David's Lord - Psalm 24

Welcome to the Truth Wars Podcast with Dr. Olin Stubbs. Olin's latest book: Partnering with God in Parenting Our Children. Ever Now, here's Olin. Psalm 24, and think about this while you turn. Do you ever feel like the world is drowning in chaos? Just overwhelmed. Or maybe, more personally, do you ever feel like your own life is overwhelmed with chaos. And by that I don't mean too busy and bustling and too much traffic on two eighty. I I mean more of your own besetting sins in your life.

you don't seem to be able to put to death seem to be overwhelming. Hopeful to say to us this morning. Now like with many of the songs. We don't know for sure when it was written. Uh but we have a pretty good idea. because of the context. And so here would be our best idea of when it was written is probably uh either when David was bringing the ark into Jerusalem, into the tabernacle. You can read about that in Second Samuel. Or it may have been that he wrote this song

For after his death, once his son Solomon had built the temple, and the ark would be brought in there. And I think you'll see that as we read through it. But let's start. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. So he starts by saying, God owns everything.

Everything you can see, everything in creation, all people, God made everything, and therefore he owns everything. Verse two For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Now Probably most of us know in the Bible sometimes it can use metaphorical language and sometimes the idea of darkness can represent evil and sin and light can represent truth and goodness.

In a similar way, the sea oftentimes in the Bible represents chaos, sin, the powers of evil. And if you remember even in Genesis chapter one, in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth, and then verse two says, You had the C. Dark and it was Tohu and Bohu in Hebrew. If you remember, Pastor Reader used to like to quote that all the time, and it has this idea of formless. Void emptiness. But the Holy Spirit was there and then what did God do? God brought the lamb.

In a sense, where can human beings flourish? On the land. So there's a sense in God pushed down the waters. And brought up the land. And even think about the flood later that came that wiped out the majority of the human race, covered the earth, but then God let the waters subside. The chaos, the death that is struggling. And the land came back and it was flourishing. No, John MacArthur says, this is poetic, it's not a scientific picture of creation, it's not literally say.

The continents float on the water, we know better than that. But poetically you can understand how it looks as though God pushed the waves back, God pushed the water back, and he let the land right.

Now verse 3. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? So David was aware, God owns the whole earth. God owns all people. And yet, He's he's omnipresent everywhere. He is manifestly present among his people. Israel, in Jerusalem and the Old Testament. I think verse one, God says, Heaven is my throne and earth is my what? You know? It's a footstool.

And in a sense it's almost like you could think about in the Old Testament, Israel, Jerusalem, even more specifically the Ark, was like the place where, metaphorically, God's foot touched the pillow of the footstool. Here's where I touched the phone. Here's where I'll make myself known. Here's my headquarters on planet Earth. And so David's asking if this is true. If this one divine being who's so powerful that he made everything, that he owns everything, gets local.

In Jerusalem, on this holy hill. Well then who can come close to him? Who has the right to be in his presence? Who has the privilege of knowing him, drawing near, and worshiping him? It's an important question. And he's going to give the answer. Okay, and remember, think about it. In the Old Testament, the state of Israel was the church.

But not all ethnic Israelites were spiritually regenerate Israelites. Right? You understand? I mean the way that it said one time in the Old Testament, Jacob I have loved, Esau I hated. Both came from the same daddy. God said that one is a genuine believer, and that one is not. Romans chapter 9, verse 6, not all Israel is Israel. Not all ethnic Israel was spiritualism. Just like today in a local church.

Just because your name is on the membership roll does not mean that you are a member of the true invisible church that your heart has genuinely. So that's some of what David is after here. Who's the true Israelite? Who can truly worship? Who can come near?

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. Now maybe partially David is meditating here on the Ten Commandments, we don't know for sure, but he's saying, Listen, genuine worshipper True followers of Yahweh. They have to be serious about a holy life, holy deed.

He's holy, they have to seek to live holy. But it's not enough to have external conformity. There has to be inward purity, pure motives. Remember what Jesus said about the Pharisees? They draw near me with their lips. They might have it externally, but internally their hearts are far away. And that was a quote from Isaiah as well. Old Testament people are the same way oftentimes. So outward deeds that are pleasing.

Inward motives that are pleasing and align with God. Who does not lift up his soul to what is false, that probably means doesn't worship false idols, doesn't trust in false gods, vain hopes. And then does not swear to see. They're not liars. The way they live with other people, they're honest. They're people of integrity. They're whole. They love God, but they love people.

It shows up practically in their life. Now MacArthur again. These sample qualities do not signify sinless perfection, but rather basic integrity of inward motive and outward manner. What you see is what you get. It's real. They're not just going through the moment.

Verse five, He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Now this is important. This in a sense makes MacArthur's point for him. Notice it does not say he will achieve a blessing. This is not teaching of salvation by works. If you try hard enough to clean up your life, get your outward deeds right, get your lips right, get your inward motives right, and we all because you can't do it on your own, then God accepts.

But there's a blessing, there's a receiving. There's something passive here. He will receive a blessing from righteousness from the God of his salvation. God will give you welfare, God will deliver you, God will protect you. God will vindicate you. He will speak for you and it will be a gift. Verse six such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. So these people aren't perfect.

But genuine worshipers, they've centered their life on Yahweh. They're seeking Him. They're seeking what does it mean to seek the face? to seek his favor, to seek his smile, to seek his blessing, to say I it do you remember Genesis thirty two, where Jacob and this is probably Jacob's conversion, his wrestling And he says, I will not let loose of you until I you bless me. I don't care if you kill me. I want you and your presence and your smile and your blessing more than anything else in life.

That's somebody that says, God is number one. I would lose everything to have Him, to have His smile, to have His face. Somebody decided desperate.

Now, verse 7, the tone changes. And and some people think, and we don't know for sure, that these may have originally been two separate poems or songs that were later brought together. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory

Come in. Well, think about this with me. Again, this is most likely written for the times when the ark was being brought into the city of Jerusalem, either into the tabernacle with David or later to the temple with Solomon. So what could this mean? Probably two different things that it could mean. Not knowing for sure. One, it might mean. Do you do you remember 1 Samuel chapter 4 when Eli. was kind of the significant spiritual leader of Israel.

But Israel had gone out to battle with the Philistines, and they'd taken the Ark of the Covenant, the sign of God's presence to be with them. And Eli was waiting back in town, eagerly awaiting news. What happened in the battle? And especially what happened to the ark. And this may be, symbolically, the council of elders, the leaders in Jerusalem, at the tabernacle, waiting.

For Yahweh to return from the battle. Lift up your heads. He's returned and he's victorious. It might mean that. Or it might be more kind of metaphorical poetic language saying, guess what? This is not a human king coming back. This is the divine king. This is Yahweh. These gates aren't big enough. They're wide enough, not wide enough. They're not majestic enough. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. See, in the Old Testament, especially

God was known as a warrior king. God was known as a father who so loved his people. That he hated their enemies. And he would go out to battle on behalf of his people with his people to put down their enemies and to protect them. And here he's coming home victorious after the battle with his saved ones in the royal procession. Verse 9: Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O gates. King of glory made

Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of Glory. The Lord of hosts, Old Testament term we're probably familiar with, but probably the best understanding is it's the Lord of armies. Again, he's a warrior God. He loves his people, he fights for his people. He's gone out to battle against the enemies. He's coming home victorious to rest. His people are coming with him. And it's time for joy, and it's time for celebration.

The first in some sense the question is being asked in verse sixty. There's really two different questions that could be asked there that are very similar and yet they're slightly similar. The first would be this How do you know who's a true believer? How do you know who's a true Israelite? And in the New Testament we say, how do you know who's a true Christian?

I was traveling this past week, had to take an Uber from the airport, had to take an Uber back to the airport, tried to have a gospel conversation both times with both drivers. Or in the Southeast US. Most people claim to be a believer. So part of what I often do, because I was taught way back when through Outreach and evangelism explosion and Frank Barker and Briarwood, where you ask diagnostic questions. I'm trying to ask them about their assurance of salvation.

Trying to ask them about their experience of lordship and being conformed to the image of Christ to understand. Do you really understand what it means to be a Christian? And are you really experiencing it? And in a sense, that's what's going on here. One of the best ways, not the only way, but one of the best ways to know has somebody genuinely trusted in the one true living God is, is he changing their

Is their genuine life change? I mean, obviously they have to understand the right doctrine, be believing the right doctrine, but if there's no life change, if there's no conformity to the image of Christ, does it matter what they say with Eventually there has to be change, right?

I've heard this illustration from somebody else. I don't remember who originally shared it, but let's just say that I came in a few minutes late to class this morning. That's not hard to uh imagine. And uh somebody said, Well, why were you late, Ola? I say I'm sorry. On the way here, uh I was walking through the parking lot and a dump truck actually came and just drove over me. And uh so sorry, but here I am. You might say, I don't believe

And I might say, Why? And you might say, Oh, and you're not really that good looking of a person, uh but you at least look healthy. You don't look like you got hit by tons of steel. Right? It wouldn't make sense. And so for somebody to say, I have had a personal encounter Saving experience where he has come into my life, and yet there's no change, then there's no real evidence.

Does that make sense? Now, it can look different in different people's lives based on where they started. But when I in college ministry, I can't tell you how many times I might meet somebody who's eighteen years old. And I may ask them, are you a believer? Yes. When did you become a Christian? Six years old.

Okay, well tell me about what the last twelve years of your life look like. Well, you know, I go to church when my parents make me. Other than that, it's sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I do whatever I want. Do I have x-ray vision that I can see their heart? No, I do not. But based off the teaching of Scripture, I can say there's no evidence that you're a genuine believer. If you're telling me in twelve years of professed salvation, there's been

Okay? So that's part of what this psalm was going after. But there's a second, slightly different but very similar question. If you are a true believer, if you know for sure I know I really am a true believer, I'm not perfect, but I've been changed, how do you know you're ready for worship? How do you know you're relationally right with the Lord? Yes. Maybe here's the best way for us to understand it in New Testament times. What if we were having communion in worship this morning?

How do you know I've examined myself and I'm right with the Lord relationally to take Sometimes believers, genuine believers that know they are Christians, should say, There's some sin in my life that I'm not repenting of. And I don't need to take communion. I don't need to draw near to Christ in that way this morning. And in the same sense, you could say, well, clean hands, pure eyes. Let me give maybe a couple more examples to bring this home. Imagine that one of your grandchildren

Okay, and we'll just say this is a a little girl, and she comes and says, What does it mean to be a wife? How would you answer that question? You might say, Well, honey, to be a wife means that you you're you're faithful to one. You love one man. You commit to that one man for life. You you serve that one man. And she might say, okay, well, how do you know if you're being a good wife?

Slightly different question, right? But how would you answer it? In some sense, very similarly. Well, it would mean like you really love that man. You genuinely serve that man. From the heart you really are fully committed to that man. Do you see how the answers to two slightly different questions are almost as?

How do you know you're a believer? Then how do you know you're growing as a believer? You're maturing as a believer, you're ready to come near unto God. And that's what it's trying to do here, okay? It's saying, listen.

You have to be living out your faith. Now So much of this, guys, it's about sincerity. It's about being genuine. One of the phrases Reverend Barker used to say that has been so helpful to me in life and ministry is this, it's not about the perfection of your life. It is about the direction of your life. A commentator named Knight said this This is not about perfection of life, it is about sincerity of purpose.

If somebody were to say to me, Owen, how long have you been married? Over 26 years. Have you been a faithful husband to your wife? I would say, yes, by God's grace, I've been faithful to my wife. No, let's say somebody just read the Sermon on the Mountain.

You know, Jesus said, if you even look at a woman to lust after her, it's the same as adultery in the heart. So are you telling me you've never had one lustful thought for the last 26 and a half years? You're still listening? I'd have to say no. But sincerely, genuinely, I've been committed to my wife. I've been loyal to my wife. I have loved her. Sinlessly perfect? No. Faithfully, genuinely.

And that's what the Lord is looking for from us. Not sinless perfection,'cause it's not gonna happen in this life. But a genuine loyalty. We we and guys, this may be the most helpful way to think about it. When we're talking about spiritually marrying the Lord Jesus Christ, we're all bribed. There ought to be a sense of, I want to be faithful, I want to be loyal, I want to keep myself pure for him. I want to be devoted to him. I want to honor him.

I want to open myself up to let his word and his presence come in my life and fill me and flourish within me and change me. So much of what this psalm is talking about, guys, it shows up in your prayer and your worship life. And especially your secret prayer life. We can be experts in the church at coming to Sunday school, going to Sunday morning worship, and putting our best foot forward, can we not? Praying prayers that sound very theologically pristine and impressive.

But what is your closet prayer life like? What is your private alone worship life like? Is there anything there that resembles Jacob wrestling with a man all night? I'm desperate. I've tried everything else in life and it's not working for me. I've tried to be the self made man and it is backfiring. I need your smile, I need your face, I need your blessing. If you don't come through for me, I'm a goner. And I'm willing to sacrifice anything to know you, to be near unto you, to be right with you.

Listen, I'm not saying you wake up early every morning and you have a based on your personality. I am talking about the inner sense of hunger and desperation that ought to be at the core of every one of us. Seek to find all of our joy in him, not in the false promises of sin. Even seeking has a sanctifying. What a consecrating power must lie in finding and enjoying the Lord's face and favor. To desire communion with God is a purifying

You know what he's saying there? It's incredibly encouraging to me. You ever been in a dry season in your life? You ever been in a dark night of the soul? And what I mean is, you're not perfect, but by God's grace, you're doing everything you know to do, to walk with Christ, to be near to him, but there's no sense of his presence. There's no taste of his goodness. There's no experiential knowledge of his smile, of his face, of his nearness. It feels dry, it feels boring, it feels dead.

What Spurgeon is saying is: even when you feel like God is far off, if there's a genuine just longing in your heart, there's something powerful in sanctions. Just the longing, just the desire. Just that you're the directing the affections of your heart that can feel dead at times back to him. I'm not gonna look anywhere else. I'm not going to look anywhere else. I'm not going to look to food or drink or sex or money or power or control. I'm going to keep looking to you to fulfill me.

And here's the really glorious thing. If just the longing has power in it to sanctify us, to grow us up, to conform us to his image, how much more power. It's supernatural. John Calvin said, It is impossible for God to disappoint true worshipers. If you feel disappointed in God, you're not truly worshiping. Keep seeking Him. Keep turning your face to Him. Keep turning away from the false promise of sin pressing into Him, and He will meet you.

Yeah. There's a theme, there's a pattern that comes out in this psalm when you kind of read these three different parts. They can all seem different. There's something that ties them together. The first two verses. Well there was chaos in this. The sea raged and it seemed to be winning. And yet God brought up the drop. The darkness went away and light. And there was this perfect garden, Eden.

And God put a man there, Adam. And you remember Genesis 2, 15? He said, you're supposed to cultivate it and keep it. And the word there for keep can also be translated to guard, to protect. It was like the original temple of God. God is gonna come and have fellowship with you, Adam. Guard this place. Best understanding is Adam probably blew it on the first day. And sin came back into the world and into humanity. And chaos began to reign again.

And yet the warrior God said, I'm going to start with my people Israel. fight with them. I'm gonna fight for them. I'm gonna protect them. I'm gonna guard them. I'm gonna give them a home, a safe place, a land. I'll push the enemies out. I'll push the enemies back just like I pushed the sea back.

And I'll bring order out of chaos, a safe nation state for my people, where they can worship me, where they can know me, where they can have communion with me again, somewhat similar to what Adam had in the garden. But a worse problem being surrounded by the Philistines and the Egyptians and all these pagans is sin still lives. The chaos still lives inside of us. And here's where we really see the glorious power of our Savior as he says, I'm not just going to give you external.

rightful place on the throne of your life if you will bow the knee to me and I will start putting all the chaos down all It is a slow process. It is a painfully slow process. I don't know about you, but it often feels like two steps forward, then a step and a half backwards. It is a long, slow ascent.

But it is real. It is progressive. It is working. And he is bringing peace and order into our hearts, a place of safety and the security. We can trust him. And so there ought to be an ongoing sense of I trust. I surrender to you if there's any nook or cranny or hidden place in my heart, in my mind, where I'm not trusting you, where I'm not surrendering to you. I want you to take that. One of the prayers I pray sometimes, as I hey Lord, if there is some hidden place in my life

Maybe that I'm not even fully aware of. I'm half aware. I'm kind of half hiding from myself, lying to myself. That's one of the main ways we lie. We lie to ourselves. And I'm trying to lock the door from this one little area of my life. Kick the door in. I don't want to wait on you to be a perfect gentleman. I need you to be more like a SWAT team commander.

Take over my life. Spare not for price nor pain. Do whatever it takes. I don't care if you just rip my leg out of a joint. I will not let loose. It's the way Jacob prayed. It's the way we should pray. Now.

We can never achieve a blessing for ourselves. We can only by grace receive. Even when we're praying our best, living our best, being honest, the best motives, the best worship, the best trust, the best faith, it's all a gift, right? On that moment we don't ever earn anything. But there was this one guy that lived who didn't just receive a blessing. He did achieve a blessing. And he didn't need a blessing because he already had all things.

Then why did he go forward? He went forward to achieve a blessing for his people, us that we're so needy. Now think about the Lord Jesus Christ, the way that he walked the earth. He always had clean hands. He always had a pure heart. He always trusted his father. He always surrendered and obeyed. He always told the hard truth, even when it got him into trouble and it hurt.

Did he pray like Jacob? Think about the way he prayed in the garden. The honest, raw desperation, Father, if there's any other way, I want out. Yet not my will but thine. Whatever you ordain is best. And then when Jesus was going to the cross, you realize what was really happening? That was the king of all the universe going out to fight for his people. John Calvin says in many different places repeatedly, essentially what was happening.

Is that Christ was doing hand to hand combat? It was like he was wrestling with the powers of evil and hell to win. Cost him dearly.'Cause he's our substitute. He died and he rose, and then a piece of the gospel that we don't probably talk about as often as we should, he ascended into the true heavenly life.

Everybody flip over to Hebrews chapter nine for just a minute. And we're gonna end here. Hebrews chapter 9, just a couple more verses and we're done. Hebrews chapter 9 and let's start in verse 11. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation.

He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctified. Purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

You ever feel dirty? You ever feel guilty? You ever feel stained? trusting in Christ and confessing your sin, you can be purged and cleansed and feel cleansed even from your most guilty conscience. Verse 24. For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have to have. suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and just as it appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment.

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly awaiting for him. When Christ rose into heaven into the true tabernacle, into the true temple, that's what Psalm 24 is wrote. Lift up your heads, O gates. The King of Glory. The son of David. He's coming back from battle, and he won.

And it's a triumph. I I even wonder if the angels saying Psalm 24, as the Lord Jesus Christ came back in all of his perfection. His glory. And guys, here's the final thing that we ought to be excited about and celebrating and looking forward to. One day he's going to come back and the dead in Christ will raise first. And he will re-enter the heavenly city with us in the throng, covered by his blood, secure and forgiven forever to worship and enjoy. Lord Jesus, I plead with you.

That these truths that we may know so well in our minds would burn and shine brighter in our hearts and our souls, that there would truly be a tasting and seeing of your goodness that would purify. And even when we are far off, when we are in a dark night of the soul, in a in a sinful struggle, when we feel beat up by our guilty conscience. There would be a turning of our affections to you, a longing, a desperation, and there would be purifying, sanctifying moments even in those reckless.

Grow us up in grace. Make us into the men and women of purity, of clean hands, of pure hearts that you want us to be, of pure words, pure justice. But Father, we know even on our best day. Always need the blood of Christ. We need your forgiveness. We need your cleansing. We need your mercy. And we're so thankful that we have it in Christ. Hallelujah, what a Savior. We pray all this only in Christ's name. Amen.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Truth Wars with Dr. Olin Stubbs. We want to remind you to please leave a review for this podcast wherever you listen, and to share this podcast with any friends or family.