Psalms 24

¹A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Psa 24:1-10. God’s supreme sovereignty requires a befitting holiness of life and heart in His worshippers; a sentiment sublimely illustrated by describing His entrance into the sanctuary, by the symbol of His worship--the ark, as requiring the most profound homage to the glory of His Majesty. 1. fulness--everything. world--the habitable globe, with they that dwell--forming a parallel expression to the first clause.

²For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

2. Poetically represents the facts of Ge 1:9.

³Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

⁴He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

3-4. The form of a question gives vivacity. Hands, tongue, and heart are organs of action, speech, and feeling, which compose character. hill of the Lord--(compare Psa 2:6, &c.). His Church--the true or invisible, as typified by the earthly sanctuary.

⁵He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

5. righteousness--the rewards which God bestows on His people, or the grace to secure those rewards as well as the result.

⁶This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

6. Jacob--By “Jacob,” we may understand God’s people (compare Is 43:22; 44:2, &c.), corresponding to “the generation,” as if he had said, “those who seek Thy face are Thy chosen people.”

⁷Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

⁸Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

⁹Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

¹⁰Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

7-10. The entrance of the ark, with the attending procession, into the holy sanctuary is pictured to us. The repetition of the terms gives emphasis.