Thursday, September 7, 2017

RELIGION, DENIAL, AND THE KING OF GLORY





We find Jesus in some Psalms which seem to be entirely opposed to the Gospel, for example:

·       LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. (Psalm 15:1-5)

This Psalm totally depressed me. Why? It informed me that I didn’t qualify to have a saving relationship with the Lord. I wasn’t blameless and I fell short of all the other requirements. Therefore, I had no confidence that such a God would receive me.

Later, I painfully encountered its sister Psalm:

·       The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation… Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory! (Psalm 24:1-10)

This Psalm starts the same way as Psalm 15, asking the question, “Who can dwell with the Lord,” followed by a similar set of standards of moral perfection. Once again, I realized that I lacked the necessary “clean hands and a pure heart.” Struck out again!

However, I began to see that there is more here. The Psalm dramatically shifts at verse seven: “Lift up your heads, O gates…Oh ancient doors.” It seemed as if the gates into the Temple, the place to find the mercy and forgiveness of God were impassable. No one possessed the necessary entrance qualifications! However, there suddenly was the call to the gates to be lifted up! Why? There arrived another who did possess the necessary qualifications to pass through gate into the presence of God, “Yahweh.”

Here is where it really got strange. Who is this person who had the qualifications to come before Yahweh? The King of glory! The Psalm answers this question twice to address the two earlier questions, “Who shall ascend… who shall stand in his holy place? Again, the King of glory is the answer, but who is he? The Psalm answers, “The LORD [“Yahweh”] of hosts, he is the King of glory!”

What? Yahweh is coming into the presence of Yahweh? This must be a contradiction, right? Wrong! The Son of God is also God, Yahweh. He alone is worthy to come into the presence of His Father. The rest of us are utterly unworthy (Luke 17:10). We fall far short of the necessary qualifications.

How exhilarating! I no longer need to be perfect. Instead, my Savior is perfect, and He has gone into the presence of the Father on my behalf to liberate me from sin, guilt, and ultimately, my damnation.

In the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John was given a similar vision where no one was found worthy to come before the Lord to open the scroll. As the gates had been impassable because all were unworthy, John was shown that there was no possible way to proceed with the glorious plan of God, because no one was found worthy:

·       Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:1-5)

However, there was one piece of the equation that John was not seeing – the Lamb of God who is worthy. It is only through Him that the Gospel could go forth.

I now love these two Psalms. Why? They remind me of my hopeless condition and the Lamb of God who turned all of this around.

How else can we understand these Psalms! The Jewish Study Bible blandly comments on Psalm 15 that “This may be considered a Psalm of instruction, teaching the listener to become an individual who shall never be shaken.” (p. 1297)

Fat chance! Instead, without the “King of glory” coming on our behalf, we are left in one sobbing heap, if we are honest about ourselves. What is the alternative? To live lives in the darkness of denial.

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