Sermon Tone Analysis

Tonight we’re in a Psalm that has been song over and over again since it was written.

-We find it in Handel’s Messiah—Lift up your heads oh ye gates (Jacksonville)

-----Who is this King of Glory—Chris Tomlin and Third Day

This is one of those Psalms that critics cannot fully agree on.

Some think it was sung when bringing the Ark of the Covenant back from battle.

Some think it was sung when the Ark was restored back after it had been taken.

Either way, scholars tend to agree it had something to do with the Ark.

The song was specifically set aside to be sung and taught on a Sunday.

—In the church age, the Psalm is thought to be an ascension Psalm and we’ll get to more of that in a minute.

---We can easily tell from reading it that it was sung in worship and it has grandure, and majesty and it draws one into worship even in individual reading.

Let’s read Psalm 24

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!

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Inside the priests were intoning:

Lift up your heads, O you gates;

lift them up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is he, this King of glory?

The Lord Almighty—

he is the King of glory.

Selah ().

James Montgomery Boice

1.

The earth is the LORD’s, and all it contains

Again the name Yahweh is used so even though we’re talking beyond the Jewish world, to all of creation—it is recognized that MY God owns all.

-so God owns all, because he made all.

—There is nothing in all of existence that God doesn’t claim.

Tremper Longman

He owns everything and everyone, and everything and everyone are completely dependent on him.

And thus He has authority over all

Paul even quotes this in

“We have walked into the LORD’s world.”

Dale Davis

If you ever watch a nature show like Nature or Earth—you see amazing things, beautiful birds, and forests and wolves, and mountains and host of things---and many say, wow, look how beautiful nature is—and that’s true,

—but our recognition of verses like these move us to say, “Wow, look how great God is—these creatures and plant-life are, as says, gushing forth, God’s glory.”

Fullness: wealth, fertility

The mines that are lodged in the bowels of it, even the richest, the fruits it produces, all the beasts of the forest and the cattle upon a thousand hills, our lands and houses, and all the improvements that are made of this earth by the skill and industry of man, are all his.

Matthew Henry

The mines that are lodged in the bowels of it, even the richest, the fruits it produces, all the beasts of the forest and the cattle upon a thousand hills, our lands and houses, and all the improvements that are made of this earth by the skill and industry of man, are all his.

The world, and those who dwell in it.

-this is the same with people

—all men, should submit to God, as creation does, as we’ve seen in and .

“Man lives upon the earth and parcels out its soil among his mimic kinds and autocrats; but the earth is not man’s.

He is but a tenant at will, a leaseholder upon the most precarious tenure, liable to instantaneous ejectment.”

Spurgeon

---To you and I, the world is not our home—as Spurgeon says, we are tenants, but if you know the Lord, your eviction is not a scary thing, but a ticket home.

From this passage we see that God is the universal King

acknowledged or not.

2. For He has founded it upon the seas

He who built the house and bears up its foundation surely has a first claim upon it.”

Spurgeon.

And established it upon the rivers.

—God lifts up his world and sustains it.

He keeps it going.

Continuous process—he establishes it—present tense

“The Son of God supplies all the glue that holds the universe together.”

Dale Davis

---If not for God’s constant care and provision-it couldn’t keep going, it would spin into the sun, or fall into the seas, or just stop.

Turek and Geisler Anthropic Constants

“The hungry jaws of ocean would devour dry land if a constant fiat of Omnipotence did not protect it.”

Spurgeon

—the only way the world keeps going is through the common grace that God pours out.

—this is not a decree that b/c God owns it nothing bad happens—it’s still a fallen world but it does continue the promises of Genesis

---we can trust God’s Word and His Word tells us that He will keep things going.

And while we should be good stewards of the earth—the earth’s end or continuing is up to Him and is sustained by Him.

He will keep things going even in the sin man brings

3. Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?

And who may stand in His holy place?

---this section brings us to a question and answer segment— like a recitation.

---people would have been used to the questions and used to the answers given.

The song leader asks the question, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord and who may stand in His holy place?

And he waits for the answer.

-The Hill of the Lord is Zion—where the temple is—it contains God’s sanctuary—a holy place because of his presence

—at first glance, what silence this question should meet---who could do this thing?

Who can approach the holy God?

==Surely not unclean man who wanders the earth with an unclean, leprous, sinful heart.

It is uphill work for the creature to reach the Creator.”

Spurgeon

---Some call this the ascension Psalm that would have been later used to celebrate Jesus ascending into Heaven to the right hand of the Father

-Who can ascend to the holy hill of the Lord and also be holy enough to stand and not be obliterated by awesome weight of glory and holiness of Yahweh?

Well only his Son—the lamb who was slain-who has defeated death and ascended.

---Jesus gives us an answer to the question

We know who cannot ascend—someone who is not sanctified, someone who is cursed.

4.

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

in verse 4 we’re given the answer

notice here that God is giving us a picture of who can approach Him not in terms of outward sacrifice, but in moral terms---so this shows us how we’re acting is important—and leaves only animal sacrifice and other aspects of Levitical law----it does not negate the law, but shows the importance of conduct.

“That stipulation is not meant to frustrate worship but to facilitate proper worship.”

Dale Davis

Worshiping God could not be done by the wicked

If we speak of salvation and live terribly—we have no claim on salvation

“It is vain to prate of inward experience unless the daily life is free from impurity, dishonesty, violence, and oppression.”

Spurgeon

Craigee says, “The recognition of the kingship of God must result in the worship of God by those who recognize his royal authority; to worship presupposes moral integrity—and that, in a sense, is the central point in the Psalm.”

—here are the two parts of the righteous: hands: deeds and actions, heart(inward)

-the outer and the inner

-the moral and the ethical

-the heart and the hands

-this describes the type of person who can ascend the hill of the Lord and be in God’s presence

---he must do right, and also have not done wrong

----and as we’ve seen through the OT—God requires mercy over sacrifice