Psalm 24:3–6 (NET)
Who is allowed to ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may go up to his holy dwelling place? The one whose deeds are blameless and whose motives are pure, who does not lie, or make promises with no intention of keeping them. Such godly people are rewarded by the Lord, and vindicated by the God who delivers them. Such purity characterizes the people who seek his favor, Jacob’s descendants, who pray to him. (Selah)
This is a great passage that asks a really important question for any worshiper to consider; “Who is allowed to ascend the hill of the Lord?” As we seek to draw close to the Lord, we have to understand that there are restrictions regarding coming into His presence. I know that I do not want any hindrances to connecting with the Lord and I am sure you do not either, so we need to pay attention to these guidelines.
Here are the qualifications laid out in this text:
- clean hands (Another translation says, “4The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully.” CSB)
- pure hearts
- truthful
- promise keeper
- pure
- seekers of God
- prayer warriors
Clean Hands. I know how it feels to push back children who run up to you with filthy hands, not wanting to get the filth on me. I am not saying that God is like this, but it helps me to get a picture of what it must be like when I come to God carrying around a handful of impurities and trying to get close to Him. Sin is repulsive to God and it should be to us as well. We should never even try to get close to God while having the filth of sins on our hands. This doesn’t mean that you have to “clean yourself up” before coming to God, that doesn’t work because He is the only One able to do the cleaning! It means that if we know we have sin in our lives and we just simply do not want to change but expect God to just do what we say in spite of this rebellion, then we are mistaken and need to “clean up” (seek His forgiveness) immediately.
Pure Hearts. This statement deals specifically with motives. Our motives might be hidden when we deal with the people in our lives (most likely not though, we may think they are but people can see through it most of the time!), but we cannot hide our motives when it comes to God. He knows our every thought, our every motive, our every word before they are even uttered. He knows!
Truthfulness. Don’t we all have a distaste for lying? I cannot stand when I am lied to, especially when it is by someone that is close to me! It makes me feel untrusted, dishonored, disrespected, and down-right hurt. If you count me as a friend, then I would expect to never have to question whether or not what you are saying to me is a lie. I believe God is like this too! Listen, God is Truth – in Him there is no deception. He is also omniscient, which means that He is all-knowing. Do you and I really think that God doesn’t know when we are lying? Psalm 32:2 says that the man (or woman) in whose spirit there is no deceit is blessed. So let’s commit to being truthful – always!
Promise Keeper. If you and I make a promise with absolutely no intention to keep it, God doesn’t like it! This comes back to lying and having impure motives. If you have a habit (as I do sometimes) of making empty promises, or even quick promises that are made in sincerity but knowing that you probably will not be able to come through on it, please make the decision today to stop doing it. This will make you more trustworthy to others, and it will “clean you up” before God.
Pure. “Such purity characterizes the people.. [of God]” God’s children, who seek His favor, cannot expect to draw near to Him when they are impure. Purity in this context has a lot to do with what we say and the motives behind what we do, so I would pay really close attention to this admonition to be characterized by purity – it is really important to God!
Seekers of God. I believe that this title is one that I covet the most! If there is anything that I want to be known for, it is to be a seeker of God! I know that if this is something that truly characterizes my life then all other relationships, business dealings, fill-in-the-blank’s will be taken care of and in good order! Matthew 6 says that if we seek His Kingdom and His righteousness then all these things will be added unto us. So let’s commit to being seekers of God always!
Prayer Warriors. I almost included this into the previous point, but I found that this is slightly different in the functionality of its role. To be a prayer warrior is to have a heart that goes beyond the “seeking” aspects of our faith into more of a “now that I’ve found You” aspect. We seek the Lord in order to grow in our understanding of Him. Once we have found the Lord and grown in our understanding of Him, then is when our Prayer life is enhanced and we become more of an educated warrior that aligns ourself with His passions, His ways, His mission, His…! This is what Prayer Warriors do! We don’t just stop at intellectual knowledge of God, we push through in order to have experiential knowledge of the One in which we seek. We believe that we do have access into the Throne of Grace (Heb. 4:16) because of Jesus, and that we can receive mercy and grace whenever we need help! We cry out to Him often. We trust Him and seek His best for others around us. Prayer Warriors want what God wants!
Ascending the hill of the Lord is rooted in the idea that the Tabernacle of the Lord was placed on an elevated place, and anyone who approached that Tabernacle had to go through a cleansing ceremony or else they would be unable to enter. It is seen as holy and anyone who enters it must also be holy. The three holy elements of a worshiper are found in these organs; tongue, heart, and hands. When we have unholiness happening within any of these organs, then we must repent and turn from them before we can expect to walk in the blessing and favor of the Holy God of the universe (ascend the hill where He resides). To not treat these organs as holy instruments of God is to overlook the important aspect of sanctification in our journey of faith. We must understand the importance of this truth.
The good news is that God has provided the One who is able to clean us up! His name is Jesus Christ, and anyone who calls upon Him is saved and able to access the throne of God! This doesn’t mean that we can still continue in unholiness and expect to receive blessing, but it does mean that we are able to be clean before God when we come to Christ and seek His forgiveness. Once we have the blood of Christ over us, cleansing our filth, then we can rest assured that we are able to ascend the hill of the Lord, not by anything that we do but through the baptism into Christ for the forgiveness of sins! He makes us clean! He changes our motives! Jesus presents us as holy and blameless before the Father (Ephesians 5:25-27)! If we are holy and blameless principally, then let’s live it out practically as worshipers! All for His glory!
Go now and ascend the hill of the Lord knowing that in Christ you have clean hands and a pure heart – Hallelujah!
