Psalms For Life
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Psalm 24

Psalm 24

Serving the All-glorious King

We naturally turn to God for help when nothing else works. David starts with God instead since he owns us and our world and has told us how to live.

A David psalm.

1 The earth and everything in it
belongs to YHWH
the world and all who live in it.
2 Because he was the one
who brought up dry land
out of surging seas
laying its foundations in ocean streams.

3 Who can ascend YHWH’s hill?
Who can stand in his holy place?
4 Those with clean hands and pure hearts
who don’t use God’s name to their own advantage
or take oaths to deceive.
5 They’ll receive YHWH’s blessing
and be vindicated by the God who rescues them.
6 That’s what the people who seek him are like
who seek the face of Jacob’s God.  Selah

7 Lift up your heads, you gateway!
Stand tall and straight
you ancient doors
so the King of Glory can come in!
8 Who is this King of Glory?
YHWH, strong and mighty!
YHWH, unyielding in battle!
9 Lift up your heads, you gateway!
Stand tall and straight
you ancient doors
so the King of Glory can come in!
10 Who is this King of Glory?
YHWH, Commander of Heaven’s Armies
he is the King of Glory!

David gives us three distinct but related pictures here: of YHWH’s relation to creation, to his people individually, and to his people corporately. Israel’s Canaanite neighbors claimed their god Baal brought order to creation by defeating the gods who held everything in chaos, Yamm (sea) and Nahar (river/stream). Countering that belief, David pictures YHWH as the one who gave creation its order and reigns over all—earth’s seas and streams, and all earth’s inhabitants included. We all answer to the owner of the cosmos.

David’s second picture relates to God’s sacred home on earth—Zion’s holy hill—where he lives among his people. Ancient Middle Eastern religions focused on external, ritual purification for admission to their gods’ sanctuaries. David’s readers would have expected him to list such prerequisites here. But instead, he speaks only of moral purity of heart and hand, calling for holy, loving, honest living.

The next line relates to the commandment to not “take God’s name in vain,” merely pretending to serve God, hiding our moral bankruptcy behind divine namedropping.[1] Only those who sincerely walk the talk seek God’s face. Here David alludes to Jacob’s meeting with God when Esau was advancing to kill him. Jacob marvelled that he’d survived the encounter, which was reasonable given that God later told Moses he couldn’t see his face and live. God blesses all who seek him as earnestly as Jacob did.

David’s last image has him urging Jerusalem’s personified gates to open up to their divine king, returning triumphant from battle. Israel’s enemies aren’t just hellbent on increasing their share of the region’s pie. They’re intent on thwarting God’s purposes on earth by destroying his people. But YHWH, his people’s defender, is invincible.

Having earlier described those seeking admission into YHWH’s presence, David now turns it around, showing God seeking entrance. As earth’s creator, Zion’s king is irresistible. So we admit him only on his terms—never ours. But still, we must open the door since he respects our freedom, never forcing himself on us. He always awaits our welcome.

Prayer:

Though we shut you out, Jesus, condemning you to die, you ascended Zion’s hill with perfect passion, purity, and power. Thank you, glorious King, for loving your creation so much that you’d redeem it at such untold cost. Lord, help me open my heart to your life-transforming love today. Amen.

In your free moments today, meditate on these words:

Who is this King of glory?
YHWH, Commander of Heaven’s Armies
he is the King of glory!

[1] This psalm can be viewed as chiastic, its chiasm highlighting our need to love our divine king and our neighbor as ourselves truly: A: All belong to earth’s creator-king (vv. 1-2), B: Which people can stand in YHWH’s presence? (v. 3), C: People with clean hands and pure hearts (vv. 4a), D: WHO DON’T ABUSE GOD’S NAME OR SWEAR FALSELY (v. 4b), C: They receive God’s blessing and vindication (v. 5), B: These are the people who implicitly see God’s face (v. 6), A: All must submit to earth’s glorious king (vv. 7-10).

Why YHWH?

Every translator of the Psalms must decide how to handle God’s personal name, YHWH or YHVH, which occurs repeatedly in its Hebrew text. Translators of the King James Version usually translated it “LORD” (all caps) and sometimes transliterated it (badly) as “Jehovah.” Likewise, all modern translations either translate or transliterate it. Some other options for translating it are “the Eternal,” “the Almighty,” or “the Sovereign Lord.”

While translating it aims to make it more accessible to readers, transliterating it seems to me more faithful to the text since it’s not a word at all, but rather God’s uniquely personal name. This roots it more firmly in the biblical story as the name God revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. Meaning “the self-existent One who answers to no one,” the name YHWH set Israel’s God apart from all the gods of Israel’s neighbors.

Personal names are, well, very personal. Even the sound of a name can evoke strong emotion. I’ve chosen to transliterate only YHWH’s consonants since the earliest Hebrew manuscripts contain only consonants, the vowels being added much later. My aim in doing so is to honor God’s name and set it apart, as unique.

One problem with YHWH is that we aren’t sure how it was pronounced since Jews long ago stopped saying it out of reverence. (They read Adonai instead whenever they come to YHWH in the text.) I take the advice of my esteemed Hebrew professor, Raymond Dillard, who advocated pronouncing it as Yahveh (Yah·vay). He favored that over the standard Yahweh since the modern Hebrew pronunciation of its third consonant makes the name sound more robustly Jewish. It also makes it sound more robust, period.

Finding strength in the ancient psalms
May these psalms be a light to you in dark times. You can read more of Mark Anderson's writings on Christianity, culture, and inter-faith dialogue at Understanding Christianity Today.