This psalm considers worship from the perspective of the qualities necessary in the one who worships. We need to have some care here. Some people have an unhealthy concern for germs, so much so that it inhibits normal functioning in their lives. Many people could use some a more relaxed attitude in such matters.
If I live in a house of spotless
beauty with everything in its place,
but have not love,
I am a housekeeper -- not a homemaker.
If I have time for waxing,
polishing, and decorative achievements,
but have not love,
my children learn cleanliness -- not godliness.
Love leaves the dust
in search of a child's laughter.
Love smiles at the tiny
fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.
Love wipes away the tears
before it wipes up the spilled milk.[1]
At the same time, this psalm moves against certain notions of “unconditional love.” To put it bluntly, you are no longer the infant you once were, deserving and needing unconditional love. You are moving toward adulthood. True and genuine worship calls for a change in us to become the persons the Lord wants us to be.
Psalm 24: 1-6 are like Psalm 15.
Psalm 24: 1-2 present the Lord’s domain over the earth, emphasizing the transcendence of the Lord. This psalm seems to position the writer from a location exterior to the scene itself; but slowly the focus, starting broad and wide, narrows to the throne of the King who is Lord over all. The scene first takes in the earth. Then the writer notes that the dominion of the Lord extends not only to the earth but to those in it, and the “world,” i.e., the society of humankind who “live in it.” The lens then zooms in even tighter to the hill of the Lord, and closer still to the “holy place.” 1 The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; 2 for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers. Here was a typical symbol of chaos and disorder, so that, according to Augustine, the “waves of this world … should be subdued by it, and should not hurt it.” The poet deduces the power of the Lord from creation. The Lord tamed the primeval waters and founded the earth upon them. Therefore, the Lord is sovereign of the world. It took some significant theological reflection for Israel to make such an affirmation. We see this in II Isaiah. The servant of the Lord will bring forth justice to the nations (42:1). The Lord has given the servant as a covenant to the people and a light to the nations (42:6). The servant will not only raise up Israel once again but will be a light to the nations so that the salvation of the Lord may reach to the end of the earth (49:6). The Lord has given the servant as a covenant to the people (49:8). The ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God (52:10). III Isaiah holds out for the foreigner and the eunuch to fully participate in the people of God (56:1-6). Isaiah promises that the nations shall stream to the mountain of the Lord (2:2). The Lord shall judge between the nations, having swords beaten into plowshares, spears into pruning hoods, so that nation they shall not learn war anymore (2:4). The root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the people so that nations shall inquire of him in his glorious dwelling (11:10). The Lord shall raise a signal for the nations and assemble the outcasts of Israel (11:12). Yahweh was primarily the God of the covenant, and therefore, of the land, and eventually of the city and the temple. Yahweh was the god of Israel rather than the God of all creation. They would slowly see creation as the work of Yahweh and therefore see the presence of Yahweh in creation.[2]
Psalm 24: 3-6 are a liturgy for use as pilgrims enter the sanctuary. The interaction of the trustful yearning for God and unconditional obedience springing from fear constitutes fundamentals of Old Testament piety. The requirements for participation in temple worship are moral, signifying obedience to the Lord. Thus, who is welcome before the transcendent God? People of integrity and genuine devotion. It will contain rhetorical questions and their answers recited in antiphonal fashion.
3 Who shall ascend the hill (or mountain, referring to the Temple mount but with an echo of Mt. Sinai) of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? We cannot go everywhere we want to go. That is just the way it is. There are restaurants, clubs, golf courses, religious chambers, government offices, palaces, castles and more to which we commoners simply are not invited. C’est la vie. How many people have had an audience with the pope, or the president of the United States, or even the state governor? The mayor? How many would like to play golf on a local private course but cannot find anyone to extend an invitation? The invitation of the Lord is to everyone. Yet not everyone who makes the pilgrimage will enter. The priest gives the answer to the question. First, 4 those who have clean (naqi, innocent, virginal, unmarried) hands. Many Christian worship traditions include a confession of sin in the early part of the service. It is a spiritual hand washing. When approached soberly and seriously, such a prayer is an act of spiritual purification -- the last vestige, for many of us, of the ancient purification rituals the psalmist knew so well. Second, those who have pure hearts may come. The apostle Paul picks up a similar theme as he advises the Corinthians to avoid approaching the Lord's Table "unworthily" (I Corinthians 11:29). Søren Kierkegaard said (in the title of a famous essay) purity of heart is "to will one thing." In our prayers, in our contemplation, the goal is to will one thing: to achieve communion, however fleeting, with the divine. Pure-hearted worship strives to will one thing, and that thing is praise of the Almighty. Third, those who do not lift up their souls to what is false (the Hebrew means, "who do not lift up their souls to emptiness (shav)." It is a word used elsewhere to refer to the worship of idols, with the implication that idolatry offers only illusory and deceptive rewards.) They have their priorities well-ordered and thus do not despair as they make the ascent; they have their souls lifted or set on their proper and true objective. Further, they do not swear deceitfully. These next lines of the psalm shift the focus to another aspect of moral purity. The focus on moral rather than ritual purity shows the inwardness of Old Testament piety. Clean hands, pure hearts, and rejection of deceit is the basis for being in the temple. Those who approach worship in these ways will receive benefits. Yes, the Lord loves you as you are, but far too much to leave you that way. You are not an infant who can live only because of unconditional love. You are an adult who needs to know what life and God expect of you. 5 They will receive blessing (berakah) from the Lord, and vindication (sedeqah) from the God of their salvation. Here is what they need to do to receive such benefits. 6 Such is the company of those who seek the Lord, who seek the face of the God of Jacob (Israel, the congregation present at the ceremony). Here is one of the identifiers for God in the period of the Patriarchs. Jacob, whose name would change to Israel, was the wandering Aramean who took his family to Egypt. Selah That is easier said than done. Seeking God's face is a bold enterprise, according to the Old Testament. God does not permit one as close to God as Moses to view the glorious countenance of the Almighty. In Exodus 33:18-23, this venerable prophet and leader of God's people, the man who is Yahweh's own messenger, the Lord allows -- from the protective shelter of a cleft in the rock -- only the most fleeting glimpse of divine glory, as the Lord "passes by." This is because, as the Lord graciously warns him, "no one shall see me and live." However, that does not stop these earnest worshipers from trying. Still, they yearn to look upon God's face. They seek the very blessing that God did not permit even Moses to receive. Granted, the psalmist never promises them they will succeed in their quest, although he does seem convinced, they will never cease their efforts to do so. Jesus makes an even bolder promise in the beatitudes: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matthew 5:8). Of all the blessed believers Jesus mentions in Matthew 5, only the pure in heart receive a vision of the Almighty. Thus, the psalmist affirms that the people have met the requirements. Such an affirmation depends upon the idea that participation in the eternity of God suggests the need for radical change because of the sin that clings so closely human reality, which we can see in separation from God and in antagonism that human beings show to each other.[3]
I invite you to consider a cute little poem.
Queen of my tub, I merrily sing,
While the white foam rises high,
And sturdily wash, and rinse and wring,
And fasten the clothes to dry;
Then out in the free fresh air they swing,
Under the sunny sky.
I wish we could wash from our hearts and our souls
The stains of the week away,
And let water and air by their magic make
Ourselves as pure as they;
Then on the earth there would be indeed
A glorious washing-day![4]
[1] --Anonymous.
[2] The earliest phase of Israelite (or perhaps better, Hebrew) thinking about the divine linked Yahweh specifically with a geographical area -- the promised land, i.e., Canaan -- and a specific people (the Hebrews). Most religions in the ancient Near East were in this sense highly parochial, with a patronal and highly fluid relationship between deity, people and land. The idea of a universal deity (like the idea of theoretical monotheism) was relatively late in Israelite religion. One can find it especially in the second half of the book of Isaiah Yahweh was originally and for many centuries conceived as Israel's god, and only in the later books of the Old Testament is Yahweh (rendered "the LORD" in English translations) portrayed as the single divine being over everyone and everything (God as we think of that capitalized form in the west today). Earlier stages of Yahwism focused on the covenantal relationship between Yahweh and the Hebrew people articulated in the stipulations of the law (stereotypically formulated as some version of "my commandments, my statutes, and my laws [or ordinances]," Genesis 26:5; Leviticus 26:46; Deuteronomy 6:1; 26:17; I Kings 2:3; and many others). Only later, under the influence of the ancient Near Eastern wisdom tradition, did they view creation as having revelatory power. By this stage in Israelite religion, there had emerged an awareness of Israelites who "got it" and those who didn't (and possibly couldn't) when it came to seeing Yahweh's presence in creation.
[3]
[4] -- Louisa May Alcott, from "A Song of the Suds," in Little Women (Little, Brown & Co., 1922), 138.
[5] Scholars labored over the psalm's image until this passage was compared to a passage from the Canaanite Baal epic (discovered at Ras Shamra in 1927, and which dates from ca. 1450 B.C. in its Ugaritic written form). In that passage (conventionally cited as KTU 1.2.1.27-28), the Canaanite god of chaos, Prince Sea (Yamm), has appeared in the assembly of the gods demanding that they surrender Baal, the god of fertility, to him. All the gods except Baal cower before Yamm, and Baal challenges the divine coterie to resist Yamm with the words, "Lift up your heads, O gods!" The metaphor found in Psalm 24 is secondary, derived from the ancient polytheistic culture that was closest to ancient Israel geographically, linguistically and religiously. In the Hebrew context, Baal has become the Lord, and the gods of the Canaanite pantheon have been transformed into the gates of Jerusalem, but the basic mythic pattern has been retained.
[6] (On this, see further Frank Moore Cross, Jr., Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973], 97-98.)
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