Who may ascend to Yahweh’s hill? Who may stand in his holy place?
Parallel Translations
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Who may ascend to Yahweh’s hill? Who may stand in his holy place?
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Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
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Who shall ascend into the mountain of the LORD? and who shall stand in His holy place?
Cross-references (17)
Passages linked to Psalms 24:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 15:1 Yahweh, who shall dwell in your sanctuary? Who shall live on your holy hill?
- Hebrews 12:28 Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,
- Psalms 2:6 “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
- Psalms 65:4 Blessed is the one whom you choose and cause to come near, that he may live in your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.
- Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Psalms 68:18 You have ascended on high. You have led away captives. You have received gifts among people, yes, among the rebellious also, that Yah God might dwell there.
- Psalms 132:13-14 For Yahweh has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. “This is my resting place forever. I will live here, for I have desired it.
- Hebrews 12:22-24 But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
- Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what Yahweh spoke of, saying, ‘I will show myself holy to those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” Aaron held his peace.
- 2 Samuel 6:12-17 King David was told, “Yahweh has blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that belongs to him, because of God’s ark.” So David went and brought up God’s ark from the house of Obed-Edom into David’s city with joy. When those who bore Yahweh’s ark had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf. David danced before Yahweh with all his might; and David was clothed in a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up Yahweh’s ark with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. As Yahweh’s ark came into David’s city, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out through the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before Yahweh; and she despised him in her heart. They brought in Yahweh’s ark, and set it in its place, in the middle of the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.
- 1 Chronicles 15:1 David made himself houses in David’s city; and he prepared a place for God’s ark, and pitched a tent for it.
- Psalms 68:15-16 The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains. The mountains of Bashan are rugged. Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains, at the mountain where God chooses to reign? Yes, Yahweh will dwell there forever.
- Psalms 78:68-69 But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved. He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.
- John 20:17 Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold me, for I haven’t yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
- 1 Chronicles 15:25-28 So David, the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring the ark of Yahweh’s covenant up out of the house of Obed-Edom with joy. When God helped the Levites who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams. David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who bore the ark, the singers, and Chenaniah the choir master with the singers; and David had an ephod of linen on him. Thus all Israel brought the ark of Yahweh’s covenant up with shouting, with sound of the cornet, with trumpets, and with cymbals, sounding aloud with stringed instruments and harps.
- John 13:36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you can’t follow now, but you will follow afterwards.”
- Ephesians 4:8-10 Therefore he says, “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to people.” Now this, “He ascended”, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3. Who shall ascend unto. It being very well…
3. Who shall ascend unto. It being very well known that it was of pure grace that God erected his sanctuary, and chose for himself a dwelling-place among the Jews, David makes only a tacit reference to this subject. “Il n’en fait yci que bien petite mention et comme en passant.” — Fr. “He here only slightly adverts to this subject, and as it were in passing.”
“Comme nous s’avons que c’est leur coustume de s’eslever par orgueil a cause des titres qu’ils prenent sans avoir l’effect, se contentans de porter seulement les marques par dehors.” — Fr.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of…
Psa 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
Ver. 3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord] Montem caelestem significat, saith Vatablus, he meaneth into heaven; for the prophet’s purpose is to show, that although God made all, yet he will not save all; but that there is a select number, culled and called out of the many, who shall be everlastingly happy; and these are here characterized, as they are also, Psa 15:1-5, wherewith this psalm hath great affinity, and is thought to have been composed at the same time, that is, saith R. David, post negotium Ornani Iebusaei, after the business with Araunah the Jebusite, when God by fire from heaven had pointed out the place where the temple should be built, 1Ch 21:26; 1Ch 22:1.
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And who shall stand in his holy place?] Stand with the Lamb upon Mount Zion? Tautologia haec est Hebraeis perquam familiaris. Who is a true member of the Church militant? and shall be no less of the Church triumphant?
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The hill of the Lord, to wit, Zion or…
The hill of the Lord, to wit, Zion or Moriah, the place of God’s sanctuary and special presence. This is here subjoined, either,
1. By way of opposition; though God is the God of the whole world, yet he is in a peculiar manner the God of Israel, and to be worshipped no where but in their holy place. Or,
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2. As an inference. Having asserted and proved God’s authority and dominion over all mankind, and consequently their obligations to serve and worship him, he now proposeth a most necessary and important question, especially in those times, when all nations except Israel were under deep ignorance and errors herein, namely, where, and how, and by whom God will be served, and his favour and blessing may be enjoyed? The place is here described, and the qualification of the persons in the following verses.
Who shall stand, to wit, to minister before him, as this word is commonly used with rcspect either to men, as 1Ki 1:2, compared with 1Ki 10:8; Dan 1:5,19; or to God, as Deu 10:8; 18:7; Dan 7:10; Zec 3:4.
Standing is the posture of ministers or servants. So the sense is, Who shall serve God, to wit, with God’s acceptation, and to his own advantage?
In his holy place; in the place which he hath sanctified for his service.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain From this world, and the fulness thereof, the psalmist's…
From this world, and the fulness thereof, the psalmist's meditations rise, of a sudden to the great things of another world, the foundation of which is not on the seas, nor on the floods. The things of this world God has given to the children of men and we are much indebted to his providence for them; but they will not make a portion for us. And therefore,
I. Here is an enquiry after better things, Psa 24:3. This earth is God's footstool; but, if we had ever so much of it, we must be here but a while, must shortly go hence, and Who then shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall go to heaven hereafter, and, as an earnest of that, shall have communion with God in holy ordinances now? A soul that knows and considers its own nature, origin, and immortality, when it has viewed the earth and the fulness thereof, will sit down unsatisfied; there is not found among all the creatures a help meet for man, and therefore it will think of ascending towards God, towards heaven, will ask, "What shall I do to rise to that high place, that hill, where the Lord dwells and manifests himself, that I may be acquainted with him, and to abide in that happy holy place where he meets his people and makes them holy and happy? What shall I do that I may be of those whom God owns for his peculiar people and who are his in another manner than the earth is his and its fulness?" This question is much the same with that, Psa 15:1. The hill of Zion on which the temple was built typified the church, both visible and invisible. When the people attended the ark to its holy place David puts them in mind that these were but patterns of heavenly things, and therefore that by them they should be led to consider the heavenly things themselves.
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II. An answer to this enquiry, in which we have,
1. The properties of God's peculiar people, who shall have communion with him in grace and glory. (1.) They are such as keep themselves from all the gross acts of sin. They have clean hands; not spotted with the pollutions of the world and the flesh. None that were ceremonially unclean might enter into the mountain of the temple, which signified that cleanness of conversation which is required in all those that have fellowship with God. The hands lifted up in prayer must be pure hands, no blot of unjust gain cleaving to them, nor any thing else that defiles the man and is offensive to the holy God. (2.) They are such as make conscience of being really (that is, of being inwardly) as good as they seem to be outwardly. They have pure hearts. We make nothing of our religion if we do not make heart-work of it. It is not enough that our hands be clean before men, but we must also wash our hearts from wickedness, and not allow ourselves in any secret heart-impurities, which are open before the eye of God. Yet in vain do those pretend to have pure and good hearts whose hands are defiled with the acts of sin. That is a pure heart which is sincere and without guile in covenanting with God, which is carefully guarded, that the wicked one, the unclean spirit, touch it not, which is purified by faith, and conformed to the image and will of God; see Mat 5:8. (3.) They are such as do not set their affections upon the things of this world, do not lift up their souls unto vanity, whose hearts are not carried out inordinately towards the wealth of this world, the praise of men, or the delights of sense, who do not choose these things for their portion, nor reach forth after them, because they believe them to be vanity, uncertain and unsatisfying. (4.) They are such as deal honestly both with God and man. In their covenant with God, and their contracts with men, they have not sworn deceitfully, nor broken their promises, violated their engagements, nor taken any false oath. Those that have no regard to the obligations of truth or the honour of God's name are unfit for a place in God's holy hill. (5.) They are a praying people (Psa 24:6): This is the generation of those that seek him. In every age there is a remnant of such as these, men of this character, who are accounted to the Lord for a generation, Psa 22:30. And they are such as seek God, that seek they face, O Jacob! [1.] They join themselves to God, to seek him, not only in earnest prayer, but in serious endeavours to obtain his favour and keep themselves in his love. Having made it the summit of their happiness, they make it the summit of their ambition to be accepted of him, and therefore take care and pains to approve themselves to him. It is to the hill of the Lord that we must ascend, and, the way being up-hill, we have need to put forth ourselves to the utmost, as those that seek diligently. [2.] They join themselves to the people of God, to seek God with them. Being brought into communion with God, they come into communion of saints; conforming to the patterns of the saints that have gone before (so some understand this), they seek God's face, as Jacob (so some), who was therefore surnamed Israel, because he wrestled with God and prevailed, sought him and found him; and, associating with the saints of their own day, they shall court the favour of God's church (Rev 3:9), shall be glad of an acquaintance with God's people (Zac 8:23), shall incorporate themselves with them, and, when they subscribe with their hands to the Lord, shall call themselves by the name of Jacob, Isa 44:5. As soon as ever Paul was converted he joined himself to the disciples, Act 9:26. They shall seek God's face in Jacob (so some), that is, in the assemblies of his people. Thy face, O God of Jacob! so our margin supplies it, and makes it easy. As all believers are the spiritual seed of Abraham, so all that strive in prayer are the spiritual seed of Jacob, to whom God never said, Seek you me in vain.
2. The privileges of God's peculiar people, Psa 24:5. They shall be made truly and for ever happy. (1.) They shall be blessed: they shall receive the blessing from the Lord, all the fruits and gifts of God's favour, according to his promise; and those whom God blesses are blessed indeed, for it is his prerogative to command the blessing. (2.) They shall be justified and sanctified. These are the spiritual blessings in heavenly things which they shall receive, even righteousness, the very thing they hunger and thirst after, Mat 5:6. Righteousness is blessedness, and it is from God only that we must expect it, for we have no righteousness of our own. They shall receive the reward of their righteousness (so some), the crown of righteousness which the righteous Judge shall give, Ti2 4:8. (3.) They shall be saved; for God himself will be the God of their salvation. Note, Where God gives righteousness he certainly designs salvation. Those that are made meet for heaven shall be brought safely to heaven, and then they will find what they have been seeking, to their endless satisfaction.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?....…
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?.... Though the Lord has a claim in general to the whole world, and all its fulness; yet there is a particular part of it, or spot in it, which is his special and peculiar property, and that is his church and people; for though some reference may be had, in this passage, to Mount Moriah, and the hill of Zion, on which the temple was afterwards built, and is called the hill of the Lord, where he desired to dwell, Psa 68:15; yet the church is mystically intended, and is so called on account of its visibility, through a profession of faith in Christ, and for its immovableness, being built on him;
and who shall stand in his holy place? the same with the hill of the Lord; the temple being to be built upon it, where the Lord took up his residence, and was worshipped, and holiness becomes the house of God for evermore: the import of these questions is, who is a proper person to be an inhabitant of Zion, or a member of a Gospel church? and the answer to them is in Psa 24:4, in which is a description much like that which is given of one hundred forty and four thousand seen with the Lamb on Mount Zion, Rev 14:1; compare with this verse.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The hill - Zion or Moriah, the place of…
The hill - Zion or Moriah, the place of God's sanctuary and special presence. Having asserted God's dominion over all mankind, he now proposes an important question, by whom God will be served, and his blessing enjoyed? Stand - To minister before him. Standing is the posture of ministers or servants. Who shall serve God, with God's acceptation. Holy place - In the place which he hath sanctified for his service.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. Who shall ascend] Who is sufficiently holy…
Verse 3. Who shall ascend] Who is sufficiently holy to wait in his temple? Who is fit to minister in the holy place?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 24:3. Who shall ascend, &c. — Dr. Hammond…
Psa 24:3. Who shall ascend, &c. — Dr. Hammond infers from the composition of this Psalm, that it was intended to be sung by two companies or choirs, the one answering the other. To strengthen his conjecture that it was actually performed so, he observes, that upon very solemn occasions (and such this was) it was usual with the Jews to separate themselves, to divide into two companies, one standing on one side, and the other on the other. Thus, so long ago as Moses’s time, six tribes stood on mount Gerizim, and the other six on the opposite mount, Ebel. And Nehemiah mentions two companies of them that gave thanks, Neh 12:31, whereof one went to the right hand, Neh 12:38, and the other over against them, Neh 12:40. In like manner he thinks, at the solemn placing of the ark in Zion, the two choirs of singers might stand, one on one side of the tabernacle, and the other on the other, and repeat this Psalm. Dr. Delaney, improving on this idea, imagines that the king began the concert “with a solemn and sonorous recitative” of the first verse. The chorus, he thinks, was then divided, and each sung in their turns, both joining in the close, For he hath founded it upon the seas, &c. This part of the music, he supposes, lasted till the procession reached the foot of the hill of Sion, and that then the king stepped forth, and began in a solemn tone, Who shall ascend, &c. Then the first chorus of singers answered, Even he that hath clean hands, &c. The second chorus, That hath not lift up, &c., to the end of the 6th verse. “Let this part of the music,” says he, “be supposed to have lasted till they reached the gates of the city. Then the king began again in that most sublime and heavenly strain, Lift up your heads, O ye gates, &c., which all repeated in chorus. The persons appointed to keep the gates (or, perhaps, the matrons of Jerusalem, meeting David there, as they did Saul, upon his return from the conquest of the Philistines, 1 Samuel 18.) are supposed next to have sung, Who is the king of glory? and the first and second chorus to have answered, It is the Lord, strong and mighty, &c. And now let us suppose the instruments to take up the same airs, (the king, the princes, and the matrons moving to the measure,) and to continue them to the gates of the court of the tabernacle: then let the king again begin: Lift up your heads, O ye gates, &c., and be followed and answered as before: all closing — instruments sounding, chorus singing, people shouting — He is the King of glory. How others may think upon the point,” adds he, “I cannot say, (nor pretend to describe,) but for my own part I have no notion of hearing, or of any man’s having seen or heard, any thing so great, so solemn, so celestial, on this side the gates of heaven.” Leaving the reader to judge of this hypothesis as it shall appear to him, we return to the consideration of some of the expressions occurring in the verses thus referred to. The hill of the Lord, mentioned in this verse, (Psa 24:3,) was Sion, or Moriah, the place of God’s sanctuary and special presence. The psalmist, having asserted and proved God’s dominion over all mankind, and consequently their obligation to worship and serve him, now proposes a most necessary and important question, especially in those times, when all nations, except Israel, were in a state of deep ignorance and error respecting it, namely, where, and how, and by whom, God would be served, and his favour and blessing might be enjoyed. The place is here mentioned, and the qualification of the persons described in the following verses. Who shall stand — To minister before him. Standing is the posture of ministers or servants. Who shall serve God with acceptance? In his holy place? — The place he hath sanctified for his service.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?…
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? - Mount Zion; called the hill of the Lord, because it was the place designated for His worship, or the place of His abode. See the notes at Psa 15:1. The idea here is, “Who shall ascend there with a view of abiding there? Who is worthy to dwell there?” The question is equivalent to asking, What constitutes true religion? What is required for the acceptable worship of God? What will prepare a person for heaven?
Or who shall stand in his holy place? - In the tabernacle, or in the place where he is worshipped. Compare the notes at Psa 1:5. Who is worthy to stand before God? Who has the qualifications requisite to constitute the evidence of his friendship?
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The form of a question gives vivacity. Hands, tongue,…
The form of a question gives vivacity. Hands, tongue, and heart are organs of action, speech, and feeling, which compose character.
hill of the Lord--(compare Psa 2:6, &c.). His Church--the true or invisible, as typified by the earthly sanctuary.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Who shall ascend, etc.—See on Psa_15:1, which is…
3. Who shall ascend, etc.—See on Psa_15:1, which is parallel.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. Who shall ascend] Often of going up to…
3. Who shall ascend] Often of going up to worship at the sanctuary. See 1Sa_1:3; 1Sa_1:22; Isa_2:3; Isa_37:14; Isa_38:22.
stand] Not merely appear or remain, but as in Psa_1:5, stand his ground. Cp. 1Sa_6:20.
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in his holy place] Synonymous with ‘the hill (or, mountain) of the Lord’ in the preceding line. Cp. Psa_2:6, Psa_3:4, Psa_15:1, Psa_43:3; Isa_2:2-3, &c.
3–6. The moral conditions required for access to the presence of so great a God. His Holiness corresponds to His Majesty. Psa_15:1 ff. and Isa_33:14 ff. are parallel in substance as well as form.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3, 4) For the elaboration of this answer, see…
(3, 4) For the elaboration of this answer, see Psalms 15 and Isa_33:15; Isa_33:18. “The answer is remarkable, as expressing in language so clear that a child may understand it, the great doctrine that the only service, the only character which can be thought worthy of such a habitation, is that which conforms itself to the laws of truth, honesty, humility, justice, love. Three thousand years have passed, Jerusalem has fallen, the Jewish monarchy and priesthood and ritual and religion have perished; but the words of David still remain, with hardly an exception, the rule by which all wise and good men would measure the worth and value of men, the greatness and strength of nations” (Stanley, Canterbury Sermons).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?…
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? The second strophe opens with one of David"s sudden transitions. Who is worthy to be brought into contact with a God of such might and glory? Who shall ascend into his hill? God"s "hill" is, in reality, the highest heaven, wherein he has his dwelling-place. Its representative on earth was, at this time, the Mount Zion, where it was already determined in the Divine counsels that the temple should be built, and whither David was now about to transfer the ark of the covenant (see the introductory paragraph). David asks the question as a warning to the Levites, whom he was about to employ in the transport of the ark, that they might purify themselves in heart and soul before venturing to take part in the solemn ceremony. Or who shall stand in his holy place? Who, i.e. , shall stand and minister inside the tabernacle, when the ark has been placed therein, and it has thus become, in a special sense, God"s holy place? This psalm breathes the spirit of aspiration. It speaks of the earth as the Lord"s; but we are not to rest with the earth. The call is," Who will ascend?" As one of our own poets has said"Not to the earth confined, ascend to heaven.
Aspiration is an instinct of the heart. The young man is full of hope. Nothing seems to him impossible. His spirit leaps within him, longing to take part with others in the struggle of life. "Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new, That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do.
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Often such aspirations come to little. Work is hard. Progress is difficult. Things turn out so different from what was expected. Some fail. Others falter and lose heart. Others sink down to the dull routine of business, and the bright vision that charmed their youthful fancy fades away. But there are some who succeed. They have had ambitions, and they have stuck to them. They have had purposes, and have courageously carried them out. But if their aspirations have been limited to this world, success brings no real satisfaction. Byron found himself famous, and for a while was a great power; but how miserable were his last days! Even Gibbon, when he had brought his great work, that cost three and thirty years of labour, to an end, felt anything but quite satisfied. "I will not dissemble," he writes at Lausanne, "the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future fate of my History, the life of the historian must be short and precarious" (vol. 1. p. 23). Our aspirations need guidance and support. The true ascent is to "the hill of the Lord," and "his holy place." The Hebrews had much to stimulate them in the very conditions of things. They had to go up" to Jerusalem, and when they went to the house of the Lord, the way was "still upward from the entrance to the holy place. (Eze_41:7) And all this was made helpful to them as regards higher things. But we have greater aids and encouragements. We have "the hope of glory;" the lives of the good who have gone before us; the voices of the prophets; the example of our blessed Lord; and the promise of the Holy Spirit. Every true life has its Jerusalem, and we must "go from strength to strength," still upward, if we are at last to reach the joy and peace of God. There are difficulties, as there will be in the way of all high endeavours; but we are comforted with the promise of help and the assurance of success. Thought is good, "meditated action" is better, but right action carried out, and that to the end, is best of all. If we are of the generation that seek God (ver. 6), then our motto will be, "Death to evil, and life to good." If we open our hearts to the King of glory, then under his leading our path shall ever be onward and upward, till at last we stand in the holy place, and receive the blessing from the Lord. "Breathe me upward, thou in me Aspiring, who art the Way, the Truth, the Life! That no truth henceforth seem indifferent, No way to truth laborious, and no life Not even this life I live intolerable ("Aurora Leigh.") W.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 3-6. Here we have the true Israel described.…
Ver. 3-6. Here we have the true Israel described. The men who shall stand as courtiers in the palace of the living God are not distinguished by race, but by character; they are not Jews only, nor Gentiles only, nor any one branch of mankind peculiarly, but a people purified and made meet to dwell in the holy hill of the Lord.
Ver. 3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? It is uphill work for the creature to reach the Creator. Where is the mighty climber who can scale the towering heights? Nor is it height alone; it is glory too. Whose eye shall see the King in his beauty and dwell in his palace? In heaven he reigns most gloriously, who shall be permitted to enter into his royal presence? God has made all, but he will not save all; there is a chosen company who shall have the singular honour of dwelling with him in his high abode. These choice spirits desire to commune with God, and their wish shall be granted them. The solemn enquiry of the text is repeated in another form. Who shall be able to
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stand or continue there? He casteth away the wicked, who then can abide in his house? Who is he that can gaze upon the Holy One, and can abide in the blaze of his glory? Certainly none may venture to commune with God upon the footing of the law, but grace can make us meet to behold the vision of the divine presence. The question before us is one which all should ask for themselves, and none should be at ease till they have received an answer of peace. With careful self examination let us enquire, "Lord, is it I."
Ver. 3. Who shall ascend? Indeed, if none must ascend but he that is clean and pure, and without vanity and deceit, the question is quickly answered, None shall, for there is none so: dust is our matter, so not clean; defiled is our nature, so not pure; lighter, the heaviest of us, than vanity, and deceitful upon the balance the best of us; so no ascending so high for any of us. Yet there is One we hear of, or might have heard of today, that rose and ascended up on high, was thus qualified as the psalmist speaks of, all clean and pure, no chaff at all, no guile found in his mouth. 1Pe 2:22. Yes, but it was but One that was so; what's that to all the rest? Yes, somewhat it is. He was our Head, and if the Head be once risen and ascended, the members will all follow after in their time. Mark Frank.
Ver. 3. The hill of the Lord, can be no other than a hill of glory. His holy place is no less than the very place and seat of glory. And being such, you cannot imagine it but hard to come by, the very petty glories of the world are so. This is a hill of glory, hard to climb, difficult to ascend, craggy to pass up, steep to clamber, no plain campagnia to it, the broad easy way leads some whither else (Mt 7:13); the way to this is narrow (Mt 7:14); 'tis rough and troublesome. To be of the number of Christ's true faithful servants is no slight work; it is a fight, it is a race, it is a continual warfare; fastings and watchings, and cold and nakedness, and hunger and thirst, bonds, imprisonments, dangers and distresses, ignominy and reproach, afflictions and persecutions, the world's hatred and our friend's neglect, all that we call hard or difficult is to be found in the way we are to go. A man cannot leave a lust, shake off bad company, quit a course of sin, enter upon a way of virtue, profess his religion, or stand to it, cannot ascend the spiritual hill, but he will meet some or other of these to contest and strive with. But not only to ascend, but to stand there, as the word signifies; to continue at so high a pitch, to be constant in truth and piety, that will be hard indeed, and bring more difficulties to contest with. Mark Frank.
Ver. 3-4. The Psalm begins with a solicitous enquiry, subjoins a satisfactory answer, and closes with a most pertinent but rapturous apostrophe. This is the enquiry, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? This is the answer, "He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; ""he shall" "receive the blessing" of plenary remission from the Lord, and righteousness also from the God of his salvation: even that perfect righteousness which is not acquired by man, but bestowed by Jehovah; which is not performed by the saint, but received by the sinner; which is the only solid basis to support our hopes of happiness, the only valid plea for an admission into the mansions of joy. Then follows the apostrophe: the prophet foresees the ascension of Christ and his saints into the kingdom of heaven. He sees his Lord marching at the head of the redeemed world, and conducting them into regions of honour and joy. Suitably to such a view, and in a most beautiful strain of poetry, he addresses himself to the heavenly portals. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory, with all the heirs of his grace and righteousness, shall make their triumphant entry; shall enter in, and go out no more. James Hervey.
Ver. 3-4. It is not he who sings so well or so many Psalms, nor he who fasts or watches so many days, nor he who divides his own among the poor, nor he who preaches to others, nor he who lives quietly, kindly, and friendly; nor, in fine, is it he who knows all sciences and languages, nor he who works all virtuous and all good works that ever any man spoke or read of, but it is he alone, who is pure within and without. Martin Luther.
Ver. 3. The all important question.
Psalms 24:4*
Ver. 3-4. See Psalms on "Ps 24:3" for further information.
Ver. 3-4. It is not he who sings so well or so many Psalms, nor he who fasts or watches so many days, nor he who divides his own among the poor, nor he who preaches to others, nor he who lives quietly, kindly, and friendly; nor, in fine, is it he who knows all sciences and languages, nor he who works all virtuous and all good works that ever any man spoke or read of, but it is he alone, who is pure within and without. Martin Luther.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Psa_24:3-4
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
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Climbing the mountain
We may fairly compare the life of a Christian to the ascent of a mountain. Propose the text as a serious question.
I. Some who answer we shall are young beginners. They have not yet tried the rougher part of the mountain. Be not overconfident. There is a sense in which to be weak is to be strong,
II. Others speak out of sheer ignorance. Oh, say they, it is not far to heaven. It is a little thing to be a Christian. You have only to say, God be merciful to me, and the thing is done. Oh, poor ignorant soul, your folly is too common. To the unaccustomed traveller, nothing is more deceptive than a lofty Alp. You think you can get to the top in half an hour, but find it a full days journey. It is so with religion.
III. Others think they have found a smooth road by which they may avoid all roughness. Take care, presumptuous soul, for the greener the path the greater the danger.
IV. Others think they will be sure to ascend because of what they carry with them. This is the way in which the worldly-wise and self-sufficient talk, and those who are rich and cumbered with much serving in the world.
V. But others seem very sad. Why mourn you? Oh, say they, we shall never ascend the hill of God. I should have thought you the very ones who would ascend. Why do you think you shall fail?
1. One says: I am so weak, and the hill is so exceeding high. I can do nothing good. But God will help you.
2. I am so sorely tried, and the way is so rough. But the road to heaven never was anything but rough, so you may be the more sure you are in the right way.
3. But I have been sorely tempted; and across my path there is a swollen torrent, and I cannot wade through it. But the Lord knows how to deliver thee. In one of the wild valleys of Cumberland we were rained up for two or three days. The little brooks had been swollen until they roared like thundering rivers. But I noticed, when we did make the attempt, that the sheep which fed upon the mountain side could spring from stone to stone, rest a moment in the middle, while the angry flood rushed on either side, and then leap and spring again. I thought of the text, He maketh my feet like hinds feet.
4. But I have lost my way altogether, I cannot see a step before me; a thick fog of doubt and fear hangs over me. We too have passed through such fogs. Let him not fear but trust in the Lord.
5. But my woe is worse. I have been going down hill. My faith is not as strong as it was; my love has grown cold; my depravity has burst out. I am sure it is all over with me, In climbing a mountain it often occurs that the path winds downward for a season, But Christians never mount better than when they descend.
6. But I am in such danger. I fear I shall fall. When a Christian looks down it is likely to make his head swim. Look up! The Scripture does not bid us run our race looking at our own tottering legs, but looking unto Jesus.
VI. Look at the man who is able to ascend the hill of the Lord.
1. He is well shod.
2. Girt about his loins,
3. He has a strong staff.
4. And a guide.
5. He marks the way. And oh! the joy when the sunset is reached. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The message of the Ascension Psalms
On its historical side the Ascension of Christ is an event of surpassing grandeur and sublimity. It is an event without parallel in the history of mankind. For the Ascension of Christ rises far beyond the translations of Enoch or Elijah. His ascension was the ascension of a risen and immortal man, of a spiritualised and glorified body. It was therefore a perfectly unique and unparalleled event. This historic fact, applied to ourselves, penetrating our inmost being, conquering our wills, directing our motives, stirring our thoughts, exalting our actions--this, and this alone, is of redeeming service and eternal consequence. One of the greatest needs of our age is this applied Christianity; this application of historic, doctrinal religion to daily righteousness. We want the life of Christ imputed to us; and imputed, not by some ecclesiastical or juridical fiction, but in a plain, honest, practical way--the way of faith shown forth by works. What a poor paltry thing our modern respectable Christianity too often is! The Christianity of the Gospel is real and glorious. It begins with the cradle, and does not end with the grave. It has no will except the will of God. What is the message of the two Ascension Psalms (24; 25.)? Their first message is of Christ. That message was primarily and historically fulfilled when Christ Himself passed through the heavens. But the message is not concerning Christ alone. It concerns every Christian in so far as his character and conduct are fashioned after the model of Christ, his redeeming Lord. For as with the Resurrection, so also with the Ascension of Christ. He is the first fruits; afterwards all that are His. His ascension is the pledge and guarantee of our final ascension. Why did Christ our Lord ascend? The Psalmist answers: Because He had clean hands and a pure heart. Because Christ was perfect in heart and life; it was impossible for Him to be holden of death or of earth, Not only because He was perfect Son of God, but also because He was perfect son of man, He ascended into the heavens. His Ascension was accomplished by the force of a Divine and spiritual necessity--a spiritual necessity engendered by His absolute and unblemished righteousness. As fire ascends towards the sun by a natural law, so by a spiritual law goodness ascends towards God. What is true of Christ in perfection is also true of every Christian in part. All who, in humble faith, imitate His character will, by virtue of the same spiritual necessity which compelled His Ascension, themselves also at length ascend whither He has gone before to prepare a place for them. We must earnestly endeavour to practise the character and imitate the conduct of Christ before we can hope to follow in the shining path of His glorious exaltation. Ascension in heart and mind, in conversation and conduct, must be the forerunners of final, bodily ascension. (Canon Diggle.)
Who shall ascend
Sometimes the question is asked merely from idle curiosity. Sometimes with a sigh of hopelessness, in sheer despair. See the answer of the Psalm. Not only outward morality, but inward purity. His walk, his work, and his conversation must all be absolutely pure; he must be able to bridle his tongue, as well as keep his heart pure. The text comes to us on Ascension Day to tell of one who has climbed this hill. It is because He has gone up before us that we too are able to enter into that heavenly hill. He has ascended up on high, as our great forerunner. This days truth once more inspires us with courage. (E. A. Stuart, M. A.)
A great question, and its answer
This introductory question, sung as the procession climbed the steep, had realised what was needed for those who should get the entrance that they sought, and comes to be a very significant and important one.
I. The question of questions. It lies deep in all mens hearts, and underlies sacrifices and priesthoods and asceticisms of all sorts. It sometimes rises in the thoughts of the most degraded, and it is present always with some of the better and nobler of men. It indicates that, for life and blessedness, men must get somehow to the side of God, and be quiet there, as children in their fathers house. The universal consciousness is, that this fellowship with God, which is indispensable to a mans peace, is impossible to a mans impurity. So the question raises the thought of the consciousness of sin which comes creeping over a man when he is sometimes feeling after God, and seems to batter him in the face and fling him back into the outer darkness. That this question should rise and insist upon being answered as it does proves these three things--mans need of God, mans sense of Gods purity, mans consciousness of his own sin. The ascent of the hill of the Lord includes all the present life, and all the future.
II. The answer to this great question. The Psalm contains the qualifications necessary. They are four. They mean, Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. An impossible requirement is laid down, broad and stern and unmistakable. But is that all? Read on in Psalm, He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. So then, the impossible requirement is made possible as a gift to be received. In Jesus Christ there is the new life bestowed that will develop the righteousness far beyond our reach. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The souls cry and the true response
I. The souls cry. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? The spirit of this question is, how is fellowship with the great God to be attained? This state of fellowship with God is the great want of human souls. It is--
1. A very elevated state. It is the highest state of moral being. A soul in communion with God is high up above the mists, impurities, and tumults of worldly life.
2. A very holy state. Communion with Him is the holiest condition of souls.
3. A very desirable state. All should ascend, but what is the qualification for ascending? Of all the desirable things in life there is nothing so desirable for man as fellowship with God. For this his nature craves.
II. The true response.
1. The way of reaching this state.
(1) Moral cleanness. A man may be clean handed so far as the eyes of men are concerned, and black hearted to the eyes of God. The clean hands must be hands washed by the pure sentiments, motives, and aims of a holy heart. The means--
(2) Moral reality,
2. The blessedness of reaching this state. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord. This blessing includes all others--loving fellowship with himself, and the possession of conscious and divinely recognised rectitude of character. (Homilist.)
The one requirement
Who may ascend, was a picturesquely appropriate question for singers toiling upwards; and who may stand? for those who hoped presently to enter the sacred presence. The ark which they bore had brought disaster to Dagons temple, so that the philistine lords had asked in terror, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And at Beth-Shemesh its presence had been so fatal that David had abandoned the design of bringing it up, and said, How shall the Ark of the Lord come to me? The answer which lays down the qualifications of true dwellers in Jehovahs house may be compared with the similar outlines of ideal character in Psa_15:1-5 and Isa_33:14. The one requirement is purity. Here that requirement is deduced from the majesty of Jehovah, as set forth in verses 1, 2, and from the designation of His dwelling as holy. But this is the postulate of the whole Psalter. In it the approach to Jehovah is purely spiritual, while the outward access is used as a symbol; and the conditions are of the same nature as the approach. The general truth implied is, that the character of the God determines the character of the worshippers. Worship is supreme admiration, culminating in imitation. Its law is always, They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusteth in them. A god of war will have warriors, and a god of lust sensualists for his devotees. The worshippers in Jehovahs holy place must be holy. The details of the answer are but the echoes of a conscience enlightened by the perception of His character. In verse 4 it may be noted that of the four aspects of purity enumerated, the two central refer to the inward life (pure heart; lifts not his desire unto vanity), and these are embedded, as it were, in the outward life of deeds and words. Purity of act is expressed by clean hands,--neither red with blood nor foul with grubbing in dunghills for gold and other so-called good. Purity of speech is condensed into the one virtue of truthfulness (swears not to a falsehood). But the outward will only be right if the inward disposition is pure, and that inward purity will only be realised when desires are carefully curbed and directed. As is the desire, so is the man. Therefore the prime requisite for a pure heart is the withdrawal of affection, esteem, and longing from the solid-seeming illusions of sense. Vanity has, indeed, the special meaning of idols, but the notion of earthly good apart from God is more relevant here. In verse 5 the possessor of such purity is represented as receiving a blessing, even righteousness, from God, which is by many taken to mean beneficence on the part of God, inasmuch as, according to the Hebrew religious view of the world, all good is regarded as reward from Gods retributive, righteousness, and consequently as that of mans own righteousness or right conduct (Hupfeld). The expression is thus equivalent to salvation in the next clause. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Character fitness for worship
The occasion of this Psalm is one of the grandest and most illustrious that anywhere occurs in history. By the phrases of ascending into the hill of God and standing in His holy place, the Psalmist would point out the persons who are to be admitted to worship God in His temple. In ascertaining the qualifications of the citizens of the spiritual Jerusalem the Psalmist does not so much as mention the external observances, the costly and laborious rites of the ceremonial law, but dwells alone on the great and essential duties of morality, which are of universal and eternal obligation. The qualifications here are those of the heart and of the life. Clean hands and a pure heart. It is not enough that we wash our hands in innocency before men: we must be pure in heart before the eyes of infinite perfection. True religion is religion of the heart; it is a principle dwelling in the mind, that extends its influence through the whole man, and regulates the life. Unless our religion enter the heart we have no religion at all. We can never attain to the true beauties of holiness unless, like the kings daughters, we be all glorious within. A life sacred to devotion and virtue, sacred to the practice of truth and undefiled religion, joined to a heart pure, pious, and benevolent, constitute an offering more acceptable at the altars of the Most High God than whole hecatombs of burnt offerings and a thousand hills of frankincense in a flame. (J. Logan, F. R. S. E.)
Character developed by association
As soon as spirit touches spirit there springs up between them a relationship which we call moral. Whatever rightly flows from such spiritual contact is morally good. It is in the intercourse of human society that man proves himself to be a moral being. Faith, by admitting us into fresh contact with God and with our fellows, by endowing us with new relationships that have become ours through our inclusion within the new humanity, even the body of Christ, has necessarily laid upon us new moral obligations, responsibilities, and functions, all of which spring out of the very nature of our corporate faith. If we would determine the lines and features of the Christian temper and character we must look to the nature of that great fellowship into which we have been called. The Christian character asked of us is that habit, that activity, which must follow on our acceptance within the assembly of the first born, within the city of God. Whatever that acceptance makes desirable and natural, that is good and that is holy. The Church is a moral conception, a moral condition, by which we are to determine character.
I. The Church is a household. What are the virtues essential to a household such as our Lord pictures, an organised kingdom of work? Fertile activity. The character will be forthcoming, energetic, stirring. The household demands activity of character, and it asks for a skilled and trained activity. What type and rule of character is suggested by--
II. The Church as a family. It is a nursery and school of virtue. A family produces a character of courtesy, a sensitive recognition of varying characteristics, a delicate sense of others rights. It instills self-repression, self-control, honour for one another, esteem of one another, the stooping of the strong to the weak. Negative self-repression will learn to give itself positive outflow in sympathy, tenderness, and affection.
III. The Church as a body. What stamp does that great conception set upon character? It adds one peculiar note, the note of witness. A body is in essence the evidence, the proof, the pledge of that which acts through it. Its sole function throughout all its parts is to make manifest that secret presence which animates and directs it. The Christian who is of the body has mission, has vocation. He is there on earth to declare the name, to manifest the glory of God. The Christian character must therefore be stamped with the seal of mission.
IV. The Church as a temple. There is to be positive beauty in the Christian character, It is to be full of delicate and lovely refinement. There is to be a touch upon it of grace, a charm of majesty and consecration. A character built up out of purity and love will have about it also the sense of mystery, the spirit of the temple. Purity and mystery, the temple gifts, where are they? Where are they in us, in our lives, so mixed, so unpurged, and so worldly? Not until we are more evidently of the body and of the temple will men be able to recognise and confess, this is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob! (Canon H. Scott Holland.)
Even he that hath clean hands and a pure heart.--
The pure in heart
High up among some lofty mountains you may at some time have been surprised and delighted by the sudden and unlooked for discovery of a crystal-like lake, nestling cosily amid giant cliffs, or hemmed in and well-nigh hidden from you by a forest of solemn and majestic pines or cedars. By day its placid surface reflected with dazzling splendour the suns effulgence; while in the night the lovelier and more subdued glories of the moon and stars were so clearly reflected that the lake seemed transformed into a crystal setting which held these shining, jewels. In like manner is the Psalmists assertion of the text but the reflection of that which has ever been in the mind of the Creator, and which later on was enunciated by the God-man in the beatitude, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. But why such stress upon this virtue of purity? Because--
I. Impurity is the sin God most hates. In proof, see what brought on the Flood, the destruction of Sodom, and the most terrible punishments which came on Gods people. In the history of nations purity, preeminence, and power go together. Let a nation throw down the statue of Purity and it sounds its own death-knell.
II. A pure heart purifies all that it approaches. It is so even with the most ferocious natures, and so it is with human beings. A corrupt heart draws out in an hour all that is bad in us; a spiritual one brings out, and draws to itself, all that is best and purest. Such was Christ. He stood in the world the tight of the world, to which all rays of light gradually gathered. He stood in the presence of impurity, and men became pure.
III. We who are Gods children must seek to become and to be like Him. As light can have no fellowship with darkness, so can there be no fellowship between us and Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Impurity has on the spiritual man precisely the same effect that paralysis has on the physical man. The sin of impurity severs us from Christ.
IV. How may we win this purity of heart? We would say--
1. Stand out firmly against evil thoughts and imaginations. A mans heart may become so foul that purity refuses any longer to be its guest. Then Satan has won the battle.
2. Be careful as to the influence of your companions.
3. Also be careful as to what you read. Books often blunt the moral sense. Dwell often upon the spotless purity of the Creator, and of the Master while upon earth. Pray daily for grace and power to hate everything that can take away from the whiteness and cleanness of your soul, and to guard against it. (Henry Mottet.)
Spiritual catharsism
This new term, derived from a Greek word signifying purity, has been invented by Mr. Tomlinson to distinguish between ordinary and chemical cleanliness; for the two things are not by any means the same, We imagine that our bodies, when we haw thoroughly washed them, are perfectly free from all impurity; but the chemist proves to us by convincing experiments that, though we wash ourselves with snow water, and make our hands never so clean, we are still unclean. We cannot be made chemically clean by any process which would not injure or destroy us. The slightest exposure to the air--the great receptacle of all impurities--covers our skin with a greasy organic film, which pollutes every substance with which we come into contact. It is well known that the process of crystallisation in chemical solutions is set going by the presence of some impurity, in the shape of motes or dust particles, which act as nuclei around which the salts gather into crystals. But if the solution be protected from all floating impurities by a covering of cotton wool, which filters the air, it may be kept for any length of time at a low temperature without crystallising. A glass rod that is made chemically clean by being washed with strong acids or alkalis, such as sulphuric acid or caustic potash, can be put into the solution without exciting any change in it; but the smallest touch of what the most fastidious would call clean fingers starts at once the process of crystallisation, thus showing that the fingers are not truly clean. Nature is exceedingly dainty in her operations. Unless the agents we employ are stainlessly pure they will not produce the results which we naturally expect from them. Thus, for instance, if we scrape a few fragments from a fresh surface of camphor, and allow them to fall on water that is newly drawn from the cistern tap, into a chemically clean vessel, they will revolve with great rapidity, and sweep over the surface. But if the vessel, before being filled, has been rubbed and polished with a so called clean cloth, or if the water has stood awhile, or if a finger has been placed in it, the particles of camphor will lie perfectly motionless; thus proving that, however clean the cloth or the vessel or the finger may seem, an impurity has been imparted which prevents the camphor from exhibiting its strange movements. Or to adopt a more familiar experiment: if we pour a quantity of lemonade, or any other aerated fluid, into a glass which seems to be perfectly clean and bright, the lemonade will at once effervesce and form bubbles of gas on the sides of the glass. But if we first wash the glass with some strong acid or alkali, and then rinse it thoroughly with fresh water newly drawn, we may pour the lemonade into it and no bubbles will be seen. The reason is, that in the former case the glass was not really clean, and the impurities present acted as nuclei in liberating gas. But in the latter case the glass was really clean, and so could no longer liberate the gas from the liquid. Could we keep it clean we might stir the liquid a whole day and no sparkle would be raised. So, then, in common things, and yet more in spiritual, our utmost purity is a mere relative or comparative thing. We are never really clean. Our idea of purity and Gods idea are two very different things. See Jobs confession, Now, mine eye seeth Thee; wherefore, etc. The physical fact is but a faint image of the moral; and chemistry, in showing us the wonderful purity of natures operations, gives a new meaning and a deeper emphasis to the declarations of Scripture that natures God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. But to some men the infinite purity of God is a mere proposition exciting no emotion in the soul, a mere scientific truth like the chemists talk about cleanliness. To another it is the most intense of all experiences, stirring and transforming the whole nature. Impurity in natural things is caused by waste, disintegration, or combustion, When objects have served their purpose in one form they become effete, and therefore impure. Running water is living water, and therefore is sweet and pure; but whenever it becomes stagnant it loses its life, begins to putrefy, and becomes foul and unwholesome. A rock is called a live rock so long as it is hard and sound in the quarry, glistens like the sea waves, and rings under the hammer like a brazen bell, but whenever it is cut out of the quarry and exposed to the air it begins to lose the life that kept its particles together, and crumbles into dust. In its native bed the rock is pure, but when it is weathered by exposure it forms the mud of the highway, or the dust that pollutes everything by its presence. The clay and soil of our fields are caused by the oxidation or burning of pure metals; are, in fact, the ashes of metals. The dirt that cleaves to our footsteps, as the emblem of all impurity, is produced by the disintegration of the brightest metals or the most sparkling jewels. We say of a tree, that it is living when it is growing and putting forth foliage and fruit, and in this state it is pure and beautiful; but whenever it ceases to grow it dies, and decay begins, and it harbours all sorts of abominable things, the products of corruption. Everywhere throughout nature impurity is caused by objects ceasing to preserve the natural life that is in them, ceasing to serve the purpose for which they were created. And so is it with man. Impurity in him is caused by the loss of spiritual life. He has broken the law and order of his existence, and his whole nature has disintegrated in an atmosphere of sin. And just as mica is the first product of the purest crystal when it is broken down from the law of its creation, so all impurity in man is the vile product--the rust, as it were--of a nature made in the image of God, through its corruption--that is, as the word implies, its breaking up together by sin. Separated from God, his rock, he has suffered decay in all his parts. Ceasing to grow and abide in the Tree of Life, he has been cast forth as a branch and is withered, the prey of vile lusts and morbid vanities. And this is true of all men. Yet all men are not alike. Many feel incapable of the vices which they see committed around them. But such moral purity as we see in some individuals, causing them to thank God in their hearts that they are not as other men, is like ordinary cleanliness as compared with chemical cleanliness. We think our hands, or a glass of water, or a tablecloth clean; they certainly seem to be pure and spotless; our senses can detect no defilement in them, and for the common purposes of life they may be sufficiently clean. But when we submit them to the test of chemical experiment we find out the hidden impurities, and understand how widely different our notions of cleanliness are from the absolute truth. Chemical cleanliness, I have said, is produced by washing vessels and substances that are employed in experiments in strong sulphuric acid, or with a strong solution of caustic potash, and then rinsing with water. Analogous to these powerful appliances are the means which God often employs to produce moral purity, those chastenings of the flesh and crucifixions of the spirit which are not joyous but grievous. He sends sickness, that wears out the body; trouble, that racks the mind; and sorrow, that takes all the relish out of life. He mortifies self-seeking by disappointment, and humbles pride by failure. He makes lust its own scourge, and the idolatry of the heart its own punishment. By all these searching and terribly energetic purifiers, that corrode the soul as sulphuric acid does the body, He helps forward outwardly the Spirits work of renewing in the heart. His will is our sanctification. But it needs the burning heat of severe, oft-repeated, and long-protracted trial, working together with Gods Spirit, to evaporate the incongruous elements of sin and sense that make us impure, and to build up the pure transparent crystal of Christian simplicity. And this process is ever going on,--and amid the common exposures of our daily work. Not out of the world, but in the world, are found the disciplines which purify the soul. (Hugh Macmillan, D. D.)
The qualifications for our heavenly ascension
This Psalm is associated with the removal of the ark of the Lord to the temple which stood on Mount Zion. It sets forth those who should be regarded as qualified to ascend Mount Zion, and take part in the proceedings of that memorable day.
I. Clean hands. The Jews attached great importance to clean hands, especially before eating and worshipping. In the literal sense, clean hands may not be regarded as a necessary qualification for Christians in order to their admission to the true holy place, which is heaven, but rather what clean hands typify and represent in a spiritual sense. Our hands are the representatives of our actions. Therefore clean hands, to us Christians, would mean what we understand by stainless conduct. They mean lawful and right, honest and irreproachable actions. Our hands, our practical conduct, must be clean, morally unstained, undefiled, if we are to follow in the track of Christs ascension.
II. A pure heart. The character of a mans heart determines, above all things, his standing in the sight of God, his fitness to see God. Clean hands without a pure heart, an outward stainless life without the inward spirit of purity, will not suffice to admit a man to the holy place of Gods presence. What is a pure heart? It means that the fountain source of a mans nature, from which flow all the streams of his life, is unpolluted by sensual lusts, by forbidden passions, by foul imaginations, or by anything whatever that is morally unclean. By a pure heart is meant not simply a chaste heart, but an altogether uncorrupt heart, of which chastity is only one of many forms.
III. Hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity. Hebrew, hath not set his heart upon a thing of nought. Not fixed his heart upon things whose intrinsic value is worthless; such things as money, titles, society, worldly knowledge, earthly treasures, and the pleasures of this life. He does not set his affections on things of the earth. He does not allow them to take that place in his heart which is due to God, and to God only.
IV. Nor sworn deceitfully. By this is meant swearing falsely, taking an oath to a lie. The man who shall stand in Gods holy place must be a man of truth; a man like Nathaniel, in whom there is no guile, no artfulness, no pretence, no insincerity, no hypocrisy, no unreality, no untruth in any shape whatever. He must also be true in the inward parts, in his motives, aims, intentions, and aspirations. Ascending to heaven is a matter of spiritual character. Then who, among ordinary mortals, is really qualified for ascending to heaven? All that we can do is to keep the standard daily before our eyes, and do our honest best to reach it as far as possible. The life we are now living day by day may be an ascending life, ever moving upward, heavenward, Christ-ward. (H. G. Youard.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain
Psalms
A GREAT QUESTION AND ITS ANSWER
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Psa 24:3.
The psalm from which these words are taken flashes up into new beauty, if we suppose it to have been composed in connection with the bringing of the Ark into the Temple, or for some similar occasion. Whether it is David’s or not is a matter of very small consequence. But if we look at the psalm as a whole, we can scarcely fail to see that some such occasion underlies it. So just exercise your imaginations for a moment, and think of the long procession of white-robed priests bearing the Ark, and followed by the joyous multitude chanting as they ascended, ‘Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place?’ They are bethinking themselves of the qualifications needed for that which they are now doing. They reach the gates, which we must suppose to have been closed that they might be opened, and from the half-chorus outside there peals out the summons, ‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates! and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.’ Then from within another band of singers answers with the question, ‘Who is this King of Glory’ who thus demands entrance? And triumphantly the reply rings out, ‘The Lord, strong and mighty; the Lord, mighty in battle.’ Still reluctant, the question is put again, ‘Who is this King of Glory?’ and the answer is given once more, ‘The Lord of hosts, He is the King of Glory.’ There is no reference in the second answer to ‘battle.’ The conflicts are over, and the dominion is established, and at the reiterated summons the ancient gates roll back on their hinges, burst as by a strong blow, and Jehovah enters into His rest, He and the Ark of His strength. If that is the general connection of the psalm-and I think you will admit that it adds to its beauty and dramatic force if we suppose it so-then this introductory question, sung as the procession climbed the steep, had realised what was needed for those who should get the entrance that they sought, and comes to be a very significant and important one. I deal now with the question and its answer.
I. The question of questions.
That question lies deep in all men’s hearts, and underlies sacrifices and priesthoods and asceticisms and tortures of all sorts, and is the inner meaning of Hindoos swinging with hooks in their backs, and others of them measuring the road to the temple by prostrating themselves every yard or two as they advance. These self-torturers are all asking the same question: ‘Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?’ It sometimes rises in the thoughts of the most degraded, and it is present always with some of the better and nobler of men.
Now, there are three places in the Old Testament where substantially the same question is asked. There is this psalm of ours; there is another psalm which is all but a duplicate, which begins with ‘Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in Thy holy hill?’ And there is another shape into which the question is cast by the fervent and somewhat gloomy imagination of one of the prophets, who puts it thus: ‘Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who shall dwell with the everlasting burnings?’ There never was a more disastrous misapplication of Scripture than the popular idea that these two last questions suggest the possibility of a creature being exposed to the torments of future punishment. They have nothing to do with that. ‘Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?’ If you want a commentary, remember the words, ‘Our God is a consuming fire.’ That puts us on the right track, if we needed any putting on it, for answering this question, not in the gruesome and ghastly sense in which some people take it, but in all the grandeur of Isaiah’s thought. He sees God as ‘the everlasting burnings.’ Fire is the emblem of life as well as of death; fire is the means of quickening as well as of destroying; and when we speak of Him as ‘the everlasting burnings’ we are reminded of the bush in the desert, where His own signature was set, ‘burning and not consumed.’
So the question in all the three places referred to is substantially the same-and what does it indicate? It indicates the deep consciousness that men have that they need to be in that home, that for life and peace and blessedness, they must get somehow to the side of God, and be quiet there, as children in their Father’s house. We all know that this is true, whether our life is regulated by it or not. Very deep in every man’s conscience, if he will attend to its voice, there is that which says, ‘You are a pilgrim and a sojourner, and homeless and desolate until you nestle beneath the outspread wings in the Holy Place, and are a denizen of God’s house.’
The question further suggests another. The universal consciousness-which is, I believe, universal-though it is overlain and stifled by many of us, and neglected and set at nought by others-is that this fellowship with God, which is indispensable to a man’s peace, is impossible to a man’s impurity. So the question raises the thought of the consciousness of sin which comes creeping over a man when he is sometimes feeling after God, and seems to batter him in the face, and fling him back into the outer darkness, ‘How can I enter in there?’ and conscience has no answer, and the world has none, and as I shall have to say presently, the answer which the Old Testament, as Law, gives is almost as hopeless as the answer which conscience gives. But at all events that this question should rise and insist upon being answered as it does proves these three things-man’s need of God, man’s sense of God’s purity, man’s consciousness of his own sin.
And what does that ascent to the hill of the Lord include? All the present life, for, unless we are ‘dwelling in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives beholding His beauty and inquiring in His Temple,’ then we have little in life that is worth the having. The old Arab right of claiming hospitality of the Sheikh into whose tent the fugitive ran is used in Scripture over and over again to express the relation in which alone it is blessed for a man to live-namely, as a guest of God’s. That is peace. That is all that we require, to sit at His fireside, if I may so say, to claim the rites of hospitality, which the Arab chief would not refuse to the veriest tatterdemalion, or the greatest enemy that he knew, if he came into his tent and sought it. God sits in the door of His tent, and is ready to welcome us.
The ascent to the hill of the Lord means more than that. It includes also the future. I suppose that when men think about another world-which I am afraid none of us think about as often as we ought to do, in order to make the best of this one-the question, in some shape or other, which this band of singers lifted up, rises to their lips, ‘Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His Holy Place’ beyond the stars? Well, brethren! that is the question which concerns us all, more than anything else in the world, to have clearly and rightly answered.
II. Note the answer to this great question.
The psalm answers it in an instructive fashion, which we take as it stands. ‘He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.’ Let me measure myself by the side of that requirement. ‘Clean hands?’-are mine clean? ‘And a pure heart?’-what about mine? ‘Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity’-and where have my desires and thoughts so often gone? ‘Nor sworn deceitfully.’ These are the qualifications that our psalm dashes down in front of us when we ask the question.
The other two occasions to which I have referred, where the same question is put, give substantially the same answer. It might be interesting, if one had time, or this was the place, to look at the differences in the replies, as suggesting the slight differences in the ideal of a good man as presented by the various writers, but that must be left untouched now. Taking these four conditions that are laid down here, we come to this, that psalmist and prophet with one voice say that same solemn thing: ‘Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.’ There is no faltering in the answer, and it is an answer to which the depths of conscience say ‘Yes.’ We all admit, when we are wise, that for communion with God on earth, and for treading the golden pavements of that city into which nothing that is unclean shall enter, absolute holiness is necessary. Let no man deceive himself-that stands the irreversible, necessary condition.
Well, then, is anybody to go in? Let us read on in our psalm. An impossible requirement is laid down, broad and stern and unmistakable. But is that all? ‘He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.’ So, then, the impossible requirement is made possible as a gift to be received. And although I do not know that this psalmist, in the twilight of revelation, saw all that was involved in what he sang, he had caught a glimpse of this great thought, that what God required, God would give, and that our way to get the necessary, impossible condition realised in ourselves is to ‘receive’ it. ‘He shall receive . . . righteousness from the God of his salvation.’ Now, do you not see how, like some great star, trembling into the field of the telescope, and sending arrowy beams before it to announce its approach, the great central Christian truth is here dawning, germinant, prophesying its full rising? And the truth is this, ‘that I might be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, but that which is of God through Christ.’ Ah, brethren! impossibilities become possible when God comes and says, ‘I give thee that which thou canst not have.’ The old prophet asked the question, ‘What doth God require of thee?’ and his answer was, ‘That thou shouldst do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.’ If he had gone on to ask a better question, ‘What does God give thee?’ he would have said what all the New Testament says, ‘He gives what He commands, and He bestows before He requires.’ And so in Jesus Christ there is the forgiveness that blots out the past, and there is the new life bestowed that will develop the righteousness far beyond our reach. And thus the question which evoked first the answer that might drive us to despair, evokes next a response that commands us to hope.
But that is not all, for the psalm goes on: ‘This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face.’ Yes; couched in germ there lies in that last word the great truth which is expanded in the New Testament, like a beech-leaf folded up in its little brown sheath through all the winter, and ready to break and give out its green plumelets as soon as the warm rains and sunshine of spring come. ‘They that seek Him’-’if thou seek Him He will be found of thee.’ The requirement of righteousness, as I have said, is not abolished by the Gospel, as some people seem to think that it substitutes faith for righteousness; but it is made possible by the Gospel which through faith gives righteousness. And what the Psalmist meant by ‘seeking’ we Christian people mean by ‘faith.’ Earnest desire and confident application to Him are sure to obtain righteousness. To these there will never be returned a refusing answer. ‘I have never said to any of the seed of Jacob, seek ye Me in vain.’ So, brethren! if we seek we shall receive; if we receive we shall be holy, if we are holy we shall dwell with God, in sweet and blessed communion, and be denizens of His house, and sit together in heavenly places with Him all the days of our lives, and then shall pass, when ‘goodness and mercy have followed us all the days of our lives,’ and ‘dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Who shall
Who shall
The order is:
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(1) the declaration of title, "the earth is the Lord’s" Psa 24:1; Psa 24:2.
(2) Who shall rule the earth? (Psa 24:3-6). It is a question of worthiness, and no one is worthy but the Lamb. Cf.; Dan 7:13; Dan 7:14; Rev 5:3-10; Mat 25:31.
(3) The King of glory takes the throne of earth Psa 24:7-10.
See Psalms 40, next in order of the Messianic Psalms.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Who will ascend the mountain ... in his holy…
Who will ascend the mountain ... in his holy place?
Both of these questions mean basically the same thing. The speaker is asking about who is allowed to go and worship Yahweh. (See: Parallelism)
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will ascend
"will go up" or "will climb"
the mountain of Yahweh
This refers to Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
his holy place
This refers Yahweh's temple. His temple is on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
He who has ... who has ... and has not
Here "He" does not refer to a specific person. AT: "Those who have ... who have ... and have not" (See: Generic Noun Phrases)
who has clean hands
The word "hands" represents what a person does. For his "hands" to be clean means he does what is right. AT: "who does what is right" (See: Metonymy)
a pure heart
Here "heart" represents a person's thoughts or motives. AT: "thinks good thoughts" or "does not think about doing what is wrong" (See: Metonymy)
who has not lifted up a falsehood
Here "falsehood" represents a false idol. To "lift up" means to worship. AT: "who has not worshiped an idol" (See: Metonymy and Idiom)
translationWords
holy
clean
hand
pure
heart
oath
deceive
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 24:3-6 The citizens of the King’s realm include all…
24:3-6 The citizens of the King’s realm include all who seek him. The Lord invites them to enter his presence.
24:3 These questions invite readers to look away from their problems with the wicked and to examine themselves (see 15:1). • God’s holy place is the holy mountain, a reference both to Jerusalem and to heaven.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.