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"Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? {4} Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. {5} They will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation."
(Psa 24:3-5 NRSV)
There is, I fear, a terrible sickness growing in the body of Christ today. I often see it's cancerous cells moving through my own spirit. It begins slowly under the name of busyness, and as it grows it becomes less and less evident to us. Unlike other sicknesses that seem to become more evident as they take a deeper hold on their victims, this malignancy, with maturity, develops the ability to hide itself. And as it does, the spirit of the child of God becomes less and less aware of his lack of concern for spiritual matters. Soon the believer neglects prayer and even gives up the blessing of meals, his time spent thinking about eternity and the God who lives there becomes absent from his daily activities and he begins to care less about his eternal soul. This disease can be called many things, but I will call it apathy and complacency.
Sadly, such concerns as our eternal home and our current relationship with God are not things of which we have the privilege of taking lightly. They are of utmost importance. In fact the most important question a person can ever ask oneself was pinned by David when he, on two occasions, wrote "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?"
It is a curious thing to see people who never consider their eternal home nor their successfulness at life in spiritual matters. Jesus said "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24 NRSV) And yet, few of us give more than a passing thought to our own spiritual health. We wonder why worship seems unfulfilling and even boring, and yet, God tells us that if our spiritual health is poor then we should not expect to be able to worship Him with effectiveness. For that reason I ask you today, when I read the words of David "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?", please, by all means repeat this question "Lord is it I?" We can never be too sure of our spiritual health. We can never forget that while we are saved we are still captive in the flesh and susceptible to the temptations it brings to us. We must always be aware of our weaknesses. And we must always be striving toward the high place of God.
But as I say this I am keenly aware of the magnitude of the quest David is inquiring about. In fact, I see it's impossibilities. In a similar passage David wrote (Psa 15 NRSV) "O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? {2} Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; {3} who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors; {4} in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; {5} who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved."
When one meditates on such requirements one cannot help but feel overwhelmed at the magnitude and utter impossibility of ever meeting such standards with perfection.
Yet try we must. For as Mark Frank wrote: " 'The hill of the Lord,' can be no other than a hill of glory. His holy place is no less than the very place and seat of glory." And so my friends we strive for that place.
I read somewhere that it is not uncommon to witness in late summer the migration of the monarch butterfly. The careful observer, it is said, may see hundreds of them clinging to tree limbs and other shrubbery as the flock rests up on their journey to a remote mountain in central Mexico. Scientists have found 16 of these sites, ranging from 1 to 10 acres each, within a 100 mile radius where millions upon millions of butterflies from North America spend the winter. No one knows how butterflies find their way to these tiny plots of land. Each new generation that migrates has never been there before. Something programmed into their tiny bodies directs them to a place they have never seen, but which they somehow find.
These butterflies are an example of the spiritually healthy Christian being drawn along by the mind of God. They are a fitting illustration of those people of faith in Hebrews 11. They walked roads they had not consciously mapped out, following the leading of the Spirit to a land they had never seen before - a land prepared for them by God.
It is true, the path that God has called us to take, the hill that he desires us to walk up is a hard one. But what is more astounding is that not only are we called to walk up the hill, but we are to make it our goal to stand, to maintain our presence in the holy place of God.
It is necessary that we attempt such a journey. By maintaining the activity of striving toward spiritual perfection, by working through the struggles of a disciple, we place ourselves in the hands of God to be sanctified by the working of His Spirit in our hearts. Malachi wrote: "But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; {3} he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness." (Mal 3:2-3 NRSV) If we are to be servants of the Lord whose offering of our lives is blameless and acceptable to the Lord then we must be about the business of making ourselves worthy of the climb up the Hill of the Lord. One author wrote "The wind of God is blowing - but you must hoist your sail."
The question is how do we hoist the sail? How did David describe the one who would ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place? He said that those who will accomplish such things are "Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully." The successful Christian is the one who walks in upright ways, maintains a pure heart, rejects the world's way of thinking and the praise of men, and who speaks only the truth.
But as you know it's not always easy to determine if we have kept the order of God pure in our hearts. It may be just as hard to judge our own motives as it is to judge the motives of others.
"A minister was walking down a row of fine old Victorian homes on a cold day when he spotted a young boy on the front porch of one home. The old-fashioned doorbell was set high in the door, and the little fellow was too short to ring it despite his leaping attempts.
Feeling sorry for the youngster, the minister stepped up onto the porch and vigorously rang the bell for him. "And now what, young man?" inquired the minister.
"Now," exclaimed the boy, "we run like crazy!""
So often in our lives, purity of heart is hard to determine. We look at our actions and think them good but then we wonder about our hearts. Is our motivation pure? Are we seeking the praise of men or are we serving the Lord? The motives of the heart are the most important part of God's requirements. We have all known someone who was doing all the right things, saying all the right words and none of the bad ones, and whose walk seemed blameless, but whose heart was lost to the Holy God and focused instead on himself. But if we are to ascend the Hill and stand in the Holy Place we must have pure hearts which motivate pure living. But who can judge the motives of the heart? Only God, and therefore we can never be confident that we are pure in everything. And as a result, we can never be sure of our successful ascent of the Hill of God.
However despair is not to be our way for as we travel we have hope that we will stand in the Holy place of God, not by our own doing, but on the merits of another, whose motives and actions were un-reproachable.
Mark Frank wrote, "Indeed, if none must ascend but he that is clean and pure, and without vanity and deceit, the question is quickly answered, None shall, for there is none so: dust is our matter, so not clean; defiled is our nature, so not pure; lighter, the heaviest of us, than vanity, and deceitful upon the balance the best of us; so no ascending so high for any of us. Yet there is One we hear of, or might have heard of to-day, that rose and ascended up on high, was thus qualified as the Psalmist speaks of, all clean and pure, no chaff at all, no guile found in his mouth. Yea, but it was but One that was so; what's that to all the rest? Yes, somewhat 'tis. He was our Head, and if the Head be once risen and ascended, the members will all follow after in their time."
And praise the Lord for that Hope that by grabbing hold of the hem of the garment of Jesus, we are carried up the Hill of God and made pure to stand in His Holy Place. Jesus said "No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. {14} And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, {15} that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." (John 3:13-15 NRSV) Jesus implies that without His first ascending the Hill of God, and standing in the Holy Place, it would be impossible for any other to make the journey themselves.
And so we must trust in the grace of God. We must lay hold of the truth that when David wrote these words his spirit was envisioning the day when the worth of individuals would be judged by God, not on their own deeds of heart but on their trust in the one whose heart and deeds were always pure. David envisioned a day in which we would be required to stop depending upon ourselves for salvation, and start trusting in the Grace of the Creator. He wrote "Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah {20} Our God is a God of salvation, and to GOD, the Lord, belongs escape from death." (Psa 68:19-20 NRSV)
Christian, the grace of God is enough to make you worthy to ascend His hill and stand in His Holy place without fear of death. His love is so pure and His forgiveness so un-endless in its effect that you should never fear His wrath. I want all to be aware of His grace that they might be free to serve Him without the fetters of guilt about their feet tripping them up on their journey. You are a blessed people, purchased by a glorious King in order that you might be free to serve Him. But you who flounder, feeling nothing in your spirit from God, have neglected your quest for spiritual purity and perfection. Just because God has made you worthy to enter into His Holy place, you can never be so smug as to reject His complete authority in your life. He desires from you nothing but your unashamed devotion and your unquenchable service to Him, for in such a posture of living, God knows that you will find the peace that surpasses all understanding.
However as long as we neglect the discipline of the flesh and the of nourishing of our spirits we will sense a void in our hearts, and live in an unfulfilled life.
Both saved and lost alike I urge you to make the prayer of David a passage of great importance to you. Memorize it, repeat it, and make it your own. In this prayer in Psalm 143:8 David, thinking forward to the Savior of Your soul, wrote: "Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul." (Psa 143:8 NRSV)
As we consider the question "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?", and as we ask ourselves, "is it I Lord, is it I?" we must take joy in knowing that because of Jesus, it is I. But we must here our Lord's desire. He longs to see our hearts pure and our actions steadfast in service to Him. And if we Love Him because He loved us first, we will strive to make it so in our lives. Not to make Him love us, but because He Loves us.
Completing His thoughts in Psalm 24:5, David wrote concerning the ones who ascend the Hill of the Lord, and stand in His holy place, that "They will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation." With such a joyful reward before us I find it only fitting to close with our eyes closed and our heads bowed in prayer to God as I repeat a prayer I read the other day. As I read this prayer, I want you to be thinking about your response to the love of God revealed today. Some of you need to receive Him as your Lord, you need to surrender yourself to Him and claim Jesus as your Savior. Others of you need to begin a walk of obedience to Christ. You've expressed your repentance and claimed Him as Lord, but you've not been obedient to Him. You can start today by expressing your desire to follow Christ's example of obedience through baptism. Whatever God is calling you to do, make sure you listen and respond to His Love for you with obedience.
Dear Master for the coming days
Just one request I bring:
I do not pray for happiness
Or any earthly thing --
I do not ask to understand
The way Thou leadest me,
But this I ask: Teach me to do
the thing that pleaseth Thee.
I want to know Thy guiding voice,
To walk with thee each day.
Dear Master make me swift to hear
And ready to obey.
And thus the journey I now begin
A happy road will be --
If I am seeking just to do
the thing that pleaseth Thee.
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