SCRIPTURE: Psalm 24 (ESV)
DATE: 11-26-17
It’s good to be with all of you at Gateway Church this weekend. And one thing I want you to know — no matter if it’s your first time with us or if you’re worshiping at our North Main campus — I want you to know that God loves you and I love you too.
SERIES INTRODUCTION
And before we get too far along — believe it or not — next week starts our Christmas series here at Gateway Church. After the last of our worship services this weekend, volunteers will be decorating your campus to give it some Christmas flair.
And our Christmas series is going to be a great opportunity to invite someone to church — because we’re having a Christmas Party this year at Gateway. And it’s going to be a four week long party.
So grab an invite card or two — or fifty — and bring someone with you next weekend as we begin our Christmas Party series.
That’s what’s happening next week — and today we’re in the final week of our short series in the book of Psalms — and today is by far my favorite sermon in the series. So far we’ve looked at a few different psalms that have dealt with some life issues all of us have or will experience during our lives.
In the first week, we began by looking at where we can find comfort when life’s out of control. When life is chaotic and out of control, where can we find comfort? We discovered where to find comfort back in week one.
In the second week, we talked about the brevity of life — how we all have a limited number of days ahead of us — and how each of us can make the most of our days by living a great life.
Last week we looked at what we can do when it feels as if God has distanced Himself — when it feels as if God has disappeared on you just when you need Him the most. We discovered two things we can do when God feels distant. That’s what we looked at last week.
So if you missed one of the previous weeks, be sure to go to our website — gatewayepc.org — to catch up on what you’ve missed.
And as I’ve said each week, this series came out of a personal experience of mine. Just over three years ago, I experienced what I thought was a heart attack — but after having some tests done it was discovered that I didn’t have a heart attack — which was great news — but the tests revealed that I was born with a heart abnormality — which was not so great news. Somehow I’d made it thirty plus years in life without anyone discovering the abnormality.
Now finding out you have an abnormal heart leaves you with a lot of unknowns — a lot of unanswered questions — especially when the cardiologist says things like “no mowing the lawn until we get more tests done” — the fact he said that was a bit disturbing — I mean — suddenly doing anything felt like a life or death situation. And it was during this time with lots of unknowns that I turned to the book of Psalms to find peace and comfort.
SERMON INTRODUCTION
And many of the psalms we’ve looked at in this series were the places I turned to daily for hope. And today, we’re going to finish our series by looking at who the person is that God blesses. And in a plural sense, who are the people that God blesses. Because when life’s out of control — and in knowing that life is short — and with all of the uncertainties of life — one important thing to know is who exactly is it that God blesses? Am I the kind of person that God blesses?
And Psalm twenty-four is going to give us our answer.
ANNOUNCE THE TEXT
If you have your Bible please turn with me to Psalm 24. We’ll be looking at the entire psalm together today.
And, if you’re a guest with us, something we like to do at Gateway is let you ask questions. So if you have a question during the sermon, you can text your question to the number on the bulletin or you can submit it on the Gateway app.
Let’s start in verse seven of Psalm 24. We’re beginning in verse seven where we read, “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! 9 Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah” (Psalm 24:7-10 ESV)
Now to get us started, something you should know is that this psalm — Psalm twenty-four — was a psalm used as part of the worship services in the Jewish temple on the first day of the week — on Sunday. Now I know some of you are thinking, “Didn’t the Jews worship on the Sabbath — on Saturday?” And, yes, they did. But the Jewish priests had — what we would call — worship services every day of the week.
And the temple priests would use this psalm — Psalm 24 — every Sunday to remind the people of the power and faithfulness of God. They’d use this psalm to show the Jewish people what their worship was to be like in response to remembering who God is and what He has done.
Now you probably noticed that verses seven and nine are identical. Verse nine is a repeat of verse seven.
“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” (Psalm 24:7 and 9 ESV)
Now these two verses are celebratory — they’re joyous verses. But we don’t get what’s going on because one — most likely you’re not Jewish — so we’re unfamiliar with the background of this psalm that the Jewish people would’ve understood — and two — most definitely you’ve never lived in first century Jerusalem. So we don’t understand what’s going on. The language is foreign to us. So let’s figure out what’s happening.
In ancient days, cities were surrounded by walls for protection against potential threats. And these city walls had a variety of ways to get in and out of them. There were gates and doors similar to what we use today — gates and doors that swing to open and swing to close.
But when there was a threat against the city, these gates and doors wouldn’t be used. They’re too vulnerable. They were too slow to close when there was an immediate attack.
So instead of using the doors that swing in and out — the doors that would be used in times of threats were doors and gates that swung down. The hinges would be at the top and instead of swinging open — these doors would drop down very quickly — slamming shut in an instant — protecting the city from the attackers.
And it’s these doors — these doors of protection when a threat is near — it’s these doors that this psalm declares are to be opened. The gates and the doors are to be lifted up — they’re to be open. But why are these gates and doors to be open?
Look again at the repeating phrase found in verses seven and nine. “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” (Psalm 24:7 and 9 ESV)
The gates and doors of protection are to be opened because a joyous occasion is taking place. There’s a reason to have hope. There’s a reason to celebrate. Why?
The King of glory is coming into Jerusalem. The King — the Protector — the One who has the power to defeat their enemies is coming into the city.
So there’s no need for the emergency gates and doors to be closed. Open them up. Open them high. Because the King of glory is coming.
What a moment of celebration. Can you feel the excitement of the King coming — the One who offers protection from all enemies is coming into the city?
And in verses eight and ten we see who this King of glory is. In verse eight we read, “Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle!” (Psalm 24:8 ESV)
And in verse ten, “Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah” (Psalm 24:10 ESV)
So the King of glory is strong and mighty — He’s mighty in battle. He’s a victorious warrior. He’s the commander of the Army of God — He’s the Lord of hosts — a phrase associated with the presence of the ark of God — the ark of the covenant — the ark that was carried by the priests as Israel wandered in the wilderness — the same ark that led God’s people into victorious battle as they conquered the Promised Land.
And although we can’t be one hundred percent certain — our author — David — may have written this psalm to celebrate the return of the ark to Jerusalem.
For decades, the ark had been out of the city of Jerusalem while war was happening all around. Saul— the first king of Israel — and his sons had been killed. David has been anointed king of Israel. Enemies had to be dealt with. And now decades after the ark left Jerusalem, David is leading a parade of hope and joy and celebration as the ark of God returns to Jerusalem.
War has ceased. Enemies have been defeated. Victory has been secured. It’s time to celebrate.
Can you put yourself in Jerusalem? Can you see and hear and feel the hope and joy? “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. (The fighting is over.) 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! (The One who defeated our enemies for us is the King of glory.) 9 Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. (Let’s celebrate and be hopeful and joyful because the ark has returned to Jerusalem.) 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah” (Psalm 24:7-10 ESV)
This is a time of joy. It’s a time of hope. A time where David and the Israelites are celebrating because they have been blessed by God. They have experienced victory — victory that God has provided.
So this is a good day — no — this is a great day to be in Jerusalem. So that’s our setting.
And as we look at the rest of the psalm, we’re going to answer three questions.
Question one: Who is this God who blesses people?
Question number two: Who is the person that God blesses?
And finally — after we know who God is and who He blesses — we’ll ask “how can we be blessed by God?”
Who is God? Who does He bless? And how can we make sure we’re blessed by Him?
First…
MAIN POINT 1
What does our psalm tell us about God? It tells us two things.
First…The God who blesses people is their Owner. The God who blesses people owns them. We see this in verse one where we read, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1 ESV)
The God who blesses people is their Owner.
God owns the earth and all that’s in and on the earth — that’s what the phrase “the fullness thereof” means. And David reiterates this idea by saying the world is the Lord’s and everyone who dwells on the earth is the Lord’s.
So that’s where we must begin. The God who blesses people is their owner. He owns everything and everyone — including you and me.
I know that’s a bit repulsive to our culture, but maybe our problem is that we have too low a view of the authority, and reign, and dominion of God.
Maybe we project on God the abuses of authority we see and experience — maybe even the abuses of authority we commit ourselves — and so we’re repulsed by the idea of God having this kind of authority over us.
Regardless, in verse one we see that the God who blesses people…is the One who owns everyone and everything. There is no blessing without God’s ownership.
Second, we see that…The God who blesses people is their Creator. The God who blesses is the Creator — which is directly linked to His ownership. We read in verse two, “For he (that’s God) has founded it (the world and the people who live on it) upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” (Psalm 24:2 ESV)
The God who blesses people is their Creator.
Why is God the owner of everyone and everything? Verse two tells us that God owns everyone and everything “for” — or “because” of the fact that — He founded — He established — He created everyone and everything.
Just like a composer who creates a song owns the song, the artist who creates the painting owns the painting, the author who writes the book owns the manuscript — we can understand that being the creator of something gives you ownership rights. And I realize that the illustration only goes so far, but I think you get the idea.
And I know not everyone believes in creation. There are all kinds of theories out there as to how everything we see came into existence.
I remember when I was a young kid, I used to watch a movie and think to myself, “There’s no way they filmed every scene in this movie. That’d take way too long and who’s got time for that? So there must be a way to make movies without having to do every scene.”
Now that’s ridiculous right? Even with visual effects, someone has to make every scene in a movie. I don’t know why I thought that — it’s silly.
Of course every scene has to be created. Of course every scene has to be made by the directors, actors, film crew, or special effects department.
Scenes don’t just appear from nothing. They have to be made — they have to be created by someone.
Yet there are many people who believe that the greatest story — the Story that we’re all part of — started from nothing. We have all sorts of ideas about how our story began, but if you go back far enough you have to believe in one of two things. Either you believe that in the beginning there was nothing and from nothing came everything. Or you believe that in the beginning was God — and He created everything.
Either you believe that nothing is the creator of everyone and everything or you believe that God is the Creator of everyone and everything. Either way, you’re a person of faith because you weren’t there to know exactly how it all happened.
Many times people who have faith in God are told their beliefs are ridiculous, but when you compare faith in a creating God versus faith in everything coming from nothing…well can’t you see that both require a lot of faith?
So as we look at who the person is that God blesses, we must begin with who is this God that blesses people. And we’ve seen that He is the Owner and Creator of everyone and everything.
Which leads us to our second question.
MAIN POINT 2
Who is the person God blesses? Who is the person that God blesses? Look with me in verse three. “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah” (Psalm 24:3-6 ESV)
Now what these verses teach us is that God blesses someone who is holy. The person who God blesses is a holy person. There’s some good news I want to highlight because we’re about to get to some bad news.
So before we get to the bad news, know that there is a person who is blessed by God.
Read with me in verse five. David writes, “He (a holy person) will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Psalm 24:5 ESV)
So there’s good news — there is a person who will receive blessing from the Lord. They will receive the favor of the Lord. They will be made right with God because they have been rescued — which is what salvation means, it means to be rescued — the person blessed by God is someone who has been rescued by God. And people who have been rescued by God are made righteous and holy. They’re saints — people set apart by God for His purposes. A holy person is blessed by God.
Now to the bad news. What does it mean to be a holy person?
First…A holy person seeks God. A holy person seeks God. We see this in verse six where we read, “Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” (Psalm 24:6 ESV)
The person — individually — and the people — corporately —who are blessed by God seek God. And — we see in verse six — they seek the face of God.
Now here’s where we begin to run into some trouble — some bad news. In another psalm David writes, “The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:2-3 ESV)
So in Psalm twenty-four David says the people who are blessed by God are those who seek God, but in Psalm fourteen David says there isn’t a single person who does seek God.
So you see the problem, right? Good news! There is a person who is blessed by God — a holy person. But — bad news ! A holy person is someone who seeks after God — and David says there isn’t anyone who does that — no one seeks God.
Well things don’t get any better — let’s keep piling on the bad news — because — additionally…A holy person is blameless.
A holy person — the person God blesses — is blameless. Look with me in verse three.
David writes, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” (Psalm 24:3-4 ESV)
A holy person is blameless — the kind of person God blesses is someone who is blameless. They’re able to ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in the presence of God because they are blameless.
Now what does it mean to be blameless? It means you have clean hands. Your actions — everything you’ve ever done or ever will do — have been right, perfect, and obedient to God’s law. There are no mulligans here. One wrong, imperfect, or disobedient action and you don’t pass the clean hands test.
What does it mean to be blameless? It means you have a pure heart. Not just your actions, but your attitude and desires have never once gone against God’s perfect standard. Again, no mulligans here.
One second of a bad attitude, wrongful desire, lust, greed, jealousy and you don’t pass the pure heart test. Are we getting the “uh-oh I’m in trouble” idea yet?
What does it mean to be blameless? It means you’ve never lifted up your soul to what is false. Meaning, the place where your deepest concerns are kept — the very depth of who you are — has never strayed from full devotion to God. You’ve never found joy in something other than God, you’ve never found hope in something other than God, you’ve never found peace, security, or comfort in anything other than God.
What does it mean to be blameless? It means you’ve never sworn deceitfully. To be blameless means you’ve never told a lie — not even about your weight or how awesome you were at playing high school sports.
You see — a holy person is blessed by God, but in order to be holy you must be blameless. Never once doing a wrong thing, having an impure thought, giving your heart over to something or someone other than God, and never once telling a lie.
And just so we’re clear — because pride and arrogance runs deep in our hearts — and someone may be sitting here thinking “Well, I’m good!” — let me break the news to you — we’ve all failed the test. You’ve failed and so have I.
Some good news and a lot of bad news found in our verses. The good news is that there is a person God blesses — a holy person. But that’s where the good news seems to end for all of us. For a holy person is someone who seeks God and is blameless, which eliminates every one of us.
Which leads us to our final question.
MAIN POINT 3
How can we be blessed by God? If there is a person who is blessed by God — a holy person — but we all fail the “holy person test” — how can we be blessed by God? Is it even possible? Because if a holy person is who God blesses then you and I and everyone else who is alive is in deep trouble. So can we be blessed by God?
Let’s read the entire psalm one last time. Beginning in verse one.
“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. 3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah 7 Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! 9 Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah” (Psalm 24:1-10 ESV)
Do you remember what day of the week this psalm was sung in the temple by the priests? The first day of the week — Sunday. And as God’s Story unfolds, hundreds of years after David wrote this psalm, the tradition of singing this psalm on Sunday continued. There was a hope-filled anticipation that the King of glory would one day enter Jerusalem and offer true salvation to God’s people.
And in our Christian tradition we celebrate the day that this psalm was fulfilled each year? Do you know the day when we celebrate this psalm being fulfilled? We celebrate the fulfillment of this psalm every Palm Sunday.
So why Palm Sunday — what’s so significant about Palm Sunday? It was on Palm Sunday that Jesus entered Jerusalem as the true King of glory who had come to rescue His people.
As Jesus was entering Jerusalem, we like to pay attention to the people who welcomed him into the city. You may remember how some of Jesus’ disciples got a colt — a young donkey — for him, and Luke tells us, “And they brought it (the donkey) to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near — already on the way down the Mount of Olives — the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:35-38 ESV)
And we make much of what’s happening outside of the city as Jesus enters Jerusalem. We have traditions with palm branches — kids parading throughout the church whacking each other on the head with them — I mean waving the palm branches in the air with the best behavior ever.
And the words of the crowd — I mean don’t we just love those words — “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” Or as Mark records it, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:9b-10 ESV)
But let’s not forget that this was a Sunday. And on Sunday — the first day of the week — the priests in the temple would be singing Psalm twenty-four.
So picture this — as the crowd outside of Jerusalem — as a group of Jesus followers are outside the city proclaiming that the King is entering Jerusalem — another crowd — a group of Jesus’ enemies were inside the city. And as Jesus enters Jerusalem His enemies were singing “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! 9 Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!” (Psalm 24:7-10 ESV)
And the city gates were raised. The doors were lifted open. Hope and joy was abounding just outside the city because the King of glory was entering Jerusalem.
And the King was coming with all of His strength and might. He was ready for the greatest battle in all of history. The King was coming with an angelic army who He could call upon at any moment to fight for Him — yet our King knew He would face our enemy alone.
You see Jesus — the King of glory — came with a plan to defeat our greatest enemies of Satan, sin, death, and Hell in a way no one suspected — for Jesus came to die. He came to be killed. He entered Jerusalem to be a holy sacrifice for unholy people.
And being God, Jesus came to the earth He created to demonstrate His rightful ownership of everyone and everything.
And He knew that the only way for unholy people to be blessed by God was for Him — the only holy Person to have ever lived — the only way for us to be blessed was for Him to die as a sacrifice for our sin so we would be made holy.
You see, where we’ve failed to seek God — Jesus sought God perfectly. Where we’ve failed to be blameless before God — Jesus lived blamelessly.
And a few days after He entered Jerusalem, Jesus ascended the holy hill of the Lord. A hill where He would be crucified. And on the cross Jesus’ clean hands and pure heart — He who never lifted His soul towards anything other than God — He who never spoke a deceitful word — because of His great love — Jesus gave His perfect holy life as a sacrifice for our sins. And through His shed blood we are cleansed from our unclean hands, our impure hearts, our idolatry, our deceiving words, and our unholiness.
CONCLUSION
And through faith in Christ, bad news becomes good news. Because through faith in Christ — by trusting in what He has done for us in His life, death, and resurrection — we’re made holy. We’re cleansed.
And we discover the great joy in knowing that the King of glory has come and it’s by His might and His power that a victory over our enemies has been secured for we have put our faith and hope in Him — we are the people blessed by God.
“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! 9 Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!” (Psalm 24:7-10 ESV)
Let’s pray.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I pray that everyone who hears my voice will respond to what You’ve said to us through Your Word. Father remind us often that You bless those who’ve put their faith in Jesus — You make unholy people holy because of the victory Christ has won for us.
Help us to “lift up our heads and our hearts” with the gates and doors of Jerusalem declaring that the King of glory has come.
We pray in the powerful name of the King of Glory. Amen.