The one who seeks the face of the God of Jacob. Who can ascend the Holy Hill? The one who resists the devil and draws near to the Lord. In other words, even the clean hands and pure heart are not made that way by our own strength, but are made so by the strength and grace of God as we resist the devil and draw near to the Lord. If we humble ourselves before God, He will exalt us ( James 4:10). Rather, this person is blessed with “righteousness from the God of his salvation” ( Psalm 24:5). After all, who can say, “I have made my heart pure I am clean from my sin?” ( Proverbs 20:9). The person of Psalm 24:4 is not the sinlessly perfect person who has brought his/her own righteousness to lay out before God. But here is a fantastic principle we need to grasp. We don’t become friends with the world or with false gods. And the pure heart actually means to be single-minded, which, of course, means our mind doesn’t go after other masters. It is part of humbling ourselves before God. This is part of submitting ourselves to God and resisting the devil. But, contextually, this was part of drawing near to God so He will draw near to us. In James 4:8, James says sinners need to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts. Perhaps the most pointed allusion to this passage is often overlooked by commentators and search engines (maybe because the Greek words aren’t the same as those in the LXX for Psalm 24:4). While this statement demonstrates prayer with uplifted hands was a norm for Christians in the New Testament, his main emphasis is those uplifted hands were supposed to be clean. Paul makes this same point in 1 Timothy 2:8 when he points out men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger and quarreling. God doesn’t listen to the worship offered by those with defiled hands. Isaiah seems to have these same principles in mind in the context of Isaiah 59:3. 4) Honest though, considering the list, this is probably more about not profaning God’s name (see Leviticus 19:12). This one is mostly about our relationship with God. This list, however, seems to give the other side. Almost every bit of that qualification list had to do with the worshipers relationship with others. A similar question was asked in Psalm 15. Surely, not just anyone can make their way into His presence. The God who “dwells” on this hill owns everything because He created it all. But we are still left with the question of who actually gets to climb it. We’ve decide there really is a hill to climb. Amen.We’ve decided to lay down our tools for building our own personal hill. May Your Spirit work within us as a refining fire, consuming all that is not from Your will. Prayer: Father, above everything we have ever asked from You, may we have clean hands and a pure heart, as we know this is the source of all lasting joy and accomplishment, and we can choose nothing better for our soul. Praise God that He has made a way for us to be cleansed, and purchased back from death and corruption! Let us choose cleanness, and let all deception become a thing of the past. The dirt, which defiles us, is the selfishness and deception, which lies in the heart of each of us, and must be cleansed by Christ's blood, and by the Holy Spirit, who is sent to all who will receive Him. Finally, I realized that this "dirt" was within me, not outside of me. What was wrong with it? It was good dirt, clean dirt, and it didn't hurt anyone.Īs I grew up, I realized that there is another dirt, which does alienate one from God, and, like everyone from Eve on down, I had to taste it, for fear I was missing out on something good. When I first heard the saying, "Cleanliness is next to godliness", I didn't really understand it, as I thought it was talking about the physical dirt I enjoyed playing in so much. I had been given several toy tractors, bulldozers, graders, and cranes, so I spent many hours moving the sand and soil of my backyard from one place to another, and often carried some of it into the house on my hands and clothing. When I was a little boy, I liked nothing better than to play in the dirt. Psalm 24:3-4 – Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not life up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully.
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