Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Psalm 24:3-5)
From the very beginning, it is revealed that there are certain places upon the earth that God ordained as a sacred space. It is my view that the Garden of Eden, and especially the midst of the garden, constituted the world’s first earthly sanctuary with Adam serving as priest. Later when Israel was instructed to build a sanctuary, it was for the purpose that a holy God might dwell among them, meaning however, that the people must take certain precautions before approaching God. In short, anything or anyone deemed to be ceremonially unclean was not permitted to enter the Sanctuary compound lest they defile its sanctity.
This principle obviously influenced David’s words, and yet, he correctly sees beyond the outward trappings of holiness — e.g. ceremonial washing etc. — to make the greater point that he poses in the form of a question. If we expect to be received by a holy God, should we not be clean in body, soul and spirit? In David’s mind, the rituals of cleanliness God demanded before anyone approached Him were to be honored, but they were also to be acknowledged as God’s way of provoking man to make certain his heart and soul were cleansed as well. Those who desired to worship God in His Sanctuary were not to harbor thoughts and intentions abhorrent to the Almighty, such as serving other idols or embracing deceit and falsehood. To be worthy of presenting yourself before God meant one must be willing to cleanse their hands of any wickedness and purge their hearts of anything that was offensive to Him.
When it comes to being worthy to stand before God, Scripture clearly establishes that none are worthy of such in their own merit. Thankfully, God’s grace and mercy has made a way for us to present ourselves blameless before Him, that is, through faith in the resurrected Messiah. Still, we have an obligation to live in the way Messiah has called us to live — the way of holiness. He said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). God, who is holy, calls His people to be holy so that communion between man and His Creator can be as it was intended from the beginning. Yes, we have been reconciled to Him through the Messiah but we are still challenged to have clean hands and a pure heart which, I would argue, is perfected when we walk in obedience by the Spirit. In the end the reward is, as David put it, “blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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