Psalm 24: Who May Ascend to the Hill of the Lord?

Introduction

"Who may ascend to Yahweh's hill? Who may stand in his holy place?" With this message, Pastor Santana of the Igreja Evangélica Baptista da Parede in Portugal continues a series that leads the church to the summits of the mountains of the Bible. This time he stops at Psalm 24, a psalm of David sung in worship at the temple.

The mountain of Yahweh has a name: Zion. The pastor traces its history, then asks the psalm's question: who can enter God's presence? His answer is direct: "clean hands and a pure heart." He names three risks that threaten worship and ends with good news: the way to Mount Zion is open in Jesus.

Message Outline

1. Zion, from Fortress to the Presence of God

Zion is the name of the fortified hill that King David took from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5:6-8). This fortress became the stronghold of Jerusalem: to speak of Zion and to speak of Jerusalem is often to speak of the same place.
The place was known long before, about two thousand years before Jesus. When Abraham walked toward the promised land, he met Melchizedek, king and priest of Salem. Salem is Jerusalem: "His tent is also in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion" (Psalm 76:2).
David brought the ark of the covenant there and set it under a tent (2 Samuel 6). Solomon built the temple there. Now it was no longer only the house of David but the house of God, and Jerusalem became the holy city.
Zion stopped being a mere fortification. The word took on a deep spiritual meaning: to go up to Zion is to enter God's presence, his holy place.

2. Going Up to Zion Today

While Jerusalem was held to be the holy city, the moral and spiritual life of the people was decaying, to the point that the Lord said: "this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but have removed their heart far from me" (Isaiah 29:13), a word Jesus took up again (Matthew 15:8).
In Jesus' day, the Jews still thought they had to worship on Mount Zion. The Samaritan woman raises it with Jesus: you say Jerusalem, we say this mountain, Mount Gerizim. Jesus answers that the hour is coming when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth (John 4:20-24).
"We don't need to go to Jerusalem to go up to Mount Zion." Every time you enter God's presence in prayer, every time the church gathers to worship, every time you serve the Lord, you are going up to Zion.
There are no more sacrifices to offer, because Jesus has already offered his own. Entering God's presence now means serving the Lord.

3. Who Can Enter God's Presence?

The question of Psalm 24:3 is found again in Psalm 15:1: "Yahweh, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? Who shall live on your holy hill?" The question implies a statement: not everyone has access to the Lord's presence.
The psalm begins like this: "The earth is Yahweh's, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell in it." Everything belongs to the Lord. "You belong to the Lord. Even if you don't believe in him, you are his."
To enter his presence is to stand before the sovereign God, the King of glory, "Yahweh strong and mighty, Yahweh mighty in battle" (Psalm 24:8).
The condition is set in verse 4: "He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully." In other words, holiness.

4. Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

Clean hands concern actions: your family life, your work life, your social life. A pure heart concerns intentions, thoughts and feelings: being genuine in your relationship with God and with others.
"We cannot enter God's presence for one hour on Sunday at church and then walk outside his presence during the week." Nor can we come to pray because we need something, when a few moments earlier our conversations, our actions and our thoughts offended God.
Not lifting up your soul to vanity means not clinging to what passes away. The pastor smiles about it: he used to spend a lot of time combing his hair, which fell to his shoulders; today he doesn't spend a second on it. It's gone. The skin we have stretched tight will eventually sag too.
Vanity is everything we try to grab hold of to find security, joy and satisfaction, and cannot keep: money, pleasures. Solomon wrote it in Ecclesiastes: he tried everything and it was all vanity, because everything vanished.
Not swearing deceitfully means not being a liar, not saying "it's true, it's true" when it isn't.

5. Integrity, Even in Your Words

Psalm 15 says the same thing: the one who walks with integrity, who does what is right, who speaks truth in his heart, who does not slander, who does no evil to his neighbor, who does not lend money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. "He who does these things shall never be shaken."
Holiness means integrity: in the heart, in speech, in relationships, in spiritual life, in the use of money.
The Bible is full of exhortations about the tongue. How can fresh water and bitter water flow from the same spring? How can praise and cursing come out of the same mouth (James 3:10-11)?
It was over his lips that Isaiah felt like a sinner when he saw the glory of God: "Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips" (Isaiah 6:5).
The pastor makes an aside, apologizing to his Brazilian brothers and sisters: he has seen, and it saddened him, Christians and even pastors insulting a political candidate they did not like. You can disagree, and voting is a Christian's duty, but insulting is not. "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44).
"The saddest thing is to see someone post on social media: 'God is my rock, my fortress,' and then right away: 'So-and-so is a demon.'" And this is not only a Brazilian problem: it concerns all of us. Many pastors turn social media into a pulpit, and from that same pulpit they speak ill of others. That does not honor God's name.
"God does not reject the sinner, but he sets conditions for being in relationship with sinners." The condition is clean hands and a pure heart. Otherwise, says the pastor, prayer does not get past the ceiling.

6. Three Risks in Worship

The pastor draws on a book about worship by Pastor Manuel Alexandre Júnior, a former seminary professor and former lecturer at the University of Lisbon, who points out three risks in it.
Spiritual insensitivity. You come, you take part, but you feel nothing and nothing changes. You leave saying, "I really liked the service today," without anything having moved in your life or your heart. Malachi describes a people who answer each of God's reproaches with "How?" (Malachi 1:2, 1:6-7, 3:7-8). Many believers, confronted with a mistake, answer: "But where is the harm?" That is because the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and we resist. Hence Paul's call: "Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2).
The pastor admits that he sometimes sees videos where he can no longer tell whether he is at a concert, a dance hall or a church service. We must enter the Lord's presence with reverence. Isaiah 1:11-17 shows how God sees worship without heart: "When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean."
Hypocrisy. Going to church, singing, applauding, raising hands, praying, taking communion, giving, but with no substance. We judge a service by the music, the air conditioning, the preacher who makes us laugh and cry. We value appearance and despise substance. Manuel Alexandre Júnior speaks of "Sunday clothes": in the past people put on their finest clothes, as the pastor saw in Angola, and that is a good thing. But those clothes can hide a dirty heart, spirit and mouth. Liturgy and ritual do not replace spirituality.
Abandonment and rejection. In Ezekiel 8 to 10, the glory of God, present in the temple, moves away from the sanctuary, then from the temple, then from the entrance, until it leaves the city. We do not always see the risk that God may move away. Our sins make a separation between us and him (Isaiah 59:2).
"Pastor Santana, is everything really that serious? Is the pastor angry today?" No, he answers, he is very joyful. He simply wants worship to be true and sincere, and not limited to the time spent at church. The desire is to live permanently on Mount Zion, in the Lord's presence.

7. The Way Opened by Jesus

The most holy place of the temple represented God's presence. No one could enter or even look inside: a veil closed it off. When Jesus said "It is finished" and gave up his spirit, that veil was torn from top to bottom (John 19:30, Matthew 27:51). Access to God, the climb to Zion, comes through Jesus, who sacrificed himself in our place.
"The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Believing in Jesus is not only believing that he died: it is giving him your life, repenting of your sins. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
We cannot enter God's presence, because he is holy and we are sinners. But this holy, sovereign and glorious God is also a God of love and grace: he gave his Son so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me" (John 14:6). That is why we pray in the name of Jesus: he is the one who opened the way. "Repent, and believe in the Good News" (Mark 1:15).
Repentance can be said simply: "Lord, I have not walked well. The way I speak did not honor you, my thoughts did not glorify you, my actions did not honor your name. I confess my sin, forgive me." Then you have a pure heart and clean hands, and you enter the Lord's presence.
"Did you purify yourself? No. You simply asked the Lord, like David in Psalm 51: wash me, and I will be clean." It is he who forgives and who purifies. In him we place our trust.

Key Takeaways

Going up to Mount Zion means entering God's presence: in prayer, in worship, in service.
Psalm 24 sets one condition: clean hands and a pure heart, that is, an integrity that touches your actions, your thoughts, your words and your money.
Your words, including on social media, show whether your worship is true: praise and cursing cannot come out of the same mouth.
Worship is threatened by spiritual insensitivity, by hypocrisy and, in the end, by distance from God's presence.
The way to God is open in Jesus: whoever confesses their sin is forgiven and cleansed by his blood.

Personal Application

Does the way you live during the week, at home and at work, resemble the one you show on Sunday?
What "vanity" are you clinging to in order to find security or satisfaction?
What have you said or posted in recent days that did not honor God's name?
When the Holy Spirit corrects you, do you tend to answer, "But where is the harm?"
What sin do you need to confess today in order to ask the Lord, like David, "wash me"?

Verses Quoted

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Mount Zion in the Bible?

Zion is the fortress that David took from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5:6-8), which became the city of David and then the site of Solomon's temple. The place was already known in Abraham's time as Salem, the city of Melchizedek. For God's people, going up to Zion meant entering God's presence.

What does it mean to have "clean hands and a pure heart"?

Clean hands concern actions: family, work and social life. A pure heart concerns intentions, thoughts and feelings. Pastor Santana sees in this a demand for complete integrity: you cannot be in God's presence for one hour on Sunday and live far from him the rest of the week.

How can you enter God's presence today?

Through Jesus. When he died on the cross, the temple veil was torn from top to bottom: access to God is open. Whoever confesses their sin with a sincere heart is forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7-9). You do not purify yourself: like David, you ask the Lord to wash you.