Daily Dose of the Word of God - Psalm 24

Justin Paul Lawrence, Executive Director

Transcript

JPL  0:06  

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC’s Daily Dose of the Word of God.  It’s Friday, March 27, but Sunday is coming. I’m Justin Paul Lawrence.  Each Friday, as we draw closer to Good Friday, we’ll listen to the voice of the Psalms, which teach us to pray and point us to Jesus. Today’s passage is Psalm 24

JPL  0:27  

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord     and vindication from God their Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty—he is the King of glory.

JPL  1:33  

As we look forward to Palm Sunday, I can only imagine that Psalm 24 was somewhere in the minds of the crowd as they celebrated Jesus. Here he is, ascending the mountain of the Lord - Jerusalem - with clean hands and a pure heart. There’s been no one like him in hundreds of years of waiting for a true king.  You can almost hear the ancient doors creaking as they’re opened for the first time. Lift up your gates - the King of Glory is coming. Here is true hope, at last.  There are definitely doors that wait a long time to be opened. Some traditional churches have a door that only gets used when a more senior church official comes through. Just recently, the new Archbishop of Canterbury was installed, and part of the ceremony was knocking three times at the rarely used main door of Canterbury Cathedral. Being let in through this door signifies the spiritual power of that office. As we begin to prepare our hearts for Easter, I wonder if there are gates and doors in our own lives that need to be opened. That Christ is knocking on. That might be creaky or old or only opened every once in a while. But they’re in need of the glory of the Lord. 

JPL  2:51  

Let's pray. Lord, prepare our hearts for the holy week ahead. Come into our lives and open the old gates, the old doors that your glory may come into every area of our lives. Take our righteous efforts and replace them with your clean hands and pure heart, so we can ascend your holy mountain and journey with you to the resurrection.