Psalm 23
As we look
at perhaps the most famous psalm – Psalm 23 – we hear the familiar words. It is the Lord who is the shepherd, not any
of us. The shepherd will provide for our
needs, we will not be in want. He will
restore us. He will walk us through the dangers
of the world. He will teach us to be
righteous. He will use His staff to
guide us and His rod to disciple us when we get out of line.
All of
this is true. Yet, today I desire to
talk about something else. I don’t know
that I’ve ever spent much time contemplating the inspiration of the end of this
psalm. I spend so much time focusing on
the relationship between us of God and His ability to help me navigate the dark
places of this world that I forget to think about the end.
What is
the end? God has invited us to sit at
His table with Him. He has prepared a
place for us. He invites us to come and
dwell with Him in His house. How cool is
it that God has invited us to dwell with Him?
What’s
really neat about this psalm is that we know that the invitation is personally
delivered. Because this psalm is placed
in such close proximity to Psalm 22 – a psalm typically connected to Jesus for
Christians – we cannot help but have our minds contemplating the Christ when we
hear these words. Therefore, not only
can we be confident that God has invited us to come and dwell with Him, but He
sent His Son into this world to deliver that message to us personally!
This is
the truth. We can follow His lead. We can have shelter and respite at His
hand. We can have comfort in His
providence. When it is all over, we can
dwell with God at His request. At His
request! We do serve a God who has
prepared a special place for each of us.
Psalm 24
Psalm 24 is
a neat psalm to follow Psalms 22 & 23.
“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
Who shall stand in His holy place?”
What does
it mean to climb His hill and stand in His place? Certainly on a literal tone this psalm speaks
to going up to Jerusalem and standing in the temple of the Lord. Who can do that but the priests of the Lord,
right?
Yet, more
figuratively this psalm takes on a far more profound tone – although the answer
is still the same. Who can spiritually
go to God? Who can spiritually be in a
relationship with Him and dwell with Him?
The
psalmist gives the answer. The one who
is pure of heart. The one whose hands
are clean. The one who does not go to
the wicked and adopt their ways.
We should
note that this is not works-based-salvation.
The psalmist is not making the claim that we save ourselves. Neither is the psalmist making the claim that
we can even do good on our own. Rather,
God comes to us and enables us to serve Him and do what is righteous.
We know
this because of the second half of the psalm.
The psalmist tells us to lift up our hearts and sing. We are to lift up our eyes and watch the Lord
come in. We are to celebrate and give
glory to the Lord, who makes all things possible. When we find ourselves able to ascend the
hill of the Lord and stand in the presence of God we should first and foremost
give credit to God because it is His due.
This is
one of the greatest aspects of being a Christian. One of the beliefs near and dear to my faith
is the belief of the “priesthood of all believers.” It is the belief that once we have the Holy
Spirit within us we are the priests of God.
I am not a priest because I wear a black shirt and put a little plastic
tab in the collar. Nor am I a priest
because I went through some ordination service.
I am a priest because God has come and dwelled with me and claimed me
for Himself. The same is true for all
who have been claimed by God and who have received the Holy Spirit!
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