Tuesday 24 November 2009

Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?

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Psalm 24 verses 1-10:
"The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory."

Here the psalmist asks: "Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?" The answer is: "He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." (verse 4)
The Lord created the earth and man, but unfortunately man has fallen into sin. Satan planted the cancer of sin into the nature of man and made him a lost creature. Without the redeeming help from the Almighty all of manhood is lost.
We need the redeeming help from the Saviour; we must allow Him to do His work of salvation in us. We must let Him into our heart and being in order for Him to do this work in us. If we do this in faith satan has to let go of us, because the Lord won the victory over him and the power of sin on Calvary. This victory must be proclaimed/broadcast to all people in order that they, after letting Him realize their personal conversion in their heart and life, through faith in the power of His victory, will themselves become victors/conquerors over the sin in their heart, thinking and life.In this way the whole of mankind must be delivered from Satan’s claws for God created the world and it belongs to Him only.
Let us have another look at above question: “Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?”

Whoever
  1. is clean of hands;
  2. is pure of heart;
  3. does not lift up his soul unto vanity;
  4. does not swear deceitfully.
Thus: only they that are
  • clean of hands,
  • pure of heart,
  • pure of soul, and
  • pure of tongue;
In other words, they that live a pure life inwardly and outwardly. Thus no one among men, for we all sin. We do need the salvation of God's Saviour. This salvation, however, does not happen automatically after we have believed in Him and go to church; we are to cooperate in this salvation!
Verse 6 mentions, that we must ask Him, seek His face in prayer. This means, that we must be willing to leave behind our sinful life and convert to Him in willing surrender, if we are to be saved by Him.Thus, we have to meet Him in prayer. In this way He can heal us, body, soul and spirit; quicken us and make us healthy.
Isaiah 1:18 says:

  1. “Then come,
  2. let us reason together.”
Thus He requires from us a voluntary act: we are to come to Him, seek Him and confess our sins. But this is not enough either. In verse 7 (Psalm 24) it is written: "Lift up your heads, ye gates (gates of our body, soul and spirit)... that the King of glory may come in."
In days of old the hinges of the gates were underneath and the gates had to be lifted up by means of chains: thus, their heads had to be lifted up, that the Saviour/Redeemer could come in. Man consists of body, soul and spirit. So the gate of the body must be opened first: we must be willing to hear the redeeming Word of the Cross, of the shed blood of God's Lamb.
Then, the gate of our soul has to be opened. We are to be willing to accept Him and His salvation of our own free will; we must be willing to be saved.
Finally, the gate of our spirit must be opened. We have to let Him into our heart; we must love Him and His salvation, for the Redeemer must personally bring into effect the work He fulfilled on Calvary in our willing heart and life.
He must be allowed to burn away the sins of our body (flesh), our lusts; and wash them off in His shed blood. We also have to be delivered from the sins of our soul: sinful desires of the eyes for material goods and property, for riches and luxuries. Finally also the sins of our spirit have to be burned away: pride of self, lust for power and haughtiness.
Let this King of glory in, that He deliver you from all these sins; let Him share His victory over all these sins with you. "For," says the Word in this psalm: "He is strong and mighty in battle (namely the battle against sin)." (verse 8)
For this purpose he worked on Calvary an eternal salvation! (Hebrews 9:12). We have to want this, for we have a free will, and He will not torpedo this free will.
John 8:36 says: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
This is the highway of salvation that the Lamb of God has paved/cleared for us.
Hereafter He will also share His Divine life with us and will pour out His peace, joy and love in our redeemed heart and life, and will make us sons and daughters of God.
This divine life shares with us the struggle against Satan and the salvation of our fellow-man.
That is why this psalm ends with: "Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory."
Then all of us, whom He thus saved, will form His hosts, God's army, that will fight satan's power and annihilate it.

To God be all glory!! Amen.


by E. van den Worm

Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord - About holiness and purification