Latest / Reformed Thinking / The King of Glory Enters In (Psalm 24) | Charles Spurgeon

Transcript

The King of Glory Enters In (Psalm 24) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Reformed thinking. Welcome back to the deep dive.
0:03
We have something really special planned for today, a proper deep
0:06
dive into one of the great Psalms.
0:08
We're focusing entirely on Psalm 24A.
0:11
Fantastic choice. And our guide for this is going
0:13
to be Charles Spurgeon. We're relying almost completely
0:16
on his commentary in the Treasury of David, which is.
0:19
Just an incredible resource. Yeah, Spurgeon has this way of
0:22
taking a text you think you know and just opening it up.
0:25
And he calls the Psalm the song of the ascension.
0:28
That's a great title for. It it is because he sees the
0:31
earthly event behind it as a pointer to something much, much
0:34
bigger. And that structure is really
0:36
helpful for getting a handle on it.
0:38
Spurgeon breaks it down into 3 clear movements, which is how
0:41
we'll approach it. Yes, he does.
0:43
First you get this huge foundational claim about God's
0:47
universal rule, his absolute sovereignty.
0:49
That's verses one and two. OK, Then the Psalm pivots and
0:53
asks, well, who can actually approach this God?
0:56
It defines the character of the faithful, a true Israel.
0:59
That takes us through verse 6. And that sets up the finale.
1:03
It does. The third part is this glorious
1:06
soaring climax that is the fulfillment of it all, the
1:09
ascent of the King of glory, Jesus Christ, who opens the way
1:13
for his people. So before we jump into verse
1:16
one, what's the context here? What was happening when David
1:19
wrote this? Well, the most likely occasion
1:21
is a moment of huge national celebration.
1:24
David is bringing the Ark of the Covenant up to Mount Zion.
1:27
From the House of Obadidum. Right, so you have this grand
1:31
procession, a physical climb up a hill, and a real sense of
1:34
spiritual elevation for the whole nation.
1:36
But David isn't just, you know, writing about moving a decorated
1:40
box up a hill. Not at all.
1:41
As a prophet, his eyes are looking way beyond that.
1:44
The Ark's journey is what we call a type.
1:46
It's a fine post pointing to the real, the ultimate ascension.
1:50
The ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven.
1:52
That's it. That prophetic layer is what
1:54
gives this Psalm so much weight for us.
1:56
It's really the story of the King's journey home.
1:59
All right, let's start where he starts, with this huge sweeping
2:01
claim in verse one. The girth is the Lord's, and the
2:05
fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.
2:08
It's just so absolute, isn't it? There's no preamble, it's a
2:12
declaration of total ownership. And Spurgeon immediately jumps
2:15
on the implications of this, especially for the audience in
2:18
Jesus Day. He does.
2:19
He sees this verse as a sharp rebuke to the kind of the narrow
2:25
thinking about God that had really taken hold among the Jews
2:28
by the 1st century. It seems hard to believe they
2:30
would have missed that point though.
2:31
I mean, they were singing this song.
2:33
How could they sing this and still be so exclusive?
2:36
That's a great question that gets to the heart of the issue.
2:38
They preserved the text, but they had completely narrowed its
2:42
application, so they knew the. Words.
2:44
They knew the words, but in their minds it meant the Holy
2:47
Land is gods and the descendants of Abraham are his only people.
2:51
Everything outside of that was, you know, secondary at best.
2:54
And Spurgeon is saying that David, centuries before, was
2:58
writing something that completely contradicts that.
3:00
He's claiming the whole world's for Jehovah.
3:02
The whole round world. He's making it clear that
3:04
Jehovah is not some local tribal deity.
3:07
He's the God of all creation. It really is amazing the human
3:11
ability to hold 2 contradictory ideas at once, to sing the world
3:16
and they that dwell therein and then have this intense bigotry
3:20
against gentiles. Well, look at the reaction Jesus
3:23
got. Spurgeon points this out.
3:25
Think of the fury when Jesus mentioned that Elijah wasn't
3:27
sent to a Jewish widow, but to the widow of Surrepta.
3:30
Inside him, a foreign land. Or that Elijah healed name in
3:34
the Syrian, not one of the many lepers in Israel.
3:37
The moment you suggest God's grace extends beyond their
3:40
borders, the outrage is immediate.
3:42
And you see the same thing with the Apostle Paul.
3:44
He can get a hearing right up until he says the word Gentile.
3:46
And then the riot starts. It's that deeply ingrained.
3:50
But Spurgeon uses that historical point to make a very
3:53
direct application for his day and for ours, which is that this
3:56
verse completely refutes any kind of human hierarchy or
4:00
exclusivism today. He asks who are you to dismiss
4:04
certain races as lesser? Who are you to treat another
4:07
human as? Just quote a piece of
4:09
merchandise? He's applying it directly to the
4:11
social sins of his own time. Oh absolutely.
4:14
He specifically mentions the Negro and other despised races,
4:18
saying if a man is a man, he belongs to the Lord.
4:21
End of story. It's a total theological
4:24
takedown of nationalism, of racism, of any idea that one
4:29
group is inherently better than another.
4:31
The only thing that sets anyone apart is the free gift of grace
4:34
in Christ. Apart from that, God's claim is
4:37
universal, which means our respect must be universal.
4:40
The poorest person, the most overlooked individual.
4:43
They are a dweller in the world. And therefore they belong to
4:45
Jehovah. We don't get to draw lines on
4:47
God's map. So let's dig into that phrase,
4:49
the fullness thereof. God owns the earth and its
4:52
fullness. What does that word carry beyond
4:55
just, you know, everything in it?
4:57
Spurgeon breaks it down into 4 dimensions, showing how the
4:59
world is just constantly full of God's presence and his
5:02
provision. OK, first he says, there's the
5:05
fullness of its harvests. The earth isn't just a dead
5:08
rock, it's constantly producing grain, fruit, all of the life
5:11
that sustains us. It's full of his blessing.
5:14
That makes sense. What's the second one?
5:15
The fullness of its wealth, and not just gold and silver.
5:18
Think of the coal in the ground, the timber in the forest, All
5:21
the raw materials. He made them and he put them
5:24
there. They're his right?
5:26
Third is the fullness of life. I mean, just the incredible
5:29
variety of living things, from humanity all the way down to the
5:32
smallest insect. The world is teeming with life
5:36
because he made it that way and he keeps it that way.
5:40
Day forth. The fullness of worship.
5:42
The whole creation is designed to give praise back to its
5:45
Creator. Even where people don't worship
5:48
Him, the heavens are still declaring His glory.
5:51
The world is just full of Him. So this all leads back to our
5:54
place in this world that he owns so completely.
5:57
What is our status? Well, according to David, we are
6:00
tenants and not even secure tenants where tenants at will.
6:04
A leaseholder on precarious tenure, I think Spurgeon calls.
6:07
It that's the phrase. We can be evicted at any moment.
6:10
We draw maps and create kingdoms and act like we own the place.
6:13
With our mimic kings and autocrats.
6:14
Yes, but our title deeds, Spurgeon says, are nothing more
6:18
than the title deeds of Worms of the Gust.
6:21
That's such a great line. It just completely deflates all
6:23
human pride and ambition about ownership, the legal documents,
6:26
the land grants, all of it. It's all temporary, the absolute
6:30
permanent title, what lawyers call the fee simple.
6:33
That belongs to God alone. We're here on His terms by His
6:38
permission. That really should change how we
6:40
think about stewardship, shouldn't it?
6:42
It has to. If you really believe that
6:44
nothing you own is actually yours, it changes everything.
6:48
So verse 2 then gives the legal basis for this claim.
6:51
It's the why, for he have founded it upon the seas and
6:55
established it upon the floods. It's just the title deed
6:58
creation is the first reason he owns it all.
7:01
And Spurgeon says there's a second reason, the second seal
7:03
on that deed. Yes, and this is so critical for
7:06
a reformed understanding. The second seal is Providence.
7:09
It's not just that he made the world, it's that he is
7:12
continuously upholding it. He's not the absent landlord.
7:16
Exactly. He's not the deist clock maker
7:18
who wound it all up and walked away.
7:19
His hand is on the foundations right now, this very second.
7:22
That gives him a present active claim, not just a historical
7:25
one. But the way David describes
7:27
those foundations is, well, it's startling.
7:30
Founded it upon the seas. Established it upon the floods.
7:34
That sounds like the opposite of stability.
7:35
It's a shocking image, isn't it? And it's meant to be.
7:38
It speaks to the hidden power of God.
7:40
The dry land exists only because God is constantly holding back
7:44
the waters. The seas would swallow it up
7:46
otherwise. In a heartbeat.
7:48
The very fact that we have dry land to stand on is a continuous
7:52
miracle of his preserving power. So if the world feels unstable
7:56
to us because of politics or economics.
7:58
David's reminding us that it's physically unstable, held in
8:01
place only by God's decree. Which leads right into the
8:04
spiritual application for us. If that's what the physical
8:07
world is like, what about the things of the world that we
8:09
trust in our. Castles of confidence.
8:11
Our financial plans, our careers, our reputation, our
8:15
earthly pleasures, David says. You're building all of that on
8:18
the sea. You're establishing it on the
8:19
floods. There's that common metaphor of
8:21
building on sand, but Spurgeon takes it a step further.
8:24
He does. He says sand is bad enough, but
8:27
at least sand stays put until the wind blows.
8:30
The sea is never still. It's always moving, always ready
8:34
to pull you under. So what are some of those modern
8:37
castles of confidence? The belief that our technology
8:42
will solve all our problems. The assumption that our
8:45
political systems are permanent. The idea that our health is
8:47
guaranteed or that our savings will last forever.
8:50
All built on the sea. According to Spurgeon, they will
8:53
all melt away like foam on the water.
8:55
They have no lasting substance. And that's where the contrast
8:58
gives comfort to the believer. Right, because our hope isn't
9:01
built on the sea. It's built on the Rock of Ages,
9:04
on the unchanging promise of a faithful God.
9:07
That's the real foundation. So we've established God's total
9:10
ownership and the shaky ground of this world.
9:12
Now the Psalm makes this crucial turn.
9:14
It does. It pivots from who God is to who
9:17
can possibly get near Him. Verse 3 asks the question, Who
9:20
shall ascend into the hell of the Lord, or who shall stand in
9:24
His holy place? And you can feel the weight of
9:26
that question. It's uphill work, as Spurgeon
9:29
says, for a creature to get to the creator.
9:32
It's not just about climbing a mountain.
9:34
It's a question of moral altitude.
9:36
Who can survive in the pure holiness of God's prisons?
9:39
And the immediate, unspoken answer is on our own, nobody,
9:44
none of us can stand there based on the law, Grace has to make a
9:48
way. So the people who can stand
9:50
there, the true courtiers in God's palace, they're not
9:53
defined by their family tree or their nationality.
9:55
No, not at all. They are defined by their
9:57
character, and that character is itself a product of grace.
10:01
This is the Bible's definition of the true Israel.
10:04
And verse 4 gives us 4 specific marks of that character.
10:08
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted
10:12
up his soul into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
10:14
We should probably unpack each of those.
10:16
We should. Let's start with the first one.
10:18
Clean hands. This sounds very practical.
10:20
It is. It's about outward conduct.
10:22
It's about practical holiness in your daily life, how you do
10:25
business, how you treat your neighbor.
10:26
And Spurgeon has a very sharp warning here, doesn't he?
10:29
For a particular kind of person. He does.
10:32
He's very concerned about people who use the doctrine of
10:34
justification by faith as an excuse to be sloppy or even
10:38
corrupt in their daily lives. The person who talks a lot about
10:42
their inward experience. But their hands are dirty, their
10:46
business dealings are shady, they're harsh, they're
10:48
dishonest, David says. Nope, you need practical purity.
10:52
I love his analogy here. He asks what earthly king would
10:55
let servants with filthy hands wait on him at his table.
10:58
It's a great image. If someone who is just
11:00
ceremonially unclean couldn't even enter the physical temple,
11:04
how can someone who is morally unclean think they can have
11:07
fellowship with the holy God? So if our hands are dirty, the
11:10
only solution is to wash them in the blood of Christ.
11:13
That's the only cleansing that works, but that's just the first
11:16
mark. Clean hands aren't enough on
11:18
their own. Right, because the next mark is
11:21
a pure heart. This takes it from the outside
11:23
to the inside. To the very center of who we
11:25
are. True religion for Spurgeon is
11:28
always hard work. You can Polish the outside all
11:30
you want, but if the inside, your motives, your desires are
11:33
still filthy, then you are filthy.
11:35
The heart is the engine. It's the engine.
11:37
It's where everything things starts.
11:39
Spurgeon has this great line. Dirt in the heart throws dust in
11:42
the eyes. Meaning you can't see God
11:45
clearly if your heart is impure. You can't see him at all.
11:48
The promise is that the pure in heart will see God.
11:51
If the intent is corrupt, the action, no matter how good it
11:54
looks, is corrupt too. OK, so that brings us to the
11:56
third mark. This one is about our desires,
11:59
what we aim for, avoiding vanity.
12:01
Who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity?
12:05
This is about being delivered from a delight in the the
12:08
groveling toys of Earth, as Spurgeon calls.
12:10
Them. What a phrase.
12:11
Isn't it the worldling? The person without God lifts up
12:15
their soul and chasing after empty things, fame, status,
12:19
pleasure, money, things that have no eternal substance.
12:22
The modern versions of that would be things like chasing
12:24
social media fame or being obsessed with status symbols.
12:28
All of it. All the temporary, perishable
12:30
things we can pour our lives into.
12:32
The Saint, by contrast, lifts his soul up to God.
12:35
He loves things that last. And Spurgeon's warning here is
12:38
pretty stark. It is, He basically says if the
12:41
empty things of this world truly satisfy you, then that's your
12:44
reward. That's all you're going to get.
12:46
It's a real call to self examination.
12:48
What do you truly delight in? And that leads to the 4th and
12:51
final mark. Truthfulness nor sworn
12:54
deceitfully. This is about integrity, Your
12:56
word, your promises. Spurgeon is absolute on this
13:00
lying, deceit, and especially perjury.
13:03
Calling on God to witness a lie are just totally incompatible
13:07
with having a relationship with the God of Truth.
13:10
He says God will have nothing to do with a person who practices
13:12
deceit except to condemn them. It's that serious.
13:16
The Christian's word has to be their bond.
13:18
There's no place for fraud or slander or convenient lies in
13:21
the community of those who seek God's face.
13:24
OK, so we have this incredibly high standard clean hands, pure
13:28
heart, a soul set on eternal things, and total truthfulness.
13:32
The obvious question is who can do this?
13:34
It seems impossible. It is impossible, and that's the
13:36
whole point. This isn't a checklist you can
13:38
work through to earn your way into God's presence.
13:40
This is where we have to get the theology right to avoid falling
13:43
into a crushing legalism. We do, and the answer is right
13:46
there in verse 5. These people, this true Israel,
13:49
they are not saved by these works.
13:52
These works are the evidence that they have already been
13:55
saved by Grace. The holy uniform worn by the
13:58
redeemed, not the price of admission.
14:01
A great way to put it, they ascend as receivers, not as
14:03
givers. Look at the language in verse 5.
14:06
He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness
14:09
from the God of his salvation. It's all received.
14:12
It's a gift. The blessing is received.
14:14
The righteousness is received. It's an alien righteousness, one
14:17
they didn't manufacture themselves.
14:19
God gives it to them freely. So even the holy life itself,
14:23
the clean hands and the pure heart, that's part of the gift.
14:26
Yes, that's the beauty of it. God gives us the new heart that
14:30
produces good works, and then He rewards us for the very works He
14:33
produced in US. It's all grace from start to
14:35
finish. Grace doesn't cancel out the
14:37
demand for holiness. Grace is what makes holiness
14:39
possible. Then verse 6 describes this
14:42
group of people. This is the generation of them
14:44
that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob.
14:47
They're called the regeneration. Not a generation defined by
14:51
bloodline, but by a spiritual reality.
14:54
They are seekers. And that very act of seeking God
14:57
is itself purifying. It has to be.
15:00
If you really want to see the face of a friend you love,
15:03
you'll wipe the dust off the window.
15:05
If you really want to see God's face, you will want to get rid
15:08
of the sin that collides your vision.
15:10
The desire itself is evidence of a new nature at work.
15:14
They form a generation of their own, separate from the rest of
15:17
land kind. Despised by the world maybe, but
15:20
known and loved by God. What about that last phrase?
15:23
Oh, Jacob, that seems a bit strange after making the point
15:25
that it's not about ethnicity. Commentators have a few thoughts
15:28
on that. One is that God identifies so
15:31
closely with his people that he takes their name.
15:33
He's the God of Jacob. OK, but the view Spurgeon
15:36
prefers is that the seekers themselves are spiritually
15:39
called Jacob. They are the true Israelites,
15:42
like Jacob. Wrestling with the Angel at
15:43
Peniel. Exactly.
15:44
They are the ones who strive with God, who see his face, and
15:47
you come away with a blessing that received righteousness we
15:50
just talked about. They are the true heirs.
15:52
It's another rebuke to those who are just relying on their
15:55
physical heritage. It is.
15:57
It's a reminder that God is God of the whole earth, and he only
16:00
admits holy people into his presence.
16:02
And then you get that word sela. Pause and think about.
16:06
That pause and get ready because the music is about to change.
16:09
A much grander theme is coming and.
16:11
This is where the Psalm just explodes into its climax.
16:15
It shifts from the standard no one can meet to the one person
16:19
who did. To Jesus Christ, He is the one
16:21
with perfectly clean hands and a perfectly pure heart.
16:25
He never lifted his soul to vanity.
16:27
He never spoke a deceitful word so.
16:30
He ascends to the holy hill, not by special permission, but by
16:33
his own right. By his own merit, and this is
16:35
the core of the gospel for us, he didn't just go for himself,
16:39
he went as our forerunner, as our representative.
16:41
He opens the way for us to follow.
16:43
By faith in Him, His perfection covers our imperfection and the
16:47
Spirit begins to change us into His image, making us fit to
16:50
follow where He's gone. He is the answer to the question
16:52
from verse 3. And the rest of the Psalm is
16:55
this incredible dramatic anthem describing his ascension.
16:59
It's like a script for a play. It really is.
17:01
You can picture the scene, Christ rising from the Mount of
17:04
Olives, his work on earth finished, now being escorted by
17:07
legions of angels up to the very gates of heaven.
17:11
And in verse 7, those gates are addressed directly.
17:15
If your heads O ye gates and be lift up ye everlasting doors,
17:19
and the King of glory shall come in.
17:21
The gates of heaven itself are being told to get bigger, as if
17:25
their eternal grandeur is somehow not enough for the king
17:28
who is about to enter. The angels are telling them to
17:31
show some unusual loftiness for this Prince.
17:34
A Prince who is fresh from conquering sin, death and the
17:37
grave. Even the gates of Pearl have to
17:39
stretch themselves to honor him. This leads to the challenge.
17:41
From inside the gates, a voice calls out.
17:44
Who is this king of glory? And that's not a question of
17:47
ignorance, right? The angels inside know who he
17:49
is. It's a rhetorical question, a
17:51
prompt for the universe to declare his identity and
17:54
celebrate his victory. It's an invitation to meditate
17:57
on who this person is. And the answer comes back from
18:00
the angelic escort in a wave of triumphant sound.
18:04
The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle.
18:08
This tells us why he has the right to enter His glory is
18:11
proven by the battles he has just won.
18:13
And these weren't just earthly battles.
18:15
No, these were the ultimate battles.
18:16
He defeated the power of sin. He broke the chains of death.
18:20
He triumphed over hell and Satan.
18:23
He returns as a conquering hero. A champion returning from single
18:27
combat against the forces of darkness.
18:29
His strength is proven on the cross and in the empty tomb.
18:32
And the anthem continues in verse 9.
18:34
The call is repeated, but with more intensity.
18:37
Lift up your heads, OU gates. Even lift them up you
18:40
everlasting doors. Spurgeon makes a great point
18:42
about that repetition. He says it's not just for
18:44
filler. In moments of high emotion,
18:46
repetition adds force. It adds weight.
18:49
It absolutely does. The Heralds are demanding
18:51
attention a second time because this moment is so massive.
18:54
And the image of lifting up the gates, that had a real world
18:56
parallel, right? It did in the Ancient East for a
19:00
really great King's return. They might pull the whole gate
19:03
up like a portcullis, or even take the doors right off the
19:06
hinges as a sign of total wide open welcome.
19:09
Which illustrates just how wide open Christ has made the way
19:12
into heaven for us. And Spurgeon adds that since he
19:16
entered, those gates have never been shut.
19:18
They remain open for even the weakest believer to follow him
19:22
through. So the challenge comes again in
19:24
verse 10. Who is this king of glory?
19:27
And this time the answer is even grander.
19:29
It's the final, ultimate title. The Lord of hosts.
19:33
He is the King of glory. The Lord of hosts.
19:36
That's Jehovah's sea bath. What exactly does that name
19:38
convey? It means Jehovah of armies, but
19:41
it's more than just angels. It means God is in command of
19:44
all the forces in the universe, physical, spiritual, everything,
19:48
all marshalled in perfect order to do His will.
19:50
So when they call the ascending Jesus the Lord of hosts, they're
19:54
not just calling him a victor. They're calling him the Supreme
19:57
Commander in Chief of all reality.
19:58
The head and crown of the entire universe.
20:01
That's it. So the Universal Owner from Part
20:03
One, who is also the perfectly holy man from Part 2, now
20:06
ascends as the conquering cosmic Commander in Part 3, opening the
20:11
way for his people. The whole Psalm comes together
20:14
in him. That's an amazing summary of the
20:16
whole thing. We've seen God's universal
20:18
sovereignty, the almost impossibly high standard of
20:21
holiness he requires. And then the triumphant work of
20:24
Christ, who meets that standard for us and opens those
20:27
everlasting doors. Without his ascension, the doors
20:31
are locked to us forever. So for anyone listening who
20:34
hears that middle section about clean hands and a pure heart and
20:38
just feels crushed by it. Which is an appropriate first
20:41
reaction. Right.
20:42
What's the remedy? Where do you go from there?
20:43
Spurgeon is always clear on this.
20:45
The remedy is to look away from yourself and look to the King of
20:48
glory. Look to Christ.
20:50
That's the first step. It's the only step that matters.
20:52
Faith in Him is the work of the Spirit that creates the new
20:55
heart you need. It's when you wash in the
20:58
fountain of His blood that the clean hands and pure heart begin
21:01
to become your reality. They are the fruits of trusting
21:04
Him, not the 'cause. As we wrap up, there's a really
21:08
interesting thought from a commentator named John Keeble
21:10
that Spurgeon mentions. It's about the repetition of the
21:14
call to the gates. Yes, the idea that it might
21:17
point to two different ascensions of Christ.
21:20
Tell us about that. What's the first ascension?
21:22
The first is the one we've been talking about.
21:23
Right after his resurrection, he ascends as the Lord, mighty in
21:27
battle. He's the lone champion, the
21:30
victor in single combat, going to the Father's right hand to
21:33
intercede for us. OK, So what would the second
21:36
ascension be? That would be after the final
21:39
judgement. He won't ascend alone then.
21:41
He will ascend as the Lord of Hosts, the general leading his
21:46
entire redeemed army with him. The whole generation of them
21:49
that seek him. Every last one of them, with
21:51
clean hands and pure hearts given to them by him, entering
21:55
that heavenly city behind their king.
21:57
What a picture the lone victor returning to plead for his
22:01
people, contrasted with the great general returning with his
22:05
infinite army. It's a truly majestic thought to
22:07
end on, to reflect on the final, ultimate triumph of the King of
22:11
Glory. Thank you for joining us for
22:12
this deep dive into Psalm 24. Until next time.