Psalm 24.

Famous Psalm
Jews recite it at beginning of 1st Day of Week.
Christian Church recites it on Ascension Day.
Often in Church of Scotland sung before Communion.

1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; (NIV)

The earth. 

  • Planet.
  • 9 planets in solar system
  • This is the most amazing.
    • Temperature
    • Atmosphere
    • Tides,
    • Magnetic Field
    • Rate of Spin
    • Tilt
    All exactly right for God’s purposes for advanced life to be able to live at all.
(Actually the whole universe is finley tuned - but that is another story.)

From space - earth is beautiful.
THOMAS CARLYLE, (Scottish Historian and writer of 19th C) wrote in his 'On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History':
This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it. 

And everything in it.

Soil, Coal, Iron, Aluminium, Uranium, Oil etc.
All this is: 
  • The LORD’s.
  • Not ours.
  • We are stewards
Associated Press  5-11-90:
The top of the world has been littered with trash.  Rags, flags, oxygen tanks and other garbage have been left near the summit of 29,000 foot Mt. Everest -- left there by mountain-climbing nature lovers. 

It is estimated that:
* About half the forests in poor countries have disappeared in this century. 
* Destruction of forests and disruption of ecosystems will cause up to a million  plant and animal species to disappear by the year 2000. 
    
We did not: 

  • put oil under sea.
  • Earth in its orbit.
  • Make the law of gravity which keeps the earth in orbit.
  • Not Scotland’s oil
  • Not Arab oil
We must use all things rightly and carefully, and generously.
This land not our land.
Only by grace of God any of us live anywhere in the world.
O.T. God says:
I am bringing you to the Promised Land but if you behave badly I will expell you again. Its not your land.
That principle applies to all people in the world.

Acts 17:26-27
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
(NIV)

The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; (NIV)

`The world, and all who live in it.’

The living world
Plants and animals.
More incredible that earth with its atmosphere, temperature, tides, rain and sunshine, is its: Plant and animal life.

Man with all his wisdom in the 20th Century, cannot make one rose petal or one blade of grass

Beautiful

MARIANNE MOORE, (American Poet)
Beauty is everlasting And dust is for a time.

SAPPHO (fragment) Greek Poet - 600BC
What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon also be beautiful.

If you don’t believe God - nature by accident - how do you account for all the beauty?
Trees, flowers, birds, whales, fish, tigers, squirrels, and 10,000 more expaples.

Why are all the extraterrestials from our imagaination ugly?

And all who live in it.

You and Me.
We are not our own.
The bodies and brains in which we live for a while are not our own.
We are not allowed to harm them with bad habits.
Order of belonging:
1 Cor 3:22-23
whether life or death or the present or the future-- all are yours,
and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
(NIV)
The world  --  us -- Christ --  God.
If we forget that we belong to Christ then the world itself will go wrong.

Paul quotes 1st verse of this Psalm as evidence that all of nature is good and not to be despised or feared.
1 Cor 10:25-26
25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,
26 for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."
(NIV)
The Pagans did fear much of nature.

Mountains - evil spirits.
Or sea - devil.
What does the Psalm say?
Ps 24:2
2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. (NIV)
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, Fireside Travels 
There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates. 

But the sea is full of wonders, not evil.
It belongs to God.
According to this verse sea comes before dry land.
(Scientists today say that early earth - just water).
Gen 1:2
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (NIV)

Gen 1:9
9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. (NIV)
Sea is not evil.
=======================

Ah but there is evil in the world.
Where did it come from?
Not sea of mountains.
We people have: 
  • done evil with our hands.
  • thought evil with our hearts.
There is a place chosen by God where we may return to Him.

Ps 24:3-4
Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.
(NIV)
Hill of the Lord.
Jerusalem.

  • From West, East - UP
  • Place where all God’s work of salvation was accomplished.
  • S. Hills - Bethlehem.
  • Skull Hill - where Jesus was crucified and rose again.
  • From Jer hill (Mt. Of Olives) Jesus ascended to the Jerusalm that is above.
  • The real Holy Place - beyond the skies.
S. hill of Jer. is Mt. Zion where the disciples were when the Holy Spirit came.

Jesus did all that because He had clean hands. (He had done no evil).
Rather His hands had touched the sick and they recovered, and the dead and they returned to life. 

Jesus did all that because He had a pure heart.
Absolute clear minded, humble sincerity.
`Come to me all ye .. for I am humble in heart .. ‘
This is in contrast to those who approach God with different kinds of hands:
Isa 1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; (NIV)

========================
Ps 24:3-4
Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.
(NIV)
`Lift up his soul to what is false’
Do not give your body, your time, your mind, your money to anything that is false.
Don’t approach God in falsehood:

The following supposedely true story is from the life of Louis XIV of France: One Sunday when he and his royal party arrived at church, no one was there except Archbishop Fenelon, the court preacher.  Surprised to see all the vacant seats, the King inquired, "Where is everybody?"  Why isn't anyone else present this morning?"  The minister answered "I announced that Your Majesty would not be here today, because I wanted you to see who came to the service just to flatter you and who came to worship God."

Ps 24:5
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Saviour. (NIV)

God’s blessing is His vindication.

  • Jesus suffered and died as a criminal in Jerusalem. 
  • God vindicated Him by raising Him from the dead.


What happened after His resurrection?
Ps 24:7 Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. (NIV)
Gates and Doors of heaven flung open to the king.

Ascended back to God.
To open heaven to earth and earth to heaven.

The last day: Breaking open the doors and gates of heaven:

Matt 24:30-31
30 "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.
31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
(NIV)

Who is this Jesus, the Son of Man who with clean hands and pure heart has won victory over sin and death?

It was a terrible battle for Him.

Heb 5:7-9 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him
(NIV)

Heb 7:26 Such a high priest meets our need-- one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. (NIV)

So who is He?
Ps 24:8-10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O 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. Selah
(NIV)

None of us is worthy to ascend to heaven.
Hands? Heart?

But Christ did not do what He did just as an example.

No! Because He is the LORD He actually bore our sin and incorporated us into His ascension to heaven!

So God vindicates us, His people through forgiveness of our sins.

=================================
Ps 24:6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, (O God) of Jacob. Selah (NIV)

`O God’ is not in the text.

Should read: `Such is the family of Jacob who seek your face’

How did Jacob seek God’s face?
Strange story:
Wrestled with a Man.

Gen 32:24-30 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
(NIV)

Not man but God!

In that wrestling God wiped out Jacob’s sin and gave Him a new name.
Jacob clung on to God so that God blessed him.

Seek the face of the LORD.

Seeking - struggle.
Because in it God will have to deal with our sin, and remove our reproach.

But it will be worth it.
For Jesus said:
`Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God’.

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