Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
1 God, having spoken to the fathers long ago in [the voices and writings of] the prophets in many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the truth], and in many ways, 2 has in these last days spoken [with finality] to us in [the person of One who is by His character and nature] His Son [namely Jesus], whom He appointed heir and lawful owner of all things, through whom also He created the universe [that is, the universe as a space-time-matter continuum]. 3 The Son is the radiance and only expression of the glory of [our awesome] God [reflecting God’s [a]Shekinah glory, the Light-being, the brilliant light of the divine], and the exact representation and perfect imprint of His [Father’s] essence, and upholding and maintaining and propelling all things [the entire physical and spiritual universe] by His powerful word [carrying the universe along to its predetermined goal]. When He [Himself and no other] had [by offering Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for sin] accomplished purification from sins and established our freedom from guilt, He sat down [revealing His completed work] at the right hand of the Majesty on high [revealing His Divine authority], 4 having become as much superior to angels, since He has inherited a more excellent and glorious [b]name than they [that is, Son—the name above all names].
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
Hebrews begins by making some big statements in its first three verses. Each day we are reminded, that we will focus on one of those primary statements and we refresh ourselves, refresh our spirits, what “supremacy of Christ” means for us.
Christ is the “heir of all things.”
Prophets were sent to speak to God’s people.
They ancient people brought important news and teachings from God, but they were merely His messengers. Now God has come into the works of man, and has spoken, to his people, directly through his Son, who is the “heir of all things.”
This reference points back to Psalm 2:7-8, which says,
“He said to me, ‘You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.’”
In Jesus, God fulfills this amazing promise.
Jesus is the heir who receives all that the Father has.
Peter says that this inheritance “can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).
So what does this mean for us in these 21st century times of disastrous, divisive, upheaval, people openly mocking God with their positions on ‘living for Jesus.’
God is a fairy tale, a fable, made up by those abusing some mind altering drugs.
The bible is a book of wild delusions, hallucinations penned by the drug addled.
There is “no such thing as God,” “no such a thing as a Resurrection, no such a thing as salvation,” “no such thing as sin.” “such a thing as salvation from sin.
As followers of Christ, we are graciously adopted into God’s family as his own children, and we are “co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).
As co-heirs with Christ, we are set to inherit all that Christ inherits—namely, salvation from sin and eternal life with him.
The Writings to the Hebrews starts out by laying the unshakeable foundation to debunk those who chose to spread erroneous teachings, man’s erroneous use of words like “sovereignty, supremacy” that they held man had an ironclad grip.
The Word which now comes to us in Jesus Christ, both by what he said and what he was, is a significantly stronger, more comprehensive, far more intimate and inclusive word than God ever originally spoke through those ancient prophets .
When you are studying the Old Testament, you are studying the Word of God.
The voice of God is heard through various forms and circumstances. (Psalm 19)
All of it is of God, but all of it is incomplete.
It never brings us to ultimate’s and absolutes.
But when you open the pages of the New Testament, read and study the fourfold picture of Jesus Christ, you find all the Old Testament writings merges into one voice, life, ministry, mission, works, His Passion, by the true voice of His Son.
The words by which God spoke in the Old Testament are merged into one complete discourse in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, God’s word to man has been fully, finally, uttered in the Son.
There is nothing more to be said. Jesus Christ is God’s own final Word to man.
Therefore, the word through the Son is greater than that through the prophets because it includes and surpasses theirs.
It is also greater because the Son created, established, the boundaries of history.
The writer says Jesus has been appointed the heir of all things, and through him God made the universe.
Further, his Word has greater power than the prophets’ because he sustains the matter of the universe.
He reflects the Shekinah glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.
In the hills behind Stanford University there is a linear accelerator, some two miles long, a gigantic instrument.
Scientists built it to be a great lever by which they can pry the lid off the secrets that lie behind matter.
They are trying to find what makes the universe tick, what holds it together.
And as man probes deeper into the secrets of the universe around him, he discovers more and more that he is confronting the mystery of an untouchable, unfathomable force; that he Himself stands face to face with His pure force.
What is that force?
Scientists never name it, in fact they cannot name it, but the Scripture does. (Psalm 29)
The Scripture says that force is Jesus Christ, that he holds everything in place, whether it be large or small.
The reason we can sit or stand, though our earth is whirling at a furious rate, and not being randomly, sporadically, hurled off into space, is simply because he sustains the universe. Jesus Himself is the ultimate, the final spoken secret behind everything that exists. (John 1:1-5, Colossians 1:15-23, 1John 1:1-9)
The book of Hebrews is a part of the New Testament and is filled with rich theological teachings and insights.
The authorship of the book is not definitively known, but it is traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul.
The specific audience and historical context of Hebrews are also somewhat uncertain, but it was likely written to a group of Jewish Christians who were facing persecution and considering reverting back to the ways of Judaism.
We live in a culture which is always force feeding, pitching us all manner of stuff which is better, greater, more superior than anything that’s come before. It turns out that “far better” is one of the Book of Hebrews’ favorite words.
Right from the start, the author is trying to convince us that Jesus is better.
Overall, this passage from Hebrews serves to exalt Jesus Christ as the supreme revelation of God to humanity.
By emphasizing His role in creation, His divine nature, and His redemptive work, the author establishes the unmatched significance and authority of Jesus.
The theological themes of Christ’s divinity, His role as Savior, and His infinite superiority over all other beings are central to the passage, and they continue to be foundational to Christian beliefs.
Ultimately, this passage serves to deepen our understanding, appreciation, of the person and work of Jesus Christ, inviting us to respond in faith and worship.
What is our response …
How can our response be more impactful, magnified, beyond God’s Kingdom?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 24
A psalm by David.
1 The earth and everything it contains are Yahweh’s. The world and all who live in it are his. 2 He laid its foundation on the seas and set it firmly on the rivers.
3 Who may go up Yahweh’s mountain? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart and does not long for what is false[a] or lie when he is under oath. 5 This person will receive a blessing from Yahweh and righteousness from Elohim, his savior. 6 This is the person who seeks him, who searches for the face of the El of Jacob.[b] Selah
7 Lift your heads, you gates. Be lifted, you ancient doors, so that the Melek of glory may come in.
8 Who is this Melek of glory? Yahweh, strong and mighty! Yahweh, heroic in battle!
9 Lift your heads, you gates. Be lifted, you ancient doors, so that the Melek of glory may come in.
10 Who, then, is this Melek of glory? Yahweh Tsebaoth is the Melek of glory! Selah
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen.
While growing up, I sometimes thought God had a dress code.
Wearing our “Sunday best” to church was mandatory, and if we tried to get away with wearing something else, Mom or Dad would ask, “You don’t think you’re wearing that to church, do you?”
Most of us, can claim ownership of having had to abide by a more or less strict dress code at one time or another, e.g., at a game, work or at school or church.
Some dress codes have been more of a social expectation than an official decree.
From my early youth I learned the hard way that you did not wear just anything to a wedding ceremony or a funeral; these events deserved your very best outfit.
In recent years the whole idea of dress codes has been seriously challenged and considerably weakened (cf. “casual Fridays”; “zoom” conferences).
How we dress can influence our lives.
If we work in a daycare, we are not going to show up in a business suit.
If we work in an office, we are not going to wear gardening clothes.
We dress according to our environment.
However, there is one dress code that has never changed and never will change, and that is GOD’S DRESS CODE!
Zechariah 3:1-5 The Message
Fourth Vision: Joshua’s New Clothes
3 1-2 Next the Messenger-Angel showed me the high priest Joshua. He was standing before God’s Angel where the Accuser showed up to accuse him. Then God said to the Accuser, “I, God, rebuke you, Accuser! I rebuke you and choose Jerusalem. Surprise! Everything is going up in flames, but I reach in and pull out Jerusalem!”
3-4 Joshua, standing before the angel, was dressed in dirty clothes. The angel spoke to his attendants, “Get him out of those filthy clothes,” and then said to Joshua, “Look, I’ve stripped you of your sin and dressed you up in clean clothes.”
5 I spoke up and said, “How about a clean new turban for his head also?” And they did it—put a clean new turban on his head. Then they finished dressing him, with God’s Angel looking on.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
While growing up, I sometimes thought God had a dress code.
Wearing our “Sunday best” to church was mandatory, and if we tried to get away with wearing something else, Mom or Dad would ask, “You don’t think you’re wearing that to church, do you?”
Most of us, can claim ownership of having had to abide by a more or less strict dress code at one time or another, e.g., at a game, work or at school or church.
Some dress codes have been more of a social expectation than an official decree.
From my early youth I learned the hard way that you did not wear just anything to a wedding ceremony or a funeral; these events deserved your very best outfit.
In recent years the whole idea of dress codes has been seriously challenged and considerably weakened (cf. “casual Fridays”; “zoom” conferences).
How we dress can influence our lives.
If we work in a daycare, we are not going to show up in a business suit.
If we work in an office, we are not going to wear gardening clothes.
We dress according to our environment.
However, there is one dress code that has never changed and never will change, and that is GOD’S DRESS CODE!
Has God laid down a dress code that we must follow? YES!
But I am not talking about the outer material clothing that we wear here or there, especially to church.
I am talking about the spiritual clothing with which we are dressed, especially that with which we are “clothed on the inside”, where only our God can see.
It is not said enough, it is not emphasized enough: any person who hopes to be welcome into God’s presence, who hopes to live in God’s presence for eternity (rather than in hell), MUST be spiritually dressed in the proper formal manner!
If you were somehow received and invitation to meet England’s King Charles III personally, you would be greatly expected to wear the proper formal clothing.
One summary from the internet puts it thus: “Opt for formal clothing—those with neutral tones and modest designs. … Bright colors, unnecessary skin-showing or anything offbeat should be reserved for other occasions. Always show great respect to His Royal Highness, dress in an elegant and sophisticated manner.”
But here, in this devotional we are not talking about standing in the presence of some temporary, usually earthly monarch or any other nation’s head of state.
We are talking about being in the presence of the eternal and infinite KING OF THE UNIVERSE!
What does He require us to wear in order to be accepted into His presence?
We can sum God’s dress code up in one word: RIGHTEOUSNESS.
We are required to wear a garment of righteousness!
God’s Opinion of Our “Tattered Rags?”
It appears in our text that Joshua the high priest is violating God’s dress code.
Actually Joshua’s tattered garments were symbolic of Israel’s fallen condition before God.
Zechariah the prophet envisions Joshua— and all Israel—standing before God, stained with sin and guilt.
Satan, the accuser, continuously delights in reminding Israel of her failures and her shortcomings.
But God is merciful! He rebukes Satan and promises to clothe Joshua—and all of Israel—in the clean clothes of God’s perfect righteousness.
In Zechariah 3:4-5 we see that Joshua’s iniquities are removed and he is made clean for service.
God stripped away the rags of sin and iniquity, clothed Joshua in righteousness and takes away the filth.
And God did so in the full view of the Accuser
This righteousness was the righteousness of Christ!
In Jesus, God has done this for us.
On our own, we stand before God wearing tattered rags.
We are not fit for God’s presence.
Satan loves to remind us of that.
He points out all of the ways we haven’t loved others.
He reminds us of past failures.
He tells us that God will give up on us.
But when we believe in Jesus, it’s as though God looks at the helpless Satan and in Satan’s full view, God walks up to us and clothes us in the finest garments.
He personally dresses us in the perfect obedience of Jesus and helps us to wear the new garments of our salvation – Can we now thank God for clean clothes!
From Tatters of Sin to Garments of Righteousness
Isaiah 61:1-7 The Message
Announce Freedom to All Captives
61 1-7 The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, Announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners. God sent me to announce the year of his grace— a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies— and to comfort all who mourn, To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, Messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit. Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness” planted by God to display his glory. They’ll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They’ll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new. You’ll hire outsiders to herd your flocks and foreigners to work your fields, But you’ll have the title “Priests of God,” honored as ministers of our God. You’ll feast on the bounty of nations, you’ll bask in their glory. Because you got a double dose of trouble and more than your share of contempt, Your inheritance in the land will be doubled and your joy go on forever.
We can sum God’s dress code up in one word: RIGHTEOUSNESS.
We are required to wear a garment of righteousness!
The following three points show how this works out.
I. GOD REQUIRES US TO WEAR A GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The first point is that God requires us to wear a garment of righteousness.
(Note that this is a requirement, not a suggestion.)
It is crucial for us to understand the meaning of “righteousness.”
This idea is key.
Specifically, “righteousness” before God means being RIGHT with God’s LAW, or satisfying the requirements of His law.
When we hear the word “law,” what do we think of?
We probably think first of commandments that God requires us to obey.
Some might think of the Ten Commandments.
That is appropriate, but extremely limited.
In fact, the Bible is filled with divine commands that we must obey to be righteous.
Even the Old Testament has many commands that are part of the Christian’s law code.
E.g., “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11).
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).
The New Testament Scriptures are filled to overflowing with both general and specific commandments on how to be righteous and holy.
We all have access to God’s law for us.
So here is how God’s dress code works.
To satisfy His dress code, we MUST wear a garment of righteousness; and to possess this righteousness we must obey the commandments of His law.
To be more precise, we must obey these commands one hundred percent.
Did I just say – 100%? YES!
To be righteous before God we must obey ALL of the Biblical commandments that apply to us in this New Covenant age!
And – we must obey them perfectly, both on the outside (where other human beings can see us) and on the inside, in the heart (where only God can see us).
This perfect obedience to God’s law is what constitutes our required garment of righteousness, and what our perfectly Holy God’s dress code requires that each of us must wear this garment constantly, all our lives.
Such a life consisting of our perfect obedience to God’s law commands would look like a pure white robe.
I have said that we are required to wear this garment of righteousness.
It is a necessity.
WHY?
Why is this the case?
Because God’s own nature is perfect holiness, and He cannot tolerate anything that contradicts His perfect nature.
Thus we who hope to fellowship with the holy God MUST also be holy and righteous, otherwise – the HOLY GOD will cast us into outer darkness, away from His holy presence!
Jesus warns us thus in His parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22:1-14, which we should all read and re-read.
In this parable the king prepares a wedding feast to which the first invited guests decline to come and are thus condemned (vv. 1-8).
The king then sends his servants to invite anyone they can find, and a great crowd showed up (vv. 9-10).
“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’” (vv. 11-13).
God’s dress code is serious business.
Wear the garment of righteousness – perfect obedience to His laws – or else!
II. WE DO NOT HAVE THIS REQUIRED GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
This leads me to our second point.
The truth is that we do not have the garment of righteousness that God’s dress code requires!
Search all you can through your spiritual closet, and you will not find it.
We know this because of God’s fearsome judgment in Romans 3:10, 23 – “ ‘None is righteous, no, not one’ …. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Now, you may say, “Hey! Wait a minute! I do a LOT of good things!
In fact, I obey most of God’s laws, at least most of the time!”
Maybe so, but we seem to be forgetting something.
To be truly righteous before God, you cannot be just partly good and holy.
True righteousness is not determined by a balance scale where good works are weighed against sins, to determine which you have more of.
No! To be truly righteous, you must be 100% good – wholly holy, on the inside as well as on the outside!
The fact is that we are all worse in God’s eyes than we think we are.
See Isaiah 64:6 – “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”
As the KJV familiarly puts it, “All of our righteousness’s are as filthy rags” (literally, “as a menstruous cloth”).
The scary part of this truth is that Isaiah is not saying that our sins are like filthy rags.
He says that even our righteous deeds are like that polluted garment!
Pondering this in terms of our personal efforts to live up to God’s dress code and to obey His laws, we can think of ourselves as wearing—NOT a pure white robe, but a dirty sweat soaked smelly black robe.
So where are we, then, in terms of God’s dress code?
Is our situation hopeless?
Not if we submit ourselves to the third point, below!
III. GOD GIVES US THE GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT HE REQUIRES OF US!
We now come to the good news
—the gospel, as that gospel is found in Isaiah 61:10:
Isaiah 61:10“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness”!
Good news!
God has established the strictest possible dress code; and when we utterly fail to meet its requirements, He Himself gives us the robe of righteousness which He Himself requires!
What is this gift of a “robe of righteousness”?
First,
we must consider this: the righteousness that God gives us, and with which He covers all our sins, is not some kind of righteousness that WE have produced!
It is not OUR righteousness, but GOD’S OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS!
As a Christian I love to sing the familiar hymn, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’s blood and righteousness.”
But for the longest time, in my own ragged and tattered mind I was thinking it: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’s blood and MY righteousness.”
I knew ZERO about GOD’S righteousness, few people were preaching on God’s Righteousness, and this kept me from having any assurance of my salvation!
The Apostle Paul shows us that we must relearn to sing the song thus: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’s blood and JESUS’S righteousness”!
He says in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for … in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith”!
Romans 3:21-22 he adds, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from … law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe”!
See also 2 Corinthians 5:21, where Paul says that God the Father put Jesus in the place of sinners and treated Jesus as if He had the sins of the world upon Him, in order that He might treat us as if we had the righteousness of God upon us!
In Philippians 3:9 God inspires Paul, speaking of Jesus, to say that he wants to
“be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from … law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”
What is this righteousness that is produced by God, belongs to God, comes from God to us, and becomes an entire robe of righteousness that covers us?
Specifically, it comes from something that Jesus—God the Son—did.
I like to think of Jesus as coming into the world as a kind of tailor, for the specific purpose of measuring and cutting, sewing and fitting an unlimited number of these robes of righteousness to personally, intimately distribute to all sinners who will accept one by confessing their belief, obeying the gospel!
What did Jesus do that has this effect?
We will remember that righteousness means being right with God’s law or satisfying the requirements of His law.
So far, we have seen that this law has life-governing commands that God requires us to obey.
Did Jesus produce this kind of righteousness?
Yes indeed!
He is the only human person who has obeyed the commands that applied to Him perfectly, sinless, 100%.
But this is not a kind of righteousness that He can share with anyone else; as a human being He was required to obey the law’s commands for Himself.
Thus the robe of righteousness that God gives us is not sewn from the deeds of Jesus’s perfect LIFE; Jesus did not prepare this robe from His perfect obedience to the law’s commands.
Where does this leave us, then?
Well, the fact is that COMMANDS to be obeyed are only ONE PART of any law code, and are just one part of God’s law.
What is the other part?
The other part of God’s law is the PENALTY required to be paid when those commands are not obeyed!
And the righteous nature of God must and will see to it that this penalty of His law is paid in full!
When His law is broken, the penalty absolutely must be paid!
Here is where Jesus comes into the picture.
By His perfect life He satisfied the law’s commands for Himself; but also by His perfect DEATH He suffered and paid the law’s PENALTY for US, in our place!
When He died as the propitiation for our sins (Romans 3:25), He was sewing together a garment of salvation—a ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS—as a gift for any sinner who will accept it by obeying the gospel!
Jesus’s payment of sin’s penalty in our place is the robe of righteousness with which God covers our sins!
If you are the reader of this devotional are a Christian who is sincerely believing in Jesus Christ right now, you are now wearing this robe of righteousness and are therefore satisfying God’s dress code!
This is how we are RIGHT—i.e., RIGHTEOUS—before God: not because He sees us as having perfect character or perfect obedience to the law’s commands, but because He sees us as having paid the penalty that His law requires for our sins!
He sees us like that because JESUS paid that penalty for ALL our sins, and has applied that payment to our account!
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”—no penalty, no punishment, no retribution (Romans 8:1)!
Notice: this text says we are “IN Christ Jesus.”
We are wearing Him like a garment!
And this garment is the robe of Jesus’s own righteous payment of the penalty for our sins.
It is called a ROBE of righteousness because it is big enough to COVER everything else we are wearing, I.e., all our “filthy rags.”
We should think of this as a RED robe of righteousness, i.e., red for the blood of Jesus Christ!
Here is a crucial point for us to understand.
As a Christian, we are wearing this red robe of righteousness right now, all the time, 24/7 – as long as we are believing in and trusting Jesus as your Redeemer.
You began wearing this robe in your baptism, where you received it as “the free gift of righteousness” (Romans 5:17).
We know it happened in baptism because of what Galatians 3:27 says, namely, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
You went into the water of baptism with only filthy tattered rags showing;
you came up out of the water with only the red robe of righteousness showing and covering all of those rags!
The crucial point is this, that because of your continuing faith in Jesus, this robe of righteousness has been and is constantly covering your sins—not just your past sins, but the sins that keep cropping up in your Christian life.
Here is a point so often misunderstood:
WE DO NOT LOSE THIS ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS EVERY TIME WE SIN!
This robe is “the righteousness that comes by faith” (Hebrews 11:7), not by how well you obey the law’s commands.
It COMES to us in baptism by your faith in Jesus, and it STAYS with us by faith as long as that faith continues.
If we had to give up our robe of righteousness every time we committed a sin, its whole point as a cover for your sins would be lost!
(This would be like saying we have been given a coat to keep us warm; but we have to give it back every time we go outside into the cold!)
I will close by citing the key stanzas from the hymn mentioned earlier about JESUS’S righteousness:
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’s blood and [Jesus’s] righteousness! I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’s name.
When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found— Dressed in HIS righteousness ALONE, faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.
In the name of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 24 The Message
24 1-2 God claims Earth and everything in it, God claims World and all who live on it. He built it on Ocean foundations, laid it out on River girders.
3-4 Who can climb Mount God? Who can scale the holy north-face? Only the clean-handed, only the pure-hearted; Men who won’t cheat, women who won’t seduce.
5-6 God is at their side; with God’s help they make it. This, Jacob, is what happens to God-seekers, God-questers.
7 Wake up, you sleepyhead city! Wake up, you sleepyhead people! King-Glory is ready to enter.
8 Who is this King-Glory? God, armed and battle-ready.
9 Wake up, you sleepyhead city! Wake up, you sleepyhead people! King-Glory is ready to enter.
10 Who is this King-Glory? God-of-the-Angel-Armies: he is King-Glory.
Lord God, on our own, we wear stained and tattered clothing. Thank you for clothing us in Christ. Help us each day to clothe ourselves with the garments of your salvation.
1 Rejoice, the Lord is King: Your Lord and King adore! Rejoice, give thanks and sing, And triumph evermore. Lift up your heart, Lift up your voice! Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
2 Jesus, the Savior, reigns, The God of truth and love; When He has purged our stains, He took his seat above; Lift up your heart, Lift up your voice! Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
3 His kingdom cannot fail, He rules o’er earth and heav’n; The keys of death and hell Are to our Jesus giv’n: Lift up your heart, Lift up your voice! Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
4 Rejoice in glorious hope! Our Lord and judge shall come And take His servants up To their eternal home: Lift up your heart, Lift up your voice! Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
Charles Wesley, 1744
Psalm 24 American Standard Version
The King of Glory entering Zion.
A Psalm of David.
24 The earth is Jehovah’s, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein. 2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods. 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; Who hath not lifted up his soul unto falsehood, And hath not sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive a blessing from Jehovah, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is the generation of them that seek after him, That seek thy face, even Jacob. Selah
7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; And be ye lifted up, ye [a]everlasting doors: And the King of glory will come in. 8 Who is the King of glory? Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; Yea, lift them up, ye [b]everlasting doors: And the King of glory will come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? Jehovah of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
Psalm 24 is a beautiful song of adoration and worship to our God.
I picture Psalm 24 as a raucous worship romp, the type of song David would have danced like an ecstatic man to the presence of the Ark of the Covenant (2 Samuel 6:12-22) as it is about to be reverently carried inside the Tabernacle. It has the feeling of crescendo behind it, particularly the last four verses. I can hear a modern-day array of drums of all sizes and shapes, the artists and their music pulsating out the question “Who is this King of glory?” over and over again with strength, triumph, sending electricity through a worshipful throng.
He is the Lord Almighty, and we can rest in him. So often we try to do God’s job. We put the weight of the world on our shoulders, thinking it’s our job to solve all of life’s problems. We forget that our only job is to worship and glorify the King, it’s God’s job to do everything else. The psalms have been clear that all of our problems in this life are not going to go away, but they are also clear that God defeats our greatest foes. God defeats evil. God is the ultimate victor, and we are on his team. We can rest, trust in him through all of the ups and downs of this life. Through the times we are drowning. Through the storm and the war.
Psalm 24 covenants us to seek God’s face. I love this picture. God wants us to see him. He wants us all to see his face shining upon you (Numbers 6:24-26).
God wants to see the expressions upon our faces, wants to hear each beat of our heart, and every thought from our souls as we encounter the power of God here,
A PSALM OF DAVID. THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND ALL ITS FULLNESS, THE WORLD AND THOSE WHO DWELL THEREIN. (PSALM 24:1)
King David starts out this royal hymn by drawing our attention away from ourselves and to the One who owns it all. He does this by showing a contrast right at the beginning of the psalm, a contrast that should dramatically remind us of our place in the universe.
Starting with the title, the text literally reads, “Belonging to David, a psalm. Belonging to Yahweh, the earth.” As great as King David was, he was still only a mere mortal man. Even though he was a poet and prophet, wrote under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he was just a man. Anything he had and anything he accomplished was given to him by the grace of God (2 Samuel 12:7–8).
Fallen man oftentimes looks at the earth as if it belongs to him, or worse, as if the earth was just a lucky break in the evolutionary scheme of things. But “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
The earth belongs to Him and to no one else. He is the rightful owner. There is only one name on the title deed to the universe, and it’s not yours and it most assuredly, not mine. It’s Yahweh’s. That awe factor, magnitude of that thruth should serve as the only essential foundation to everything else in our lives.
Not only does the earth belong to the Lord, but everything it contains. That includes your home “your castle,” your car, your cash. More specifically, every single human being, without exception, belongs to the Lord. That includes your neighbor, your family, the homeless person, even you. “Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves” (Psalm 100:3). We are stewards, good or bad, of what He has entrusted to us. It all belongs to God.
Since everything in the world belongs to God, why then do we spend so much time and energy accumulating and clinging onto the “rust prone” things of this world? Perhaps it’s because in the back of our minds we still believe they belong to us. We have not 0.01% yielded in submission to the sovereign ownership of God.
How are you and I doing in our perspectives of our place in the universe? Do you and I recognize and acknowledge the fact that you and I own exactly nothing in this world? Every one of our very life-breath comes from Him (Job 34:14–15)!
Psalm 24 proclaims the majesty and grandeur of God, but at the same time describes Him and His attributes in specific ways we can relate to. Let’s start with the first section of this beautiful Psalm and I will show you what I mean:
“The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters.” (Verses 1-2)
God is so indescribably, immeasurably big and powerful that He created the whole of time and space. Genesis 1 lays out the story that the eternal God spoke and created light and everything else in the world as we know it. He molded man into His image from the dust. That is an awesome and powerful God!
Yet, with the mess we have continuously made of things, why does not God just start from the beginning again and create something else? Why will He create a new Earth when He comes back?
The answer lies in Genesis 1 when it says after each of His creations or artwork – “And God saw that it was ALL good.”God loves the earth and the fullness of the earth; He just wants to redeem it from the fake hold the devil has placed on it.
The enemy is not the Creator or the Artist, he is just the usurper of the creation. God wants us to appreciate His earth from His eternal perspective, not despise it or destroy it. He is after full redemption of our lives and the things around us.
On to the next section of Psalm 24…
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. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seeks Your face. Selah (verses 3-6)
Though God made the whole majestic earth, there is a place in Him and in His presence that goes echelons beyond Him just laying back, casually, passively, basking in the light He created, enjoying His creation here from a distance.
His holy place is a place of revelation and love in His presence. It is a place of glory – a place where true peace, perfection, and extravagant love exists.
We always need to look at Hebrew Testament scripture in the light of New Testament revelation. I have heard this section of scripture preached from the pulpit as a “get your act together, so you can get into the presence of God” message. In the Hebrew Testament during the days of the tabernacle, the people would go through the outer courts, sacrifice their offerings, wash in the lavers and the pools of water, and come into the presence of God. They came in as instructed by God with formulas and patterns, but in the New Testament Christian life – this is a prophetic vision of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
Through His death on the cross, He became our sacrifice, our ritual lamb, and our cleansing water. When we receive His blood and put our faith in the cross, our hands become clean, our hearts become pure, and we turn our faces from the idols of this world to the only true God. By faith, we receive the blessings and the righteousness of God through the sacrifice of the slain Son of God.
Only through Jesus can we enter into the presence of God. Nothing else can bring us in. Our responsibility in coming into the presence of God is simply this:
We have to acknowledge the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God and who exactly, exactingly we are without Savior Christ, receive the cleansing power of the blood, and walk in boldly into the throne of grace and into His presence.
Continuing on…. to another completely different section….
Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?ancient The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah (verses 7-10)
Can you imagine how heavy old gates are? Or what about giant wooden doors like in ancient medieval times? Imagine now, after all these years, how hard it must be to get those gates open or lifted up. I am imagining the big fortresses of the great castle complexes, how many men it took to penetrate those gates or those walls. It might take an unconventional army of men to pull them open.
We are commanded here in this Psalm to open up the gates and the doors of our lives regardless of how heavy they are…. and with that command comes a covenant promise that the “King of glory shall come in.”
They may seem heavy or impossible at times to lift up, but God is mightier.The Lord is mighty in battle. He is the Lord of hosts. As we seek Him by making ourselves available to His presence and receiving the power of His blood, the gates of our hardened and stony hearts, our sin darkened souls, spring open and we find freedom. He comes rushing in and overwhelms our narrow world view.
God is not just the King bounded by earthly borders and boundaries, but He’s the “King of glory” and His glory comes into our lives and changes us forever.
Then we pause like the word “Selah” implies here at the end of this Psalm.
Selah literally means – Stop and think about it.
We ought to give our mirrored selves a break in His presence. We stand in His glory which is undeniably unmatched and is unmatchable in all respects. The whole earth, as it pertains to our temporary lives, is redeemed and the fullness of His glory changes everything. “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness”
Psalm 24 is a testament to the Sovereignty of over His creation and our lives.
As David did, as He sang and danced before the Ark of the Covenant, as he had the honor of welcoming the God of his salvation, before all of the people, we today have that self-same honor to welcome the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords into the Tabernacles of our souls.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us pray,
God, give me perspective. Help me to stop trying to carry the world on my shoulders. Help me to see and feel that you are already carrying me. Help me to rest in you. Help me to seek your face and worship you! You are the King of glory! You are the genuine conquering King who has defeated Satan and evil. You give hope for this life and on into eternal life. You have saved and rescued us Jesus and I thank you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you that your love is so real and so deep and so true. You are the Lord Almighty, the King of glory.Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 