“Track 24: The King of Glory (Psalm 24)", Will DuVal | 6/29/25
Psalm 24 | 6/29/25 | Will DuVal
I have a 2 ½ year-old son, which is to say, I live with a feral, narcissistic sociopath. Sometimes - for FUN - he’ll just walk up and punch you in the FACE. But one of the most annoying things my son likes to do is lay claim to anything and EVERYthing he sees, regardless of who it actually belongs to. If Polly or I leave our PHONE lying around unattended, it’s a pretty safe bet that Bo’s gonna FIND it, and when I manage to catch him and RECLAIM the phone, what does he SCREAM?
“MINE!!” “That’s MY phone!”
Sometimes, for fun, I like to give him a chance, “Okay, Bo: if it’s YOUR phone, what’s the PASSCODE?” (Sometimes he’s already PROVEN he doesn’t know it, cuz he tried so many times incorrectly that I’m now locked OUT of my phone…)
But I wonder if sometimes when God looks down from heaven, if we don’t look like a bunch of narcissistic toddlers to Him:
-the wife and kids God gave me: “MINE!”
-this JOB God’s given me… this CHURCH: “MINE!”
-that tree that’s right on the edge of the neighbor’s property line, that you FIGHT over: “It’s MINE!” “No, it’s MINE!!”
And sometimes - for fun; or cuz he LOVES us, and wants to gently REMIND us - God gives us a try at the “passcode”, doesn’t He: “Okay, Will; if they’re YOUR kids, YOU get ‘em to stop sinning. Go ahead and TRY; I’ll wait….”
“If it’s YOUR church, YOU take care of ‘em all; YOU heal Katie Troll and get her outta the hospital; YOU heal that marriage on the verge of divorce; YOU satisfy that couple who complain about everything and are ready to leave the church. Go ahead; I’ll wait…”
“If it’s YOUR tree, MAKE IT GROW! I don’t mean ‘WATER it’; or ‘treat it with pesticides to keep the oak mites away’, I mean GROW it. YOU make the SUN shine; the SOIL composition just right; YOU design the tree’s DNA to facilitate hydrotropism & transpiration, osmosis & photosynthesis - Go ahead; I’ll wait…”
The TRUTH is, friends, that “There is not one square inch in the whole domain of [the UNIVERSE] over which Christ, who is Lord over all, does not exclaim, ‘Mine’!”” (Abraham Kuyper). It’s all HIS!
That is the message of Psalm 24 this morning: “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof” or “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything IN it”. And God REIGNS sovereignly OVER it all, as KING; He is “the King of GLORY”.
And Psalm 24 is going to answer for us 3 important questions - arguably the 3 MOST important questions in the UNIVERSE - concerning God’s Kingship, namely:
Who REIGNS? Who IS the “King”?
Who can be in RELATIONSHIP with the King?
How should we RESPOND to the King?
Or if you prefer the IMPERATIVE to the interrogative:
We must RECOGNIZE the King.
We must find RELATIONSHIP with the King. And…
We must REJOICE IN the King.
(SCRIPTURE:) I invite you to STAND with me for the reading of God’s word. And we’re gonna do something a LITTLE different this morning: most scholars agree that this psalm was PROBABLY written to be recited ANTIPHONALLY, which means “in call-and-response fashion”, where the PRIEST would have read the questions, and the congregation would have responded with the answers. So we’re gonna TRY it; I invite you to read WITH me the words that are BOLDED in YELLOW, and I’ll read the words that are smaller in white. Let’s read the word of the Lord together, from Psalm 24; a psalm of DAVID:
“The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
2 for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
4 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.
5 He will receive blessing from the Lord
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah
7 Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle!
9 Lift up your heads, O gates!
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory! Selah”
This is the word of God… Seated…
-
Right out of the GATE, this psalm CONFRONTS us with an ANSWER - with THE answer; the CORRECT answer - to the most important question in the world that the majority of our society is trying desperately to AVOID at all cost. Most of the folks around us - maybe some of US - are asking the WRONG question; what is the driving question that MOST people in 21st c. America are implicitly asking and answering every day - living their LIVES as a kind of embodied RESPONSE to? What’s the driving question?
“How can I be HAPPY?”
How can I MAXIMIZE my happiness, over the LONG haul? Sure, I may settle for some UN-happiness in the SHORT term - working a job I don’t love, instead of staying home and playing video games, but it’s STILL in an effort to optimize personal happiness over TIME. Blaise Pascal said, “All men seek happiness… This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” “How can I be HAPPY?”
But according to GOD, friends, that’s the WRONG question.
I love GAMES. Board games… sports games… I also like WINNING. Winning at games makes me HAPPY. Imagine I walk out on the beach volleyball court asking, “How can I be happy?” The guys I play with are GOOD. Lucas is REALLY good. Yesterday morning he served me two balls in a row that I couldn’t handle; I shanked both passes. I was NOT very HAPPY. Now imagine if on the THIRD serve, instead of trying to PASS it, I just CAUGHT the ball, RAN up to the net, and DUNKED it over. Would’ve been FUN! But do I win the POINT, by maximizing my personal happiness? NO; cuz what’s the question I NEED to be asking and answering?
How do I WIN? [By being the first to 21 points…]
Okay, well how do I score a POINT? [By “grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules” (Wikipedia)]
Okay, so what are the RULES? [No lifts, no doubles, no CATCHING and DUNKING…]
Okay, but what’s the LAST question that’s underneath ALL those, upon which all the RULES are predicated?
“SAYS WHO???” “Who gets to MAKE the rules and DETERMINE the purpose of the game?”
William G. Morgan. Why? Cuz he CREATED the game.
That’s the question we’ve gotta START with: “Who’s in CHARGE here? Who’s calling the SHOTS? Who gets to determine the PURPOSE and the RULES when it comes to the game of LIFE?”
Answer: the AUTHOR of life. The CREATOR.
And who’s THAT? NOW we’re ready for the ANSWER in verse 1 of Psalm 24. But do you see why we had to work THROUGH all of that? 60 years ago, most people just ASSUMED it - “GOD is the author of life; HE calls the shots”; TODAY, most people assume, “MY life, MY rules, my HAPPINESS”. Like the toddler: “MINE!”
And good, neighbor-loving apologetics means that we ought to push back; ask if they know the PASSCODE: “Did you give YOURSELF this life? Is it REALLY yours? To live as you please?”
No. “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it”. You, me, every-ONE and every-THING: we belong to THE LORD.
Why? V2: Because He MADE it all; “for he founded it on the seas, and established it on the waters.” By the way, pretty cool that a guy who’d probably hardly ever SEEN “the seas” somehow knew that the earth was mostly water, with the land established on the WATER, instead of the other way around. Almost like God SUPERINTENDED David’s writing…
But here’s the main point: (#1) God REIGNS supreme. (1-2)
Deuteronomy 10:14 “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.”
Psalm 89:11 “The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;
the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.”
God Himself declares in Exodus 19:5 “all the earth is mine”, and in Psalm 50, v12: “the world and its fullness are mine.”
WHY? Because God is the Sovereign CREATOR.
Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, GOD created…”
Colossians 1:16 “all things were created through him and for him” – Why are we here? Why is EVERYTHING here? For God’s GLORY.
Because He is Creator AND COMMANDER, Ruler; God is in CHARGE; He is KING.
Psalm 33: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made… [and] The counsel of the Lord stands forever… he frustrates the plans of the peoples. [what’s the PASSCODE?]...
The Lord looks down from heaven… from where he sits enthroned [as KING] he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the hearts of them all…
he deliver[s] their soul from death
[HE] keeps them alive in famine…
he is our help and our shield…
and we hope in you.” (vv6, 10-15, 20-22)
God reigns SUPREME. We really make such sad, small kings, don’t we, friends? When we act like we’re king of the universe when we can’t even control our toddler or our temper or pass a volleyball straight, yet we FOOL ourselves into thinking we’re in charge.
But God “FRUSTRATES” the plans of the peoples, to keep us in check. We don’t LIKE it, when God has to remind us that we are NOT the King. We get MAD - “I’m not happy with Israel; I’m not happy with Iran… We have two countries that… don’t know what the [BLEEP] they’re doing!”; “Why won’t they play by MY rules?” So MAD, when our plans don’t work out. But there is only ONE King who reigns SUPREME.
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” (Prov 19:21)
Now, THAT answer to THAT question - “Who is King?” GOD reigns supreme - it then leads David to consider a SECOND crucial question: “Who, then, can be in RELATIONSHIP with a God like that?”
It’s a question he asks most EXPLICITLY in Psalm 8: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers… what is man that you are mindful of him?” (vv3-4)
“Why would a God like THAT want relationship with a mere mortal like ME?”
But here in Psalm 24, David makes it clear that no MERE mortal can actually ENJOY relationship with God; “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? [God reigns ON HIGH; we reside down BELOW. If we’re gonna fellowship with Him, we must ASCEND… his MOUNTAIN; how high do you imagine IT must be? V3: ] Who may stand in [God’s] holy place?” How HOLY do you imagine you need to be, to stand in GOD’s place? In his PRESENCE?
Well, David ANSWERS for us: “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god,” or “swear FALSELY”.
Pure WORKS (“clean hands”) and a pure MOTIVE (“heart”); pure WORSHIP (“doesn’t trust in idols”) and pure WORDS (“doesn’t swear falsely”).
HANDS, HEART, SOUL and MOUTH - that’s pretty all-encompassing, isn’t it? Here’s how David puts it in the parallel text, psalm 15: (vv1-4)
“O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart;
3 who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend…
who honors those who fear the Lord;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change…”Now if I asked you to raise your HAND, if that sounds like an accurate DESCRIPTION of YOU - you “walk blamelessly” and always “do what is right” (you live totally above reproach)... only TRUTH is spoken in YOUR heart (no lies; no place for PRIDE or INSECURITY - “I’m better than them” or “Nobody really cares about me” - none of that; only TRUTH, in YOUR heart)... you never SLANDER others (speak ILL of them, out of turn)... you do NO evil to those around you (you ALWAYS act in the best interest of OTHERS, not SELF)...
How many of you are raising your hands? “Yeah, that sounds like me…”
Imagine reading this on an E-HARMONY profile (is that still a thing?)... “Christian Mingle” - imagine her profile reads: “Single Christian woman seeking a FAULTLESS man, who “walks blamelessly”, and has a “PURE HEART” - “If you ever struggle with LUST for OTHER women, you can just keep on scrolling, Buddy… keep swiping…” - who NEVER lies (“I can’t be with a man who “swears falsely”), he has to have an undivided heart of devotion to the LORD (“no idols”; “If your WORK ever gets in the way of your worship… or MATERIALISM - if you ever find yourself desiring the stuff of THIS world more than you desire JESUS… or the idol of SELF: if YOU ever wanna be King, you can take a HIKE!”).
Imagine that’s her profile; are you DM-ing her? “Sounds like I’M the guy for YOU…”. The Bible’s got a NAME for folks who do, who read over God’s STANDARDS, how high he sets the bar, and think to themselves, “Wow, that sounds a lot like ME!” - they’re called “PHARISEES”, and here’s what JESUS had to say about them: “WOE to you, Pharisees, you hypocrites” (Mt 23:13). You may “appear to be righteous to others outwardly, but on the INSIDE you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (v28).
You’re full of SIN. That’s the IRONY; the people who THINK they come closest to matching the profile are actually the FARTHEST FROM it. If you can read verse 4 of Psalm 24 and think to yourself, “WHEW! I don’t know about the REST of my life group, based on THEIR prayer requests… or my SPOUSE, based on how little time I see HER spending in the Bible most days… or the REST of y’all SINNERS, but ME?! I’M ascending the mountain of the LORD!” - according to Jesus, you’re actually the LAST person who has a shot at making the climb.
But in reality, NONE of us do. If you’re looking for a psalm with a more ACCURATE description of us, try Psalm 53:
“God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.3 They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.” (vv2-3)I can swipe right on THAT one; THAT sounds more like me.
But here’s the PROBLEM; here’s what David is TELLING us in verse 4 here - Answer #2 now, to that second question: “Who can enjoy RELATIONSHIP with the Lord?” - it’ll be a TWO-parter. But part ONE here in verse FOUR is really warning us that God REJECTS sinners. (3-4) Sinners CAN’T enjoy relationship with God.
I know it’s phrased POSITIVELY, but how can you READ verse 4 and come away feeling POSITIVELY ABOUT it?! Pure ACTIONS, pure MOTIVES; pure WORSHIP; pure SPEECH - “Yup, that’s me; so glad that I can ‘stand in God’s HOLY place’, in His presence…” - NO! There’s a REASON only one man could enter God’s presence in the Holy of Holies only once a year, and even HE could only come after offering a MYRIAD of sacrifices to atone for his SINS… and he wasn’t “STANDING” in God’s holy place; he was BOWING in humble reverence, fearing for His LIFE!
Because God had made it CLEAR, in His WORD, that he REJECTS sinners; once again, we need look no further than the PSALMS:
*Ch5: “Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers” (vv4-5)
*Psalm 11:5 “[God’s] soul hates the wicked”
And when we DO look outside the Psalms, the rest of Scripture concurs: “your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,” the prophet Isaiah warned Israel:
“and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.” (Isa 59:2)
The NEW Testament agrees: “the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9).
Conversely, what does it say about the kind of person God ACCEPTS? What did JESUS say? ““Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Mt 5:8)
You wanna enjoy relationship with a holy God? Don’t SIN; be “pure in heart”.
Are you seeing the PROBLEM here? Most scholars believe that David wrote Psalm 24 as a song of celebration to be sung on the occasion of his relocating the ark of the covenant - God’s earthly DWELLING place in David’s day - to its rightful home in JERUSALEM. Now, indulge me for one more imaginative exercise: Imagine you’re an average ISRAELITE back in David’s day, and you show up for the PARADE. The palace GUARDS are passing out papyrus LYRIC sheets to those who can read, everyone’s EXCITED - “Ooh; King DAVID wrote a new SONG!” But let’s say you’re one of the 90% who COULDN’T read – “NO WORRIES”, they assure you, “this song is EASY; just 90 words in Hebrew. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is 333 words and you know ALL of them, and it’s a bunch of NON-sense; you’re gonna pick up Psalm 24, no problem…”
The anticipation builds; finally, in the distance, you can make out the royal procession cresting the hill leading into town. You hear the shofars announcing its entrance. It takes FOREVER because David’s got ‘em all STOPPING every SIX STEPS to “sacrifice an ox and a fattened animal” in WORSHIP. They’re ALSO being really careful because the FIRST time they tried moving the ark to Jerusalem, at one point it started to tip over, and this poor guy named Uzzah tried to BRACE it and he was struck DEAD on the SPOT! So now they’re taking it real slow. But FINALLY it draws closer, and you can hear the SINGING: “The EARTH is the YAHWEH’S” - Ahhh, it’s a VICTORY song. Those pagan Philistines thought THEY had won, when they CAPTURED the ark, and placed it in the temple of THEIR god, DAGAN. But when they went back the next day, Dagan’s lifeless statue had toppled over and BROKEN, because there’s only ONE REAL God who reigns SUPREME over ALL: YAHWEH!
But then the musicians get to verse two: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? …The one who has clean hands and a pure heart…” – What do you imagine HAPPENS at that moment, within YOUR heart, as you hear those lyrics? Does it LEAP for JOY? - “That’s ME!”
...or does it SINK? -“‘Clean hands and a pure heart’? Oh NO…”
“Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” (Ecc 7:20)
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 Jn 1:8)
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).
And our SINS have “hidden God’s FACE from us”; “made a SEPARATION between us and a holy God” (Isa 59:2).
So if that’s TRUE, and God rejects SINNERS, does that answer the question, “Who can enjoy relationship with God? - NO ONE. Sorry…” - Wait, wait; not so fast. I told you it was a TWO-parter. And if v4 was the BAD news for sinners; vv5 & 6 are the GOOD news for SEEKERS: God REWARDS seekers. Those who “SEEK him”; it’s repeated TWICE, for emphasis.
What does it mean to “SEEK” the Lord? I think David gives us a pretty big HINT here in v5: “They will receive blessing from the Lord, and vindication [or “RIGHTEOUSNESS”!] from God their Savior.”
Now why would someone with “clean hands and a pure heart” need a “SAVIOR”? Need “RIGHTEOUSNESS that comes from God”, instead of their OWN? They DON’T. Jesus said, “The HEALTHY don’t NEED a doctor; I came for the SICK.” The SPIRITUALLY sick. Those who RECOGNIZE that they DON’T have “clean hands” or a “pure heart”, that they DO trust in idols and swear falsely… and who recognize just how INCOMPATIBLE that is with intimacy with God - a HOLY, sin-rejecting God. According to Jesus, those are the people - the ONLY people - who will “receive blessing” and “vindication”: it is the self-consciously SICK, the SORROW-fully SINFUL. Because you only seek out the SAVIOR, when you KNOW that you are a SINNER in need.
And when we DO, friends, God promises that He LOVES to REWARD that kind of sincere seeking:
*“Seek, and you will find” (Mt 7:7), Jesus said.
“[God] rewards those who seek him”, Hebrews 11:6 assures us.
“You will seek me and find me,” God declares in Jeremiah 29:13, “when you seek me with all your heart.”
Maybe that’s YOU; perhaps someone here walked IN still searching for HAPPINESS, but God is opening your eyes this morning to the reality that God PUT you here for SO much more than that. That you were MADE for relationship with HIM. But your SIN has cut you OFF from it. So without “clean hands” and a “pure heart” of your OWN, how are you ever going to “stand in God’s holy place”?
You better SEEK and FIND someone who actually LIVED that perfect life of obedience to God that He deserves from us and DEMANDS OF us. Someone who was then willing to actually DIE the death that YOU deserve, in your PLACE, to pay the penalty for your sins sacrificially. Someone so powerful, Death couldn’t HOLD him, and he rose VICTORIOUS, to actually give you the “clean hands” and the “pure heart” that you NEED - the “HOLINESS without which NO ONE will see the Lord”, Hebrews 12:14 says.
Friend: you better seek and find JESUS!
JESUS is our “blessing from the Lord”, to all who will receive Him; JESUS is our “VINDICATION from God”; He is our SAVIOR!
When you and I had NO chance of “ascending the mountain of the Lord”, Jesus DESCENDED from Heaven, for us.
Because we couldn’t DARE “STAND in God’s HOLY place”, Jesus assumed OUR UNHOLY place on the cross.
And because we had UN-clean hands and an IM-pure heart, Jesus opened HIS hands to receive the nails, and poured out HIS heart unto DEATH… to SAVE us. And to restore us to RELATIONSHIP with God our heavenly FATHER.
And everyone who “seeks Him”, “to all who receive Jesus, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn 1:12). Praise the LORD!
And praise is indeed BEFITTING of a king - THE King. And that’s where we end now with answer #4 to question #3 (remember question TWO was the 2-PARTER, 2 ANSWERS); but question 3: “How then should we RESPOND to God, this “King of Glory”?
Answer: We REJOICE in God’s salvation. (7-10)
“Who is this King of glory?
It is the LORD, strong and mighty,
YHWH, mighty in battle.”
Who proved his STRENGTH and MIGHT by winning the battle for us over Sin and Death… so now we PRAISE him for it!
“Lift up your heads, you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.”
3 interesting HISTORICAL observations to note here about verses 7 & 9, and then I’ll close with 1 pressing personal APPLICATION.
First observation: it SORT of makes sense that David would have the people sing about the “gates” and “doors” of the city being opened to welcome IN Yahweh, the King of glory, as the ark was being transported into Jerusalem. But Jerusalem’s city GATES, we know, historically, opened OUTWARD, whereas THESE gates and doors, in vv7 & 9 are “being lifted UP”, VERTICALLY. Why? Because this psalm is also PROPHETIC, and it anticipates an even GREATER entrance of the King of glory, when God would come not so much “in” as “DOWN”.
Second, and related: According to Jewish tradition, this psalm was sung every week in the Temple, on SUNDAY MORNING. They would sing different psalms at different services, on different days; this was the Sunday morning psalm. That means that at the very MOMENT that Jesus Christ was mounting his donkey on Palm Sunday, and “setting his face” toward Jerusalem, the worshipers in the Temple were unknowingly singing, “Lift up your heads, you gates… that the King of GLORY may ride in.” The crowds ACCOMPANYING Jesus that day were shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! ”. But “when he entered Jerusalem,” Matthew 21, v10 records that, “the whole city was stirred up, saying… “Who IS this?”” – they even ASK Psalm 24’s question.
But instead of ANSWERING, instead of RECOGNIZING Jesus for the “King of Glory” that He was and IS, they falsely ACCUSED him, sentenced him and condemned him to death. And Jesus demonstrated his strength and might not by conquering ROME like they wanted, but by conquering Sin and DEATH, like we so desperately NEEDED.
But the THIRD interesting textual observation to note here is the REPETITION of this praise of invitation, a second time in verse NINE. Warren Wiersbe speculates (OT, 904): “Why were the gates of Jerusalem addressed TWICE (vv7, 9)? When Jesus Christ, the King of glory, entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the whole city didn’t receive Him and praise Him… However, Jesus will RETURN to the earth and… establish His kingdom here. Then His people will receive Him in Jerusalem, the Lord of Hosts, the King of glory, and “the Lord shall be king over all the earth” (Zech 14:9).”
Perhaps there’s a SECOND refrain of joyful welcome here to prophetically point us ahead to Christ’s SECOND coming.
That’s admittedly a bit speculative. But let me END with that “pressing personal application” that isn’t speculative in the slightest; this is as CERTAIN as God’s sovereign RULE… as certain as God’s rejection of SIN… as certain as God’s REWARD for those who seek Him, and COME to Him through his Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ… As certain as ALL that, is THIS:
God is CALLING us to RESPOND. We must RESPOND.
God rules, and he will EITHER reject us or reward us, and it all HINGES on your RESPONSE to Jesus: “Who is this King of glory?” Is he YOUR King? YOUR vindicating Savior? Have you “lifted up the gates and doors” of your HEART, to welcome Him in, and REJOICE in God’s salvation?
If not, don’t wait a moment longer; trust in Jesus this morning, and be SAVED.