The Song of the King of Glory

Psalm 24 is a royal psalm that celebrates God’s kingship over the whole earth and, specifically, over his chosen people. There’s disagreement among scholars about what occasion prompted this song. Some suggest it was when David escorted the ark into Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 6, some would assign it to Solomon bringing the ark into the holy of holies in 1 Kings 8 (so the “Psalm of David” title would mean dedication rather than authorship), while others think was written as a ritual for the Levites and priests to approach the temple. Whatever the context, what’s clear is that Psalm 24 has been intentionally placed as a bookend to Psalm 15, because the two psalms are companions that share themes and vocabulary. Both ask the question of who may enter the LORD’s sanctuary, and then they give an ethical answer with the goal of instructing God’s people about how to live in a way that honors God. And it makes sense that Psalm 24 would come after Psalm 23, which ended with David dwelling in the house of the LORD forever. Now, we’re led to wonder: “What is required of the person who wants to do that?” But before we answer that question, the psalm begins with a celebration of the Creator God. Verse 1: “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” There’s some similarities here to the creation story of Genesis 1-2, where the seas were a place of chaos and formlessness until God brought solid ground and established the earth. This is where worship begins: remembering the foundational principle that God made everything and is therefore the King of everything. From solar systems to sea stars, God has crafted this world, and as we learned in Psalm 19, all of it proclaims his glory.

Suddenly, the psalm shifts from the universe to the temple. Verse 3: “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?” Remember from Psalm 15 that the question here isn’t just a religious one about how to be ritually pure. It’s a relational question: how can we be close to God? The answer comes in verse 4, with the question-and-answer format giving a kind of liturgical feel: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” This answer has four parts, with the first two and the last two grouped together. Clean hands and a pure heart refer to someone’s exterior and interior life, their behavior and their character. Lifting up your soul to what is false has the sense of trust or even taking an oath, which an evil person does to align themselves with falsehood, with what isn’t reality, and it matches with swearing or promising deceitfully. Notice how these last two qualities echo two of the Ten Commandments, not worshiping a false god or bearing false witness. So to summarize, the righteous person loves both God and also his neighbor. This is the heart and life that God desires of his people, and the person described here enjoys the presence of God: “He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” Derek Kidner paraphrases it this way: “This man has the smile of God upon him: he is accepted, he is helped to live an upright life, his affairs under God’s blessing will run as they should.” The language here comes from the story of Jacob in Genesis 32 when he wrestled with God all night until the LORD blessed him. Jacob named the place where they wrestled “Peniel,” “Face of God,” because he said “I have seen God face to face… yet my life has been delivered.” In the same way, those who seek after God experience him in a personal way, which is quite astounding when we remember how the psalm began. The Creator of the cosmos knows and loves his people, and the only reason we can come near him in worship is because he comes near to us and gives us the grace of blessing and righteousness. We can’t earn a righteous life; it’s a gift from God.

The end of Psalm 24 is a powerful trumpet calling out in a processional as God approaches his people: “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” The “heads” of gates and doors is an idiom for the lintels or top of the door frame, so the idea here is that the King of glory who wants to enter the city and the temple is so enormous that the gates need to enlarge themselves high and wide to let this King of glory pass through. This might be a meditation on Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple, in which he prayed, “Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” The Creator of the world knocks down the walls when he enters a room. Five times God is named, “the King of Glory.” Glory in the Bible means both being deserving or worthy of worship and also a powerful presence, a weighty majesty. Twice we hear the poignant refrain, “Who is this King of glory?”, and twice we hear the name of Yahweh in response: “The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle! … The LORD of hosts (or armies), he is the King of Glory!” The repetition is beautiful. It’s as though the speaker can hardly believe it: Yahweh, the LORD who created and owns all things is the very same God who wants to bless and dwell with his people. This is the reversal of Psalm 15 and the second part of this psalm: we asked how we could live a righteous life and stand in the presence of God, but in response, the holy and mighty God stooped down to enter our presence. What an awesome privilege! What grace! The King of Glory is knocking at our door, and he wants to come in to be with his people.