PART FIVE: THE KING OF GLORY AS YAHWEH BECOME MAN (A STUDY OF THE MESSIANIC NATURE OF PSALM 24)

Now that we've looked at a more literal translation to substantiate the messianic nature of Psalm 24, let me see if I can reinforce this interpretation by going through the psalm  again. This time I will use "Yahweh" instead of "LORD" (the word used by translators for "Yahweh") and try to convey through a translation of my own as well as letting Scripture interpret Scripture what this psalm is getting at.

Section One (Vs. 1-2):

To Yahweh [belongs] the earth and everything in it,

the world and those who live in it. 

For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

Now vss. 1 and 2 are an announcement of a great truth. A proclamation even — light bursting forth in a dark world. But we must also bear in mind what was true both then when David wrote it and now as we read it — viz., that the truth that God in His sovereignty owns everything and everyone by virtue of creation (thus providing for and ruling over all things), raises some significant problems. Compare, for example, a similar text found in Psalm 8:4-6, where David says,

What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.

What we see here is a strong affirmation of the divinely delegated reign of Man over all things in the earth. But listen to what the writer of Hebrews says in 2:8 about this passage:

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 

That is, the writer of Hebrews sees things that are not subject to Man in this prophetic and messianic vision of a world created by God to be under Man's dominion. In the same way, when we read the first two verses of Psalm 24 which declare God's ownership and rule over His creation we see things that challenge that picture of things. We find ourselves asking questions. What about sin and death, evil and suffering, and the general abnormality of things after the fall of Man? That is, what about the separation between God and Man due to sin, evil-producing conditions which make it seem as if God is not present or in charge of His creation? What about all the animal sacrifices under the law of Moses which made the exercises of propitiation for God's wrath associated with the sanctuary seem like a blood factory? That is, what about the fact that Israel and the whole world is under the wrath of God apart from the covering of the coming Messiah? And what about the devil, who is in some sense "the god of this world"? The apostle John says, "The whole world lies under the power of the evil one." Also, what about the many people who are not God's covenant people (whether in David's time or ours), the "uncircumcised" who resist His rule, have nothing to do with His covenant, don't care anything about ascending "the Lord's hill," and who are, instead, working night and day against God's purposes and seemingly intent on descending into hell?  Who are in effect saying to one another, "Who shall descend into the pit of hell? He who has unclean hands and an impure heart." That is, what about the Biblical revelation that in our ourselves we have a sinful flesh, a sinful nature possessed both by those who are in covenant with God and those who are not? John says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). This means that Scripture teaches that both Christians and non-Christians have a sinful nature which Paul says does not keep God's law and indeed "cannot" do so (Romans 8:7-8)? 

Now let's return to the writer of Hebrews and the passage we were considering. Notice that when he sees things that don't square with the picture Psalm 8 provides of God's purpose for Man to reign, he points to a Man who is a forerunner for a new race, one who represents us, who is reigning in heaven in fulfillment of Psalm 8. He puts it this way in 2:9,

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

In the same way, I am suggesting, when we read vss. 1-2 of Psalm 24 we should acknowledge: Yes, God is creator, ruler, and owner of everything; however, there was in David's time and ours a great need for redemption. There is a chasm between Man's valley or pit of sin and Yahweh's mountain of righteousness, too great for anyone to escape, to get across or ascend to that mountain. Apart from a Savior, therefore, the distance between sinners on earth and the glories and pleasures of fellowship with God in a pure, high, and holy heaven would remain throughout eternity. In short, I am proposing that verses 1 and 2 give us a statement which is, on the one hand, a refreshing, overwhelming, powerful reality. But it is both a reality and a prophetic, messianic vision — a reality as a promised future in Christ. 

Its declaration raises the problem of how fallen humans can enter into God's ownership or kingship over the earth — how there can be a story of redemption for a fallen world in which fallen sinners live who are not honoring God as creator. As with the writer of Hebrews, we must say, "At present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him" (2:8).  That everything and everyone is His raises this question for sinners: Do I who am a sinner and in bondage to evil belong to Him, does my heart belong to Him, I with all my sin? Can I belong to Him? Are we as the human race, we who were banished from the Garden of Eden, from intimate fellowship with God, His people still? No, certainly not in the same sense as then. As Isaiah says, "your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you" (59:2). There is great separation now. There is death — being banished or cut off from the presence of  God — which is the wages of sin," as Paul says (Romans 6:23). 

God is at a distance. He is not here like He was in the garden. Things are not okay between us and Him. We don't see Him anymore. He is invisible. We don't walk with Him the way Adam and Eve did. He is in heaven, which in Psalm 24 is being metaphorically presented as a really high mountain. We can't ascend that mountain no matter how good we are. We are on earth or more accurately (and again): in the pit. So how do we get up there to be with Him? How do we get out of the pit? How can we, sinners that we are, ever hope to see His face? 

The question implicit then in Psalm 24 is, "Who shall get out of the pit? Who will deliver us from the pit?" Hence, I am suggesting that verses 1 and 2 should make us ask: How can any of us pit-dwellers go to heaven? How can we be saved? We are undone — lost eternally. No one is righteous. No one is worthy to be accepted by God. God is up there and we are down here. We can't get out of the pit much less ascend "the hill of the LORD" or see His face without certain death. He is holy and we are unholy.

Please note that if this interpretation I am suggesting is correct that means there is something unsaid between the first section and the other two sections of Psalm 24.  But it is something unsaid which God's Spirit who led David to write this pslam expects us as readers to know based on everything else God's Word says. We are expected not to read this passage or any other passage of Scripture out of context or as if it were an island disconnected from the rest of Scripture. (Remember Arthur Pink's last words: "The Scriptures are self-interpreting.") We are also expected to understand that this ideal picture, as is true of Psalm 8, is messianic in nature and was given to be fulfilled in time through Jesus Christ. Put differently, vss. 1 and 2 put us in a similar position to what John experienced as related in Revelation 5:1-5,

Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?"

This "who?" resonates with the "who?" of Psalm 24. At a minimum this scroll signifies the history of the redemption of God's people, that there would be such a redemption, that a world at enmity with God would be reconciled to God. In the moment of silence following this question, however, it becomes evident that "no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it" (v. 3) and therefore, John "wept loudly" (v. 4).