Psalm 24

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Hey, hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions.
This Tuesday morning, it is February 2nd. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's word, we grow in our love for the Lord together. In this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. Well, this morning we were at Psalm 24, a beautiful psalm about God's glory as the King.
Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to have a wonderful King who loves us. Lord, we pray that we would have confidence in you this morning, that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes to see and soften our hearts to believe. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, why don't we go ahead and turn over to Psalm 24 here. Let's turn on the screen. Psalm 24, a psalm of David.
The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol nor sworn deceitfully. he shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek him, who will seek your face. Say, La.
Lift up your head, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, lift up your gates, your head, O you gates, lift up you everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts. He is the King of Glory.
Well, what an amazing passage we have for us. Why don't we break this down section by section? A, what is this about? And then we'll ask, what's the best verse to summarize this? B, what's the best verse to summarize? And C, calling, what are we called to do in response to these words? So A, what is this about?
Well, verses one and two, who made the world? Who made the world? Who established the land? Who made the seas? It's the Lord Himself. It's God Himself who owns everything, who made everything, all things seen and unseen, He made by the will of His power through Jesus Christ. It is the Lord Himself.
And then verses 3 through 6, this is an interesting section. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? Now, isn't this remarkable? David is most likely thinking here, well, he could be thinking about Mount Zion with the temple there, or he might be thinking about Mount Sinai where God met his people there.
It's interesting, though, what it says. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Now that's amazing. Most of us think about idols and we think about a little statue of Buddha or Hindu idols and things like that. Or maybe you think of a totem pole. You think of these physical things, right?
But the book of Colossians tells us that even our covetousness is idolatry. That all of our sin, when we put ourselves and our desires above anything that God has made for his own glory, when we serve the created rather than the creator, that's idolatry. And so the reality is that all of us are sinful.
So how can any of us ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who has clean hands? Who has a completely pure heart? The prophet Jeremiah is clear about this. The heart is deceitfully wicked above all else. The book of Romans chapter 3 tells us that there's none good. No, not one. Not one seeks after the Lord. God said this in Genesis when he said the thoughts of man's heart were only evil continually. So we find ourselves in this conundrum, right?
How is it possible that we could ever ascend unto the mount of the Lord? How could we ever get into God's presence? Well, he shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face. We have to be in Jacob. But we need to be, that's pointing us back to that seed of Jacob, who is Jesus Christ, who gives us righteousness.
When we're in Jesus Christ, we're able to come into the presence of God. This is what the book of Hebrews tells us. that Jesus, because he is our high priest, ushers us into the presence of God himself. Thank the Lord it's not up to me or up to you to get us into the presence of God.
I mean, if my family was depending on me to be righteous, to get them into heaven, or to get them into the presence of God, they would be sore displeased and always, well, I'd be a letdown to them. If we're honest with ourselves, we have to look outside of ourselves for this. Because we have all sorts of hidden idols in our heart that God is constantly bringing to light. My wife just pointed out to me yesterday my idols of selfishness, laziness, and people-pleasing. And there's realities in our hearts that there are idols. But Jesus Christ is the exact image of the invisible God. It's he who brings us into the presence of the Lord.
And then this last part, lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle? Lift up your heads, O ye gates, lift up you everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory, the Lord of hosts? He is the King of Glory, Adonai Thavot, Lord Almighty. God of armies, the one who is in command of the legions of angels. It is God himself who is the Lord of hosts, who is the mighty King.
This is, once again, Jesus Christ. This is how they expected him when Jesus came into Jerusalem. There were people who thought, oh, the king is coming, the king is coming. He's going to come with all of his mighty angels, and he's going to overthrow the Roman Empire. Things are going to be made right again. That's not the way it worked, is it? Jesus overthrew an enemy, a hostile one who was even greater than Caesar. He defeated sin, death, and Satan himself. It is Jesus Christ who is the King of glory, who commands the legions of the angels. It is Jesus Christ we look to.
So what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, in my Bible, I'm gonna highlight verse 10. Maybe you would highlight something else. That's okay. Let me know down in the comments if you would highlight something else. The last, we need to ask ourselves, seek calling. What are we called to do in response to these words? How is this supposed to play out in your life? What do you trust in Jesus Christ? Do you have confidence in the King of glory?
Do you know that even now, I mean, there was a military coup in Myanmar, right? The general came in with his army and they arrested the prime minister and they arrested all these people. Do we realize that there is a commander who is greater than any general, who is stronger than any, who is the Lord of Lords, who commands all the armies, who made the world, who owns everything. His name is Jesus Christ.
Will we bow to Him? Will we find comfort in Him? Our brothers and sisters in Myanmar right now are worried about what will they eat and what will they drink? Are they gonna go into a mass depression? Will there be sanctions to come? Well, they might know that they're suffering in this world, but they know that they have a true King who is righteous. Do you take comfort? Will you take comfort today that in the midst of all the trials, suffering, how many rulers seem to want to take control for themselves? Do you know who truly is in charge? And will you lift up your eyes to Jesus Christ and know that the King of glory has come and he will come again.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the rich blessing it is to get to read your word. We thank you that you are the King of glory, the Lord of hosts, the one who commands the armies. Care for us this day, give us confidence in you, in Jesus' name, amen. I pray you go today in the grace of Jesus Christ with confidence knowing that if God is with you, who could possibly be against you?
I'll see you tomorrow, bye. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural Southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.