Devotion: Entrance of the King of Glory - Psalm 24

May God's name be glorified.
An exhortation from Psalm 24 which I delivered at church. Hope you find it useful.

Psalm was written by David.

The subject of the can be seen in the verses 7 -10. The main subject is the the entrance of king of glory.

Rest all other verses are related to this incident and the preparation for this incident.

Historical Background

Most of the scholars say that it is talking about the incident mentioned in 2 Sam 6 where the ark of God is to be brought from Obed-Edom to the tabernacle which David prepared for it in Mount Zion.

In that case “the ancient doors” refers to some of the fortress through which the ark is to be entered.

How is it relevant now?

Since this is a time where we are very much interested in the prophecies.  Some consider this psalm as a prophetical psalm. Where this is talking about the entry of Christ into the holy city of Jerusalem through the east gate. In the book of Ezekiel 44, it talks about a prophecy where the east gate of Jerusalem will remain shut for the entry of the Messiah. Jerusalem has eight gates, and this alone remains closed. The partial fulfillment of prophecy happened during Palm Sunday. Again in the 15^th AD, the Turks when they captured the city while rebuilding the city the king sealed the eastern gate for some unknown reason. And even today the east gate of Jerusalem remains closed from 15^th century. As written in Ezekiel, it will remain shut until the entry of Messiah. Some say that this psalm 24 also talks about the opening of that gate for the entry of the Messiah.

King of Glory

This phrase has caught my attention -“King of Glory”

It is a phrase only suited for our God. As last week bro said..about Alexander we say ‘Alexander the great’ but not more than that.

Who on this earth is suited for title? – King of Glory.

In this psalm we can see two reasons why he alone is the king of Glory?

1. V1,2 – Earth and its fullness  is Gods he has founded it upon the seas.

Gen 1: 9 - "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so.”

He said - let dry lands appear in the water and it came. If we look at the earth we can see it is so true. About 70.8 % of the earth is water.

He says it is founded upon the seas.

He is the king of Glory because he is the creator of this earth. All its fullness and its people belong to Him.

2. Strong and mighty, mighty in battle

V8: That passage is in question-answer section. Who is the king of Glory?

The Lord – strong and mighty, mighty in battle.

Have you ever seen God fighting a battle, How do we know that God is mighty in battle?  If you look to the Bible, we can see that God fighting for Israel. If you carefully observe the battle of Israel, we can see that that victory won by Israel are miraculous victories, victories of rare chance.

The mightiest king of Israel is saying this, their king itself is acknowledging. It is God who is battling for them. If they have lost, it’s because God has let them fail because of their sins.

Even now it is so true, see all the nations are against Israel now.

Israel’s existence in the world is the greatest proof of that.

How we should prepare?

Back then when David was writing this psalm, it talks about the preparation needed to receive the ark of God.

Now also we are waiting for the entry of Messiah. How should we prepare?

In the passage 3,4 -  clean hands and pure hearts.

Clean hands represent all our actions.

The pure heart represents purity in all the motives behind the actions.

So let's prepare ourselves for the king of Glory.