PSALM 24

Ps 24:1-10. God's supreme sovereignty requires a befitting holiness of life and heart in His worshippers; a sentiment sublimely illustrated by describing His entrance into the sanctuary, by the symbol of His worship-the ark, as requiring the most profound homage to the glory of His Majesty.

1. fulness-everything.

world-the habitable globe, with

they that dwell-forming a parallel expression to the first clause.

2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

2. Poetically represents the facts of Ge 1:9.

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

3, 4. The form of a question gives vivacity. Hands, tongue, and heart are organs of action, speech, and feeling, which compose character.

hill of the Lord-(compare Ps 2:6, &c.). His Church-the true or invisible, as typified by the earthly sanctuary.

4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

4. lifted up his soul-is to set the affections (Ps 25:1) on an object; here,

vanity-or, any false thing, of which swearing falsely, or to falsehood, is a specification.

5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

5. righteousness-the rewards which God bestows on His people, or the grace to secure those rewards as well as the result.

6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

6. Jacob-By "Jacob," we may understand God's people (compare Isa 43:22; 44:2, &c.), corresponding to "the generation," as if he had said, "those who seek Thy face are Thy chosen people."

7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

7-10. The entrance of the ark, with the attending procession, into the holy sanctuary is pictured to us. The repetition of the terms gives emphasis.

8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

10. Lord of hosts-or fully, Lord God of hosts (Ho 12:5; Am 4:13), describes God by a title indicative of supremacy over all creatures, and especially the heavenly armies (Jos 5:14; 1Ki 22:19). Whether, as some think, the actual enlargement of the ancient gates of Jerusalem be the basis of the figure, the effect of the whole is to impress us with a conception of the matchless majesty of God.