for worship (Exod.
33:10).
(2) The normal posture for requesting (1 Sam.
25:41; Mic.
6:1; Job 30:28; Esther 8:4; contrast 1 Kings 6:54).
This is the one Goldingay adopts.
(3) The posture for demonstrating respect.
You don't worship sitting; you don't stay seated when someone important enters a room (Job 29:8; Esther 5:9).
(4) Maybe Daniel 1:19-20? "And they stood before the king."
(also 2:1?).
I think I like #4 a lot.
The idea is that you have special access to the king, and a unique, ongoing relationship with him.
(Eph.
3:12; Heb.
4:16; 10:19-22).
The first two, in particular, would fall nicely under #4 as well.
Don't think #3 works.
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So imagine that you are at the gate to God's holy place.
And someone stands at the gate, inside, and asks, why should I let you in (cf.
Rev. 22:14-15)?
How do you get past the bouncer at the gate?
Verse 4 is how you'd answer.
[And it's still how you'd answer-- "the works produced out of allegiance to Jesus ="from/by faith," through the Holy Spirit" (Gal.
6:8-9; Matt.
25:31-46).
Or, if it's less of a struggle, "faithfulness to Jesus," not "belief in Jesus"].
Let's break down verse 4, line by line:
(4) The one innocent of hands,
We humans can sin in lots of ways with our hands.
We can steal (Gen.
44:10).
We can take bribes.
We can be abusive.
We can murder (and the word is most commonly used in connection with murder; Isaiah 59:7; Jer.
26:15).
Sometimes when people sin with their hands, it's obvious.
Everyone knows that you killed someone, or abused your wife, or stole from your employer.
Everyone sees your hands, and knows that they are dirty from sin.
Other times, it's more secret-- maybe it looks like you got away with it.
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