Psalm 24
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher
Other Work
Title. A Psalm of David. From the title we learn nothing but the
authorship: but this is interesting and leads us to observe the wondrous
operations of the Spirit upon the mind of Israel's sweet singer, enabling
him to touch the mournful string in Psalm twenty-two, to pour forth gentle
notes of peace in Psalm twenty-three, and here to utter majestic and
triumphant strains. We can do or sing all things when the Lord
strengtheneth us.
This sacred hymn was probably written to be sung when the ark of the
covenant was taken up from the house of Obed-edom, to remain within curtains
upon the hill of Zion. The words are not unsuitable for the sacred dance of
joy in which David led the way upon that joyful occasion. The eye of the
psalmist looked, however, beyond the typical upgoing of the ark to the
sublime ascension of the King of glory. We will call it The Song of the
Ascension.
Division. The Psalm makes a pair with the fifteenth Psalm. It consists of
three parts. The first glorifies the true God, and sings of his universal
dominion; the second describes the true Israel, who are able to commune
with him; and the third pictures the ascent of the true Redeemer, who has
opened heaven's gates for the entrance of his elect.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. How very different is this from the ignorant Jewish notion of God
which prevailed in our Saviour's day? The Jews said, "The holy land is
God's, and the seed of Abraham are his only people;" but their great Monarch
had long before instructed them,— "The earth is the Lord's, and the
fulness thereof." The whole round world is claimed for Jehovah, "and they
that dwell therein" are declared to be his subjects. When we consider the
bigotry of the Jewish people at the time of Christ, and how angry they were
with our Lord for saying that many widows were in Israel, but unto none of
them was the prophet sent, save only to the widow of Sarepta, and that there
were many lepers in Israel, but none of them was healed except Naaman the
Syrian,—when we recollect, too, how angry they were at the mention of
Paul's being sent to the Gentiles, we are amazed that they should have
remained in such blindness, and yet have sung this psalm, which shows so
clearly that God is not the God of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also.
What a rebuke is this to those wiseacres who speak of the negro and other
despised races as though they were not cared for by the God of heaven! If a
man be but a man the Lord claims him, and who dares to brand him as a mere
piece of merchandise! The meanest of men is a dweller in the world, and
therefore belongs to Jehovah. Jesus Christ had made an end of the
exclusiveness of nationalities. There is neither barbarian, Scythian, bond
not free; but we all are one in Christ Jesus.
Man lives upon "the earth," and parcels out its soil among his mimic
kings and autocrats; but the earth is not man's. He is but a tenant at
will, a leaseholder upon the most precarious tenure, liable to instantaneous
ejectment. The great Landowner and true Proprietor holds his court above
the clouds, and laughs at the title-deeds of worms of the dust. The
fee-simple is not with the lord of the manor nor the freeholder, but with
the Creator. The "fulness" of the earth may mean its harvests, its
wealth, its life, or its worship; in all these senses the Most High God is
Possessor of all. The earth is full of God; he made it full and he keeps it
full, notwithstanding all the demands which living creatures make upon its
stores. The sea is full, despite all the clouds which rise from it; the air
is full, notwithstanding all the lives which breathe it; the soil is full,
though millions of plants derive their nourishment from it. Under man's
tutored hand the world is coming to a greater fulness than ever, but it is
all the Lord's; the field and the fruit, the earth and all earth's wonders
are Jehovah's. We look also for a sublimer fulness when the true ideal of a
world for God shall have been reached in millennial glories, and then most
clearly the earth will be be the Lord's and the fulness thereof. These
words are now upon London's Royal Exchange, they shall one day be written in
letters of light across the sky.
The term "world" indicates the habitable regions, wherein Jehovah is
especially to be acknowledged as Sovereign. He who rules the fish of the
sea and the fowl of the air should not be disobeyed by man, his noblest
creature. Jehovah is the Universal King, all nations are beneath his sway:
true Autocrat of all the nations, emperors and czars are but his slaves.
Men are not their own, nor may they call their lips, their hearts, or their
substance their own; they are Jehovah's rightful servants. This claim
especially applies to us who are born from heaven. We do not belong to the
world or to Satan, but by creation and redemption we are the peculiar
portion of the Lord.
Paul uses this verse twice, to show that no food is unclean, and that
nothing is really the property of false gods. All things are God's; no ban
is on the face of nature, nothing is common or unclean. The world is all
God's world, and the food which is sold in the shambles is sanctified by
being my Father's, and I need not scruple to eat thereof.
Verse 2. In the second verse we have the reason why the world belongs to
God, namely, because he has created it, which is a title beyond all dispute.
"For he hath founded it upon the seas." It is God who lifts up the earth
from out of the sea, so that the dry land, which otherwise might in a moment
be submerged, as in the days of Noah, is kept from the floods. The hungry
jaws of ocean would devour the dry land if a constant fiat of Omnipotence
did not protect it. "He hath established it upon the floods." The world
is Jehovah's, because from generation to generation he preserves and upholds
it, having settled its foundations. Providence and Creation are the two
legal seals upon the title-deeds of the great Owner of all things. He who
built the house and bears up its foundations has surely a first claim upon
it. Let it be noted, however, upon what insecure foundations all
terrestrial things are founded. Founded on the seas! Established on the
floods! Blessed be God the Christian has another world to look forward to,
and rests his hopes upon a more stable foundation than this poor world
affords. They who trust in worldly things build upon the sea; but we have
laid our hopes, by God's grace, upon the Rock of Ages; we are resting upon
the promise of an immutable God, we are depending upon the constancy of a
faithful Redeemer. Oh! ye worldlings, who have built your castles of
confidence, your palaces of wealth, and your bowers of pleasure upon the
seas, and established them upon the floods; how soon will your baseless
fabrics melt, like foam upon the waters! Sand is treacherous enough, but
what shall be said of the yet more unstable sea?
Verses 3-6. Here we have the true Israel described. The men who shall
stand as courtiers in the palace of the living God are not distinguished by
race, but by character; they are not Jews only, nor Gentiles only, nor any
one branch of mankind peculiarly, but a people purified and made meet to
dwell in the holy hill of the Lord.
Verse 3. "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?" It is uphill work
for the creature to reach the Creator. Where is the mighty climber who can
scale the towering heights? Nor is it height alone; it is glory too. Whose
eye shall see the King in his beauty and dwell in his palace? In heaven he
reigns most gloriously, who shall be permitted to enter into his royal
presence? God has made all, but he will not save all; there is a chosen
company who shall have the singular honour of dwelling with him in his high
abode. These choice spirits desire to commune with God, and their wish
shall be granted them. The solemn enquiry of the text is repeated in
another form. Who shall be able to "stand" or continue there? He casteth
away the wicked, who then can abide in his house? Who is he that can gaze
upon the Holy One, and can abide in the blaze of his glory? Certainly none
may venture to commune with God upon the footing of the law, but grace can
make us meet to behold the vision of the divine presence. The question
before us is one which all should ask for themselves, and none should be at
ease till they have received an answer of peace. With careful
self-examination let us enquire, "Lord, is it I."
Verse 4. "He that hath clean hands." Outward, practical holiness is a
very precious mark of grace. To wash in water with Pilate is nothing, but
to wash in innocency is all-important. It is to be feared that many
professors have perverted the doctrine of justification by faith in such a
way as to treat good works with contempt; if so, they will receive
everlasting contempt at the last great day. It is vain to prate of inward
experience unless the daily life is free from impurity, dishonesty,
violence, and oppression. Those who draw near to God must have "clean
hands." What monarch would have servants with filthy hands to wait at his
table? They who were ceremonially unclean could not enter into the Lord's
house which was made with hands, much less shall the morally defiled be
allowed to enjoy spiritual fellowship with a holy God. If our hands are now
unclean, let us wash them in Jesu's precious blood, and so let us pray unto
God, lifting up pure hands. But "clean hands" would not suffice, unless
they were connected with "a pure heart." True religion is heart-work. We
may wash the outside of the cup and the platter as long as we please; but if
the inward parts be filthy, we are filthy altogether in the sight of God,
for our hearts are more truly ourselves than our hands are. We may lose our
hands and yet live, but we could not lose our heart and still live; the very
life of our being lies in the inner nature, and hence the imperative need of
purity within. There must be a work of grace in the core of the heart as
well as in the palm of the hand, or our religion is a delusion. May God
grant that our inward powers may be cleansed by the sanctifying Spirit, so
that we may love holiness and abhor all sin. The pure in heart shall see
God, all others are but blind bats; stone-blindness in the eyes arises from
stone in the heart. Dirt in the heart throws dust in the eyes.
The soul must be delivered from delighting in the grovelling toys of
earth; the man who is born for heaven "hath not lifted up his soul unto
vanity." All men have their joys, by which their souls are lifted up; the
worldling lifts up his soul in carnal delights, which are mere empty
vanities; but the saint loves more substantial things; like Jehoshaphat, he
is lifted up in the ways of the Lord. He who is content with the husks will
be reckoned with the swine. If we suck our consolation from the breasts of
the world, we prove ourselves to be its home-born children. Does the world
satisfy thee? Then thou hast thy reward and thy portion in this life; make
much of it, for thou shalt know no other joy.
"Nor sworn deceitfully." The saints are men of honour still. The
Christian man's word is his only oath; but that is as good as twenty oaths
of other men. False speaking will shut any man out of heaven, for a liar
shall not enter into God's house, whatever may be his professions or doings.
God will have nothing to do with liars, except to cast them into the lake of
fire. Every liar is a child of the devil, and will be sent home to his
father. A false declaration, a fraudulent statement, a cooked account, a
slander, a lie—all these may suit the assembly of the ungodly, but are
detested among true saints: how could they have fellowship with the God of
truth, if they did not hate every false way?
Verse 5. It must not be supposed that the persons who are thus described by
their inward and outward holiness are saved by the merits of their works;
but their works are the evidences by which they are known. The present
verse shows that in the saints grace reigns and grace alone. Such men wear
the holy livery of the Great King because he has of his own free love
clothed them therewith. The true saint wears the wedding garment, but he
owns that the Lord of the feast provided it for him, without money and
without price. "He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and