Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;” (NIV)
Many years ago J.B. Phillips wrote a small book titled “Your God is Too Small”, making the point that men like to confine God to their own small and biased boxes that they control, to ensure that God only reflects their own selfish point of view. The truth of the matter is that God is in control and we are not! That still doesn’t stop men from trying to conform God to their pre-determined views and ideas of who he is and how he should operate in this world.
Psalm 24 has as its historical antecedent the events in 2 Samuel 6, following the abortive attempt by David to transport by cart the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, in violation of the Word of God (Numbers 4:15), which resulted in the death of Uzzah. So the ark took up residence in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months. David, after hearing that God had blessed Obed-Edom, had the ark carried properly into Jerusalem where he sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord, and he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty.
The importance of Psalm 24 is rooted in addressing the question of who is worthy to have access to the presence of the Lord. David begins by saying God is a God of the entire universe and he is too big to be localized at a single place, since God will not fit into any man’s “box” because he is in control and men are not. With that David tells us who may approach God, and he offers four attributes:
- clean hands,
- pure heart,
- loyal mind, and
- a truthful spirit.
If we achieve these attributes, then we can enter into the presence of God, who will bless us and vindicate or impute righteousness to us. David states that these people are to be characterized as God seekers, who seek the face of the Lord Almighty! There is only one problem as we look in the mirror of our lives, and that is none of us can achieve these attributes by our own merit, skill, or hard work. We simply cannot enter into the presence of God, who is not far from any of us (Acts 17:27), under our own achievements and accomplishments. David was enabled by God to transport the ark of the covenant to a point on the ground in Jerusalem, but David was unable to guarantee to men that they could enter the presence of God, since only God has the power to allow men to enter his presence.
The great lesson from Psalm 24 is that it tells us that barriers to the heart of God must be breached, and we simply cannot do that by our own puny self-efforts. Only Jesus Christ and him crucified was able to eliminate these barriers to the presence of God, by his blood that we contact in baptism (Colossians 2:9-15). For it is in Christ that we have full access to the presence of God (Hebrews 4:14-16), and no man can regulate, mediate, or deny that to those in Christ. What we take so much for granted in accessing the presence of God, because of Jesus Christ, was a most difficult thing for King David to do in moving the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem.
TODAY, FATHER, I WILL GET ON MY KNEES AND THANK JESUS CHRIST WHO BOUGHT MY ACCESS TO YOU 24/7 WITH HIS PRECIOUS SAVING BLOOD, AND BECAUSE YOU, O GOD, ARE EVERYWHERE, I CAN COME TO YOU ANYWHERE, AT ANY TIME, IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE OF MY LIFE. I PRAISE YOUR NAME!
Article Source: Mike White @ Summit church of Christ
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