Psalm 24 Devotional

Psalm 24:1
Albeit the Lord God hath made, and governeth all the world, yet toward his chosen people, his gracious goodness doth most abundantly appear, in that among them he will have his dwelling place. Which thought it was appointed among the children of Abraham, yet only they do enter aright into this Sanctuary, which are the true worshippers of God, purged from the sinful filth of this world. 7 Finally he magnifieth God’s grace for the building of the Temple, to the end he might stir up all the faithful to the true service of God.

A Psalm of David

1. The earth is the Lord’s, and all that therein is; the world, and they that dwell in it.

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

3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reflection on the Psalm

We saw before the Christocentric nature of this Psalm, and how it like others also are directly related to the gospel. Not David’s faith only, but ours also who believe in the same Messiah before concealed, now revealed. For what is the lifting up of gates but the hearty, and willing reception of sound doctrine into the mind and heart? We saw also from David Dickson the inquiry that all godly persons make into the matter at hand. For inasmuch as all sinners make light of grace, and the advances of it, or even openly contemn and blaspheme it, so the righteous man being blessed by the mercy of God seeks into the wisdom of God in the scriptures and sincerely asks, “Who is this King of Glory?”

As we have seen traces and beams of the glory of God in scripture, we do not then close the matter and imagine the surface to be the bottom, but we continually search and seek after God’s face therein, knowing that more and more grace awaits those who seek the face of God. As it is written, “Seek and ye shall find.” and “blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled” and, “Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” saying before, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. For he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that will bring forth his fruit in due season; whose leaf shall not wither; so whatsoever he shall do, shall prosper.”

So we see that those who sincerely ask with the hope of seeking the face of God, “who is this King of Glory” shall be answered and they shall prosper in such a way as their wealth and bounty shall never be taken from them. We should also note that there are those who despise the word of God and ask in contempt and mockery, “who is this King of Glory?” as Nabal said to David, “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?”

So when the gospel message comes to men, and they are untouched by the Spirit of the living God, they spurn the messengers of the holy one and will have nothing to do with His prophets. They say as Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” Being base and carnal men who have no relish for the spiritual, they go their way to destruction, and seek not after the way of righteousness. Then the scripture is fulfilled which saith, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Commentary by Calvin

The praises by which the power of God is here magnified are intended to tell the Jews that he did not sit idle in his temple, but took up his abode in it, in order to show himself ready to succor his people. It is to be observed, that there is great weight both in the interrogation, and in the repetition of the same sentence. The prophet assumes the person of one who wonders thereby to express with greater effect that God comes armed with invincible power to maintain and save his people, and to keep the faithful in safety under his shadow.

We have already said, that when God is spoken of as dwelling in the temple, it is not to be understood as if his infinite and incomprehensible essence had been shut up or confined within it; but that he was present there by his power and grace, as is implied in the promise which he made to Moses, “In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee,” (Exodus 20:24).

That this was no vain and empty promise, but that God truly dwelt in the midst of the people, is what the faithful experienced who sought him not superstitiously, as if he had been fixed to the temple, but made use of the temple and of the service which was performed in it for elevating their hearts to heaven. The amount of what is stated is, that whenever the people should call upon God in the temple, it would manifestly appear, from the effect which would follow, that the ark of the covenant was not a vain and an illusory symbol of the presence of God, because he would always stretch forth his omnipotent arm for the defense and protection of his people.

The repetition teaches us that true believers cannot be too constant and diligent in meditation on this subject. The Son of God, clothed with our flesh, has now shown himself to be King of glory and Lord of hosts, and he is not entered into his temple only by shadows and figures, but really and in very deed, that he may dwell in the midst of us. There is, therefore, nothing to hinder us from boasting that we shall be invincible by his power. Mount Sion, it is true, is not at this day the place appointed for the sanctuary, and the ark of the covenant is no longer the image or representation of God dwelling between the cherubim; but as we have this privilege in common with the fathers, that, by the preaching of the word and the sacraments, we may be united to God, it becomes us to use these helps with reverence; for if we despise them by a detestable pride, God cannot but at length utterly withdraw himself from us.

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Opening Prayer

Lesson 20. 1.1.9. The Sufficiency of Scripture. Pt. 3 (Adam as a Type of Christ)

Westminster Confession of Faith 1.1
Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation; therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his Church; and afterwards, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing, which maketh the holy Scripture to be most necessary, those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.

8.6.
Although the work of redemption was not actually wrought by Christ till after his incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefits thereof were communicated unto the elect, in all ages successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types, and sacrifices, wherein he was revealed, and signified to be the seed of the woman which should bruise the serpent’s head, and the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, being yesterday and today the same, and forever.

19.3
Beside this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a Church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated under the New Testament.

Intro. Rom. 5, 1 Cor. 15.

Lesson. Adam as a Type of Christ. (Thomas Taylor)

The first of them is the first Adam, who was so lively a representation of Christ, as that Christ is often called the second Adam, Rom. 5. 14. Adam was a figure of him that was to come. 1.1 We will gather the resemblances between them into four general heads.

I. In respect of Creation

1. Both of them were Sons of God, the one by eternal generation, the other by grace of Creation.
2. Both were Men, Adams, redde earth; the first in his matter, the second not in his matter only, but also in his bloody passion.
3. Both were Sons of one Father, and both men but of no man their father, neither of them having any other father but God.
4. Both created in the Image of God; The former, Gen. 1. 27.
   

   “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

The latter the ingraven forme of his Fathers person. Heb. 1. 3. 5.

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high: Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?”

5. Both endowed with perfect wisdom and knowledge; the first Adam so wise as that he gave fit names to all Creatures according to their natures: in the second Adam dwelt treasures of wisdom and knowledge (purchasing all the names of His elect, accounting all their sins and making perfect atonement for them all, Isa. 53:11). Col. 2. 3. 6. Both possessed of a most happy and innocent estate; in which the one had power to persevere, but not will: the other had both power and will.
6. The first Adam was made in the sixth day of the week to the Image of God: the second Adam towards the sixth age of the world appearing to restore that Image which the first Adam quickly lost.

II. In respect of office and sovereignty

1. The first Adam was owner of Paradise, the heir of the world; sovereign Lord of all the Creatures to whom they came for their names; the second Adam is Lord of heaven as well as earth, heir of the outmost bounds of the earth, Psalm. 2. 8. Commander of all Creatures; whom the winds and seas obey; whose word the devils tremble at; and he keeps his sovereignty which the first Adam lost.
2. Adam was appointed to keep the Garden and dress it, Gen. 2. 15. Christ the second Adam was set apart to sanctify and save his Church, the Garden and Paradise of God, Eph. 5. 26.
3. Adam was King, Priest, and Prophet in his family: so is Christ in the Church, the family and household of faith, Rev. 1. 5.

As Adam was the first Minister of the word in the Church, delivering the promise of the blessed seed with certain rites & Ceremonies to his children, and they to their posterity: So the second Adam is the chief Prophet and Doctor of his Church, who always prescribed the pure worship of God for matter and manner in the Churches of all ages.

III. In respect of Conjugation

1. In Adam’s sleeping Eve is formed: Christ dying the Church is framed. Eve is taken out of Adams side, while he sleeps: out of the second Adams side, while he was in the sleep of death, issues the Church.
2. Eve was no sooner framed but as a pure and innocent spouse she was delivered by God to Adam yet in innocency: so God the Father delivered the Church as a chaste & innocent spouse to be married to the second Adam forever, to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.
3. Of Eve married to Adam he receives both a Cain and an Abel into his house: so the second Adam has in his visible Church both elect and reprobates, sound and hypocrites, as by many Parables is signified; as of the field; the net, &c.

IV. In respect of propagation

1. Both of them are roots, both have a posterity and seed, Isa. 53. 10.
2. Both of them convey that they have unto their posterity, Rom. 5. 12. 14. As by the first Adam sin, and by sin death came over all men: so by the second Adam came righteousness, and by righteousness life on all believers; and herein especially was the first Adam a figure of him that was to come.
3. As the first Adam merited death for all his posterity: so the second Adam life for all his.

Application follows

I. To note the honour and antiquity of the Ministry which not the first Adam only, but the second also exercised. Despise at thy peril what they so honoured; think it too base for thyself to attend, for thy sons to intend: Neither the first Adam Lord of the earth, nor the second Adam Lord of Heaven and earth, did so.

II. To note the antiquity and authority of the doctrine of free grace by the merit of the Messiah, which both the first and second Adam taught; neither of them ever dreamed of the doctrine of works and human merits. What Adam learned of God in Paradise he taught to his posterity; what his posterity heard of him, the same they delivered and left to their children; but they never heard nor taught any other way to salvation, but by the promised seed: so also what the Disciples heard of the second Adam, that they taught to the Churches; but they heard the same of him. Act. 4. 12. And our doctrine being the same with theirs, is not new, but more ancient than any other. For as this is the honour of all truth, to be before error and falsehood: so of this truth, to have precedency of all truths; It truly pleads antiquity, therefore verity.

III. In that the Church comes out of Christ’s side, being in the sleep of death, as Eve out of Adams he sleeping, we learn to seek our life in Christ’s death. That death should be propagated by the sin of the first Adam, was no marvel: but that life by the death of the second, is an admired mystery. Here is the greatest work of God’s power fetched out of his contrary; of rank poison a sovereign remedy by the most skillful Physician of hearts. Let the Jews scorn a crucified God, and refuse the life offered by a dead man; they know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God; who can and does command light out of darkness, life out of death, all things out of nothing. How easily can he repair all things out of anything, who can fetch and frame all things out of nothing? He is of power to make of clay and spittle (fit to put out the sight) a remedy to restore sight. He can as easily save a world by the death of his Son, as multiply a world by the sleep of Adam.

IV. Labour to be ingrafted into the second Adam, that as thou hast borne the image of the earthly, 1.9 so thou may bear the image of the heavenly, 1. Cor. 15. 49. 1. Because the second Adam repairs whatsoever we lost in the first. By the first we are enemies to God, by the second we are reconciled to him. By the first we all die, by the second we are all made alive, 1. Cor. 15. 22. By the first we are left to Satan’s power, by the second we are guided by the Spirit of God. By the first we lost all the Creatures, by the second we are restored to the holy use of them all. By the first a necessity of death is brought in, Heb. 9. 27. it is appointed for all men once to die, and then comes judgment; but by the second we have a recovery of the blessing of immortality and life. Whatsoever the first Adam brings into the world by sin, the second carries out by his righteousness. 2. Because by Christ the truth we recover more than we lost, or ever should have had by the Type. For so the Apostle, Rom. 5. 16. the gift by the second Adam hath exceeded the offence of the first. That as the first Adam by eating the forbidden fruit hath poured all evil into the souls and bodies of all men, though they eat not of the forbidden tree: So the second Adam by regeneration is made righteousness to those who had wrought no righteousness, and poured all good things into the souls and bodies of his members: The first Adam by sin helps us into misery: but the second Adam not only helps us out of misery, but advances us to the highest dignity; to be, of sons of wrath, sons of God; brethren of Christ; members of his body; heirs of the kingdom of heaven. By Adams sin we are all driven out of Paradise, an earthly pleasure, in which we should have enjoyed an inconstant happiness: but by Christ we are brought into the heavenly Paradise, our Father’s house. By Adams sin we become unjust: but by Christ’s holiness we are not just only, but sanctified, graced, confirmed, glorified, into whom by faith we come to be ingrafted.

Conclusion.

Closing Prayer.

YouTube Audio: https://youtu.be/UUmJoFw4BUg