Musings on Psalm 24

Psalm 24
A Psalm of David.

The earth is the LORDS (Yehovah) and the fullness thereof; the world and all they that dwell therein.
For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
Who shall ascend unto the hill of the LORD (Yehovah)? Or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that has clean hands, and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the LORD (Yehovah) and righteousness from the God (Elohim) of his salvation (yeshah).

Hands
Heart
Soul
Word

all of these must be pure and blameless to come before God.

I did a lot of dictionary looking up of the words in that verse. It helped some.

If your Hands, Heart, Soul and Word are pure, you will receive righteousness from God, who saves.
But it seems that if we could have pure hearts, clean hands, dedicated souls, and true words on our own, then we wouldn’t need God’s righteousness applied to us. Hmmm.

Romans 3 seems to speak directly to this.

We know “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” (Rom. 3:23) so we can’t have clean hands, heart, soul and word by ourselves.

But now (after Jesus) apart form the Law (doing it on our own) the righteousness of God has been shown (in the life of Jesus), even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus for all who believe (Rom. 3:22). All who believe have been justified (made right before God) as a gift by God’s grace, through the redemption in Jesus, (Rom. 3:24). Jesus paid the price in his own blood. This demonstrated God’s righteousness, because in His great patience, He passed over all the sins we did before, (Rom. 3:25-26).

The way I see it: (I like things nice and linear, If A then B, if B then C, etc.)

• We all were born into sin

• Jesus’ blood paid for our sins

• We believe, put our faith in, Jesus

• God looks at the righteousness of Christ instead of our own “goodness”

• God gives us salvation- lets us into heaven

Something like that. In Psalm 24 it’s not that straightforward. But when I read it aloud, and actually say Yehovah and Adonai, I feel very connected with His Spirit, very worshipful.