NOTES for Psa 24

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¹The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

²For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

³Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

⁴He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

⁵He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

⁶This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

⁷Lift up your head, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

⁸Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

⁹Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

¹⁰Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

The Lord is close to every thing and every creature in the universe He created. Yet here is the paradox: although He is beside us, we can be very far from Him. We ourselves create this one-sided distance by refusing to give up habitual sins that have become a way of life.

And yet He does not reject us, but Himself invites us to ascend His mountain, that is, He calls us to Himself. The purity and truth that come from Him can raise us to that mountain. It is so simple and understandable, yet so difficult for us, who constantly defile ourselves and thereby make the ascent impossible.

But precisely because human resources alone are insufficient, those who seek the Lord must let Him into the house of their heart. The psalm’s call to lift up the tops of the gates, which literally refers to the place into which the ark of the covenant is physically carried, is also addressed to us, who are called to open the doors to the One who surpasses every dwelling yet can Himself enter any house.

For us, “lifting up the gates” means making an upward effort toward the Lord and consenting to His presence in our homes, a presence that changes deeply rooted habits and our way of life.

Other notes

For Psa 24:4

⁴He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

What then is righteousness? Keeping the commandments? Yes, of course, all biblical authors without exception connect righteousness precisely with the commandments... Read more

What then is righteousness? Keeping the commandments? Yes, of course, all biblical authors without exception connect righteousness precisely with the commandments, with the law given by God, with what in biblical language is called Torah. But for the authors of the biblical books the Torah is not only legislation, even legislation given by God. The concept of Torah includes the way of life corresponding to that legislation, and the spiritual condition necessary for such a life. All this together is called the path of righteousness indicated by God. It would seem that a sinful person cannot be righteous by definition; righteousness is a miracle of God, possible not because of but in spite of the nature of the fallen person. How then can one learn a miracle? And yet, as can be seen, God wants us to resolve on a task that is hopeless in advance, to begin a war that without Him we will certainly lose. Even with His participation this war proves mortally dangerous for us, like any war. And it is harder than any earthly war, because the issue is war with sin, which is not only within us but also around us, a war where there is neither front nor rear, where the enemy is everywhere and we are something like partisans on territory occupied by that enemy. Support from above in such a situation, of course, plays the decisive role; but no less depends on our ability to receive it. The path of righteousness is a divine-human matter; in a certain sense no less depends on the human person here than on God. That is why one who wants to reach the goal has to learn righteousness, and righteousness itself turns out to be not only a miracle of God but also a skill: the skill of righteous life, without which even God's help may prove useless for us.

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