If you would turn with me in your copies of God's Word to the prose translation of Psalm 24. That's Psalm 24. And we'll commence our reading there at the superscription. The Psalm of David. The earth is the Lord's. and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. The word of our God. May he bless us richly under this evening. This is a psalm principally about the approaches of God's people to him and the Lord's approaches to his people. We see that in the very structure of the psalm. As you look at the very first six verses of the psalm, you notice that that third verse is really central. Who asks the psalmist, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall come and stand before the Lord? Who shall approach him? And of course, from the third verse and following, we have a very direct answer to the question. Then as you notice in the seventh verse, another question, rather a command is given. To the ancient doors, to the gates, they're called to lift up their heads so that the King of glory shall come in, that is the Lord of hosts coming to his people. This is a psalm about God's approaches to his people and their approach to him. And friends, as you look at these 10 verses, you'll notice then that this is really a psalm that underscores for us that vital and that personal aspect of true religion. This is not a psalm simply about the knowledge of God, This is a Psalm about the Lord God himself coming to his people and his people really approaching him. And so friend for you and for me this evening, this is a Psalm of instruction. Instruction in the vitals of religion. And so our theme as we hold these 10 verses together, I'd rather leave just as we began. that this is a Psalm about the mutual approaching that exists between God and his people. To put it in other words, there is a mutual approaching between God and his people. In the first verse, we find this, we find this as we speak of ascent. This is the people of God ascending or approaching God. But I want you to notice before we begin that the very first two verses of the Psalm really center upon the identity of the one whom the people of God approach. These first two verses center us upon the Lord of glory. You notice here that he begins with a very direct statement. The earth is the Lord's. He is universal potentate. This is his fiefdom. All that you see about you, says the psalmist, is by ownership only the Lord's. But then as you come to the very next line, he says this, he says, he comes to the dwellers on the earth. And of course, particularly there, you and I are supposed to understand men. He says, they too are the Lord's. By a solemn and by an unbreakable deed of right, they belong to God. As you come to the second verse, interestingly, the psalmist drives our attention to something of an argument. Why is the earth the Lord's and why are the dwellers there his possession? For he hath founded, says the psalmist, for he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. The scriptures hold out to us time and time again, that as you and I, we look at the realm around us, as we see ourselves as his creatures, that because he is our creator, he is of necessity our Lord. We are his possession, as he indeed is our maker. But that's not all that the psalmist says. The second verse is an argument, of course, drawn from creation, but he also draws it from the idea of conservation. When conservation is mentioned theologically, what we refer to there is the idea that that same power that God deployed in making creation and that is ordering all things and bringing them out of nothing is that same power that actively upholds their existence this moment. They exist now because God continues by his own omnipotence to uphold them. Now in this second verse, you notice this. as the Psalmist speaks specifically about the floods and about the rivers. He says that here you and I sees, we look at the terrestrial world, that it is founded upon the seas, it is established upon the floods. In other words, you look to the seas around you and you see that there is a clear demarcation where there is a land that is habitable by man and then there is the raging sea. And the sea does not overtake the land. And then he says, if you look underneath the earth, the word flood there really refers to the idea of the aquifer below. He says, still, the aquifer stays there. The water under the earth stays there and leaves a place for man to dwell. And in other words, what the psalmist draws our attention to is the fact that God holds all things presently so that man may live. The seas do not consume the land. The aquifer does not swallow it. And why so? Because, says the psalmist, it is he who has founded it. The Lord God, as he looks around, he says, he sees here in the conservation of all things, the wisdom of God, the power of God, of necessity, his omnipresence. He sees his glory. I wonder if we look at the book of creation this way, that if we see, friend, not just that he framed all things, but that he continues to uphold all things, that we read the book and come away odd by the God who holds all things together by the word of his power. The psalmist does, but this leads him to ask a question. That you find in verse three. Who shall ascend, asks the psalmist, into the hill of the Lord? Now, that question really presupposes three things, doesn't it? First of all, it presupposes that there is some kind of special approach to God, something that's not just existence. Now, friend, if you look at the second verse, the fact that he upholds all things presupposes that he is omnipresent. But in this third verse, there is an idea that there is an approach to God that is something more than just being before the God who fills all things, before a God of infinite being. There is a way of ascending to God that is special. The second thing that it presupposes necessarily is that this approach is possible. It's not only special, it's possible. God, in other words, has not only created all things, He also is a God who is not aloof. He is approachable. And the third thing this presupposes that though there is a special approach to God that is possible, this third question highlights that not all indeed approach Him. If all in fact did approach God in this special way, the question would be unnecessary. Indeed, as the following verses show, indeed not all do approach the Lord as the psalmist here means. Friend, how does one then approach God? The God of glory, the God whose power, his wisdom is displayed so wondrously in the book of nature. The one who is supreme potentate overall, how do we approach him? It's an important question. It's an existential question, at least it ought to be. And the psalmist answers it. It's in that second line of the third verse. Who shall stand in his holy place? It's alluded to in the idea of ascending the hill of the Lord. And friend, the answer to the question then is, is of course, the ascent of God's people to the temple. Or in other words, friend, it's the gathering of God's people together for corporate worship. That's the language of corporate worship that's deployed all throughout the Old Testament. The language of God's people coming into his courts, his temple is simply, friend, the way in which we would describe God's people gathering together to be under the means of grace, the ordinances of the gospel. But note this, friend, he's saying this is how. This is how they approach the Lord. That special approach that he has in view here. This is how they do so. They come together in corporate worship to appear before the Lord. A friend in the scriptures, you and I know that we approach the Lord in various ways. We approach him in meditation. We approach him of course, as we open the word of God privately. And certainly there's a kind of approach that you and I make as we come privately to the throne of grace. Overwhelmingly, in the Old Testament and in the New, when the scriptures speak of approaching God or appearing before the Lord, it is referring indubitably to corporate worship. In Old and New Testaments, friend, the emphasis is that it is in corporate worship when the people of God gather together for the stated purpose of being under the gospel ordinances and observing the means of grace together, that they are appearing before the Lord. Again, in the Old and New Testaments, we're told that there the godly are called to expect that ordinarily there, his glory will be displayed. Friend, as we think of that, and we contemplate how the psalmist began, by fixing our gaze upon the prerogatives and the glory of our God, does that strike us? Does it strike us that you and I even this evening in a special way are appearing before the God of glory, the Lord of hosts. Friend, I would submit to you that this is one of those elements that we have lost. And we've lost it, friend, not in a small way. We have lost the sense largely that that when you and I come together on an evening such as this, under the ordinances of the gospel together, for the stated purpose of worship, the Lord God says you are especially coming before his face. He calls these means, the ordinances of the gospel, his very face, his countenance throughout the scriptures. Do we believe that, beloved? If we really believed it, would we come so casually? Would we be so willing to neglect it? Psalmist reminds us here that this is indeed an ascending to God and approaching him solemnly. But that is, friend, just the first element of the psalm, the ascent of God's people. But in the fourth verse, you notice that he answers the question of the third. Who are those that approach the Lord? Who are those that really come before him? Those, he says here, who have clean hands, a pure heart, who have not lifted up his soul into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Now in that fourth verse, I want you to notice here that the psalmist is really highlighting the attributes of the worshiper. And he's, as it were, balancing his description between that which can be seen and that which can't. And principally, friend, the focus is upon the heart. He who has a clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity. In the Old Testament, you remember that those who are ceremonially unclean were barred from corporate worship. Well, in our psalm, what you and I are told is that those who are spiritually unclean, they do not and they cannot appear before the Lord in a spiritual way. The Psalter will hold out that there are those who are the enemies of God who will come under the ordinances of the gospel. Manifestly, what the psalmist is looking at here is those who approach the Lord with a sincere heart, who serve him, as Joshua says, in sincerity and in truth. In other words, those who really and spiritually approach the Lord are those who are described in verse four. A friend, as you look at this text, what you and I note here is that then the godly The godly are only those who truly approach the Lord. There may be many who pay lip service. There may be many who ascend the hill physically. Maybe they're in an external sense, but in a true and spiritual sense, only those of the fourth verse ascend to the Lord, truly approach Him from the heart. Now, who are these? Well, I want you to notice the psalm goes on to explain who these are. In verse five, he says, these are those who will indeed know the Lord's blessing. And they will know the Lord's righteousness that will be given to them. And for you can think of righteousness in the psalm in two ways. You can think of it as the Lord really making them, that is transforming them more into the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or you can take righteousness here as it is also in this altar, as a sense of knowing God's faithfulness. The word righteousness is translated faithfulness various places throughout the Psalter and rightfully so. But those two meanings are not themselves mutually exclusive. Because friend, well, if these ones are approaching the Lord are right, do they not have the promise that the Lord God will indeed work in them according to his good pleasure? to make them more like the Lord Jesus. And so as they are made more like him, they do see the Lord's faithfulness there. And so these are those who know the Lord's blessing really, who have right and who have title to it through the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the sixth verse, they're named. I want you to notice in the sixth verse, we're told that this is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob." Jacob is not being addressed, he's being named. The Septuagint, not the Hebrew text, reads Jacob as being called here. The Hebrew text holds forth that it is Jacob who is named. In other words, the psalmist is telling us who is this generation. This is Jacob. And you and I are supposed to understand that this is Jacob as described in verse four. This is spiritual Jacob or spiritual Israel. My friend, what you notice in this text is that the psalmist says that this spiritual Israel who approaches the Lord here, they may expect the Lord's blessing. to know his faithfulness and the working of his spirit in their lives. But I want you to notice, friend, that in this fifth verse, he ties it to their ascent to the Lord. In other words, he ties it to their going to corporate worship. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. What the text teaches us then, friend, is that When we do approach the Lord in a special way, we are to expect either to receive his blessing or his rebuke. We are to be those who know that the Lord indeed does. He does meet with his people. And those who approach him spiritually, they meet with the blessings described in verse five. Those who do not approach him spiritually meet with the rebuke, Psalm 50. where he says, who, who has given you the right to take my covenant upon my lips? But finally, friend, I want you to notice in verses seven to 10, the psalmist here sets before us the approach of a Lord of glory. And it comes again to us as the people of God call to the gates twice to lift up their heads, to open up the doors, My friend, I want you to notice where the people of God are. They are in the gates in this case. And they're asking that the gates would be opened so that the King of glory may come in. My friend, I want you to notice here in the text that now the thing has changed. The focus has shifted before the question is who would approach the Lord. But now overwhelmingly the focus turns to the Lord's approaches to his people. such that the gates must be open that the Lord may come in to them. And so this is the Lord's approach to the church. Now the early church and right throughout the history of interpretation have taken this to be a psalm in which we find the expectation of the church underage for the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly this Psalm looks back to texts like Micah 3, where we're told that the Lord will indeed come into his temple. And of course that is fulfilled deliberately in the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming to his people. But friend, I want you to notice that the people of God here long for the presence of the Lord, not just personally and physically, but they long for his presence and a blessing. Of course, that presupposes that the Lord Jesus Christ must come. Any blessing that redounds to the church comes only through him and the accomplishment of his redemption. But I want you to notice, friend, that it's not simply a historical moment that they're longing for here. But it is that God coming to the church would bring with him the blessings of his victory. that they would know and that they would share in that joy, that the victory of God through his son has wrought. That's the idea. And friend, as you look through these verses, you notice that that is the prevailing theme. This is the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. He is the Lord of hosts. The overwhelming emphasis is in this moment, the victory of God. And beloved, that means then that the church here is saying that they long for God to come to them, that they might rejoice in the fruits of Christ's finished work, that they might rejoice in his victory, who is indeed the Lord strong and mighty. My friend, as we look at this and as we close, What you notice here is really a plea that he who stands in the midst of the golden candlesticks between the myrtle trees, that he would come to his church so that they might really relish and rejoice in the accomplishment of redemption. They might rejoice in the fact that he himself by his own might and by his own right arm has secured the victory. but don't miss that this enjoyment in the victory is tied to the Lord coming to them. It is the Lord's personal approaches to them and in those approaches that they expect to rejoice in his finished work. Every Sabbath day, friend, you and I, we are externally doing this very thing. We come to celebrate his victory. to rejoice in his finished work, and so we must, but we need to remember as well, beloved, that as the scriptures hold out, we will only really rejoice. Our hearts will only really be moved as he makes approaches to his people. Doesn't the Psalter hold this forth to us in so many ways? As the Lord approaches and enlarges his people's hearts, then they run his precepts way. When the Lord comes down and visits his vineyard, then she is fructified. When the bride there in the Song of Solomon sits at the table and the king sits there, then she's fructified. Beloved, the psalm even this evening holds forth the same truth. If we would really rejoice spiritually, you and I need to be pleading that the Lord indeed would come in grace and only then but we know more experientially what it is to rejoice in his victory. And so we close, friend, first of all, with several exhortations. The psalmist would urge us to remember as we approach God, the God whom we approach. He is supreme potentate overall, and we are his creatures, his property. And we live in a realm that sets forth his power and his wisdom and his glory. It is not a small thing to approach the Lord. There should be a holy dread. And the psalmist apprises us of that in the first two verses. But in the verses that follow, you notice that the psalmist also reminds us that those who approach really and spiritually is that spiritual Jacob or Israel. These, says the psalmist, and only these really approach the Lord. So friend, it's a clarion call every time you and I approach, especially as we do even this evening. We need to come repenting. When you and I appear before the Lord, we are saying that more and more, we are resolved to be only the Lord's. The third thing I want you to notice friend is that The psalmist closes here saying that you and I are to crave his presence, his approaches to his people. Twice that exhortation is made. Twice the exhortation is made so that the King of glory may come and be with his own, that they might rejoice in his victory. But friend for us, I want to close really with a note for our comfort. We sing here of a God who delights to approach his people. Otherwise it would not be in this altar. He delights to come. He delights to be among his people so as to make them rejoice in his victory. And friend, he even delights, as this Psalm so pointedly shows us, to hear his people cry that he would come, that he would approach them. And that's really why we read the fifth of the Song of Solomon. What we sing here in the 24th Psalm is really what you find given to us individually in Song of Solomon 5. The Lord is pleased to approach the bride, his church, in the beginning of the fifth chapter. But then there's an absence and an absence, of course, that was well merited by the church. She had grown slothful. She slumbered when the Lord called first. But then when her bowels are moved and she is led to seek the Lord, you notice that she does not find him. But the beginning of the sixth chapter, you notice that she does have confidence indeed that she is still the Lord's and he hers. but she also tells us where he is. He's feeding among the lilies. In other words, what there you have the church saying is that even if for a time he seems absent and aloof, he's not very distant. He's not far removed from the church, but he will come again. And so we find in the sixth chapter that he does. The psalm holds out to us that same truth, that our God delights to approach his people.