Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Psalm 24
Dancing on the Way to Jerusalem
The globe is God’s and everything it is full of,
all of the earth and all that the earth sustains;
He made it like a ball and set it spinning,
Gave it its place among the scheme of stars.
Priest:
Who dare visit the Lord on his holy mountain? Who dare walk up to his door?
The Answer from the Congregation
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart
and does not long for what is false or lie when he is under oath.
The one with an undissimulating heart,
Who has not sacrificed honesty to importance.
This person will receive a blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from God, his savior.
Such is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Congregation’s Shout
Stand up, you gates, stand tall,
Swing open wide to let the King of glory come in.
Gatekeeper:
Who is this King of glory?
The Answer from the People and Another Shout
It is the Lord, it is the Almighty,
who comes victorious from all his battles.
Stand up, you gates, stand tall,
Swing as wide as you can to let the King of glory come in.
Gatekeeper:
Who is this King of glory?
The Answer from the People
It is the Lord, it is the Conqueror
Who comes victorious with all his armies.
This version of Psalm 24 is compiled from the following versions: New Revised Standard Version, God’s Word to the Nations, and Gordon Jackson’s The Lincoln Psalter (1997). Compilation, alterations, and titles by Pastor Ben Squires. For more information, see endnotes.
(play a clip of Guem’s “Secret” from Rose des Sables)
(fade music) I wanted you to hear that beat, a song by the Algerian-French musician named Guem, because there’s a beat to Psalm 24, the psalm you have printed in your bulletins tonight. Psalm 24 is a psalm of dancing, the dance song of King David as he danced on his way to Jerusalem. I want you to imagine the scene as David, the Old Testament king, led a train of people towards Jerusalem. They had conquered the city and were making it the royal city, but now they were bringing the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred chest that carried the tablets with the Ten Commandments on them and the Law of God, they were bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, asking God to be among them in the city.
(music up) It’s a cause for celebration, and so David dances and the people are singing, praising God with the beginning words of Psalm 24 that you have printed for you:
The globe is God’s and everything it is full of,
all of the earth and all that the earth sustains;
He made it like a ball and set it spinning,
Gave it its place among the scheme of stars.
The people are celebrating that God is the Creator of all things, that He is Lord over all things. (music down) Just in case you’re wondering, I’m using a translation there that helps put the psalm into modern terms. The original didn’t understand the world to be a globe, obviously, but that’s the way we celebrate the Lord—He is the One who set the world spinning on its axis, and He’s the One who still watches over this world.
(music up) So this is an incredible day of celebration, singing and dancing on their way to Jerusalem. But on the way, the priest stops the group and asks (music stop): “Who dare visit the Lord on his holy mountain? Who dare walk up to his door?” Those are the next words of Psalm 24, the voice of the priest. In other words, he is asking, “Are you really prepared to go up and enter God’s sanctuary? Are you truly ready to go before God’s holiness?”
The people answer in the next verses:
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart
and does not long for what is false or lie when he is under oath.
The one with an undissimulating heart,
(a heart that doesn’t hide it’s true feelings)
Who has not sacrificed honesty to importance.
This person will receive a blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from God, his savior.
Such is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
With that kind of answer, perhaps it sounds like the people are confident in their own worthiness to go before the Lord. It kind of sounds like they think they’ve gotten clean and pure by themselves, that they don’t sin, and so they can go up to meet with the Lord.
Yet, the people understand that their relationship with God is based on grace, a gift from Him; it’s not based on what they do. The language they’re using about being clean and pure and true, receiving a blessing and righteousness from the Lord, that’s the language of the sacrifices and rituals that the Lord had established to cleanse the people from their sins. The people aren’t saying they’re able to go up to meet with the Lord because of their own actions; they’re saying that going up to see the Lord can only happen through the sacrifices, through the gift of God’s mercy and forgiveness.
To really understand this, I want you to look at the picture of Guem in your bulletins. It’s the picture on his CD, and it makes a fine reminder that God supplies our righteousness, makes us holy so that we can approach Him. The picture of Guem’s hands makes me think of Christ’s hands. Guem’s hands supply the beat for the dance. The hands of Christ supplied our salvation when they were nailed to cross. So David dances on his way to Jerusalem, but all of his worship is based on things supplied from God. God supplies the victory, power, glory, and honor, all of the blessings. The people dance and sing and celebrate, but the entrance of the people into God’s presence is based on God’s actions. God supplies their holiness and purity of heart through the sacrifices.
We dance before the Lord based on what Christ has done for us. We dance—maybe only figuratively—we dance before the Lord, but Christ supplies the beat. We celebrate that we come before the Lord this evening, but it is Christ who supplies the salvation and forgiveness making it possible for us to approach God with confidence.
So look at those words of Psalm 24 again and realize that they are about you because of Christ:
You have clean hands and a pure heart—because of Christ
You do not long for what is false or lie when you are under oath
—because of Christ working in you.
You will receive a blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from God, your savior.
You may dance before the Lord, because Christ is supplying the beat. We approach the Lord based on what He has done. Advent is about dancing before the Lord, celebrating the beat that Christ give us. So, then, the dance continues. . .with Christ supplying the beat. (music up)
(music low underneath) After answering the priest, after showing that they understood they could only approach the Lord because of what the Lord did to give them forgiveness, the group continues singing and dancing on their way to Jerusalem. They approached the wall of Jerusalem and the gates of the city. With singing and dancing, the group shouts those next verses of Psalm 24,
Stand up, you gates, stand tall,
Swing open wide to let the King of glory come in.
The Gatekeeper asks the group: (music stops) Who is this King of glory?
The gatekeeper’s job is to keep the gate closed unless the people were Israelites or friends. This group approaching—well, you couldn’t easily identify King David among them, because David wasn’t wearing his royal robes. Instead he dressed humbly, plainly, wearing a linen robe more like a priest. So the gatekeeper doesn’t automatically open the gates for them.
Plus, this group was dancing and singing praises to the “King of glory.” The gatekeeper might have been thinking, “No other king should enter except David, and I don’t see him,” or maybe this was simply part of the liturgy, the ritual, the celebration, checking to see what the people would say. Were they dancing and singing, celebrating David as the King of glory? In that case, they would be forgetting that it was God who supplied the beat for the dance. The gatekeeper’s question seems to be double-checking: who is your King of glory—David or God?
The people’s answer in the next verse shows that they remember who supplies the beat. They said,
It is the Lord, it is the Almighty,
who comes victorious from all his battles.
And with that, the people shout again to the gatekeeper:
Stand up, you gates, stand tall,
Swing as wide as you can to let the King of glory come in.
And the gatekeeper checks one more time. . .
Gatekeeper: Who is this King of glory?
And again, the people show that they remember who supplies the beat for the dance:
It is the Lord, it is the Conqueror
Who comes victorious with all his armies.
So the gates open wide to allow the group to bring in the Ark of the Covenant. The King of glory comes to dwell in Jerusalem. The Lord comes to live with His people there in the royal city. The people have access to the Lord, because of what God did for them through the sacrifices, through the rituals, through His forgiveness, love, and mercy. God was in the city and supplying the beat, so that people could dance the dance of salvation.
The Lord is the victorious king, He is the true leader of the people. He is the one supplying the beat. The dancing and singing continue all the way inside Jerusalem, but it is because God is victorious and strong and glorious. It is the Lord’s power that is celebrated.
It is the same with Christ. Christ doesn’t live among us because we did something. Christ comes into our world at Christmas, and there it is God who supplies the beat, who supplies the way for His Son to come and rescue us from sin. Christ is the victorious one who defeated death and rose again. Christ is the King who brings salvation It’s the hands of Christ, His hands nailed to the cross, that supply the beat to this dance of celebration.
So as you’re “Rockin' around the Christmas tree,” remember that you’re not the one doing the rocking, you’re not the one on the guitar, you’re not the one on the drums. You’re not supplying the beat for this Christmas celebration. You didn’t get yourself clean and pure and holy and true; you didn’t go out and find your own salvation. You didn’t end up on Santa’s good list by your own actions.
No, if you’re “Rockin’ around the Christmas tree,” it’s because Christ is supplying the beat. Christ is the one-man band playing guitar, drums, bass. Christ is laying down the music for this celebration through the forgiveness He brings. Christ laid down His life to make you clean and pure and holy and true; He came down and found a way to bring us salvation.
I want you to pay careful attention as we sing the next hymn, “Lift Up Your Heads, You Everlasting Doors.” It’s Psalm 24 set to music by Stephen Starke, written for the Lutheran Service Book. The hymn puts the words of Psalm 24 into our mouths: “Lift up your heads, you everlasting doors. . .to greet your coming king/Lift up your heads, you everlasting doors, Your King awaits!” It’s another way of translating what we have in our bulletins, “Stand up, you gates, stand tall, Swing as wide as you can to let the King of glory come in.”
Yet, the rest of the hymn shows us that the gates don’t open by our power or works or because we’re so wonderful. The gates open because Jesus is the King of glory, the Messiah who came to save us, the One who is worthy, because He came into the world to save us from our sins.
This hymn won’t have the same beat as Guem’s drumming, but Christ is still supplying the beat, the rhythm, the reason for singing. With this hymn, we are singing to the Lord, we are dancing—at least, figuratively—celebrating what Christ has done, but Christ supplies the beat. He is the One who forgives us, loves us, shows us His mercy and grace. Please stand to sing and dance before the Lord.
Exegesis of a Translation: Psalm 24
Compilation, alterations, and headers by Pastor Ben Squires. This version of Psalm 24 is compiled and/or inspired by the following versions: New Revised Standard Version (nrsv), God’s Word to the Nations (gwtn), and Gordon Jackson’s The Lincoln Psalter (1997) (gj). Abbreviations below show which version(s) are represented or provided inspiration for that line (alt.=altered).
The globe is God’s and everything it is full of,
all of the earth and all that the earth sustains;
He made it like a ball and set it spinning,
Gave it its place among the scheme of stars. (gj)
Who dare visit the Lord on his holy mountain?
Who dare walk up to his door? (gj)
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart
and does not long for what is false or lie when he is under oath. (gwt)
The one with an undissimulating heart,
Who has not sacrificed honesty to importance. (gj, alt.)
This person will receive a blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from God, his savior. (gwt)
Such is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob. (nrsv)
Stand up, you gates, stand tall,
Swing open wide to let the King of glory come in. (gj)
Who is this King of glory? (gwt)
It is the Lord, it is the Almighty,
who comes victorious from all his battles. (gj)
Stand up, you gates, stand tall,
Swing as wide as you can to let the King of glory come in. (gj)
Who is this King of glory? (gwt)
It is the Lord, it is the Conqueror
Who comes victorious with all his armies. (gj, alt.)
This arrangement © 2006 Benjamin C. Squires.