Sing Praise to the King of Glory (Psalm 24:1-10)

Sixth Sunday in Lent Palm Sunday 

April 1, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

If there is one part of worship that I love more than the others, that part would be singing.  I love singing.  Ever since I was a little child I have loved to sing.  I love singing hymns of praise to our Lord each and every week.  I love singing the Psalms between the readings.  I even love singing the familiar melodies of the Liturgy!  I love singing in church because I know that as I sing, my praises are going up to the Lord who is the King of Glory!  I love to sing, and I know that you love to sing too.  For as I have often told you, I have the best seat in the house when it comes to just sitting and listening to you sing your praises to the Lord, the King of Glory!  And today is no exception!  For today, already, I have been overjoyed to hear your voices melding together in thanks and praise of Jesus our Lord, our Savior, our King of Glory!

Well, today, as we study the lesson before us, we don’t even need to take a break from singing our praises, because the lesson for our consideration this morning comes to us from the song book of the Old Testament.  Our lesson, this morning comes to us from the book of the Psalms; Psalm 24.  Now, I invite you to open your bulletins to the first two pages of the insert and we will read this Psalm responsively, just as we did at the beginning of the service.  We will read only the verse of the Psalm omitting the hymn. 

P:        “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

C:      for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

P:        Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 

C:    He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

P:        He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.  Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.  Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

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

P:        Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

P:      Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:1–10, NIV84)

What better song of praise could there be for us to study this morning than a song of praise written by King David himself!  It was David whom the Lord chose to be King over Israel.  It was David whom the Lord used to pen many beautiful Psalms about the coming Savior.  It was David and his line through whom the Savior was promised to come, and it was David whom the Lord inspired to write the beautiful words we have before us this morning.  Now, when King David wrote these words, it is very likely that he wrote them for the day when the Ark of the Covenant would be brought into Jerusalem for the first time.  Before this the Ark had been kept in the Tabernacle at Shiloh.  This was where Hannah had brought her son Samuel, when he was three years old, as she had promised the Lord when she prayed for a son.  This was where the Lord had called Samuel at night, and Samuel had run to Eli three different times before Eli had figured out what was happening.  This is where the Lord gave Samuel a message of Judgment against Eli and his family because Eli had allowed his sons to act in ways that were terribly disrespectful of the Lord.  And this is where the Ark of the Covenant had been until the day Eli’s two sons had taken it into battle against the Philistines.

I’m sure you remember the story from your Sunday School days.  Though Eli’s sons had brought the Ark into the Israelite camp, on that day the Israelites were thoroughly defeated by the Philistines and the Ark was taken into captivity for seven months.  Though they moved it from city to city, the Lord’s hand was so heavily against them that they finally sent the Ark back to the Israelites in a cart pulled by two cows that had just calved.  It came to the town of Kiriath Jearim where it stayed for the next 70 years, until David was King, Jerusalem had been taken, and all was ready to bring the Ark into Jerusalem. (see 1 Samuel 1-6)

Can’t you just imagine the procession that day!  Can’t you just see the Levites carrying the Ark on their shoulders as the Lord commanded, with King David and a procession of hundreds if not thousands of people coming to Jerusalem with the Ark of the Covenant?  Can’t you just hear the sounds of tambourines, harps, lyres, and trumpets being played in celebration of the Ark coming to Jerusalem?  Can’t you just feel the joy that radiated off all the people as the Ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark, (2 Samuel 6:2) was brought into the city?  Can’t you just imagine the procession of people singing the words of Psalm 24, singing to the Lord God, King of Glory, as the Ark approached the city?  Let’s read those words together again:

P:        “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

C:      for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

P:        Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 

C:    He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

P:        He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.  Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.  Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

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

P:        Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

P:      Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:1–10, NIV84)

Now, fast forward to Palm Sunday!  Can’t you just see all the people gathered around Jesus as his disciples cover the donkey with their cloaks?  Can’t you just see all the people as they spread their cloaks on the road and laid down palm branches in his path?  Can’t you just hear the songs the people were singing along the road as they traveled the few miles from Bethany to Jerusalem?  Though the Bible doesn’t say which songs they sang, other than the song of Hosanna to the Son of David as they saw Jerusalem and approached the temple, I can just imagine this crowd singing praise to their King of Glory with the words of Psalm 24 at some point before they began their shouts of Hosanna!  I can just imagine that because Psalm 24 was regularly read in the temple on the first day of the week.  Psalm 24 was a psalm that builds on the theme of the Lord’s coming for his people.  On that Palm Sunday, as Jesus, the King of Glory was riding to Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, I can just imagine someone in the crowd beginning to sing the words of Psalm 24 which we read again together,

P:        “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

C:      for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

P:        Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?  

C:    He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

P:        He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.  Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.  Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

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

P:        Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

P:      Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:1–10, NIV84)

What better song of praise could there be for us to sing and to meditate upon today, especially as we Celebrate Palm Sunday!  For today, we are celebrating the fact that even though Jesus humbly rode into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey, he rode into Jerusalem as the King of Glory!  Even though Jesus humbly road into Jerusalem following a path that would lead to utter humiliation, kangaroo courts, illegal trials, mocking, whippings, beatings, and finally crucifixion, he rode in as the King of Glory who came to free each and every one of us from our sins.  Just as the Lord had come to Jerusalem centuries before when the people welcomed the Ark of the Covenant, so also Jesus came to his people as the Savior who would free them from their sins.  Though we know the sorrow and the humiliation that will face as he is arrested, tried, convicted and crucified, we also know that he willingly did all this in our place.  Jesus willingly carried the weight of our sins to the cross so that we could be forgiven and live with our King in his glorious heavenly kingdom forever.

Thus, today, as we sing praise to Jesus, our King of Glory, we not only remember how he came to the earth to be our Savior, but we also look forward to the day of his returning.  We look forward to the day when we will see the glory our King returning on the clouds of heaven.  We look forward to the day when we will hear the trumpet blast of the angle and see the procession of Jesus with his angels and all those who have gone before us through faith in him.  We look forward to the day when we will stand before the Lord and as our lesson says, “receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God [our] Savior." (Psalm 24:5, NIV84)  We look forward to that day when we will be judged innocent of all our sins through faith in Jesus.  We will be declared righteous in the sight of our God.  It will be proclaimed that we have clean hands and a pure heart and we will be blessed to ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in the presence of our King of glory forever more.  This is the day we are waiting for, because we have already received all these blessings through faith in Jesus sour King of Glory!

Thus, today we have gathered to join our hearts and voices in praise of Jesus, our King of Glory.  We have gathered meld our voices together in praise and let them echo about our church in worship of the Lord our God!  So, as we close today, let us raise our voices in praise of Jesus our King of Glory by speaking responsively the words of Psalm 24 1 more time. 

P:        “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

C:      for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

P:        Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 

C:    He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

P:        He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.  Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.  Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

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

P:        Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

P:      Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:1–10, NIV84)

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Jesus Is a Man of Action (John 2:12-22)

March 27, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

Dr. J.B. Gambrel tells an amusing story from General Stonewall Jackson's famous valley campaign. Jackson's army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other side. After telling his engineers to plan and build a bridge so the army could cross, he called his wagon master in to tell him that it was urgent the wagon train cross the river as soon as possible. The wagon master started gathering all the logs, rocks and fence rails he could find and built a bridge. Long before day light General Jackson was told by his wagon master all the wagons and artillery had crossed the river. General Jackson asked where are the engineers and what are they doing? The wagon master's only reply was that they were in their tent drawing up plans for a bridge. Though it is true that the engineers got right to the work of planning for the bridge, as a man of action the wagon master accomplished the job as quickly as he possibly could. Well when Jesus was on the earth, he too, was a man of action. As it was, Jesus always made the most of every opportunity to preach the Word of God. He was always traveling from town to town and village to village so that he could proclaim the message of the kingdom of heaven to as many people as possible in his three short years. He was always ready with a word of comfort. He was always ready to heal the sick. He was a man of action who revealed his authority as the Savior in everything he said and did. In fact, this is the very thing that we will discover as we take a look at the lesson before us from John 2:12-22.

Now, if you haven’t done so already, I invite you to open your Bibles to our lesson for today, from John 2:12-22 and we’ll see how Jesus took action in this lesson. Now, as you are turning to John 2, let me give you a little bit of background. It was early in Jesus’ ministry. He had recently gone head to head with satan in the wilderness. He had traveled up to the wedding in Cana, where he performed his first miracle and his disciples put their faith in him. Now, Jesus had traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, as John tells us, beginning with verse 12: “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!’ His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’”(John 2:12-17, NIV 84)

Now, imagine with me for a moment what it would have been like if you found a livestock sale going on when you arrived at Church this morning. Even though you might have been expecting to take your regular parking spot, you would have found yourselves parking quite a ways away because of all the other vehicles. After you parked and came closer you would have seen the pens and corrals set up on every side of the church to hold and display the animals that were going to be auctioned off. You would have encountered crowds of people milling around trying to get a good look at the cattle, and the auctioneer practicing his trade. Then, once you finally forced your way in, you wouldn’t have found any room to hang your coat because of all the people in the entryway taking care of all the money that was changing hands. Though you had come for worship, by the time you finally made it into the sanctuary, worship would be the last thing on your mind. Though you would normally be able to sit down and concentrate on the service, even with all the doors and windows closed, you’d still be continuously distracted by all of the racket outside.

This is what Jesus found when he came to the temple on this day! Gathered in the outer court of the temple, the court of the Gentiles, were all sorts of merchants selling all sorts of different animals. There were cows and bulls, sheep and goats, pigeons and doves all crowded together and doubtless making one huge racket. But on top of that, it wasn’t that these merchants were doing business right outside the temple, rather, they had all their livestock in the outer courts of the temple complex. The gentiles who had come to the temple to worship would have found that their worship space was completely taken up by all the animals and the merchants. The Jews who were going in to worship would have had to pass by this confusion on their way to the inner court, and even though they would be separated from the noise by a wall they would still be disturbed by all the commotion on the other side. That is why Jesus took the action he did, take a look again at verse 15: “[Jesus] made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!’” (John 2:15-16, NIV 84).

Now, there are some that say that in doing this, Jesus sinned. There are some that say that Jesus was wrong for what he did. But let me ask you, how would you react if you came to church this morning and there were a livestock sale going on right outside these walls? Would you have come in, sat down and try to ignore it? Would you have come in, sat down, and complained about it? Or would you have done everything you could to drive them away before you even came into church today? Well if it were me, I would have done everything I could to get rid of them before I even came into church. I would yell and scream and holler until I had finally gotten rid of them all. But would I be wrong? Absolutely not! For this place is a place of worship. It is a place of prayer and meditation. It is not a place for the buying and selling of cattle. The same was true in Jesus’ day. He didn’t sin in driving people out of the temple; rather, he was returning the temple to the purpose God had intended it for. In fact, when Jesus cleared the temple, there wasn’t anyone who said he had done wrong. Everyone who was present knew that Jesus had done what was right. Even the Jews who opposed Jesus never once said that he shouldn’t have done this. Rather, they came to him asking for a sign to prove that he had the authority to do this. They knew that Jesus had done what was right, however, they wanted to justify themselves. They wanted to put themselves back on top and expose Jesus as a false prophet, that is why John tells us in verse 18: “Then the Jews demanded of him, ‘What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’” (John 2:18)

That’s how it was when Jesus took action to cleanse the temple, the Jewish leaders refused to believe him even though he had already demonstrated his authority to do such a thing by all that he said and did. For when the dust finally settled and the Jews came running to Jesus demanding that he perform a sign to prove his authority, what they saw should have stopped them in their tracks. For there, standing before them was not some ordinary man, but the righteous Son of God. There, standing before them was the man who had just forced them to remove their merchandise from his Father’s house. There, before them, was the Son of God standing in the outer courts of his own temple, and the Jews still had the gall to demand that he prove his authority to do what he had just done.

Can you imagine the look of righteous indignation that must have crossed Jesus’ face? Can you imagine Jesus turning to look at them and spreading his arms out as if to say, “Look around! Here is your sign!” For the truth is, the simple fact that Jesus, the Son of God, was standing in his own temple was demonstration enough to show he had the authority to do this. But if that were not enough for those Jews, by his actions, Jesus powerfully brought to fulfillment two different prophecies form the Scriptures. The one, which the disciples remembered, was spoken by the Psalmist David who said in Psalm 69, “I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.” (Psalm 69:8-9). The other was recorded by the Prophet Malachi, who wrote: “‘See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the LORD Almighty.” (Malachi 3:1)

But this wasn’t enough for the religious leadership! They wanted to see a miraculous sign done by Jesus in which he would thus prove his authority to them. However, because he knew the unbelief in their hearts, Jesus gave them a sign they would have to wait for. He said in verse 19: “‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body.” (John 2:19-21)

When Jesus gave this sign to the Jews, they did not understand what he was talking about. Because of their unbelief, and their absolute refusal to believe that Jesus was the Messiah who came into the world, they missed out on the salvation the Lord had planned for them. But even though the Jews didn’t understand what Jesus was saying, we do, and it is through these words that Jesus brings us comfort and assurance as his believers. For just as Jesus’ disciples recalled these words and believed after Jesus was raised from the dead, we also believe. Even though we never witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion, his death or even his resurrection, we believe from the Scriptures that these things did indeed take place. Even though we have never seen Jesus our Savior in the way the disciples did, we believe that he came to earth as the Son of God just as the Bible tells us he did. Even though we have never heard Jesus speak, we have his words before us today, and these are the words that assure us that we too have the forgiveness of sins. For with these words that Jesus spoke, he was indicating already the kind of death he was going to die. He was, in effect, telling the Jews that when they destroyed his body by nailing it to the cross, three days later he would take back his life. Three days later he would rise from the dead as the Savior of the world.

This is the action Jesus preformed, which gives us comfort and assurance as believers. For we know the sins we have committed. We know how we have failed the Lord. We know how we have allowed ourselves to be distracted form God’s Word on a regular basis. We all know how easily we can convince ourselves that we are too busy or too tired to come to church. We know how easy it is to pick up the Bible and start reading one day, and then leave it unread for the next two or three weeks. We know how easy it is to start the day intent on following the Lord’s will and living in a way that is pleasing to him, but at the end of the day we can’t even count how many different ways we failed him. This is why Jesus’ actions today are so assuring to us. For through his actions of clearing out the temple and demonstrating his authority to the Jews, we are assured that Jesus is the one who has done everything right. We are assured that Jesus is the one who fulfilled all of God’s law. We are assured that when Jesus went to the cross to die and rise again, he took away our sins. This is our comfort and assurance as believers that Jesus through his actions has freed us from our sins and given us his salvation.

What a comfort to know that Jesus was a man of action. He was always moving, always preaching, always proclaiming, always comforting. Jesus was always ready to act in whatever way was necessary to bring the Word of God to his people so that they might come to faith in him as their Savior. Though his actions weren’t always popular among the religious leaders, Jesus did what needed to be done to call sinners to repentance. He was a man of action who demonstrated his authority as the Son of God, our Savior, as he cleared the Temple on that day before the Passover.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN