Preacher: Michael Foster,
Text: Psalm 24
East River Church (Batavia, OH)
King of Glory
good morning welcome these river church my name is michael foster glad to have you with us today see some visitors thanks for joining us we are in a short series on the Psalms and today we're gonna be in Psalm 24 so right in the middle of your Bible we'll probably be here a couple more weeks until I finish prepping for Genesis but today we're in Psalm 24 glad to be back with you guys I was down in Kentucky last week preaching at our church plant in Mount Sterling Silver City Church they send their greetings verse 1 of Psalm 24 the earth is the Lord's and fullness thereof the world and those who dwell therein for he has founded it upon the seas and established state 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 appear art 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 a generation of those who seek him who seek the face of God the God of Jacob lift up your heads okay and be lifted up oh ancient doors that the king of glory may come in who is the king of glory the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battle lift up your heads okay and lift them up oh 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 this is the word of the Lord. Let's pray Father we thank you for your word we thank you for how it both tears down and builds up it both convicts and encourages it to remove sin from our life it is one of the main means by which we are made more like your son we thank you for today may it humble us and may we receive what it has to say with a meek heart and they would produce much for cheer glory in your son's name amen. So I visited Australia last year as a lot of you know and it was a 14-hour non-stop flight from LA to Melbourne and that's because the Pacific Ocean is huge it's the largest and deepest of all the five oceans so the surface area of the United States is about 3.78 million square miles and the surface area of the Pacific Ocean is about 63.8 million square miles so you can fit the entire United States in the Pacific Ocean 17 times right it's that big is that massive I think it's amazing because I my entire life happens in like I think five square miles right I just that's how I live and that's just so big and I maybe you remember a plane crashed in the Indian Ocean or few or a conspiracy theorist it didn't crash but a plane crashed in a Indian Ocean and they couldn't find it they couldn't find it and everyone's like how can you not find a plane because it's huge that's why it's massive I remember looking out the window the reason I looked out the window is they said I don't know why they did this Qantas Airlines but they said we need everyone to keep their windows shut don't look out the window and then I thought is the earth flat well I see the edge of the earth so I like did what any normal human being would do is disobey them and look out the window all right and all I saw was water that just went on and on and on right it was incredible and then as a kid we drove across Kansas and Eastern Colorado to get to the Rocky Mountains Eastern Colorado is like with like it is as flat as a piece of paper there's no trees there's like almost nothing and it's planes for miles and miles but then suddenly out of nowhere you come up this hill I think this isn't I can't remember this is Denver or Colorado Springs but if you're driven out there you know I'm talking about you come up this hill and you're not seeing anything as you get to the top of the hill you just finally see the city and behind them these huge mountains right I mean they just shoot up out of the ground and it's such a contrast and I remember being 10 seeing them for the first time and seeing a plane come down over the mountains the land at the airport it was his mind blowing because they were so big they almost seemed fake and I had the same experience when I visited the Grand Canyon two years ago because of it's this immensity it also looked fake you know when I saw it I remember saying that's that's a really big hole you know so and and that's kind of all you can really do there if you have two hours is look at a big hole and say okay let's go do something fun anyhow creation is awesome in the true sense of that word awesome is something like fear mingled with admiration and you consider the scale and power of nature you start to realize how small and frail you are in comparison to it that's why I saw him eight in sawmate David sings when I look at your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place what is man that you're mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him so not only does creation make us contemplate our smallness but also the sheer greatness and awesomeness of the creator of this world Psalm 24 our song contains a very similar meditation this song has three major sections that logically flow out of each other first one and two David sees the Lord as in throne as the enthron and throne ruler overall creation and then three through six David ponders how mankind could ever enter into the presence of such a glorious king and then seven through ten David celebrates the forthcoming king of glory who will enter into the presence of men so verse one and two again 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 the point here is simple the earth and everything in it everyone in it belongs to the Lord because he is their creator in ancient times people had local deities these were gods that supposedly ruled this area or that area the rule was usually associated with like a particular feature of creation like a river or a sea for example Poseidon was a Greek god of the sea and Homer wrote a short hymn to Poseidon it reads I began to sing about Poseidon the great god mover of the earth and fruitless sea god of the deep who is also Lord of Helicon and wide Greece a twofold office that god allotted you oh shaker of the earth to be a tamer of the horses and a savior of ships hail Poseidon holder of the earth dark haired lord oh blessed one be kindly in the heart and help those who voyage in ships this sort of thing was common in the ancient world and is still exists in large parts of Africa and Asia actually just kind of a returning to pagan spirituality right now where people when I was looking for this I had to read this him back in college when I was looking for it I found all these blogs dedicated to going back to the old gods so that's that's happening but local people served a local god and those local deities made up a pantheon of gods who sometimes were at war with each other and the god of the Bible the true god is no local deity quite to the contrary there's only one god and he doesn't just rule over a river or sea he's the maker of all things therefore all things belong to him God's rule isn't the rule of a tyrant he isn't trying to take over something that belongs to someone else it all belongs to him he's the rightful king of the earth the second verse talks about the founding of the world upon the sea and the establishment of it upon the rivers this is a clear reference to Genesis 1 9 through 10 it says and God said let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear and it was so God called the dry land earth and the waters that were gathered together he called seas and God saw that it was good so when you take these two first verses together as a whole you see that David is thinking of creation as the domain of mankind so he's talking about the earth we dwell in or live on the dry land that the only god the creative all things separated from the waters he made a home for us in his creation therefore we belong to him he's arcing and when we don't acknowledge and live like that we are rebels in his kingdom God will always be far above where we are he's eternal immortal and invisible his name is above all names and that will be true forever we can never be equal to God that is the lie that the devil believed himself and it's at the heart of the deception with which he attempted mankind in the garden now even though that God is transcendent he's not unknowable or impersonal while we can't be equal to him we can have fellowship with him we can dwell not just in his creation but in his actual presence as a matter of fact that is what the entire Bible is about that is the main theme the Bible opens with mankind dwelling in the presence of God in Eden in Genesis 1 and 2 and the Bible closes with mankind dwelling in the presence of God in the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22 listen to Revelation 21 verses 1 through 4 then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more and I saw the Holy City in New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away all of Scripture is about dwelling with God about being in his presence and you see that right here in verse 3 David asked who shall ascend the hill of the Lord who shall stand in his holy place David begins with the meditation on the dwelling place of man down here and immediately moves to asking how mankind can dwell in the presence of a holy God again up there he says again who can ascend the hill or you can translate it mountain of the Lord the mountains are a big deal in Scripture it will stick out to you as you do your Bible in a year plan even starting with Genesis and Genesis 2 God plants a garden in Eden it's important to note that Eden itself isn't the garden the garden is in Eden Eden's kind of like a district right almost like a small county Adam is placed in the garden to cultivate and to keep it in Genesis 2 15 those two words are translated elsewhere as serve and guard and whenever they appear together they refer to the Israelites serving or obeying God's word or more usually to the job of the priests in guardian and keeping the temple that's why a lot of people myself included consider the garden of Eden to be something like a temple garden where mankind dwelled in God's special presence so if you think of like botanical gardens where you go it's just like beautiful when we hear this you always hear people say like the first man was a farmer right well not that's not what this type of garden is it's more like a garden where you that demonstrates beauty and in the ancient world gardens like this were usually built around temples where they would worship false deities so I consider the garden needed to be something like a temple garden where mankind dwelled in God's special presence and that's what's suggested in Genesis 3 if you pay attention we know that the devil in the form of a serpent is in the garden when he tempts Eve after Adam Eve both rebelled against God we read this in Genesis 3 8 and they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool the day or the wind of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden so obviously God is on everywhere so this is like the special presence of the Lord they hide from it so mankind is hiding fleeing from the presence of God why because he's holy and sin cannot be in the presence of a holy God now after that God gives the curse which includes the promise of a future king who will kill the serpent and restore mankind's fellowship with God now at the end of Genesis 3 verse 4 it says this or excuse me verse 24 it says this he drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim in a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life so the tree of life is up in the garden and now they they're getting pushed out of Eden and there's this cherubim that's going to protect the way to the tree of life so mankind is driven out of the garden hold that thought for a moment as I read to you Ezekiel 28 verse 13 and 14 you were in Eden the garden of God every precious stone was your covering Sardis Topaz diamond burl onyx jasper sapphire emerald carbuncle and crafted in gold where your settings and your engravings on the day that you were created they were prepared you were an anointed guardian cherub I placed you you were on the holy mountain of God in the midst of the stones of fire you walk so here Eden is called the garden of God it's not Adam's garden it's the garden of God that Adam is responsible to take care of it's where mankind dwelled in God's presence and it is also called the holy mountain of God here so the garden that God planted appears to be at the summit of a mountain and that makes a lot of essence because river a river flowed out of Eden and rivers find their source in the mountains now I make a much stronger case for this in a few weeks in our Genesis study anyhow all I want you to see today is when God drives man out of the garden he drives them down the mountain away from his presence they're descending in Genesis one through eleven mankind keeps getting further and further away from the mountain they keep going further more and more east or yeah they keep going down the mountain and so it's really about man's descent into a state of sin and misery outside the presence of God that is what that portion of scriptures about and then 12 through 50 really of Genesis is the beginning of the mission to reclaim the whole world all the nations mankind has been trying to ascend to climb back up with God ever since Genesis 3 that's what the tower of Babel is all about the people are trying to reclaim their place but not according to the plan that God gave in the garden right so they're building this temple to reach up to the heavens so they'll have a name great light God at the heart of all false religions is the belief that man can ascend to God or to God likeness in their power that's why God stopped the building of the tower and then he disperses the people into the nations but even after Babel the nations continued to try to ascend to God in their own power that's what high places are when you're working your way through chronicles and kings they're always talking about the high places they come up over and over again there are places of worship on top of like actual mountains or whatever they the highest place they can find or they are like fake mountains that's what pyramids or ziggurats are they're a man-made mountain so ziggurat is a think of more like the Aztecs sort of pyramids that have kind of different levels that you climb up they look more like stairs those are little mountains that people make to commune with God they always have high priests that are doing something in there and they're just little mountains it's it's simple mankind trying to ascend the mountain of God without having their sins dealt with and God hates it listen to the command God gives the people the Israelites as they're entering the Promised Land this is Deuteronomy 12 one through five these are the statutes and rules that shall be that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord the God of your fathers have given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth you shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossessed serve their gods on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree you shall tear down their altars and dash and pieces their billers and burn their ashram with fire you shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of the place you shall not worship the Lord your God in that way but you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there so you got to tear down all these fake mountains all these fake ways to God they must be destroyed you cannot worship God that way you will dwell with God where God decides to dwell you will obey him God is willing to dwell with man but only on his own terms and that primarily has to do with sin being dealt with think how often God meets with a man on a mountain and it's connected to sacrifice and Genesis 8 the flood waters finally subside and the art comes to rest on top of a mountain what is the very first thing that happens verse 20 and 22 of Genesis 8 says then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar and when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma the Lord said in his heart I will never again curse the ground because a man for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth neither will I ever strike down every living creature as I have done while the earth remains sea time and harvest cold and heat summer and winter day and I shall not cease now there's this reconciliation that's happening between God and mankind at the top of a mountain with sacrifice then Genesis 9 God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac where on a mountain verse 9 through 14 we read when they came to the place which God had told them Mariah Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on the top of the wood then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son the angel the Lord called him from heaven and said Abraham Abraham and he said here I am he said do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him for now I know that you fear God seeing you have not withheld your son your only son from me and Abraham lifted up his eyes and look behold behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his wounds and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son so Abraham called that the name of that place the Lord will provide as it is set to this day on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided again on a mountain provision for what well provision to be reconciled you know what it says in Hebrews says Abraham what people say why would a father kill a son well he knew that the nations would be reconciled through his son somehow he knew he'd have a son so he knew he displayed if he if he killed Isaac God would resurrect him because God keeps his promise so even in Abraham you see this only son being sacrificed on top of a mountain and the father willing to do it because he knows he will be resurrected this is why David asked who shall ascend the hill of the Lord who shall stand in his holy place in verse 4 of our text David answers he 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 genetic generation of those who seek him who seek the face of the God of Jacob in other words well there's two there's two readings of this some people say this is not about ceremonial cleaning but more about someone who has walked rightly with God ethically but I take it to be a little bit of both in other words it's referring to those who have been cleansed and made right by a sacrifice and therefore they can ascend the mountain of God and stand in a holy place because they've been ceremoniously made clean but but I think also it's obviously prefiguring Christ who lived that perfect life now this sets up the crazy thing man's trying to ascend the mountain and then in verse 7 God comes down to man right God come because man can't come to God God comes to man this is pointing towards the incarnation listen to verses seven through ten lift up your heads ogates and be lifted up o ancient doors that the king of glory may come in who is the king of glory the Lord strong in mighty the Lord mighty in battle lift up your heads ogates lift them up o ancient doors that the king of glory may come in who is this king of glory the Lord of host he is the king of glory since this is a psalm of David and is talking about God coming into Jerusalem through gates it is likely this is referring to when the ark of the covenant is about to be brought back into Jerusalem and the ark of the covenant is where it's it's like it's like God's footstool so you ever seen when they carry a guy carry a king on you know they have the two I don't you call it you put the two sticks and you have like a throne they carry them all around so that's what the ark of covenant is like when they're carrying your king around with you and so it represents God's kingly rule in his presence and he in a very special way he was present that way now when the ark wasn't in Israel it was being kept by this one family and God just kept blessing them because wherever God's presence is there's blessing that's why people want to be in God's pleasant presence so now that's being brought back in Jerusalem and there's this huge celebration right they want the blessing of that comes from having God's presence so that's what it's being being referred to but what you need to remember is that Jerusalem is often pictured as a mountain in scripture the Bible often refers to it in terms that evoke its elevated position it doesn't ever call it directly a mountain however frequent refers to Jerusalem as being a hill or an mountainous region so Mount Zion Jerusalem is often associated with Mount Zion which is one of its hills on which the city is built in many biblical references Zionist anonymous with Jerusalem for example Psalm 482 says beautiful in its loftiness the joy of the whole earth like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion the city of the Great King so Jerusalem is this it's the mountain of the Lord and then there's mountains that surround all Jerusalem the Bible mentions this in Psalm 125 2 as the mountains surround Jerusalem so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forever and then of course you have Mount Moriah according to the Bible the temple Mount in Jerusalem is located on Mount Moriah where Abraham was sacrificed or where Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac so that's where this is the where the meeting place with God so when you're reading Jerusalem or not Jerusalem when you read in the Psalms you hear this idea that the temple itself is like a mountain there's this crazy pattern that you have in scripture a fellowship with God at the top of the mountain very intimate and then some people at the middle and then everyone else at the bottom so this repeats over and over again it's most clearly seen where Moses is at the top of the mountain with God the elders are below the glory cloud and everyone else is at the foot of the mountain but in the temple you have the holy of holies you have the outer and then you have the part where everyone come in it's it's three level you also have three levels with the the ark I'll make a argument that will sound crazy at first but I would argue that while the ark is a boat it also is a floating temple it's a floating ziggurat with three different three different levels that represents this kind of tri tri level thing that happens over and over again in scripture so the temple is even pictured as a three level mountain that's why you don't go to the temple you go up to the temple that's the language it uses all the time that's why you have the psalms of a sense that you're singing as you're coming to Jerusalem now this is for the people have been dispersed some of those people were like actually going up in sea level other people were coming down from higher places in sea level right but this is it's treated as a mountain so you're seeing those psalms as you go up to Jerusalem what's interesting too is the entrance to the temple was to the east on a mountain facing Zion you see that in Exodus 15 17 just as the end time temple prophesied in Ezekiel chapter 40 verse two 43 and 12 has entrance on the east well it turns out where was the entrance to Eden it was from the east then in some places it's pictured as being on a mountain in Ezekiel 28 so the temple is is like kind of like Eden again the tree of life served as a model for the lampstand it was clearly shaped as a tree in the temple the temple was made with a wood carvings of flowers palm trees etc and was supposed to recall Eden's garden brilliance right and there's pomegranates were also placed at the bottom of two stone pillars in the temple so when you go in the temple you're everything around you is like a picture of a garden with this tree of life in the middle so then in that spot you sacrifice and it's a little microcosmos a little tiny world that that's made clean ceremony by blood and it's us looking forward to when we would be in Eden again or like Eden again that special fellowship with God it's going back to Eden it's ascending think about Jesus think about how he is this king of glory so one reason that you set aside things like pome Sunday is that that is the king of glory entering into Jerusalem he is entering in he is a true and better arc he is a God with man he is a manual so he enters into Jerusalem on pome Sunday and then what happens he's offered as a sacrifice on the cross on the mountain making everyone right with God what happens when he dies what happens in the temple right the curtains ripped from the top and now you don't have to go in the temple to have fellowship with God to dwell in his presence now God dwells in you through His Holy Spirit you can have fellowship with God perfectly through Jesus and then where does he go we ascends into the heavens so even Eden was a picture a real physical picture of the perfect fellowship that you can have with God in heaven that comes up in Hebrews 4 14 through 16 seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens so he's ascending into the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our affirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Jesus is enthroned in heaven he is at the top he's at the top of the mountain and what's going to happen he's going to come again for his people he descended once to claim what was already his and to make a way for us to be made right with him and now he's ruling he is that true and greater Adam he is that promised seed of Eve he is the one who would unite all the nations he's the seed of Abraham and he is he is the only one who can ascend to the hill of the Lord he is the only one that can stand in that holy place and because of what he has accomplished we can have fellowship with God and the day is coming where he'll come back and take all of us away from this destruction that we've been living in this sin this I think of your bad conscience that you had before you knew the Lord you couldn't you couldn't even look at him I love what where when Peter realizes that Jesus is not just he's not some other prophet he says go away from me I'm a I'm a sinful man and Jesus says no no that's sinful man on my specialty Jesus is coming he's coming to bring us into the presence of God and we don't want to send there he's already sent it there and now he's bringing heaven to earth that new Jerusalem where we'll have perfect fellowship with God forever and ever and ever it's a beautiful picture that's the King of glory that's our hope that's our only hope so when you think of your sins and if you're a Christian you think of them often because you're in the Word and you see the perfection of God and you get convicted if you're the one and think about people will do think how hard it is to build pyramids you have to like get aliens to help you do it is what I've learned from the history channel or you can just roll them across wood it's really easy actually but anyway but you think of what people have done the links at which they've gone to try to get to God to try to be made right with the right with God they've sacrificed humans at the top of mountains little ziggurats little temples they've killed others they shed the blood of others to try to be made right with God and yet God the son he says no one takes my life from me I lay it down he laid it down he shed his own blood that we could be made right with them that's our confidence that's your confidence when you come to the Lord's table you're in a moment it's not because you're righteous in your own power now no doubt that in saving you and then changing you you are becoming more holy God catches his fish then he cleans them right he's cleaning you he's making more like Jesus but the confidence that you come to this table in is the blood that was shed and the body that was pierced for you that's how you know you can be with God forever because he's with us let's pray father thank you so much for your son thank you that you have reconciled us you've done what we could not do Lord help us not to try to build ladders to heaven and instead simply come to you through your son in a time of need there is help at the throne of your grace make us bold people people that boldly confess our sins and boldly trust in the blood of your son in the resurrected power of his body and at the promise of his second coming where all of earth will be covered in your presence we ask this in the name of Jesus amen amen