If anyone is inclined to think that with this interpretation
I am in any way slighting the need for holiness in God's people — or not
feeling the special urgency for such in this hour — the very opposite is true. According
to Scripture (and however pressing or urgent the need), the only authentic
holiness for Christians comes as they realize that in Christ alone, we are already holy. God is calling us to live
according to what He already considers us to be in Christ. As Paul says,
"Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened." That
is, "Live a life unleavened by evil because you are unleavened." Then
Paul says, "For Christ our passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us
therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice
and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1
Corinthians 5:7-8).
In that context, Paul is talking about the need to withdraw
from Christians who overtly practice evil. His argument is that the church is
considered holy because of Christ. Accordingly, the call of holiness for the
church includes not embracing a member of the body who flagrantly disregards
the holy life which reflects their status as holy people. However, this is true
of the church because it is true of the
individual Christian: Just as God in Christ has made us holy, given each of
us a holy status with Him, God calls each of us to disassociate ourselves (not
overtly embrace) all evil practices in our lives.
Beloved, this means that God's people in Christ are already
on the hill of the LORD! They don't have to ascend it. They're on it! Scripture
says, "God has raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). Scripture says that in
Christ we have "come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God and
to innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn
who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of
the righteous made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to
the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel"
(Hebrews 12:22-24).
Now, before I present in more detail a different interpretation from the
traditional one, let me say a word about interpretation itself. We can tell
pretty quickly when a key doesn't work. Especially if we've tried several keys
that don't work, the moment we find the right key it just fits. It goes in
easily, it catches and clicks. The door opens. With this interpretive key I am
proposing here, I am asking you as my reader to see if it doesn't click. See if
it doesn't fit everything Scripture teaches and thus open the door for a
clearer understanding of the Spirit's meaning in this psalm.
In a nutshell, then, I would propose that this psalm is
Messianic all the way through from beginning to end. This means that it is not primarily about
God's people (what they need to do or be to ascend the hill of the LORD) but about
God Himself: Yahweh. That is, in
Psalm 24 Yahweh is the main character, the star of the show as it were, on
stage the entire time from the curtain's opening to its closing. There is one
organic, seamless theme throughout: Psalm 24 is a
prophetic and messianic message of a world seen through the hope of a coming
Redeemer-King, a world reconciled to and brought under the reign and ownership
of its Creator-God through the gospel of His Son who is Himself Yahweh
incarnate, the world's Savior or Messiah.
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