The Tale of Two Hills (Psalm 24)
The God of Psalm 24 is almighty (vs10), glorious (vs7), Holy (vs3) and He owns everything on the planet – because He made it all! (vs1)
So who can approach this God? Who can ascend His hill, or enter into His presence?
- Only those who like Him are holy and pure (vs3).
- Only those of who have ‘clean hands and a pure heart’ (vs4).
- Only those who have never been deceitful or lied to anyone (vs4)
But who can truly claim such things? Who could honestly claim that they have not done anything or even thought anything sinful or impure? No one can – not even one.
So no one then can ascend Almighty God’s hill. Our sin has separated us from God (Isaiah 59:2). No one can approach Him on their own merit.
But praise God, there was another hill that was ascended for us! Jesus, God Himself ascended Golgotha’s hill leading to his death on the cross on our behalf.
And because Jesus ascended that hill for us, because Jesus was like us in every way and yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15), and because Jesus gave His life as a ransom to pay the price for our sin in our place…
Because of that, because He ascended that hill for us now, we who have put our trust in Him can ascend the hill of Almighty God with confidence.
Our hands were not clean, and our hearts were not pure, but Jesus made us clean, spotless and pure by His substitutionary sacrifice for us, which took our sin away when we believed in Him.
So now, we can walk right into the holy of holies, stand at peace before the King of all the earth (Romans 5:1). Our hope is not in our righteousness but in His; we stand now secure as God’s children, those who belong in our Father’s presence – amazing grace!
It’s the tale of two hills. It’s the incredible story of our Saviour’s love for us.
Two words that matter 