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Psalm 24 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
Psalm 24 was written to be chanted/recited and comes with two choruses. It would have been sung during Jewish worship on the first day of the week (Sunday). It was followed by Psalm 48 (Monday), Psalm 82 (Tuesday), Psalm 94 (Wednesday), Psalm 81 (Thursday), Psalm 93 (Friday), and Psalm 92 (Saturday). In other words, it had an important role within the worship of Jewish culture. It was intended to celebrate the resurrection of the Messiah, ascension into Heaven, and His reign at the right hand of God bringing joy and blessings to His children.
Heaven is not won with good words and a fair profession. The doing Christian is the man that shall stand, when the empty boaster of his faith shall fall. The great talkers of religion are often the least doers. His religion is in vain whose profession brings not letters testimonial from a holy life.
William Gurnall
Mr. Gurnall is referring to verse 4.
Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.
Psalms 24:3-4 NASB
Wow. Is that not true of our society today? The conviction of such a phrase is that it draws our minds to a place where we must compare our words to our behavior. Of course, no one is perfect. This is a common excuse that gets us out of trouble when we know we’ve been lacking clean hands and a pure heart. As Mr. Gurnall so eloquently put it, “The great talkers of religion are often the least doers.”
In light of what was studied in Psalm 23, we could argue that “being” is more important than “doing.” While that’s true, it certainly doesn’t allow us to excuse hypocritical behavior in our faith journey. After all, “doing” also involves prioritizing our time alone with Jesus as we lean into His grace every hour of every day.
One day, we will know who will ascend into the hill of the Lord and who will not. Some of those people who looked so good on the outside will be shocked to learn that Jesus never knew them. Some of those people who were cast aside and marginalized will be welcomed up to that holy hill because of their small faith and personal pursuit of Jesus. Plainly stated – those who don’t know Jesus will never have clean hands and a pure heart because they never humbled themselves to the point of allowing grace to save them. They are the great talkers of religion who have zero fruit in their life.
So, where’s your fruit? How is your relationship?