Psalm 24

Hey, I’m Jason Jackson. I need to introduce myself because I was in the foyer and somebody said I didn’t recognize you with that luscious winter beard. Oh, that’s hurtful! Thank you. Who’s laughing? Yeah, I haven’t shaved in a decade.

Merry Christmas! Can I say that this morning? I love saying Merry Christmas! — But every year I’ve got that awkward feeling between Halloween and the middle of December where I want to wish people a Merry Christmas, but I feel like it might be a little early for some people. But we at our house put up our Christmas lights outside in the middle of October. And we are listening to Christmas music starting November 1st because that’s what real Christians do! Amen? That’s right!

But hey, if you live in Des Moines, one of the things that might be something that you do every year is drive through the Jolly Holiday Lights. They used to be at Adventureland. This year they’re at the State Fair grounds… so now we can enjoy State Fair traffic year round which is really nice. Our little family went out there to the East side just the other night to look at the light displays. And I have to tell you that it’s pretty obvious that there’s some, let’s just call it, confusion out there about Christmas. Okay, I had prepared myself to see Santa playing football with Rudolph, right? You got that classic Santa and Rudolph, and the elves making all the toys, there’s the one with just the two lights, right? Bank, bang… the hammer, up, down, up, down. Then there’s a 12 days of Christmas display. That’s a classic. You can’t drive by there without singing the whole song. But what I wasn’t expecting was to pull around the corner towards the first display and to see a whole row of… dinosaurs! Yeah, dinosaurs, OK? Like as in pterodactyls and velociraptors. There’s a T-rex with a stocking cap. I think there’s even a stegosaurus with a shiny red nose all lit up. These are Christmas lights. But if you can get through the Jurassic Christmas section, then you pull up this little hill and there it is. It’s the nativity scene. Ahhh…! This is the classic what we think of, right? It’s Mary, Joseph and Jesus lying in a manger. That’s our picture. And then 20 feet away, overlooking tiny little baby Jesus, there’s this giant bright red and green blinking Brontosaurus, just staring right there at the manger! And I’m just gonna say something that might be a little controversial here. So parents, if you’ve got kids, you might wanna cover their ears ’cause I don’t wanna be that guy that ruins the magic of Christmas for you. Okay, so cover your ears and here it is, ready? I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a Brontosaurus at the birth of Jesus. Okay, you can uncover your ears, all right?

It says something actually about our culture that we have to clarify things like that this morning. Or maybe just says something about the East Side of Des Moines. I don’t know which one it is maybe. But you’ve seen it, right? You see it in our culture, in our world, and maybe even in your own neighborhood. There’s a growing sense of confusion over what Christmas is really all about. So we’ve added so much clutter and chaos and cultural characters that sometimes it’s hard to see the truth through all of the blinking distractions this time of year.

And so this morning we’re digging into a passage that clears away some of that confusion. And as I’ve learned so much from my time soaking in with this message over the last couple weeks, and I’m really hoping that it’ll be a fresh reminder for some of you, or maybe just a brand new focus for someone here today around this time of year the Christmas season.

So grab your Bibles, we’re gonna be in Psalm 24, which actually is a song written in two sections and written by King David in the Old Testament, a song of David. So let’s read the first section, Psalm 24 and we’ll start with the first six verses. And here it is in your Bibles or on the screen behind me. David says,

Psalm 24:1-6

1 “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

2 for He (God) has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.”

(sort of reminds us of Genesis 1, right? And then David asks this question, which is really the crux of this whole passage, and our whole message this morning in verse 3)

3 “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in His holy place?”

4 (Well) “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 (That person) 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” (or take a break)

Let’s pray. Father God, open our eyes this morning to see Jesus and the glory of Your Son through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the words of Your word, the Bible, through relationships, conversations, friendships with people in Your body, the body of Christ, Your family. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

So David wrote a whole bunch of the Psalms in our Bibles, and many of them are actually songs that would have been sung by David himself or perhaps by the nation of Israel during special feasts or during worship and actually several are still being sung today. So most smart Bible people believe that David wrote this song when he was king of Israel and he was bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem after it had been captured by Israel’s arch enemy, the Philistines. You probably heard of the Ark of the Covenant if you’re familiar with the stories in the Old Testament or maybe you’ve watched Indiana Jones movies, okay? It’s similar. Essentially, the Ark of the Covenant is a wooden box and it’s completely covered in solid gold. It was intricately designed with two angelic figures on top, each with their wings stretched out over the box facing each other. The Ark of the Covenant made under Moses’ supervision and it became an important symbol of, and here’s really the key to our story today, it became an important symbol of the power and the presence of God Himself, okay? The power and the presence of God. So being in the same space as the Ark was like being in the very presence of God. It was a holy space, a powerful place, awe-inspiring, almost frightening. In fact, only very specific priests and Levites could even touch the Ark and even they had to follow strict rules.

Now one of those priests, Eli, was a priest in Israel. His two sons, who the Old Testament calls “worthless,” (Now that’s a title nobody wants, right?) the Old Testament actually calls them “worthless people.” The Israelites went to battle against the Philistines, and instead of asking for guidance and direction from God, Eli’s sons run headlong into battle without any concern for what God thought about going to battle. They treated the Ark as a good luck charm, and they tried to manipulate God into giving the Israelites the victory. — But the Israelite army was crushed and thousands of soldiers lost their lives during the battle. So the Philistines, they take the Ark of the Covenant as a trophy of war, but God brings a plague on the Philistines, and even these pagan people realize that the God of Israel isn’t to be messed with, and so they’re like, ‘Here Israel, you can have your Ark back. We don’t want it anymore.’ And so the Ark of the Covenant ends up in a little remote village in Israel. And one day there’s this group of 70 guys who live in that village and they get curious and they open the lid of the Ark of the Covenant to see what’s inside. So here’s 70 buddies. They see this mystery box covered in shining wrapping paper and they just can’t help themselves from peaking inside. If it sounds familiar, this is the first time that people were caught opening up Christmas presents before they were supposed to. Okay, we know the story. And parents, this is for you, it’s a freebie. If you’re looking for a great out of context verse to warn your kids not to sneak into their gifts early, write this one down and you can’t get any better than this, especially if you go back to the Old King James version. Here’s what happened in 1 Samuel 6:19. Use this with your kids!

1 Samuel 6:19

19 “And He smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the Ark of the LORD…” (“And God, smote the men…” That’s a great word, right? Because, why? — They looked into the Ark of the Lord. They peeked at their Christmas presents.)

19b … and the people lamented because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.”

Read that to your kids! I guarantee they’ll think twice about opening their presents early, right? Okay, so look… God kills these 70 men on the spot and nobody touches the ark for like 20 years. It just sits on top of this little hill, neglected in Israel and almost forgotten. And then King David shows up and he understands what the ark symbolizes, the power and the presence of  holy God. And he wants to put the Ark in its place of honor, in the city of Jerusalem. And so David, in his giddy excitement, about getting the Ark to its rightful place, he doesn’t pay attention to what God said about how they should handle the Ark. And David puts the Ark of the Covenant on the back of a cart and straps it to a couple oxen and slaps them on the rear. And the oxen get off and they go off kilter. And a guy named Uzzah, who’s just walking next to the ark, this guy, Uzzah, he reaches his hand out to stabilize the ark on the cart. It’s about to slide off. And Uzzah puts his hand on the Ark! Uzzah touches the holy, perfect presence and power of God… And God kills him right there, right in front of everybody! And King David, he sees this whole thing! He saw what happened to Eli’s sons and the Israelite army. He sees what happens with the 70 villagers, and now what just happened to Uzzah, and he gets it! David understands this. When unholy humans approach a holy God, it can be disastrous!

[2 Samuel 6] And then like any great songwriter who’s just experienced something really dramatic, David writes a song, and we know it as Psalm 24.

Now some of you are asking a question in your mind. You’re almost afraid to admit it because it feels strange to ask this question, but here it is. Why? Why? Why would God kill these people? What kind of a God just drops a guy for reaching out and touching a golden box? And all these stories are true! If they are true, then how can I have any hope of getting close to God? How can I possibly have a relationship with this kind of God? And if you’ve got questions like this, you’re actually in good company, because David actually asks it this way in verse three of Psalm 24. We read it earlier,

Psalm 24:3, “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in His holy place?“

David’s asking the big questions, right? So I’ll summarize these questions into what I think might be at the heart of them. If there is a God, what is He like and how can I have a relationship with Him? If there is a God, what in the world is He like, and how can I possibly know Him? And maybe you’re asking questions like that if you’re listening to this this morning, either here or online. Well, there’s good news! David begins to answer those questions in this passage. And whether you’ve been in a church service your whole life, or maybe this is the very first time you’ve been part of something like this, I’m praying that God will use this passage to clear up some of the confusion around this time of year, or maybe even just to give you a brand new perspective on the Christmas season and all that comes with it.

So let’s unpack this incredible Psalm, a song of David, and see what it has to do with Christmas. Look at verse one again of Psalm 24.

Psalm 24:1, “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.“

So remember the context here. David, King David, is writing these words from a pretty low place in his life. Remember, it was his careless leadership that led Uzzah to reach out and touch the ark prompting God to put him to death immediately. And I think there’s something telling about where David turns first when he’s discouraged. And it’s actually not the place that I normally turn. Maybe for you, it’s food or it’s shopping or it’s an escape to an addiction of some kind or another. But when I feel low, or discouraged, or hurt, or neglected, or confused or even alone… I turn inward. I isolate. Right? I start to feel sorry for myself, and I wonder if anybody is actually noticing me or anything that I do. Maybe there’s others out there that do the same thing. In fact, I actually tried to have this conversation with our 11-year-old the other day. I sat Judah down, I grabbed him by the chin and I made him look at me, (because I can still do that!) — and I regaled him with all of the amazing things that I do as his father. It was a great speech! Hey, wouldn’t it be nice if he actually said ‘thank you’ once in a while, right? And you know what he did? I could tell you what he didn’t do. He didn’t look at me and say, ‘Wow, Dad, you really have done so much for me! I honestly never realized how much of a servant you are to our family. And when, Dad, you put it that way, you’re absolutely right! Logically, Dad, I’m getting it! I should be so much more thankful, So from now on, I’m changing my ways. You convinced me with your incredibly well thought out argument!’ That doesn’t work, parents.

Listen… when David is at his lowest, he doesn’t look inward. He looks upward. He looks to God’s sovereignty! “The earth is the LORD’s,” David says. It’s all His! I don’t deserve anything from Him. He doesn’t owe me anything!

And maybe you’re here today and you’re discouraged. Like Colton said. “It’s Christmas, but it doesn’t seem all that joyful to you.” Right? So something’s going on in your life, maybe it’s your health or your finances, something to do with your family. Maybe you’re concerned about your future right now, and something’s got you in a low place. And this isn’t a formula and it’s not some kind of mantra that David gives us here to repeat over and over, and this won’t take the pain away, but it might just change your perspective.

King David tells us this morning, when you’re low look to the LORD. When you’re low, look to the LORD.… Why? —Because He’s still sovereign! He founded the universe! He created the cosmos! He placed every atom exactly where it’s supposed to go! He formed every cell in your body, knows exactly what it’s supposed to do and why and how. “In the beginning, God, the Almighty, created…” [Genesis 1:1]  And He’s still sovereignly sustaining His creation, both you and me and everything around us, right? And now if this is true, if God is holy, and perfect, and mighty, if God is the Creator and the sustainer of the universe, if God is sovereign over all…David asks, ‘If this is who God really is, then how can I possibly approach him? Who can possibly have any kind of relationship with Him?’ Here it is again. “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Who will stand in his holy place?” David’s asking these big questions, right? If God is so high, who can possibly ever reach Him? If God is so holy, who can ever be in His presence? How can you and I approach a God like this? But David actually answers the question beginning in verse 4. This is the kind of person who can approach a God like this.

Psalm 24:4, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart and does not lift up his soul to what is false and doesn’t swear deceitfully.“

So David is scrolling through what he knows about Old Testament history and he’s replaying the moment that Uzzah touched the symbol of the presence of God, and he’s just written the words of verses one and two, and reminded himself of God’s holiness and His perfection and the sovereignty of God. And now he asks, ‘If that’s who God is, then what kind of person do I need to be if I want to have a relationship with Him? And then he describes that kind of person and it’s right here in verse four. First of all, you have to have clean hands. David says, your actions need to be without stain or sin. So this is the kind of person who lives with complete moral purity, with absolute integrity and consistent righteousness. ‘Hey,’ David says, ‘if you want to approach a God who’s perfect, your actions must be perfect! — Not just clean sometimes, but clean all the time.’ Wow! Then David says, ‘You need to also have a pure heart. So if your hands refer to your actions, then your heart is a picture of your inward holiness. To have a pure heart is to live in a constant state of holiness in your thoughts and in your motivations, in your emotions and your feeling towards other people. And I don’t know about you, but there are times when I don’t want anybody knowing what’s going on in my heart because it’s not pure! But the one who gets to be in a relationship with a holy, pure, perfect God, that person is supposed to be pure… all the time! Get’s worse and worse here! David keeps going and he says, ‘You’ve got to be true in your worship. You’ve got to be true in your words.’ He says, ‘There’s no wiggled room at all. There’s no half-hearted worship. There’s no white lies. There’s absolutely no room for sin.’ David says, ‘If you want to approach a holy God, you’ve got to be this kind of person.’

But listen… there’s good news! David tells us in [Psalm 24] verse five and six that there’s some incentive here for this kind of person. If you can be this kind of person, perfectly pure in heart and actions, you will be blessed by God! See, the generation that seeks God above everything else, the generation that lives completely holy and pure in the face of evil, the man or the woman that has completely sinless resume, that person will be blessed! Now, if you get done reading verse 4 and you raise your hand and you’re like, ‘Yep! That’s me! That’s my resume. I got this!’ — Well then, you’ve missed the point, right? — Because here’s what David’s actually getting at. No human has ever, or could ever meet that standard of God’s perfection! It’s impossible! Nobody can say, ‘I’ve never sinned.’ Nobody can say ‘I’ve earned the right to stand before a perfect, then holy, Creator God. And this isn’t an exercise in comparison either. David’s not saying, ‘As long as you’re better than the guy next to you, or as long as you’ve done more good than bad in your life, then you’ll be okay.’ What David is really saying is, and watch this, ‘If you want a relationship with a perfect God, you have to be perfect!‘ — But you can’t be! Merry Christmas.

That doesn’t seem like great news, right? But what if I told you that there is a way? What if I said that you and I were actually created to have a relationship with God, to be in His presence, to stand in front of Him, to live abundant lives here on earth, and have eternal lives with Him in heaven one day? And what if I told you that the way to do that has everything to do with the Christmas Story? Now let me show you, and to see this for yourself you need to turn to one of the greatest Christmas passages in the whole Bible that almost none of us have ever thought about at Christmas time, right? My friend, John Nemmers from Eden Church, showed me this, and here it is. It’s in Isaiah chapter 6. To some of you, it’s a familiar passage, but we hardly ever think about it at this time of year, and I’m going to show you why this is such a great Christmas passage! Isaiah 6, starting with verses 1 through 4.

Isaiah 6:1-6

1 In the year that King Uzziah (this is not Uzzah, the guy that touched the ark. This is King Uzziah) In the year that King Uzziah died (Isaiah the prophet says) I saw the Lord (he’s having a vision, and this is the vision. The Lord is…) sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His (the Lord’s) robe filled the temple.

2 Above Him stood the seraphim (these angelic creatures.) Each (of them) had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;

the whole earth is full of His glory!”

4 And the foundations of the thresholds (of that building) shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.”

What an image! What a picture! So here’s the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, and he has this vision of himself in the very presence of God. And remember, that’s a scary place to be! In fact, Isaiah knows his Old Testament history, and he realizes that there’s no way that he should be this close to the Holy, Holy, Holy Lord. And so he says in verse five, ‘I’m sunk!‘ He says,

5 (And I said:) “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; (Why?) for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

… and he thinks, it’s over! Remember the slaughter by the Philistines of the Israelite army? Remember the 70 guys that peaked into the Ark? They got smote! Remember Uzzah who reached out and touched the presence of God and God dropped him dead?” Isaiah remembers all that, and he’s like, ‘That’s going to be me! My eyes have just seen God, Himself! It’s over! God’s going to kill me! — Because Isaiah knows that when unholy people approach a holy God, it can be disastrous! But watch what happens next! Look at verse 6.

6 Then one of the seraphim (these angelic creatures) flew to me, (Isaiah says) having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Did you see that? Did you see the Christmas story in there? Maybe not. It’s in there! Look, it’s amazing! Isaiah says this, ‘I’m a sinner! I’m unholy! I’m unworthy! And everybody around me is in the same boat! We’re all broken, and none of us has a chance of ever, ever reaching out and touching the presence of God without being killed right on the spot!’ Isaiah’s saying the same thing that David said in Psalm 24, right? But then, but then… one of the angels, a messenger from God, Himself, takes a burning coal from the altar, a symbol of the presence of God, and approaches Isaiah. Actually, Isaiah says the seraphim flies to him and touches him with a holy coal. Watch this! God’s power and presence come to Isaiah, and the prophet says, ‘How can a sinner like me ever reach out and touch a sinless God?’ And God replies, ‘You can’t! — So I’m reaching out to touch you. You can’t approach Me, so I’m coming to you! You can’t ever climb the hill, so I’m coming down to you!‘ Did you see that? That’s the Christmas story! Isn’t it? —Because at its heart, the Christmas story isn’t about shiny presents or “feel good” music or, my goodness, blinking dinosaurs! Let’s clear up some confusion right here. The Christmas story is about God reaching down and meeting us where we are, because we could never reach up and meet Him where He is!

Pastor Pat quoted from the Gospel of John last week in the New Testament, John 1:14. This is the Christmas story.

John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (The Incarnate set up His tent, His dwelling. He moved into our neighborhood.) “and we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and of truth.“

Friends, this is the moment that Isaiah 6 is pointing to thousands of years before it happened! It’s God, the unapproachable, the holy, the mighty, the perfect Creator God coming down to earth to make His home with us, to live with us, the presence of God, not hidden, not blinding, not unapproachable, but right there in front of our very eyes! Listen, Isaiah had to hide his eyes from the glory, but Christmas means we can look at Him with our eyes wide open, seeing His glory… and here’s the big reveal. This is the climax of the passage! This is what the Bible is getting to all through the pages. We can see God’s glory! We can be in His presence! We can touch the divine! Sinners can have a relationship with a sinless God… because of Jesus! He’s the main story! God, a holy God, comes down to earth in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ, full of grace and of truth. God with us… Emmanuel! That’s the Christmas story, right?

The Apostle Paul said it this way in Romans 3:23, ‘for everyone has sinned, all of us. There’s not one that’s left out. We all fall short of God’s glorious standard of perfection and holiness. We could never attain that on our own.’  So what happened? God in His grace makes us right in His sight. How? How God? How did you do this? He did this through Jesus Christ! When He freed us from the penalty of sin. ‘God, when did this happen? Tell me!’ God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin on the cross He died for us! And so now people are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. That is the Gospel story right there! — And when we couldn’t touch God, He reached out to us. When we couldn’t be perfect, He sent His perfect Son. When we were lost and hopeless in our bondage and brokenness, He freed us and healed us. When we could never be right with God on our own, He made us right in His sight and (watch this!) when we couldn’t approach God and live, He approached us… and died! Now that is Good News! Merry Christmas everybody!

So you were created to live in community with the Holy God, to be intimate with the Almighty, but sin broke that perfect relationship and made it impossible for you and I to approach God on our own. And things have been broken ever since. When you couldn’t ascend the hill of the Lord, when you couldn’t stand in the holy place on your own, when you couldn’t possibly have completely clean hands or a pure heart all the time, That’s when God sent Jesus. And Jesus, born in a manger as a baby, lived a sinless life with sinful humans. And He sacrificed Himself on the cross to pay the penalty that we owed for our sins. And He died and was buried in a real grave that was sealed by a real boulder. And then He rose again as a glorious warrior King, conquering sin and death, and crushing the head of Satan, the great enemy!

And David, the composer of Psalm 24, where we started today, he concludes this great song, picturing this risen Jesus returning back home through heaven’s gates. He’s victorious, and He’s strong and He’s mighty! Jesus, the conquering King, returning back from battle. And this is how David pictures him. Look at verse seven.

Psalm 24:7-9

7 “Lift up your heads, O gates! (David says) And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.”

8 Who is this King of glory? (He’s) The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!”

He’s finished the work!

9 Lift up your heads, O gates of heaven! Lift them up, O ancient doors that the King of glory may come in. (He’s back, baby!) Who is this King of glory? It’s the Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory! Selah!” Take a deep breath.

So who is this King of glory? Who’s the King that pursues you with His everlasting love? Who is this Lord Almighty, the Creator, God, who condescended to His creation? Who is this conquering warrior who defeated death and sets us free? His name is Jesus, the very power and presence of God! He is the King of glory!

So this Christmas, don’t get caught up in the confusion, right? Here’s the real Christmas story. A holy God reached down into the muck and the mire of sinful humanity like you and me and made a way for us to know Him, made a way for us to approach Him, made a way for us to be in His presence, to have a relationship with Him. And that way is through the King of glory, Jesus Christ!

And I have to ask this morning, that King of glory, is He your King? Is He your King? And if not, this Christmas, why not open up the gates of your heart and let Him in? That’s where He belongs. That’s where He wants to be. Lift up your gates and let Him in!

God, thank You for this picture of Jesus that we see all through the Old Testament, all through the New Testament, all throughout history. God, you are a holy, perfect Creator, God, unapproachable by sinful humans. And yet You came to earth through the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ, the King of glory. Oh God, let us be a generation that seeks Your face, God of glory, God of our salvation. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray and thank You. Amen.

Let’s stand and sing.