A Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church Manhattan, KS 19 Apr 2015
1. A Psalm attributed to
David.
The land and that which fills her belong to Yahweh – the world and her inhabitants.
2 Because it was He who founded her upon the sea and who set her up over rivers.
3 Who will go up on Yahweh’s mountain, and who will rise up in His holy place?
4 It will be innocent hands and a pure heart
which has not carried hope based on vanity and has not vowed for the purpose of
deceit.
5 He will carry a blessing from Yahweh, even righteousness from the God of his salvation .
6 This generation is pursuing Him. They are seeking Your face.
[This is] Jacob!
Selah
7 Heads-up, you gate[keepers] and be raised up, you ancient
[s]entries,
and the King of Glory will come.
8 Who this King of Glory?
Yahweh strong and mighty. Yahweh is the mighty-man of war.
9 Heads up, you gate[keepers], and rise up, you ancient
[s]entries,
and the King of Glory will come.
10 Who is he, this King of Glory?
Yahweh of Hosts, He is the King of Glory!
Selah.
· In the 2003 movie Luther, there is a scene where the Augustinian monk, Martin Luther is ordered to meet with a high-ranking Roman Catholic bishop in the monastery of a certain town. You see, Luther had written a letter to the pope, complaining about the fraudulent practices of certain Catholic teachers who were offering forgiveness of sins in exchange for payments of money. The Vatican, however, was fully-supportive of the sale of indulgences, so they decided to quiet Luther down with an exhortation from an ecclesiastical big-wig. Upon arrival at the monastery, Luther is briefed by an official on proper etiquette for such a meeting. He is told, “When you enter the room, lie face down on the floor with your arms spread open before the bishop. He will tell you to rise, but you must remain prostrate. He will speak to you, but you must say only one word, and that is the word Revoco... And, by the way, take a bath and wash your clothes before the meeting!”
· We have come this morning for an important meeting. A meeting not merely with a church bishop but with the Creator of the Universe, the Savior of our Souls, and the King of Glory. How should we approach Him? I see Psalm 24 as a sort of briefing to prepare us for worshipping our God.
· Although some Bible scholars think this Psalm was composed for a singular occasion, others see it as ongoing preparation for worship (GHW especially). The fact that the Jews read it once a week in the temple and the fact that it is in our Psalter for our continued use support the application of this Psalm as a regular reminder of who God is and how we should respond to Him in worship.
· Psalm 24 has two sections, each ending with a Selah, but the first section can really be divided into two sections as well, so I see the Psalm introducing God to us in three roles, that of Creator, that of Savior, and that of King. Let’s consider what it tells us about God in each of these three roles:
· This leaves nothing out. Even though the word “all” isn’t literally in the Hebrew, the sweeping language includes all earthly things.
· The first word in v.2 “for/because” is very important. This is the basis of God’s claim of ownership over you, over all that you possess. and over all that you see.
· The subject is emphatic in Hebrew: It is He who is the creator of all. And whoever makes it owns it.
· Charles Spurgeon wrote of this verse, “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 lease-holder upon most precarious tenure, liable to instantaneous ejectment. The great Landowner and true Proprietor holds his court above the clouds and laughs...”
· In Job 38, God asked, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb; When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band; When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors; When I said, 'This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!'” (Job 38:4-11, NKJV)
· Now, what does it mean to be “founded” or “established” on “waters”? I think it has to do with the creation account from Genesis 1, which tells us that all the dry land started out underwater at first. Day one and two of creation speak of nothing but water on the face of the earth. “Then God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas...” (Genesis 1:6-10 NKJV, cf 2 Peter 3:3–5). It’s just a reference to the creation.
· Incidentally, scientists have recently found unexpected evidence from moon rocks supporting this claim from the Bible. Until recently, the “dominant secular theory says that the moon formed nearly 4.5 billion years ago from molten material blasted off the new earth by a collision with a Mars-sized object. Then this extremely hot, molten material supposedly coalesced to form our moon. Based on that theory... scientists predicted that any water present during the molten early stage of the moon would have boiled off and evaporated into space, leaving the moon and its rocks bone-dry. This is what they expected to find, and for many years believed that this had been confirmed by analysis of rock samples returned from the Apollo missions to the moon. But the truth has now turned out to be precisely the opposite. Volcanic flows from deep within the moon’s mantle that had cooled on the surface were collected during the moon landings of 1969–1972. These rock samples have recently been re-analyzed... The amount of water is large—there’s as much water in these moon rocks as there is in basalt that forms under the earth’s sea floor at the mid-ocean ridges. Scientists now accept that large amounts of water were present at the very first moments of the formation of the moon. As it began to form, the material from which it was made must have been wet... In the Bible, God tells us that He formed the earth from water, and by water. In other words, the earth had a watery, not molten, beginning... The irrefutable evidence of the moon’s watery beginning, a startling discovery of modern science, is entirely consistent with the claims of the Bible... One of the leading scientists involved in the new research, Alberto Saal, recently said “The implication, though I cannot absolutely prove it, is that probably the earth formed with water.” (http://creation.com/water-in-moon )
· I hope that little rabbit trail was interesting. The point is that our God is the creator, so we must respond to Him in a way that is consistent with His ownership of all things.
· In addition to being our Creator, we also need to respond to the fact that He is righteous. This second issues is introduced in v.3
· The same Hebrew words for “go up,” “mountain,” and “Yahweh/LORD” are found in Deuteronomy when God’s presence on Mount Sinai was scary to all the people, but one man went up the mountain to meet with God, and that was Moses. Deuteronomy 5: “The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. The LORD talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain... I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone...” (Deut. 5:2-5, 9:9, NKJV)
· The “holy mountain” of the LORD seems to change
o from Mt. Sinai
o to the temple mount in Jerusalem during the kings of Israel - viz. Psalm 15: “Yahweh, who will be a guest in Your tent? Who will settle down on the mountain of Your holiness, Walking perfectly, and working righteousness, and speaking truth in his heart?” (NAW, cf. 2Chron. 33:15, Isa. 8:18, Joel 2:1),
o and then, after the nation of Israel goes away, the mountain is spoken of in eschatological passages as a heavenly place (Isa. 24:23, etc., Joel 2:32, Micah 4:7).
· Likewise with the term “holy place,”
o the temple was clearly a “holy place” where sacrifices were made to the LORD (Lev. 7:6 etc, cf. Ezra 9:8 “a peg in his holy place”), and that temple had a most holy place where the ark of the covenant was kept (1 Kings 8:6),
o but even during the heyday of the temple worship, there was still the sense that God’s “holy place” was not ultimately the temple but ultimately heaven, for instance 2 Chronicles 30:27, in the days of Hezekiah, “...the Levites, arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard; and their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, to heaven” (NKJV). Ezekiel (42:13, and 43:7) also mentions the eschatological “holy place” where God dwells with man in a perfect situation.
· Psalm 1:5, by the way, already told us who will NOT stand: “the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.” (NAW) So who will stand? The answer is found in v.4
· The “Pure heart,” matches the commandments of the LORD, which are also “pure” (Psalm 19:8).
· “Hands” and “heart,” are obviously figurative language for the actions and thoughts of a person, which, in turn, are synechdoche for the whole person himself.
· Not only must we have only done good deeds to be holy and acceptable in God’s presence, but our heart too must be pure, having never thought any impure thoughts (Cohen). Can you see this is a problem?
· The Hebrew idiom “lift the soul to,” which begins its appearance in the Psalms, is equivalent to English phrases like “set his cap for” or “set his hopes on” or “set his sights on.”
o Later on in Psalms 25:1 & 86:4, David says, “It is unto the LORD that I lift my soul,”
o and in Psalm 143:8, the phrase is set parallel to the statement that the psalmist “trusts” in the LORD.
o Jeremiah 22:27 and 44:14 talk about the longing of the exiled Jews to return to their homeland as “lifting their souls to return.”
o But, in sinful humans, longings or soul-liftings like that are not always for the right thing. Hosea 4:8 describes Jews that are falling deeper and deeper into sin as “lifting their souls to iniquity,”
o here in Ps. 24 the person who enters God’s presence and receives God’s blessing is someone whose longings are not for vain things but rather for being in the LORD’s presence.
· This phrase is not used to describe idol worship anywhere in the Bible, so I think the NIV’s interpretation is a little off, although idols are called “vain” in the Bible. Vanity is something which lacks real substance; it’s empty, mere outward appearance with nothing satisfying inside – like an empty cereal box – attractive picture on the outside, but nothing on the inside!
· In the O.T. Law, the word “vanity” it is used exclusively with the third & ninth commandments:
o Don’t take the name of the Lord “in vain,” (Exodus 20:7)
o do not make a promise “in vain,” (Exodus 23:1)
o don’t spread a “vain” report (Deuteronomy 5:11)
o or bear “false/vain” witness against your neighbor (Deuteronomy 5:20).
o This matches the parallel statement at the end of v.4 in this Psalm that you don’t swear or make a promise or vow in order to deceive anybody.
· The kind of person who will be accepted into God’s presence is the kind of person who doesn’t tell lies. Why do people deceive?
o Isn’t it usually because we want to cover up sin and continue in sin rather than confess sin and find forgiveness and live apart from that sin? You lie about the fact that you stole a cookie because you don’t want to be caught for stealing and because you want to keep snitching cookies in the future.
o By the time we have entered into deception, we are already unclean and impure before God, because we have committed other sins that stain our record. Psalm 14:2-3 already commented, “Yahweh... looked down over the descendents of Adam to see: ‘Is there an insightful man, one who seeks God?’ The entirety has turned away, together they have become tainted, there is not one who does good – there is not even one!” (NAW)
· Do you see the problem here? Psalm 24 implies that none of us are qualified to enter God’s holy presence, so how on earth can we get there? Verse 5 says something amazing!
· There is a play on words here in Hebrew which doesn’t come through in the standard English translations. The Hebrew verb translated “lift up” in v.4 and the Hebrew verb translated “receive” in v.5 are the same. I tried to bring this parallel through by translating it, “He hasn’t carried hopes based on vanity” but, “he does carry a blessing from the LORD.” Do you see the contrast? In fact, this word occurs four more times in the last four verses of the psalm, where it is translated “lift up your heads.” Zondervan’s NIV Application commentary suggests that they are all linked, “instead of lifting himself to an idol... the integrated worshipper [lifts] blessing from Yahweh... [and lifts up his head in] the hope and joy that approaches the gathered worshippers in the person of the victorious king” (GHW).
· This commentary goes on to explain “righteousness”: “The word sedaqah is a legal term that denotes a ruling by a judge regarding what should have occurred in a case under judgment. One who has fulfilled properly the expectations of justice in a case is declared saddiq “righteous”... When one is declared saddiq, then one receives sedaqah, a public acknowledgement of compliance with the expectations in the case, or, as [the] NIV puts it, ‘vindication.’” (GHW, p.452)
· This “blessing and righteousness” remind me of the history of Abraham, who received a “blessing” as well as “righteousness” from the LORD:
o Genesis 22:17-18 “I will bless you, and multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore...” Genesis 15:6 “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” (NKJV)
o Commenting on this, the Apostle Paul says in the book of Romans, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS ARE FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS ARE COVERED; BLESSED IS THE MAN TO WHOM THE LORD SHALL NOT IMPUTE SIN." (Romans 4:4-8, NKJV)
· This, then, is the solution to the problem that no one is qualified to ascend the hill of the LORD or to stand in His sanctuary.
o This is the solution to the fact that we have all, on occasion, set our hopes on vanity; we have all broken a promise and said things that were not entirely true.
o In order to heal us from our sin, there is righteousness and blessing which God can give to us and which we can carry in our mortal bodies.
o “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7, NKJV)
· The appearance of the name Jacob at the end of the verse is interesting, and there are three ways that standard English versions interpret it:
o The position of the KJV and NASB is that the Psalmist speaking to his ancestor Jacob over the centuries, and I think this is the most straightforward translation. However, nowhere is Jacob spoken of in Genesis as seeking or pursuing God, so I see no motive for David to be pointing this out to Jacob in particular. Interpreting it this way would equate seeking Jacob’s face with pursuing God, which is awkward, but following God would be, in a sense, following in the footsteps of Jacob and seeing Jacob in heaven where we would also see God. (cf. Isa. 45:19b “I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek me aimlessly.’ I am Jehovah, speaking righteousness, declaring what is right” ~NAW).
o The NIV and ESV translators apparently didn’t like that interpretation, so they added words that are not in the Hebrew text to make it read, “God of Jacob” (So did Augustine and Spurgeon). In their defense, the Septuagint translators did the same thing two thousand years earlier. According to that interpretation, the third person “Him” would mean the same thing as the second-person “your” – again awkward, but it is not uncommon in Hebrew poetry to make sudden switches in personal pronouns like that.
o However, I like what the New King James and American Jewish Version translators did. They brought the first and last word of the sentence together, “This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek.” This would highlight the chiastic structure common in the Psalms. According to this interpretation, “your face” and “Him” are still equated, but it also equates “this” with “Jacob.” In other words, these are the real descendents of Jacob – the real Israel. The Apostle Paul commented on this in the book of Romans, “...they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ‘IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed” (Romans 9:6-8, NKJV).
· I believe that the word “generation” in Psalm 6:6 is used in the sense that we use the term “born again.” God, in his mercy “has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3, NKJV).
· Those who receive God’s blessings and righteousness are, like Jacob, undeserving scoundrels who received these things merely due to the mercy of God who chose to place his love upon them and who sent His spirit to birth in them spiritual life.
· What did they do when they were regenerated? They sought God’s face. What does that mean? They prayed to God and asked Him to forgive them of their sins – this is the consistent pattern throughout the Old Testament of what people were doing when they were seeking God’s face:
o David says in Ps. 27:7-8 that God commanded him to seek His face, so note how David responded, “Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me...”
o God put it this way to David’s son Solomon: “...if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14 NKJV).
o Later on, God explained through Isaiah what seeking His face did NOT mean, Isaiah 1:12-18, “When you come to see my face, who seeks this from your hand, to trample my courts? Do not continue to bring vain grain-offerings; Incense? It is an abomination to me. New moon, Sabbath, and calling of a convocation, I am not able [to brook] iniquity and solemn assembly... when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from them; and although you multiply prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood. Wash, make yourselves clean, cause the evil of your deeds to turn away from before my eyes; cease the evil. Learn the good, pursue justice, straighten out oppression; judge for the orphan; contend for the widow! Please move and let us reason,” says Jehovah, “Though your sins are like the scarlet, like the snow they will be whitened, Though bloody, like the crimson, like the wool they will become.” (NAW)
o So God told Hosea 5:15, “I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me."
o And seek Him they did. From exile in Babylon, Daniel wrote, “Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession...” (Dan. 9:3-4a)
o And God heard him and restored the Jews to their land under the leadership of Ezra, who also “proclaimed a fast... that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from His face the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.” (Ezra 8:21, all NKJV, unless otherwise noted)
o By the way, I have just quoted to you every instance in the O.T. where the Hebrew words “seek” and “face” occur in the context of men seeking God, so this isn’t cherry-picked for a theme of prayers of repentence, this is the full Biblical theme. Seeking God’s face isn’t some mystical, super-spiritual thing. It’s just repentance plain and simple.
· When God’s people confessed their sin and asked God for forgiveness, they received the Lord’s blessing of righteousness, they received clean hands and a pure heart, and they were able to enter into fellowship with Him in His holiness!
· I’ve run out of time today, so we will have to stop at the selah at the end of v.6, and come back to finish the psalm next week, looking at verses 7-10, and how they portray Jesus as King.
· But, before I close out this morning, I want to play out some application to this briefing on the Lord as Creator and Savior:
1. How should we relate to God as Creator? Acknowledge His ownership over you and your environment.
a. Romans 12:1-2 NKJV I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
b. On a personal level, this means your body is not your own.
i. In the abortion debate, it is often said that a woman should be able to do what she wants with her body, but this is a gravely-mistaken view because it is not your body to begin with.
ii. 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, “You are not your own. You are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.”
iii. If your body isn’t your own, then what you do to your body and what you eat cannot be decided based upon what you want but rather based on what God wants. Will it glorify God for me to eat that cookie? Will it glorify God for me to get that piercing? Maybe yes, maybe no. Will it further God’s interests for me to watch that movie or go to that party? This is a whole different way of thinking than the world around us.
c. This even extends to our possessions. The house you live in is not your to do with as you please, it is God’s, and He wants you to use it to do the kinds of things He likes. Same with your car, your computer, your phone – how would it change the way you use them if you saw them as God’s possessions that you were borrowing?
d. The world doesn’t belong to you. You are not at liberty to randomly kill wildlife or wantonly destroy trees. It’s not because there’s anything sacred about nature or anything immoral with killing an animal or felling a tree, it’s that they are God’s creatures, so they can only legitimately be used for the things He has given you permission to do. You need to eat? He has given them to you for food. You need paper to publish the gospel on? Then sure, pulp that tree. But to destroy or deform it for no good reason is to show disrespect to its maker who took pleasure in making it.
e. Do not be conformed to the way the world thinks. Sometimes that will mean taking a stand. Psalm 4:1-2 flies in the face of extrabiblical metanarratives which claim that God doesn’t care about the physical world – or that claim that God did not make the world we live in. As Christians we must stand against the competing truth claims that God did not create us or the universe. That may mean you have to accept ridicule from the fools of this world who desperately do not want to be accountable to a transcendent God. Just stick to your guns; God will eventually vindicate you.
2. How should we relate to God as Savior? Recognize that we are disqualified from holiness, Confess our sin, and receive blessing and righteousness from Him.
a. Not mere outward religion that looks like clean hands while the heart remains selfish, covetous, and idolatrous, but true heart religion that loves God and hates sin and receives His forgiveness and trusts in His righteousness. That rejects deception, pretense, and subterfuge to live in truth.
b. Let us lift up our souls/set our hopes on spending eternity in His presence in heaven!
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PSALM 24 |
NAW |
KJV |
NKJV |
ESV |
NASB |
NIV |
LXX (23) |
Brenton |
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1 לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר לַיהוָה הָאָרֶץ וּמְלוֹאָהּ תֵּבֵל וְיֹשְׁבֵי בָהּ: |
1. A Psalm attributed to David. The land and that which fills her belong to Yahweh - the world and her inhabitants.[1] |
1 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. |
1 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and [all] its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. |
1 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, |
1 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD'S, and [all] it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. |
1 Of
David. A psalm. The earth is the LORD's, and |
1 Ψαλμὸς
τῷ Δαυιδ· |
1 A Psalm
for David |
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2 כִּי-הוּא עַל-יַמִּים יְסָדָהּ וְעַל-נְהָרוֹת יְכוֹנְנֶהָ: |
2 Because it was He[3] who founded her upon the sea[4], and who set her up over rivers. |
2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. |
2 For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters. |
2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. |
2 For He has founded it upon the seas And established it upon the rivers. |
2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. |
2 X[5] αὐτὸς ἐπὶ θαλασσῶν ἐθεμελίωσεν αὐτὴν καὶ ἐπὶ ποταμῶν ἡτοίμασεν[6] αὐτήν. |
2 X He has founded it upon the seas, and prepared it upon the rivers. |
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3 מִי-יַעֲלֶה בְהַר-יְהוָה וּמִי-יָקוּם בִּמְקוֹם קָדְשׁוֹ: |
3 Who will go up on Yahweh’s mountain[7], and who will rise up[8] in His holy place? |
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? |
3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? |
3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? |
3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? |
3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? |
3 τίς ἀναβήσεται εἰς τὸ ὄρος τοῦ κυρίου καὶ τίς στήσεται ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ[9] αὐτοῦ; |
3 Who shall go up to the mountain of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? |
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4 נְקִי כַפַּיִם וּבַר-לֵבָב אֲשֶׁר לֹא-נָשָׂא לַשָּׁוְא נַפְשִׁי[10] וְלֹא נִשְׁבַּע לְמִרְמָה: |
4 It will be innocent hands and a pure[11] heart which has not carried X hope based on[12] vanity and has not vowed for the purpose of deceit. |
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. |
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. |
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. |
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully. |
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. |
4 ἀθῷος χερσὶν καὶ καθαρὸς τῇ καρδίᾳ, ὃς οὐκ ἔλαβεν ἐπὶ ματαίῳ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐκ ὤμοσεν ἐπὶ δόλῳ[13] [τῷ πλησίον αὐτοῦ]. |
4 He that is innocent in his hands and pure in his heart; who has not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully [to his neighbour]. |
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5 יִשָּׂא בְרָכָה מֵאֵת יְהוָה וּצְדָקָה מֵאֱלֹהֵי יִשְׁעוֹ: |
5 He will carry[14] a blessing from Yahweh, even righteousness from the God of his salvation[15]. |
5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation[16]. |
5 He shall receive blessing from the LORD, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. |
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation. |
5 He shall receive a blessing from the LORD And righteousness from the God of his salvation. |
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior. |
5 οὗτος λήμψεται εὐλογίαν παρὰ κυρίου καὶ ἐλεημοσύνην παρὰ θεοῦ σωτῆρος αὐτοῦ. |
5 He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour. |
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6 זֶה דּוֹר דֹּרְשׁוֹ )דֹּרְשָׁיו[17]( מְבַקְשֵׁי פָנֶיךָ[18] יַעֲקֹב סֶלָה: |
6 This generation is pursuing Him. They are seeking Your face, Jacob[19]. Selah |
6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. |
6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah |
6 Such is the generation of those
who seek him, who seek |
6 This is the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face--even Jacob. Selah. |
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O [God of] Jacob. Selah |
6 αὕτη ἡ γενεὰ ζητούντων αὐτόν[20], ζητούντων τὸ πρόσωπον [τοῦ θεοῦ[21]] Ιακωβ. διάψαλμα. |
6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek the face [of the God of] Jacob. Pause. |
[1] This leaves nothing out. Even though the word “all” isn’t literally in the Hebrew, the sweeping language includes all earthly things. This flies in the face of extrabiblical metanarratives which claim that God doesn’t care about the physical world – or that claim that God did not make the world we live in. Charles Spurgeon wrote of this verse, “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 lease-holder upon most precarious tenure, liable to instantaneous ejectment. The great Landowner and true Proprietor holds his court above the clouds and laughs...” The Apostle Paul quoted this verse in 1 Cor. 10:26 to refute superstitious beliefs concerning food offered to idols. Boice suggested in his commentary that this preface was intended to head off the notion that this coming King was for the Jews only.
[2] Not in Aquilla or Symmachus, but Stott says it’s in the Midrash, and Delitzsch identifies it in B. Tamid extr., Rosh ha-Shana 31a, Sofrim 18. The opening reference to creation is a reminder of new beginnings, and so it was read on the first day of the week in traditional Jewish worship. Since Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover week, the priests may well have been chanting the very words of this Psalm in the temple that day as the crowds chanted their Hosannas at the gates of Jerusalem! (Boice) If this Psalm is for the first day of the week, it’s all the more appropriate for Christians to use on Sunday.
[3] The subject is emphatic in Hebrew. The first word “for/because” is very important. This is the basis of God’s claim of ownership over you, over all that you possess. and over all that you see: He is the creator of all. Whoever makes it owns it.
[4] These words “found” and “establish/setup” only occur together with the Hebrew words for “sea” and “river” in two places: Job 38 and Amos 9:6. God asked Job at the end of the book, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb; When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band; When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors; When I said, 'This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!'” (Job 38:4-11, NKJV) What does it mean to be “founded” or “established” on “waters”? I think it has to do with the creation account from Genesis 1, which tells us that all the dry land started out underwater at first. Day one and two of creation speak of nothing but water on the face of the earth. “Then God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas...” (Genesis 1:6-10 NKJV, cf 2 Peter 3:3–5). It’s just a reference to the creation. Incidentally, scientists have recently found unexpected evidence from moon rocks supporting this claim from the Bible. Until recently, the “dominant secular theory says that the moon formed nearly 4.5 billion years ago from molten material blasted off the new earth by a collision with a Mars-sized object. Then this extremely hot, molten material supposedly coalesced to form our moon. Based on that theory... scientists predicted that any water present during the molten early stage of the moon would have boiled off and evaporated into space, leaving the moon and its rocks bone-dry. This is what they expected to find, and for many years believed that this had been confirmed by analysis of rock samples returned from the Apollo missions to the moon. But the truth has now turned out to be precisely the opposite. Volcanic flows from deep within the moon’s mantle that had cooled on the surface were collected during the moon landings of 1969–1972. These rock samples have recently been re-analyzed... The amount of water is large—there’s as much water in these moon rocks as there is in basalt that forms under the earth’s sea floor at the mid-ocean ridges. Scientists now accept that large amounts of water were present at the very first moments of the formation of the moon. As it began to form, the material from which it was made must have been wet... In the Bible, God tells us that He formed the earth from water, and by water. In other words, the earth had a watery, not molten, beginning... The irrefutable evidence of the moon’s watery beginning, a startling discovery of modern science, is entirely consistent with the claims of the Bible... One of the leading scientists involved in the new research, Alberto Saal, recently said “The implication, though I cannot absolutely prove it, is that probably the earth formed with water.” (http://creation.com/water-in-moon)
[5] Also omitted by Sym. and Theodotion, but not by Aq.
[6] Aq. & Sym. = ‘hdrasen “established/seated” (which is more like the MT). Theodotion, on the other hand, followed the LXX
[7] The same Hebrew words for “go up,” “mountain,” and “Yahweh/LORD” are found in Deuteronomy when God’s presence on Mount Sinai was scary to all the people, but one man went up the mountain to meet with God, and that was Moses. Deuteronomy 5: “The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. The LORD talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain... I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone...” (Deut. 5:2-5, 9:9, NKJV, cf. Jer. 31:6) The holy mountain of the LORD seems to change from Mt. Sinai to the temple mount in Jerusalem during the kings of Israel - viz. Psalm 15: “Yahweh, who will be a guest in Your tent? Who will settle down on the mountain of Your holiness, Walking perfectly, and working righteousness, and speaking truth in his heart?” (NAW, cf. 2Chron. 33:15, Isa. 8:18, Joel 2:1), and then, after the nation of Israel goes away, the mountain is spoken of in eschatological passages as a heavenly place (Isa. 24:23, 25:6, etc., Joel 2:32, Micah 4:7). Likewise with the term “holy place,” the temple was clearly a “holy place” where sacrifices were made to the LORD (Lev. 7:6 etc, cf. Ezra 9:8 “a peg in his holy place”), and that temple had a most holy place where the ark of the covenant was kept (1 Kings 8:6), but even during the heyday of the temple worship, there was still the sense that God’s “holy place” was not ultimately the temple but ultimately heaven, for instance 2 Chronicles 30:27, in the days of Hezekiah, “...the Levites, arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard; and their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, to heaven” (NKJV). Ezekiel (42:13, and 43:7) also mentions the eschatological “holy place” where God dwells with man in a perfect situation.
[8] Psalm 1:5 tells us who will NOT stand: “the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.” (NAW) The answer is found in v.4
[9] Aquilla & Theodotion = ‘agiasmatoV “sanctuary” (noun instead of adjective)
[10] The Hebrew pronoun is first person singular “my” in the Masoretic text, but rendered 3rd person “his” in some Hebrew manuscripts (including C and the text of the Soncino commentaries) and in all the English versions as well as the Greek versions. Kimchi supports the latter, but Cohen and the AJV support the former
[11] It is “pure,” matching the commandments of the LORD, which are also “pure” (Psalm 19:8). “Hands” and “heart,” are obviously figurative language for the actions and thoughts of a person, which, in turn, are synechdoche for the person himself. Not only must we have only done good deeds to be holy and acceptable in God’s presence, but our heart too must be pure, having never thought any impure thoughts (Cohen). Can you see this is a problem?
[12] The Hebrew idiom “lift the soul to,” which begins its appearance in the Psalms, is equivalent to English phrases like “set his cap for” or “set his hopes on” or “set his sights on.” Later on in Psalms 25:1 and 86:4, David says, “It is unto the LORD that I lift my soul,” and in Psalm 143:8, the phrase is set parallel to the statement that the psalmist “trusts” in the LORD. Jeremiah 22:27 and 44:14 talk about the longing of the exiled Jews to return to their homeland as “lifting their souls to return.” But, in sinful humans, longings or soul-liftings like that are not always for the right thing. Hosea 4:8 describes Jews that are falling deeper and deeper into sin as “lifting their souls to iniquity,” and here in Psalm 24 the person who enters God’s presence and receives God’s blessing is someone whose longings are not for vain things but rather for being in the LORD’s presence. (cf. Prov. 19:18 “Discipline your child and don’t lift up your soul for his crying.” i.e. Don’t be manipulated by the noises your children make when you spank them.) This phrase is not used to describe idol worship anywhere in the Bible, so I think the NIV’s interpretation is a little off, although idols are called “vain” in the Bible. Vanity is something which lacks real substance; it’s empty, mere outward appearance with nothing satisfying inside – like an empty cereal box – attractive picture on the outside, but nothing on the inside! In the Old Testament Law, the word “vanity” it is used exclusively in respect to the third and ninth commandments: Don’t take the name of the Lord “in vain,” do not make a promise “in vain,” don’t spread a “vain” report or bear “false/vain” witness against your neighbor (Exodus 20:7; 23:1; Deuteronomy 5:11,20). This matches the parallel statement at the end of v.4 in this Psalm that you don’t swear or make a promise or vow in order to deceive anybody (cf. AJV of Ps. 24:4b “who hath not taken My name in vain and hath not sworn deceitfully”). The kind of person who will be accepted into God’s presence is the kind of person who doesn’t tell lies. Why do people deceive? Isn’t it usually because we want to cover up sin and continue in sin rather than confess sin and find forgiveness and live apart from that sin? You lie about the fact that you stole a cookie because you don’t want to be caught for stealing and because you want to keep snitching cookies in the future. By the time we have entered into deception, we are already unclean and impure before God, because we have committed other sins that stain our record. Psalm 14:2-3 already commented, “Yahweh... looked down over the descendents of Adam to see: ‘Is there an insightful man, one who seeks God?’ The entirety has turned away, together they have become tainted, there is not one who does good – there is not even one!” (NAW)
[13] Aquilla: en epiqesei “with laying on” [of hands?]
[14] There is a play on words here in Hebrew which doesn’t come through in the standard English translations. The Hebrew verb translated “lift up” in v.4 and the Hebrew verb translated “receive” in v.5 are the same. I tried to bring this parallel through by translating it, “He hasn’t carried hopes based on vanity” but, “he does carry a blessing from the LORD.” Do you see the contrast?
[15] This blessing and righteousness remind me of the history of Abraham, who received a “blessing” as well as “righteousness” from the LORD: “I will bless you, and multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore... And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” (Genesis 22:17-18, 15:6, NKJV) Commenting on this, the Apostle Paul says in the book of Romans, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS ARE FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS ARE COVERED; BLESSED IS THE MAN TO WHOM THE LORD SHALL NOT IMPUTE SIN." (Romans 4:4-8, NKJV) This, then, is the solution to the problem that no one is qualified to ascend the hill of the LORD or to stand in His sanctuary. This is the solution to the fact that we have all, on occasion, set our hopes on vanity; we have all broken a promise and said things that were not entirely true. In order to heal us from our sin, there is righteousness and blessing which God can give to us and which we can carry in our mortal bodies. “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7, NKJV)
[16] Compare to the shorter conclusion of Psalm 15, where after a much longer list of things (including being “clean/innocent,” speaking truth in his “heart,” and following through on what he “swore” to do) it concludes: “The one who does these will not be overthrown forever!” (Ps. 15:5b, NAW)
[17] Masoretic scribes suggested inserting a yod before the last letter, changing the participle from singular to plural – All the English and Greek versions translate it as plural, probably to match the ensuing plural participle “those who seek your face,” but both “this” and “generation” are singular. Furthermore, why all the English and Greek versions translate the two different Hebrew words דרש and בקש with the same word instead of different words is beyond me.
[18] The Targums change this 2nd person singular pronoun to 3rd person, but the LXX and Syriac insert “God of” instead of the pronoun.
[19] The appearance of the name Jacob at the end of the verse is interesting, and there are three ways that standard English versions interpret it. The position of the KJV and NASB is that the Psalmist speaking to his ancestor Jacob over the centuries, and I think this is the most straightforward translation. However, nowhere is Jacob spoken of in Genesis as seeking or pursuing God (although his mother Rebecca is mentioned as doing so in Gen. 25:22), so I see no motive for David to be pointing this out to Jacob in particular. Interpreting it this way would equate seeking Jacob’s face with pursuing God, which is awkward, but following God would be, in a sense, following in the footsteps of Jacob and seeing Jacob in heaven where we would also see God. (cf. Isaiah 45:19b “I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek me aimlessly.’ I am Jehovah, speaking righteousness, declaring what is right” ~NAW). The NIV and ESV translators apparently didn’t like that interpretation, so they added words that are not in the Hebrew text to make it read, “God of Jacob” (So did Augustine and Spurgeon). In their defense, the Septuagint translators did the same thing two thousand years earlier. According to that interpretation, the third person “Him” would mean the same thing as the second-person “your” – again awkward, but it is not uncommon in Hebrew poetry to make sudden switches in personal pronouns like that. I like what the NKJV and AJV translators did, however, and that was to bring the first and last word of the sentence together, “This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek.” (Delitzsch and JFB agreed.) This would highlight the chiastic structure common in the Psalms. According to this interpretation, the “your face” and “Him” are still equated, but it also equates “this” with “Jacob.” In other words, these are the real descendents of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. The Apostle Paul commented on this in the book of Romans, “...they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ‘IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed” (Romans 9:6-8, NKJV). I believe that the word “generation” in Psalm 6:6 is used in the sense that we use the term “born again.” God, in his mercy “has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3, NKJV). Those who receive God’s blessings and righteousness are, like Jacob, undeserving scoundrels who received these things merely due to the mercy of God who chose to place his love upon them and who sent His spirit to birth in them spiritual life. What did they do when they were regenerated? They sought God’s face. What does it mean to seek God’s face? They prayed to God and asked Him to forgive them of their sins – this is the consistent pattern throughout the Old Testament of what people were doing when they were seeking God’s face: David says in Psalm 27:7-8 that God commanded him to seek His face, so note how David responded, “Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me...” (cf. 1Chron. 16:11-12: “Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face evermore! Remember His marvelous works which He has done... Remember His everlasting covenant, the word He commanded...”) God put it this way to David’s son Solomon: “...if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14 NKJV). Later on, God explained through Isaiah what seeking His face did NOT mean, Isaiah 1:12-18, “When you come to see my face, who seeks this from your hand, to trample my courts? Do not continue to bring vain grain-offerings; Incense? It is an abomination to me. New moon, Sabbath, and calling of a convocation, I am not able [to brook] iniquity and solemn assembly... when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from them; and although you multiply prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood. Wash, make yourselves clean, cause the evil of your deeds to turn away from before my eyes; cease the evil. Learn the good, pursue justice, straighten out oppression; judge for the orphan; contend for the widow! Please move and let us reason,” says Jehovah, “Though your sins are like the scarlet, like the snow they will be whitened, Though bloody, like the crimson, like the wool they will become.” (NAW) So God told Hosea 5:15, “I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me." (cf. Zech. 8:21 = pray) and seek Him they did. From exile in Babylon Daniel wrote, “Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession...” (Daniel 9:3-4a) And God heard him and restored the Jews to their land under the leadership of Ezra, who also “proclaimed a fast... that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from His face the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.” (Ezra 8:21, all NKJV, unless otherwise noted – this list, by the way is every instance in the O.T. where the Hebrew words “seek” and “face” occur in the context of men seeking God, so this isn’t cherry-picked for a theme of prayers of repentence, this is the full Biblical theme). When God’s people confessed their sin and asked God for forgiveness, they received the Lord’s blessing of righteousness, they received clean hands and a pure heart, and they were able to enter into fellowship with Him in His holiness!
[20] Kittel noted three Septuagint variant manuscripts which read ton kurion “the Lord,” instead of auton Him.
[21] Aq., Sym., and other ancient Greek versions do not have the words “of the God of”