King of Glory

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Psalm 24. And if you’re able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word:

Psalm 24 NIV

Of David. A psalm. 1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. 3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. 5 They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob., 7 Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you 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, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty— he is the King of glory.

May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

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Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David wrote 73 psalms. 73 songs of praise to the Lord. This psalm—Psalm 24—gives us a little glimpse into the liturgical life of ancient Israel.

“Liturgy” is simply what happens in the worship service. It’s the way we have everything in roughly the same place in the service, with a few changes here and there.

God’s people in the ANE would have come to expect certain things during weekly worship, not unlike ourselves. This psalm—Psalm 24—was one of the psalms that guided them in worship.

Many people like to try to pinpoint the exact occasion and/or event in David’s life prompting each psalm. We can’t know that for certain unless the heading of the psalm tells us. There’s nothing in the heading to this psalm that tells us anything beyond this being a psalm of David.

So, instead of spending time trying to identify the occasion of the psalm, let’s get right to the teaching of the psalm.

The primary burden of the psalm is to tell Israel (and us) to be ready for the King.

The psalms were the hymnbook and prayer book of the people of God. In their worship, this psalm played a primary role. They would pray these words, sing these words, internalize these words. They’d know these words the way we know The Lord’s Prayer or the Doxology.

This psalm would guide them in their worship. This was part of their liturgy, walking them through these truths about the Lord Yahweh. This is full of foundational truths to anchor them and focus them on the Lord (to anchor us and focus us).

This psalm teaches there is one God to whom everything belongs; He is holy and mighty.

THERE IS ONE GOD

The psalm actually starts out with the words “To Yahweh” and David is emphatic about it.

He wrote this psalm and he was very clear: “To Yahweh belongs the earth and everything in it.”

And then, the “He” of verse 2—and HE founded it on the seas and established it on the waters—that HE is also emphatic.

David’s highlighting, vocally, the primacy of place the LORD Yahweh has. It all belongs to Him. He founded it and established it. HE did. No one else.

My mom’s favorite hymn picks up on this idea:

“This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas-- His hand the wonders wrought.”

This teaching from the psalmist, from ancient Israel, was in direct contradiction to the peoples around them. This flew in the face of what everyone else around them believed. The common assumption was that there were many gods, a plethora of gods.

The people living around the people of God worshipped many different gods. They had a god for everything—a sun god, a rain god, a fertility god and goddess, a god of the harvest, a god of wine, a god of baseball, etc.

The nature of pagan gods made it impossible to live in peace. Jewish scholar Nahum Sarna has written that the Mesopotamian society suffered from “overtones of anxiety.”

You see, in pagan belief, the different gods the people worshipped could be opposed and often were opposed to one another. One god would sabotage the other, trick the other, dupe the other. It was a constant state of chaos.

What’s more, pagan gods had no ultimate power. There was a realm around and beyond the gods—magic. The pagan gods themselves used magic, even had to use magic to accomplish what they wanted.

If that was the world in which you lived, can you ever imagine living in any sort of peace? If the gods you worshipped and served and bribed and coerced to do what you wanted could be stopped by another god…what would that mean for you? If the gods you worshipped lived in chaos, what chance would you have of living an ordered life?

David is making an enormously counter-cultural point in verses 1 and 2. He’s saying there’s ONE GOD—to Yahweh belongs all things. He’s highlighting the oneness and all-sufficiency of Yahweh—He (and no one else) founded [the world] and established it.

Paul picks up on this theme and teaches that the Triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—did the creating:

Colossians 1:15–17 NIV

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

The universe was made and is held together by strong and caring nail-scarred hands.

There need not be anxiety amongst the people of God, for the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it…He (and no one else) founded it on the seas and established it on the waters (and He continues to maintain it).

THERE IS ONE GOD

EVERYTHING BELONGS TO HIM

It all belongs to Him. To Yahweh belongs everything on the earth and all who live in this world.

This is a foundational truth. So foundational, so important, so crucial, Paul picks up on it and quotes the first verse of Psalm 24 as applicable to the daily lives and issues of the Corinthian believers.

1 Corinthians 10:25–26 NIV

25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

This is a foundational truth for us, too. In fact, I would argue the implications of Psalm 24—just the first verse or two—are incredibly important. Think about it.

Psalm 24:1 NIV

1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

If this is true (and it is), it has some major significance. Everything, without exception, belongs to Him. And everyone (the world, and all who live in it) belongs to Him, too.

That means no one is expendable. No one is second-rate. No one is less-than. At a basic level, each and every person has inestimable value simply because they belong to HIM!

AND, that everything in the world belongs to Him will, properly understood, re-frame the way we think about our possessions and the stewardship we’ve been given.

Nothing is ours.

It—all of it—belongs to Him.

Beyond those implications of this foundational truth, the main purpose of this psalm is to guide worship—theirs and ours.

When the people of God rehearse the truths in verses 1 and 2 about everything belonging to the Lord, it should serve to make us think.

All the people around us, all the beauty of the world, all the majesty of the cosmos—all of it belongs to Him.

He made it. He put it all right where He wanted it, some mountains over here, an ocean here and there, some happy little sequoias right there. Like Bob Ross, but on a cosmic scale.

The LORD Yahweh is an artist. The LORD Yahweh is the Maker and Sustainer of everything we see and behold.

He made it all and even decorated it for His glory and our awe.

He painted the deserts and the wildflowers.

He placed the stars in the sky, universe after universe swirling around in the blue like jazz.

He fashioned the fields and makes the lightning bugs dance for His good pleasure and the joy of His little children.

Isaiah 40:26 NIV

26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

If the realization that the LORD Yahweh made all things and that you and everything else belongs to Him—if that doesn’t lead you to worship, I’m not sure what will.

THERE IS ONE GOD; EVERYTHING BELONGS TO HIM.

That’s just the first two verses! What a glorious psalm. David goes on to write, in a way that will guide our worship. The psalm continues, making clear:

THE LORD IS HOLY

After verses 1 and 2, if they’re paying attention the majesty and supremacy of God, people would rightly ask the questions in verse 3.

Psalm 24:3 “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?”

One as powerful and majestic and holy as He might not be approachable. The wonder and the marvel of it all is that you can actually approach the God of verses 1 and 2.

He holds the world in His hands, and yet His people can meet with Him.

Spurgeon once entitled one of his sermons “The Approachableness of Jesus.”

The One True and Only God is awesome and approachable. The One who made all things, the One through whom all things hold together, has condescended, took on flesh, and dwelt among us.

John 1:14 NIV

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus—the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God—stooped down to our level to walk among us, to teach us, to heal the sick and give sight to the blind. He became man to give Himself up for us. Through Him and His sacrificial death, we are reconciled to God (made friendly again with Him) and through Him we have access to the One True God to whom all things belong.

The LORD is, because of Jesus, approachable, and we can approach Him as easily as a child can approach their father.

David answers the questions of verse 3 in verse 4, letting us know who can approach the LORD Yahweh. It’s the one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false God.

Clean hands refer to our deeds and our actions. Pure heart points to our disposition, our affections being undivided.

Well, who in the world has clean hands and pure heart? A holy God in His Holy Place certainly cannot be approached by an unholy people. This is true.

But remember: what the Lord requires, the Lord gives.

If an Israelite reading this psalm or singing this psalm would have asked “Who, then can approach this God?” the words of the LORD Yahweh in Leviticus 17 would have answered it for them.

Leviticus 17:11 NIV

11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

The way back to clean hands and pure heart, to right affections and deed is in the atoning blood and sacrifice that covers it all.

Our hope and assurance is the same.

The LORD Yahweh is holy. We are not.

So the LORD Yahweh provides the holiness we need.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

His people receive blessing and vindication from God their Savior, so says verse 5.

The people who have found their holiness from the LORD are those who will seek the LORD, continually seeking His face.

These are genuine worshippers of the LORD.

The call here in verse 6 is to hang onto the Lord as desperate people, because we know we have nowhere else to turn.

THERE IS ONE GOD; EVERYTHING BELONGS TO HIM.

THE LORD IS HOLY…

AND HE IS MIGHTY

The last four verses lend themselves to worship, specifically something called antiphonal worship (alternate singing by two groups, a call-and-response kind of singing).

Psalm 24 as a whole is probably this kind of song. Verses 3, 8, and 10 ask questions. These verses, these questions might have been sung solo.

The other verses are introductions or responses, likely sung by large choirs.

James Montgomery Boice says, “I do not see how it is possible to get the true effect of [Psalm 24’s] last section without approaching it in this way.

It goes like this:

The chorus approaching the city gates with the king:

Lift up your heads, O you gates;

be lifted up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

A voice from within the city walls asks:

Who is this King of glory?

A spokesman for the king replies:

The LORD strong and mighty,

the LORD mighty in battle.

The original approaching chorus repeats:

Lift up your heads, O you gates;

lift them up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

The voice from within, repeating the former question:

Who is he, this King of glory?

Everyone:

The LORD Almighty—

he is the King of glory.

This is a song, a question-and-answer, a call-and-response that would be used to rehearse these truths, to write them on the hearts of the worshippers. It’s a scene you can envision.

What should we glean from this? How does this guide us in worship?

This is a helpful reminder that the LORD is mighty. He is a warrior, the King of Glory.

The picture is of the LORD Yahweh in Exodus after bringing His people out of Egypt and defeating Pharaoh when Moses and the Israelites sang:

Exodus 15:2–3 NIV

2 “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. 3 The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.

The picture in Psalm 24 also anticipates the coming of Jesus, the Mighty Warrior:

Revelation 19:11–16 NIV

11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.

We rehearse these truths—that the LORD Yahweh is mighty, that He is the King—

So that we don’t forget, and

So that we would worship more fully.

Boice says of verses 7-10:

“It is easy to get excited about something as beautiful and moving as this liturgy. But we need to remember that the priests and people of Jesus’ day, though they sang it, did not really do what they were singing. In a sense they did; they let Jesus into the city and then into the temple area, where He threw out the moneychangers.

But although they let Him in, they did not actually let Him in. That is, they did not let Him into their hearts and lives. That is the way He really wants to come in, of course. He wants to come into your life to save you and change you.”

Worship is intended to do more than give you a warm, fuzzy feeling. Worship is more than an information download. Worship is far more than something to do on a Sunday morning because we feel we must.

The intent and purpose of worship is that the LORD Yahweh would be glorified and that we would become more and more like Him.

That we would serve Him more.

That we would reflect Him in our lives.

Worship is an expression of our love and trust and assurance in the LORD our God—the One True God to whom everything belongs, the Holy and Mighty One!

We’re going to take the last few verses of this psalm and we’re going to rehearse these great truths together, aloud and antiphonally (call-and-response style):

WOMEN:

Lift up your heads, O you gates;

be lifted up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Preacher:

Who is this King of glory?

MEN:

The LORD strong and mighty,

the LORD mighty in battle.

WOMEN:

Lift up your heads, O you gates;

lift them up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Preacher:

Who is he, this King of glory?

EVERYONE:

The LORD Almighty—

he is the King of glory.