Finally, let’s consider the last and third section of Psalm
24. Again, this is my translation based on a more strict reading of the
original.
Third Section:
Lift up your heads, O
gates! And be lifted up, O everlasting doors, that the King of Glory
may come in. (v. 7)
Who is this King of
Glory? Yahweh, strong and
mighty, Yahweh, mighty in battle! (v. 8)
Lift up your heads, O
gates! And lift them up, O everlasting doors, that the King of glory
may come in. (v. 9)
Who is this King of
glory? Yahweh of hosts! He is
the King of glory. (v. 10)
As we consider the third section as a continuation of
the thought of the second section, we see the ultimate coronation of the
God-Man: Yahweh become Man. This coronation happens after
Christ's resurrection from the dead. In that state, Christ appeared to many witnesses, gave
instructions to His apostles, and then ascended to Heaven while His apostles
and others looked on. Among the things He said during the time prior to His
ascension is that all authority in Heaven and on earth had been given to Him.
His ascension took Him to heaven where, no doubt, the words of this third
section were perfectly fulfilled if not followed like a script.
One commentator
says the following about this section:
"When the King of England wishes to enter the city of
London, through the Temple Bar, the gate being closed against him, the herald
demands entrance. 'Open the gate.' From within a voice is heard, 'Who is
there?' The herald answers, 'The King of England!' The gate is at once opened,
and the king passes, amidst the joyful acclamations of his people. This is an
ancient custom, and the allusion is to it in this Psalm. 'The Lord ascended
with a shout;' he approached the heavenly portal — the herald in his escort
demanded an entrance, 'Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be lifted up, you
everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in.' The celestial watchers
within ask, 'Who is the King of glory?' The heralds answer, 'The Lord strong
and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.' The question and answer being repeated
once more, the gates lift up their heads, and the everlasting doors are lifted
up. The Prince enters his Father's palace, greeted with the acclamations of
heaven, all whose inhabitants unite in one shout of joy ineffable: 'The Lord of
Hosts, he is the King of glory!'"
Notice as well that after Christ is thus crowned King of glory
at God's right hand, Scripture says that He must reign until all His enemies
are made a footstool for His feet.
What we see, therefore, in both sections two and three, is that the basic,
underlying question remains the same: "Who shall ascend the mountain of
Yahweh?" Moreover, in the light of the
coming of Jesus Christ into the world we know something else about Psalm 24
that is implied there but not explicitly stated: Yahweh first descended from the
mountain of Yahweh before He ascended it as prophesied in Psalm 24. Again, this
is obviously not true of God's people and reinforces the need for us to both
begin and end directly with Jesus Christ (Yahweh become Man) in understanding the second section (verses
3-6) instead of directly beginning with ourselves and indirectly ending with Him
as an afterthought — even if a very blessed afterthought.
Consider with me two other passages of Scripture.
In Romans
10:6, Scripture expressly says, "For the righteousness based on faith
says, 'Do not say in your heart, Who will
ascend into heaven?" How are we to understand this in view of Psalm
24? That is, in Romans Paul is informing us that the gospel which declares we
are saved by faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone forbids us to ask, "Who shall ascend the hill of the
Lord?," if by asking that question we mean, "What righteousness (in
part or whole) can we contribute to salvation to make going to heaven (or
having heaven in our hearts) a reality?" Then Paul says, "that is to
bring Christ down." Paul equates Christ with salvation, and he sees any
effort to be justified by works of law (trusting in one's own righteousness or
being good enough) as an attempt (again, in part or whole) to be one's own
savior. To "bring Christ down" is to believe or act as if Christ has not already fully and completely
finished the work of salvation once and for all. It is to believe or act as if
something else on our part needs to be done for us to be able to ascend the
hill of the LORD.
Notice as well that in Ephesians 4:8-10, Scripture says:
"When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to
men. In saying, 'he ascended,' what does it mean but that he had also descended
into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also
ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things." Based
on this passage, then, "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?" is
properly answered with, "The One who descended
from the hill of the LORD." Moreover, now that this One, this Messiah, has
ascended the hill of the Lord — far above all the heavens — he is filling his
people with all good things from heaven (as Ephesians 1:3 says).
As I have been saying in these posts, there is a sense in
which the question, "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?," if
heard as a call to look to ourselves for righteousness becomes a snare, a
temptation for us to turn away from the Gospel, take the yoke of law upon
ourselves, turn back to our own efforts to be good enough to gain access to a
holy God. We are told not to ask that question from a disposition to justify
ourselves through our own efforts or law-keeping. Again, alluding to Romans
10:6, "Do not say in your heart who shall ascend the hill of the
LORD." The "Who?" of Psalm 24:3 and in this context, then, has
one answer: Not me or you (no matter how hard we have worked to have clean
hands and pure hearts) — not even Jesus plus
me or you, but Jesus alone has
ascended the hill of the LORD — no one else.
Jesus plus nothing is the only basis
for our righteousness. Jesus Christ, for the sake of counting us righteous by
his own representative work, obeyed the law in our stead, died for our sin as
our substitute, took the wrath of God due us, was raised on the third day for
our justification, and has ascended the hill of the LORD to fill us with all
heaven's good things.
"Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?" Beloved,
let us come to this great and glorious gospel reality: There is now for us in
Christ Jesus no hill of the LORD to be ascended, for Jesus of Nazareth — Yahweh
become Man — has already done it for us as our representative. I repeat: We are
now seated on the hill of the LORD with Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). We have already
entered heaven by God's reckoning. We have the Spirit of God in our hearts as a
down payment, an earnest, a deposit from God which assures us that we belong to
God forever, that heaven has already begun as our eternal inheritance. Our future is secure and the evidence of that
secure future is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in our hearts.
Put differently,
there is no place at the Father's right hand to be filled: It has already been
filled by Jesus Christ. There is no righteousness of the law yet to be finished
so we can go to heaven: It has already been accomplished perfectly and
completely for us by Jesus Christ. God considers those of us who are in Christ
as already home, already rescued, already ascended and seated in heaven with
Christ.
But since we know that as Christians we are not perfect yet
what about the need on this side of glory for us to be more sanctified, to have
cleaner hands and purer hearts? Is what I am saying about how Psalm 24 is to be
understood to be taken as some kind of implicit justification for Christians to
neglect the pursuit of holiness? Not at all. In fact, my motive is just the
opposite of that. The only genuine growth in holiness comes from
receiving (on an ongoing basis) Christ's perfect sacrifice for our sin through faith. Though
we are saved once and for all, holiness is a matter of becoming more and more
like what God already considers us to be in Christ. That is, in Christ we are
holy in our standing with God, and God calls us, therefore, to be holy in our
walk or way of living before Him.
Consequently, as Christians we are not called by God to make
ourselves holy in order to ascend toward or have access to God; rather, saved
by the mercies of God and accepted by Him on that basis in Christ, we yield our
bodies to God by the Holy Spirit for increased levels of holy living precisely
because Yahweh Himself descended from and ascended to Heaven in the person of
Jesus Christ on our behalf as our representative to bring us to God.
He who alone had clean hands and a pure heart offered His clean hands and pure heart as our substitute for our unclean hands and impure hearts. His clean hands and pure heart (because He is our representative) were credited to us. Put differently, we do not ascend the hill of the Lord but rather the Lord has descended that hill to come for us — even going to the lowest pit to get us out — and take us to Heaven. He is the first one up and in, our forerunner, our surety, our Man in Heaven.
He who alone had clean hands and a pure heart offered His clean hands and pure heart as our substitute for our unclean hands and impure hearts. His clean hands and pure heart (because He is our representative) were credited to us. Put differently, we do not ascend the hill of the Lord but rather the Lord has descended that hill to come for us — even going to the lowest pit to get us out — and take us to Heaven. He is the first one up and in, our forerunner, our surety, our Man in Heaven.
In sum, the only way we truly make progress in having
clean hands and a pure heart is by Heaven's descent, by receiving Yahweh's Mountain
in our hearts. Truly, we have come to Mt. Zion because Mt. Zion came to us
first. Therefore, it is only as we focus on Jesus Christ as our high priest and
all sufficient sacrifice for our sins that we will find ourselves increasingly
changed or sanctified — having cleaner hands and purer hearts.
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