The
earth is the LORD’S and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in
it; for he has founded it on the seas, and
established it on the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And
who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who
do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. They will receive blessing from
the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation. Such is the company of those who
seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah
Lift
up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of
glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the
LORD, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that
the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he
is the King of glory. Selah
Psalms 24:1 - 10 (NRSVA)
In every
person’s spiritual makeup there are certain ideas about God which we hold as
truth-unchallengeable – that which we believe about God; things not up for
discussion. Psalm 24 ought to be that.
There is a rich truth contained in this Psalm about who we
are, and that for which you have been created:
we are not our own; we must live in a way
that pleases God and not ourselves. We must live with clean hands.
This is a reality Christian people must face every day. Our salvation, purchased on the cross,
demands we give our attention to living with clean hands. One reason Jesus gave us this table is so we
will remember that.
What does it mean to have “clean hands and a pure
heart”?
What’s more, you will probably always have Grandma or Grandpa
standing nearby. We supervise!
We supervise because little hands are not yet adept at
getting all the sticky stuff off a little round face and chubby hands.
If coming to the Lord with our prayers were about freshly
washed hands, scrubbed with Dial or even old-time Lye soap, it would be a
simple thing. But, like my Grandkids, we
need some help.
Clean hands
and a pure heart have to do with confessing the mud with which we live. In 1969 I completed my tour of duty with
Uncle Sam. Elizabeth and I packed up the
car and left Fort Knox in the rear view mirror.
When we got back home we rented our first apartment…3 whole rooms; very
clean rooms!
One evening we invited my cousin, Rick to our apartment for
supper. Rick was unmarried and therefore
not adequately trained for polite company.
Rick showed up wearing his old Army combat boots. Sixteen layers of mud covered those boots
from top to bottom.
When Elizabeth answered the door, all she could see were
those muddy combat boots. “Take ‘em
off,” was all she said. “You’re
kidding,” he replied. The look in her
eye convinced Rick – the shoes stayed out in the hall. I took a picture for posterity.
In some ways we have that same problem – we come to the Lord
with all this mud (called sin), and we aren’t even aware. He says, “Take it off”. And we say, “Huh?” And the Lord says, “I don’t want anything
coming into my presence with all that sin covering it!” At that moment in worship our hearts are
broken, and we are undone. We know
how muddy we are inside, and it makes us shrink back from God.
The Necessary Table
It is necessary, this table; it helps us keep our mud in
perspective. The cross is lifted high
above the muddy ground. When we kneel
there, he lifts us up. And then, like a
loving Mom or Dad will carry Junior to the sink, God washes us off.
There are those today who look down on the idea of Jesus being
necessary. We are educated enough,
sophisticated enough. We have medicine,
science, philosophy and government programs.
We can solve anything. We can
clean ourselves, thank you!
The problem with that is we don’t really know anything. The earth and its fullness – meaning the
entire universe – is the Lord’s. It
includes all who dwell on the earth too.
That means HE decides how things work; HE decides when your life and
mine is clean!
So often we begin to decide things for our own lives, leaving
the Lord out of our plans. A man came to
the church I was serving. He needed help
on Christmas Eve. After giving him some
food I asked him where he goes to church.
He never goes. I told him he was
welcome here. He said, “I know I need
God; He’s the only one who will never turn His back on you.”
That man was right, God never turns HIS
back; but the man just didn’t acknowledge that WE can turn our backs on God. The table reminds us!
Several years ago one Thursday the news of the week was all
about the death of Michael Jackson. One
reporter spoke about the dichotomy that was his life – so talented, high
energy, and Jackson’s connection with the world’s audience.
On the other hand there was the shadow of his life – the
“mud” – drugs, questions about his relationships with children, and his
financial irresponsibility, leaving over $400 million in debt. He was the man who lived in Neverland.
The reporter called him an “exceptional talent, a performer
without peer”. Then she said, “but as a
human being he was an abysmal failure.”[1]
That’s not really accurate.
As a human being Michael Jackson was just transparent enough to show us
that each of us is exactly that – performer on the outside and shadows of mud
inside. If you do not believe this is so,
you do not believe what Christianity teaches.
That’s why this table is necessary. It reminds us we have all turned our backs on
Him with our sin. If that were not true
the cross would’ve been unnecessary.
Jesus would have died in vain.
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But this table
calls us to remember Him, and repent of our muddy sins; so do that - and in so
doing, Jesus will give us clean hands, and a pure heart! Isn’t that something? He requires clean hands – and He does the
scrubbing!
So, come; ascend and stand in the holy place. The invitation is to all – be cleaned and
dine!
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