Who May Stand in His Holy Place

July 14, 2024
Who May Stand in His Holy Place

Scripture Reading: Psalm 24: 1 - 6 (NIV)

Of David. A psalm. 1The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. 3Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. 5They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. 6Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob.

Message:  Who May Stand in His Holy Place

Pearly gates and the subconscious drive to Self-justification 

I am sure you have seen some pearly gate jokes…

They always show someone arriving at the pearly gates with Peter standing behind a podium with some kind of a list in front of  him… sometimes there’s a sign somewhere on the gates to indicate something related to the joke…

Have you seen some of these jokes?

My favourite one is were this guy stands before Peter and there is this sign on the pearly gates that says “no atheists”

And then you just see this thought bubble of the man thinking “I don’t believe it!”

Recently I say one of Donald Trump standing in front of the pearly gates and Peter tells him:  “Here you cannot pardon yourself!”

It seems that the man had a close encounter with the pearly gates - it is horrifying to see an assassination attempt like that! 

These pearly gate jokes tell a story of our subconscious relationship with justification

We have the subconscious thought process of “I must (do A,B and C) to get or derseve (X,Y and Z)”

“You reap what you sow” is engrained in the way we function

It is the way society functions… think of obtaining qualifications, earning a living, being vetted to obtain a certain status

Sadly, this also filters through to our relationships… we try so hard to earn the affection of others through what we do for them and we expect at least some kind of action from others in return for our affection

Just by the way, if you think of it, that is where relationships go wrong… where expectations of what is being done in return form my affection, are not met

So much hurt happens when there is disappointment of exceptions

So much hurt happens where there is desperate attempts to meet expectations of others

So much hurt happens when I start thinking in the back of my mind that I am not good enough

David’ history and clean hands and a pure heart

In our Scripture reading this morning the question is asked:  “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?

(Who will get through the pearly gates?)

What must I sow to reap the reward or standing in his holy place?

Let’s just take not of who is asking the question… it is David

David the youngest of Jessie’s sons who was chosen above he seemingly more suitable brothers

David, the young boy who defeated the giant Goliath

David the king who had blood on his hands 

David the king who committed murder and adultery 

The Man who’s hands had too much blood on for him to build God’s temple (Solomon, his son had to build the temple)

This man David says:  “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart..

But the thing is, David did not have clean hands…

And David did not have such a pure heart

Yet he tells the story of him finding a Saviour

Somewhere the logic of “you reap what you sow” was broken

David got what he did not deserve

Isn’t that the definition of grace?

To get what you don’t deserve!

Those who seek God will stand in his holy place

What David got from God is there for everyone…

He says:  “Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob.”

Those who seek God will receive his grace

There’s nothing you can do that will be good enough to earn God’s favour 

You will never sow enough to deserve a place in God’s holy place

You will always fall short

That is the core message for today: break the unconscious cycle of self-justificaion, thinking you can earn your way into God’s holy place

You cannot earn your place!

All you can do, is to seek God and discover his grace 

Only those who seek God will be able to stand in his holy place. AMEN. 


Comments

Add your comment
Please enter your name.
Please enter a longer comment.