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The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. (Psalm 24:1-8)

As Christians reading this Psalm today, you can hear the themes of Creation, Fall, and Redemption flow through it.  The Lord founds the world and everything in it.  The people seek him, and yet the question remains whether they can stand in his presence.  Do we have clean hands and a pure heart, free from idolatry?  Probably not.  But God is victorious, he wins the battle and the gates lift themselves up to accommodate his glory as he enters the sanctuary.

Even though the Israelites did not know Jesus, they may actually not have heard this psalm in such a different way, because since the Exodus God was a God of salvation and redemption to them.  He was the one who had redeemed them from their slavery and saved them from their enemies countless times since.

But because this Psalm knows the King who redeems, it changes the whole understanding of who may ascend his mountain and stand in his presence.  Psalms like this one were sung in worship, and so it wasn’t an entrance exam before being allowed into the sanctuary.  It was a rehearsal of all that God had done for his people and an invitation to live worthy of this God they had come to worship: the Lord of Creation, and victorious King of Redemption. 

The popular worship song of a few years back gets the sense just right: “Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts, let us not lift our souls to another.”  God has saved his people: and as we seek to live worthily in light of who he is and what he has done, we recognize that God will need to continue saving us if we’re ever to meet the bar. 

But that’s exactly what our God does.  He comes to us to save us.  This is the work of Christ, but it is also the work of the Spirit that continually sanctifies us: makes us holy and conforms us to Christ.  In the presence of our God, he makes us more and more to be the kind of people fit for his presence and service. 

So let the King of Glory come!  Let the doors and gates of our hearts and our sanctuaries lift themselves up to accommodate his great glory, power, and strength.  But when the time is ripe—at the consummation of the ages—let our world do the same, that the King of glory may come in.  Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus, come.