Psalms 24

Psalms 24:1-10

The dwellers in Jehovah’s house, and Jehovah entering it. A psalm of David. The last psalm of the series is self-evidently now before us: we cannot go beyond the dwelling in Jehovah’s house; and this is worthily the third psalm of the third section of the nine which open the third division of this Psalm-Genesis. It is the fruit of atonement. It is the expression of that love which has sought man, which in the depth of his need atonement expresses. Christ down here, a man amongst men, has made the grace of it as simple as it is yet ineffable. In the new earth, and so eternally, the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He will dwell with them. (Revelation 21:3.) The present psalm does not reach as far as this: no psalm does; it is millennial, but in principle the same. God has chosen Zion to be the place of His rest forever (Psalms 132:13-14); and though its present desolation may seem a long argument against this, He will yet fulfill His purpose. “I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation; and Jehovah shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever.”* (Micah 4:7.) Thus the end of the seventy weeks of Daniel, which is to bring in the blessing for his people and his holy city, anoints the Most Holy Place. (Daniel 9:24.) But the city itself; like the camp in the desert of old, will be canopied by the cloud of glory, the sign of Jehovah’s presence: for “Jehovah will create upon every dwelling-place on Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flame of fire by night.” (Isaiah 4:5.) This, by the very terms of it, is not the eternal state; but it is the prelude of it.
The subject of the psalm is plainly the character of those that draw near to God, a people, as the sixth verse would show, not wholly Israelitish; and this is simple, if in the first we understand -what is certainly the fact -that the whole earth is now become His, His name owned everywhere in it. In the last part Jehovah of hosts enters the sanctuary as manifested “King of glory.” The bringing in of the ark to Zion in David’s time would naturally seem to be the occasion of the psalm, -as naturally made a prophecy of the fuller and abiding blessing in the time yet to come.

1. The history of Israel and of the earth are inseparably bound up together. The national promises are to be fulfilled to them on earth, and their blessing involves that of the earth at large. As the Christian Church is the “church of the first-born ones written -enregistered -in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23), Israel is God’s first-born (Exodus 4:22) upon earth; and in both cases this term “first-born” implies a wider relationship. God as seen in Israel is the “God of the whole earth,” though, because of sin, redemption here also must make it good, and to know it fully, the earth itself must pass by regeneration (Matthew 19:28) and, as it were, bodily reconstruction (2 Peter 3:10-13) into the eternal glory of the “new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness.” In this breadth, and under these conditions, God appears in Israel as the Creator-Father; and in the first verse claims as Jehovah the whole world as His. The time is come of that “regeneration” of which the Lord has spoken; and now “the earth is Jehovah’s, and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein.” And He has the best of titles to it: “for He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it over the floods.” We see, of course, that it is of that dry land which upon the third day God separated from the waters, and called “earth,” that the psalmist is speaking; and not of the earth as a globe. Plainly this foundation is a separation, and the water has ever since been working at this earth of God’s establishment, seeking, as it were, to overthrow it; but has not been able. Apt type it is, this struggle, of the fortunes of His people, against whom the strife of centuries has been waged, to overthrow the barrier of God’s purpose with which He has hedged them round, and could not. Now is in fact in Israel the time of that later psalm (the ninety-third) in which they sing of the rebuke of such waters which have risen up against the throne of God: — “Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, Jehovah, the floods have lifted up their voice: the floods lift up their waves. Jehovah on high is mightier than the noise of many waters: yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.” Not without such significance is it here that Jehovah has founded the earth upon the seas, and established it over the floods. The reckless will of man has met its rebuke from God, and what is to be fruitful for Him is rescued from the destroyer. What more natural than this as the introduction to the question which follows? Rampant evil has been put down: “who” now “shall ascend into Jehovah’s hill? and who shall stand in His holy place?” The answer is evident: it is he who has clean hands and a pure heart, -the practical life no Pharisaism, but the real index of the man himself, -“who has not lifted up his soul to vanity,” (for it is pride that most of all connects and ends with this: as one has said, “the moment we step out of our nothingness, we step into it,”) “nor sworn deceitfully.” The recompense follows: “He shall receive the blessing from Jehovah, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” The preceding psalms have given us the ability to interpret this aright. Righteousness absolutely, as we know, in himself can no man find, nor therefore can God award it. Righteousness in a mere comparative way will not do for the presence of God. For this there must come in two things: one of these has been already before us; the other is not revealed clearly in the Old Testament at all. One is the work for men -atonement; the other is the work in men, the communication of a divine nature, perfect in itself as such, though with many hindrances in this life to its perfect manifestation. In both these ways the righteousness is indeed a gift received from the God of our salvation.

From first to last all is of grace, and thus of God, more perfectly than the Old Testament could express it; and we cannot be wrong in reading into it from the fuller revelation what is necessary for its perfect explanation. So read, we can understand how God is true to the requirement of His own character, while yet it is grace all through that alone can be man’s sufficiency. This is the true end of this section of the psalm, although the verse that follows seems, and really is, so closely connected with it. But it is not, in its significance, a real sixth, as the remainder of the psalm is not, what in that case it would have to stand for, a second section. The sixth verse is in fact itself the second section; and has in that position much more to tell us than merely, what is so clearly evident, that those now described are those who are given to stand before Jehovah. 2. The parallelism of this verse does not seem at first sight a true one; and as a consequence, the margin of our common version has seemed to some at least practically right. “This is the generation of them that seek Him (Jehovah): of them that seek Thy face, O [God of] Jacob.” But so important a change would have to be supported by more authority than the two MSS. adduced for it, even though aided by the Septuagint and Peshito versions. It is too easy, too likely to be read in by one freely translating. On the other hand, “Jacob” can hardly be taken as the name of those who seek their God. Its place in the sentence is awkward to convey this meaning, as the name itself seems unsuited to the connection. Taken in the simplest way of reading it, the verse is also most intelligible, -indeed, perfectly clear. God dwells in Jacob -will do so in those coming days to which the psalm refers: those who seek His dwelling-place necessarily therefore seek the people among whom He dwells. And they are Jacob, -such as owe this distinguishing privilege, not to goodness in themselves, but to grace in Him; grace which invites the approach of those to whom in like manner grace can be the only plea. The consequence follows that not the tribes of Israel alone but Gentiles also are contemplated here; probably Israel in the first clause, “them that seek Him,” and Gentiles in the second, those who seek Jacob’s face. And this distinction gains support from the different words used for “seek” in these two clauses. The first, Barash, means, primarily, to “tread a place, i.e., to go or come to it, to frequent,” thus implying common, habitual recourse, as of those near to and acquainted with God. While the second, baqash, means rather “to seek that which is uncertain and doubtful, with desire of obtaining, and with care and attention.” Thus the words exactly suit the respective cases; and all this is again in accordance with the opening of the psalm, in which Jehovah claims, as we have seen, the whole earth as His. Thus the words of the Lord by Isaiah are fulfilled: “Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to Jehovah, to serve Him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be His servants . . . even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt-offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isaiah 56:6-7.) This second section shows us, therefore, the extension of the class of accepted worshipers beyond the nation of Israel, and that, as was said of Cornelius, in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him." (Acts 10:35.) 3. We are now made to see Jehovah Himself enter His temple, to rest at last, after the long strife is over, the glorious King, so long refused or ignored, now clothed with irresistible might. The gates are challenged that had been shut against Him, and bidden to lift up their heads to admit a more exalted Visitant than ever they had known before. The answering question comes, however, as if they who gave it were still unconscious of His majesty, “Who is this King of glory?” To which again it is replied, “Jehovah strong and mighty; Jehovah mighty in war.” No doubt, as Delitzsch puts it, the reference here may have been to the conquest of Zion by David in the power of God. But this, as we have seen elsewhere, has also its typical significance (see 2 Samuel 5:6, notes); and the psalm looks onward to the fulfillment of the type. The true David has come forth, the Christ in divine glory, and yet as the apocalyptic Rider on the white horse (Revelation 19:11), the Warrior-King.

He has shown Himself for the deliverance of His people and of the earth, “Jehovah mighty in war.” The hostile powers of the nations have been smitten down, and the victory is achieved which has made peace -a long peace -possible. He has scattered the people that delight in war. The Jebusites, the “treaders down,” are they that have been trodden down, and Zion is now to be His “fixed” abode. So the reiterated appeal is made: “Lift up your heads, ye gates; and lift them up, ye everlasting doors! and the King of glory shall come in.” But from the gates yet again the question comes: “Who is He, this King of glory?” As when of old, in the presence of the risen Lord, the disciples believed not for joy, and wondered," so here the wondrous truth is too great for sudden admittance; it is not easy for the gates to lift themselves so high. But it must be: His grace will take no denial with the magnificence of His universal title He will put down all resistance to His will. Listen, long desolate Zion! Listen, O earth, planet that past been indeed a “wanderer” among the stars, lost prodigal, darkened with the dust of thy servitude, and stranger to the heart of God: there is to be merriment and gladness over thee, restored prodigal, brought back into the brotherhood of stars that shine forever. Listen: “Jehovah of hosts! HE is the King of glory.”