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April 2/3, 2016
Jason Meyer | Psalms 24:1-10
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
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.
Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
hat the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle!
Lift up your heads, O gates!
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory!—Psalm 24
Introduction
The Next Four Weeks
I want to begin with an overview of the next four weeks at Bethlehem. I will be out of the pulpit on a writing leave. Pray for me as I attempt to finish a book about Martyn Lloyd-Jones and his understanding of the Christian Life for Crossway publishers. I am calling his understanding Doctrine on Fire. Not Light or Heat; Doctrine or Life—but doctrine that catches fire in the heart and the life. He said, “I spend half my time telling Christians to study doctrine and the other half telling them that doctrine is not enough” (Banner of Truth, Issue 275). Please pray for me. Please pray that doctrine would catch fire in my life as well as I write this book! I want to write not merely as an author, but as a witness.
This is going to be a great April at Bethlehem. The first two weekends focus upon Bethlehem College & Seminary with a special emphasis on church planting, and the last two weekends focus on lament.
April 9/10: Bethlehem College & Seminary Focus Weekend
The first weekend we want you to get caught up in the excitement of what God is doing and will do through Bethlehem College and Seminary. We will have a different seminary student or faculty member preaching at our services and leading worship.
April 16/17: Kenny Stokes, Lead Pastor, Downtown
The next weekend we have Pastor Kenny Stokes preaching on Church Planting. We are excited about what Pastor Kenny has been able to do for church planting in a part-time capacity and now we are asking, “What could church planting become under God with a full-time Kenny as church planting pastor?”
April 23/24: Travis Myers, Bethlehem College & Seminary Faculty (on Lament)
The next two weekends pick up the theme of lament with Travis Myers speaking on lymphoma and lament, and Pastor Billy G. Russell, from Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, speaking on lament and race. Travis Myers is a Missions professor at Bethlehem College & Seminary and has been an inspiration to many as he has walked through the valley of the shadow of death with lymphoma. He is here to testify that the Lamb has overcome and so he will overcome!
April 30/May 1: Billy G. Russell, Senior Pastor, Greater Friendship Missionary Baptis Church (on Lament)
Billy G. Russell will preach in this pulpit the last weekend of April, and I will be in his pulpit. We are saying to these cities that the Lamb has overcome and we are united in Christ—there is no Jew/Gentile, black/white, male/female—all are one in Christ. He is an overcomer of so much racial hatred and oppression. I can’t wait for you to hear his story.
We began this series on the Psalms near the beginning of August 2015 with a special attention toward learning to lament. More recently our studies in the Psalms have taken us to Psalms 20–24 and a special focus on the kingdom of God and the culture of fear. We have now come to the last of those five psalms. Psalm 24 has a triumphant main point for us today that speaks loud and clear to this culture of fear: See and savor the return of the King of Glory to realms of glory in victory.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
Here we have a statement of Lordship. The earth belongs to the Lord. All of it. Why does this psalm about the Lord as the King of glory start with “The earth is the Lord’s”? Answer: To show us the full extent of his kingdom. He is the rightful King of absolutely everything. Every person, creature, subatomic particle, everything.
The connection with the next verse is also very straightforward. Why is the King of absolutely everything? Because he created everything. Look at the relationship between verses 1–2. The earth is the Lord’s (v. 1) for he founded it and established it (v. 2). He is the Creator of all and therefore the King of all.
How could this be a Messianic psalm? The New Testament makes this point in staggering ways:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.—John 1:1–3
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.—Colossians 1:15–17
We need to be very clear about one thing at this point. The whole debate about origins going on in our culture is not really a debate about how it all started. It is not a trivia question—“Where did it all come from?” It is a debate about whether or not we need to answer to anybody. Do we need to bow to a Creator? Does someone exist as Creator that has the authority to tell us what to do? It is a debate about whether or not we have a KING. This Psalm says, “O my, do you have a King—and he is the King of everything and everyone.”
The apostle Paul quoted this same Psalm to make a very specific application about idolatry in 1 Corinthians 10:25–31.
Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”… So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Many people think only spiritual things matter to God. God owns all of our bodily existence—that is Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 6–10. Everything from sex to food is a Lordship issue. We answer to our King for everything. The main motivation of those under the Lordship of Christ is to do all to the glory of our King. All we are and all we do is praise to the King of all.
But even though all people are ruled by this King, not everyone likes it or lives like it. All are ruled, but not in the same way. Some rebel against his Lordship, while others rest under his Lordship.
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.
Out of all of the people in the world, who could possibly enjoy an eternal audience with the King? Who is welcomed to the victory celebration—the family of Psalm 22:22? The people that belong in the holy place are a holy people. Clean hands (externally pure), and a pure heart (internally pure). The people who belong with the King are those who trust and worship the True King and do not trust or worship a false king.
At first glance, people are tempted to think this Psalm describes salvation by works. But look again. The people who are holy are those who receive righteousness from the God of his salvation. God has saved them. He has vindicated them. They are justified, saved, washed. Keep two things in view here at the same time with a “yes” and “no” statement. Yes, it is true that children of God live like children of God. But, NO, they did not become children of God because they first lived like children of God. We love because he first loved us.
Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
hat the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle!
Lift up your heads, O gates!
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory!
The gates here are a reference to the people at the gates—those responsible for opening them. We speak in similar ways when we say “the courts say”—we mean the judges presiding over the courts have ruled.
We have a herald calling upon the gatekeepers to open the gates and give the King entrance. This is a familiar picture throughout history, indeed, an iconic picture. This is a scene played out in many smaller dramas throughout the history of the world. For example, recall an old tradition in England. According to ancient custom, when the King of England entered the City of London through the Temple Bar, a servant would herald his approach. The herald would stand outside the city wall and demand entrance in the king's name, crying, "Open the gate!" Then the royal party would hear the response from within: "Who is there?" To which the herald would answer, "The King of England!" Then the gates would swing open and the king would enter the city and receive a royal welcome from his loyal subjects.
This Psalm is bigger on a cosmic scale. Who is there? Not the King of England—the King of everything!
But this tradition goes back a lot further than the King of England. There are some astounding allusions to Ancient Near Eastern myths—this Psalm almost seems like a direct, full-frontal assault on idolatry and false worship.
Verse 2 declares that the earth has been built upon the seas and the rivers. The unusual imagery here may have been written as a polemic against the false worship of the nations surrounding Israel. Among the nations, the forces of nature stood for deities—and two powerful deities were Prince Sea (Yam) and Judge River (Nahar)—the same two words used in this verse.
The nations regarded these raging powerful forces as the threats of the underworld, but the Israelites regarded them as simply forces of nature that God had created and controlled when he established the land and fixed the boundaries. They were under his absolute Lordship. He told the sea how far it could come and no further, like a dog on a leash.
In fact, the similarities become even more striking at this point. One of the stories that the nations told about their gods uses similar language.
The emissaries from Yam (Sea) and Nahar (River) come to seize the god Baal:
Now the gods were sitting down to eat,
The holy ones to dine,
Baal was attending on El.
As soon as they see them,
See the messengers of Yamm,
The envoys of Judge Nahar,
The gods drop their heads
Down to their knees
and on the thrones of their princeship.
Baal rebukes them:
Why, O gods, have you dropped
Your heads down upon your knees
And on your thrones of your princeship?
I see the gods are cowed
With terror of the messengers of Yamm,
At the envoys of Judge Nahar.
Lift up, O gods, your heads,
From upon your knees,
From upon the thrones of your princeship.
Baal then defeats Yamm in battle and sends him back to his sphere of the sea and then Baal travels to his eternal kingdom, symbolized by his house on the top of his mountain.
But Psalm 24 is a much better story, because it is a true story. It does not tell us an imaginative tale about gods jockeying for first place among themselves. Psalm 24 does not merely tell the story of how King David brought the ark into the city of Jerusalem as some try to read the background of Psalm 24. Psalm 24 in its fullness tells the story of how Jesus as the King of glory conquered everything through the cross and the resurrection and received the name above every name (LORD) and returned to realms of glory.
That is exactly what he told Mary. After his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus greeted Mary Magdalene in the garden. But he gave her this warning: "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God' " (John 29:17).
There is no detailed play-by-play account of what happened after Jesus ascended out of sight of the disciples. We get a few glorious references in the New Testament that awake the imagination for what a glorious homecoming it must have been. We read that God exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name—which in the context of Philippians is the very same name as in Psalm 24—LORD! (Philippians 2:9). Hebrews 1 includes not only a picture of Jesus as Creator and Sustainer, but as ascended Lord:
In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.—Hebrews 1:2–3
Ephesians summarizes by saying that after God raised Jesus from the dead, he "seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given" (Ephesians 1:20–21).
In Revelation 21 we are told that there are angels that are in charge of the gates. Try to imagine the glorious liturgy as the procession approaches the everlasting gates and doors of glory. "Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in." If the gatekeepers had asked, "Who is this King of glory?" they would have responded, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle."
It all raises one essential question? If he is returning, then when and why did he first leave? What did he do? Hear the wondrous story once again. The eternal Son of God, co-equal, co-eternal with the Father, the second person of the Trinity, created all and was King of all. He was not a pompous King, clinging to his entitlement to be served by all. The King of all decided to become a servant of all.
The humble King stunningly left the courts of heaven for the manger of Bethlehem. He did not despise the virgin’s womb or the feeding trough. The Cosmic King who owned everything did not grab and take and hoard on earth. He lived as a servant—the humble King born among the animals, lived as a man with no place for his head. He did not receive a royal welcome. He came to his own and his own did not receive him.
The exalted King of heavenly bliss on earth was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
He would tell them of his kingdom, but their hearts would not believe. They would hate him and in anger they would nail him to a tree. But the sadness would be broken as the song of life arose. And the firstborn of creation would ascend and take his throne. He had left it to redeem them but before his life began, he knew he’d come back not as a baby, but as the Lord of every man. Hear the angels as their singing on the morning of his birth, but how much greater will our song be when he comes again to earth.
Look at this King of glory who has defeated the night and the prince of darkness. He was tempted and tried and battled sin and Satan and death and the forces of hell and he triumphed. He vanquished them all. Strong and mighty in battle indeed. Listen to the demons screaming, see him as he crushes the serpent’s head. What a cosmic victory! "He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (Colossians 2:15). Watch the conquering hero entering the city of glory. Open the gates, angels! The Father has given him the scroll of control of history and where it is all heading—the day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
“Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.—Revelation 5:5–14
That is where history is heading. Every tribe and language and people and nation—ransomed and redeemed—a purchased place in realms of glory reigning with the One who is King of all.
That is where history is heading—that is why we are not afraid. We don’t get swept up into a culture of fear because we know that if he is King of all we don’t need to be afraid at all. What can man do to me? Send me to hell #2? There is no such place and man has no such power. If we die, then we rise. Our King defeated death. If they tell us we have to do something that goes against obedience to Jesus—we have already decided. That makes it easy. We have to obey him who has all authority in heaven and earth. The nations are a drop in the bucket, dust on the scales. We must obey him rather than men—they have some authority on earth—he has all authority in heaven and earth. And when you take that stand—you may do it all alone, but you won’t be on your own—he is there with you always even to the end of the age.
There are some tribes, languages, and peoples, and nations that don’t yet know the King of glory. They say to you, “Who is this King of glory?” And they really can’t answer the question. Some are not only unreached, but unengaged—not even targeted, not even on the radar screen. We must go!
You don’t clean up your life in order to make him your King. The King of glory makes a royal entrance into your heart first—only he can clean up the mess that we have made by the power of his Spirit. Lift up the gates of your hearts and let the King of glory come in!
Sermon Discussion Questions
Outline
Main Point: Psalm 24 makes triumphant main point that speaks loud and clear to this culture of fear: See and savor the return of the King of Glory to realms of glory in victory.
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to worship Christ as the King of Glory and to rest completely in his victory and his second coming. Pray for three groups of people: (1) unbelieving, (2) unreached, and (3) unengaged/untargeted.