Who May Ascend The Hill of the LORD?

Psalm 24:3-6

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
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.
He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.


Psalm 24 is an amazing passage. As we read yesterday, it opens with the proclamation that everything belongs to the LORD for he created all things. And now the psalmist asks the question, "Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?" In other words, who is worthy to stand in his presence?

When I seriously consider the question my heart is stirred to answer, "No one! No one is worthy to stand in his presence. Who in their right mind could ever dream of being worthy to stand in the presence of the Almighty God, creator of the heavens and the earth?" But, that is not the response of the psalmist is it? Read it again. "Who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart." (Psalm 24:4)

Ok, now we are getting somewhere, I think. Or are we? Who has clean hands and a pure heart? Well, now am back to my former conclusion, "No one has clean hands and a pure heart, at least not in and of ourselves." So what are we to do? The standard is perfection, holiness, absolute purity of which no one matches up. Even on our best days when we abstain from all known blatant sin we are still left with the residue of former failures on our hands.

So my answer is simply receive the gift of absolute righteousness and purification through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He is the only sinless man and the only one worthy to ascend the hill of the LORD. And the truth is that he does so on our behalf and for the sack of displaying his marvelous grace! (Hebrew 4:14-16 Hebrews 7:23-27)

I think the words of this song put it best. May this be your response today. "GIVE us clean hands, GIVE us pure hearts..." we cannot have clean hands and pure hearts under any other circumstances. It is a gift.