Who May Ascend The Mountain of the Lord?
Iwant to see it with my own eyes. There are so many states in our nation that have places that are beautiful. The internet has now figured out that I live in Minnesota. And so, now I see all these pretty places in MN. But evidently the prettiest place in MN is the north shore. You see the light houses and the pretty sunsets and you say to yourself, “I want to be there; I want to see that with my own eyes.” This evening, God’s word takes us to an even better place. Which would you rather see with your own eyes—the prettiest part of the North Shore, or our Triune God who made the North Shore and every other pretty place in the whole world? At the beginning of Psalm 24, we read: “1 The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; 2 for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.” (Psalms 24:1–2 CSB17)
Climbing up a hill and seeing beautiful lake Superior would be pretty. But that’s nothing to being able to climb up the mountain of the Lord and see the Lord himself—that would be wonderful. But there’s a problem. And in the words that follow we see what that problem is: “3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” (Psalms 24:3–6 CSB17)
If you want to ascent the mountain of the Lord and see him with your own eyes, what do you need to have? You need to have clean hands and a pure heart. You need to have never ever done anything wrong in your entire life (clean hands). you need to never ever have thought any evil desire in your life too (pure heart.) And just to make sure that we aren’t so foolish as to think we have had clean hands and a pure heart, the psalmist gives some examples. First, he says that if you have ever told a lie, you cannot stand on God’s holy mountain. Second, if you have ever made a promise you didn’t keep, you cannot stand on God’s holy mountain. This is not a small issue, is it? More than anything, when we die, we want to be with the Lord on his holy mountain. But our sin separates us from God and his holiness. But note where these words go from here: “7 Lift up your heads, you gates! Rise up, ancient doors! Then the King of glory will come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, you gates! Rise up, ancient doors! Then the King of glory will come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord of Armies, he is the King of glory.” (Psalms 24:7–10 CSB17)
The Psalmist urges us to receive the King of Glory. And then he asks the question that we all want to ask: who is the King of Glory? Here is where it’s good to know what glory is. The glory of the Lord was that pillar of cloud by day and that pillar of fire by night that followed the Israelites as they made their way from Egypt to Israel in the desert. It settled on the temple and filled it with smoke when King Solomon dedicated it for use. What did it mean? This was God’s special way in which he showed his people that we was with them, but not just in some abstract, distant way. No, instead, he was close to them to rescue them. That is what the glory of the Lord is.
But what else do we learn about this King of Glory? He is also the Lord of heavenly armies. He is the one who goes out and wages war for with angels at his command. For he is their king and commander.
Now, can you think of any time where the Glory of the Lord appeared and angels were present there at the same time? Who is the King of Glory. Jesus is the King of Glory. When he was born Luke tells us that the Glory of the Lord shone around them and the shepherds were terrified. And also we are told that the night was filled with powerful angels. And that was perfect and appropriate because that baby born in Bethlehem was their king and commander.
Jesus is the King of Glory. But, let’s return to the question we first asked: Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? The only one who can ascend the mountain of the Lord is the one who has clean hands and a pure heart. What does Jesus have to do with that? The King of Glory came to us to make an exchange with us. He takes our unclean hands and all the unclean actions they committed and exchanges them for his innocent hands. He takes our filthy thoughts and desires and exchanges them with his own pure thoughts. And the result is that, in those waters of baptism when we are brought into God’s family, God does not see our sin. Instead, he sees Jesus, the King of Glory and the commander of angels. He sees his own Son’s purity and sacrifice in our place.
And that cleanness and purity comes to us in a very simple, but special way. It comes to us through God’s word. Through God’s word he forgives our sins. Notice how that shows itself in our worship on Sunday mornings. Just about every Sunday morning how do we start our our worship. We confess our sins. We honestly confess the fact that our hands are not clean and our hearts are not pure and that our sins have put a wall between us and our God on his holy mountain. And then what happens? We hear that amazing news that the wall is torn down. Our sins are forgiven. And we have the privilege of spending the rest of our time in worship having more of our sins forgiven, growing in faith and encouraging one another.
Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? The only one who may ascend the mountain of the Lord is the one who has clean hands and a pure heart. Is that you? We started out tonight saying, “no.” But we finish saying, “amen” and “yes.” Jesus the King of Glory and commander of angels has exchanged his glory for our sin and his purity for our sin. And now, whenever God calls us home, we have the joy of ascending his holy mountain and not seeing the North Shore. Instead we see so much more and better. We see God face to face. Amen.