CCC Livestream - Jesus In The Psalms - Psalm 24

Live Worship Gathering: 3/22/2026

Preaching: Jason Purdy

I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 24.

We are beginning a sermon series today entitled: Jesus in the Psalms.

And these next few weeks leading up to Easter Sunday, we are going to dwell on

aspects of the victory our Lord Jesus won for the glory of God and for our

salvation through the cross and resurrection.

Now, you may be saying, hang on a minute, how are we supposed to dwell on

the victory of Jesus Christ in the gospel through the Psalms?

Weren’t the Psalms written like 500 to 1,000 years before Jesus was ever born?

How can you say the Psalms are about the victory of Jesus and His gospel?

The truth is: All of the Bible is about Jesus.

While the Bible has many human authors written over a great period of time

much of that time before Jesus came, the Holy Spirit of God inspired all of the

writers of Scripture to write one story whose grand theme is the glory of the

Creator God who has made himself known through His word written and

through the word made flesh, Jesus Christ.

I promise I am not out on some biblical interpretive limb here.

Throughout church history, the church has seen and interpreted Jesus in all the

Scripture.

Jesus himself taught us to view Scripture through this lens.

Jesus quoted the Psalms throughout his earthly ministry more than any other

book.

And so oftentimes, when we read that Jesus set aside time to be alone in prayer

with God, it is almost certain the Psalms were much of the content of His

prayers.

Athanasius, who is one of the theological giants in church history wrote:

“Psalm 16 brings light to Christ’s resurrection from the dead (which is the Psalm

I plan to preach Easter Sunday by the way), while Psalms 24 and 47 announce

his ascension to the heavens.”

Here is why this is so important for you and me, if all of the Scripture is about

Christ and typifies Christ, we understand that we also identify and relate to all

the Scripture in a very personal way since we as believers find ourselves to be

“in Christ.”

We are in union with Christ and identified with him in his life, death,

resurrection, and today we will see, his ascension.

All that Christ has done in the gospel, he has done to reconcile His people to God

and identify us as God’s people with the same standing of righteousness,

holiness, and acceptance before God that Jesus Christ himself has.

And that perfect standing before God has come to you by faith in Jesus Christ,

so your remaining sin and struggles cannot change your perfect standing before

God, for nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Here is where I believe God means for this passage to be extremely applicable to

our lives in this moment no matter what situations and circumstances you find

yourself in:

If you are in Christ, He has won your ultimate victory, and He has done

everything to bring all things in your life to its perfect ends, so you can live in

victory apart from guilt and shame no matter what you are dealing with today.

And you experience the power of Christ’s victory in your life when you worship

Him as the God of all who has won ultimate victory.

Let me show you from the text:

Psalm 24 ESV

A PSALM OF DAVID.

1 The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,

the world and those who dwell therein,

2 for he has founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the rivers.

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?

And who shall stand in his holy place?

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to what is false

and does not swear deceitfully.

5 He will receive blessing from the LORD

and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,

who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

7 Lift up your heads, O gates!

And be lifted up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may 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 gates!

And lift them up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

10 Who is this King of glory?

The LORD of hosts,

he is the King of glory! Selah

1. We All Live To The Lord

Verse 1 is a massive truth claim that leads us to see all of reality in a distinct way.

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell

therein”

I have said many times that the one who creates and masterminds the creation

is also the one who owns it and has the only right and claim over how it is to

function.

The one Creator God is ultimate Lord and owner of all creation by right of the

fact that He created all from nothing but the power of His word.

When Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness, listen to this:

Luke 4:5–7 ESV

5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a

moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their

glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then,

will worship me, it will all be yours.”

Did you notice Satan said that this authority was delivered to him?

What does that mean? It means even Satan’s authority is an authority derived

from the ultimate authority of God.

The first chapter of Job shows us that Satan had to seek God’s permission to do

what He desired to do.

Sure, he is the devil, but He is God’s devil, ultimately on God’s leash.

Why? Because the one Creator God alone has ultimate authority and ownership

over all of Creation.

That is true of the world and those who dwell therein.

This word “world and those who dwell therein” speaks more specifically to

mankind.

The great devastation of mankind, the great devastation for you and for me and

for all mankind, the devastation that leads to all other devastations, is that we

have all tried to set up our own lives, our own identities, our own desires, and

essentially our own little kingdoms in which we fool ourselves into believing we

have ultimate say and authority over, yet we do this all in a world that we did

not create and have no rights of full authority or ownership to.

Gregory of Nyssa writes, “In our sin, we claim a false title of lordship over that

which can never truly belong to us.”

Charles Spurgeon writes, “Despite the claims of earthly kings and autocrats, and

the claims of our own hearts, man on earth is but a tenant, a leaseholder upon

most precarious tenure, liable to instantaneous eviction.”

This is sin. This is why we hurt. This is why we’re weak. This is why it is so much

more natural for us to separate ourselves from one another. This is why we die.

Because in our sin, we all declare ultimate authority over our lives that is false,

and foolish, and devastatingly so.

Verse 2: For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

This is the language used in both Genesis and Peter to describe the creation of

the land.

It is founded and established out of the waters.

The waters are obviously not a safe or habitable place for humanity, so God

founded and established dry lands as a safe and habitable place for humanity,

speaking to the nature of all that we have has been graciously given to us by

God as a gift, we have no claim of ultimate authority.

Paul used this passage to support his argument in 1 Corinthians that food

offered to idols doesn’t truly belong to idols but to God the creator of the food

itself.

You see, it is tempting for many of us to make God a category of our lives.

I have my family, I have my work, I have my home, I have my other relationships

in my life, I have my hobbies, I have my entertainments, and I have my faith in

God.

Yet, the true nature of God can never be boxed into a category of your life,

For the true nature of God is that he owns and rules and holds ultimate

authority over all aspects of your life, for your life is His.

Your family is ultimately His, your work is His, your home is his, your

relationships are his.

I’ve heard it said, “There is not one particle or molecule in the universe that the

Creator God does not authoritatively claim - Mine!”

That is mine.

And if every aspect of your existence and your being is created by God and He is

the rightful Lord over it, then you live utterly and totally before the Lord in every

second and every aspect of your life and none of it is unimportant or separated

from Him and His rule.

This is why He can say in:

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding.

6 In all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.

Because there is no aspect of your life that is not in direct relationship to God,

and he directs your path straight as you acknowledge his lordship over all things

and live in light of it.

No matter what struggle, sin, or circumstance you are facing, the first step of

repentance is always confessing your situation as under God’s lordship and

seeking to live in light of that.

We all live to the Lord.

2. Jesus Ascends To God And Brings Us With Him

If it is in fact true that all things belong to God and are under His rightful

authority, the most relevant and important question for our lives is, “Am I able

to stand before the Lord?”

If God holds rightful claim over every aspect of my life and my very being, “Am I

in a position of peace with God where my life is pleasing to Him - the owner? Or

am I in a hostile position with God where I am claiming authority and ownership

that only belongs to him, and he will finally cast me away from His presence and

His creation due to my rebellion to His rule?”

That is exactly the question posed in verse 3: “Who shall ascend the hill of the

Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?”

Throughout the Scriptures, God’s place as Creator God is always higher than

man’s place as creatures, yet in the Garden of Eden, before man sinned, God

was pleased to dwell with man.

Yet our sin and personal autonomy has separated us from God and brought us

low, to where God is always high above us.

Consider where Romans says that we have all fallen far short of the glory of God.

When God used his power to save his people out from Egyptian slavery, God

invited the people up on a mountain in order to receive His law and direction,

but the people refused.

They had seen the glory of God and were convinced that God’s glory and

holiness would consume them like fire if they even touched the mountain due to

their sinful rebellion against God.

So Moses, as a type of Christ, went up the mountain alone on behalf of the

people.

So, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand his ground in his

holy place?

He answers beginning in verse 4: He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who

does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

To have clean hands means to be innocent in your actions.

To be pure in heart means to have all your desires, imaginations, thoughts,

hopes, and words be godly and motivated by God’s own character.

These two things go together because it is out of our heart desires that we speak

and we act.

He who does not lift up his soul to what is false, meaning you worship and trust

only what is true, you worship and trust the creator God, and never the creation.

He who does not swear deceitfully is one who is completely honest with God

and completely honest at all times with others.

You see, because we live to the Lord in that all things are His, we must be able to

ascend to the Lord and we must be able to stand our ground in the midst of His

holiness to have any hope apart from ultimate eviction, banishment, and

destruction.

But, our great problem is that none of us qualifies.

Clean hands, pure heart, always only trusting in the Creator and nothing else,

completely honest with God and others always?

As we feel the weight of our own sin and rebellion, we get desperate.

Is there any hope? Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand his

ground in his holy place?

You and I do not come close to qualifying on our best day. So is there a man who

can qualify?

Jesus’ statement brings answer to this most important of questions in

John 3:13 ESV

13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the

Son of Man.

While we were still sinners unable to ascend the hill or stand our ground,

God sent his son, descended from Heaven.

Philippians 2:6–7 ESV

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing

to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born

in the likeness of men.

We flesh and blood humans who make up mankind needed a flesh and blood

human who could represent us in ascending the hill and standing his ground

before God.

But we needed that human to perfectly qualify with perfectly clean hands, pure

heart, trusting fully in God alone, and being completely honest before both God

and man.

So, God the Father, sent God the Son to humble himself and take on flesh,

experiencing the weakness of our flesh in every way yet without sin, because He

is God.

Jesus is fully God and fully man, fully man qualifying him to represent humanity,

and fully God qualifying Him to ascend the hill and stand His ground in the

holiness of God.

Verse 5: He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God

of his salvation.

The original word for receive is the same word used for lift up in verse 4.

So, if there were one who could qualify to ascend the hill and stand his ground,

he would not lift up his soul to what is false and trust in things that are not God,

Instead, he would lift up blessings from the Lord and righteousness from the

God of His salvation.

So, if there is one who could ascend the hill and stand his ground, he could

uphold blessings, righteousness, and salvation for others.

But who is it that would receive the blessings of righteousness and salvation

from God lifted up and held out by the God man?

Verse 6: Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the

God of Jacob. Selah

In the Psalms, “selah” is always a tool we should use to pause and consider

what has just been said.

Notice, those who would receive the blessings of righteousness and salvation

from God that is being lifted up and held out are not described as doing

anything to earn it.

Instead, they are described as those who seek him.

Those who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

If you read of Jacob in the book of Genesis, you know that he made a mess of his

life in many ways.

Jacob certainly did not have clean hands or a pure heart.

He trusts in all kinds of false things of the world, and he was known for his deceit

and trickery.

Yet, God is not ashamed to call himself the God of Jacob because God made

promises to Jacob,

And Jacob wrestled with God,

And God broke and humbled Jacob,

And by the end of his life, Jacob blessed all of his sons and encouraged them to

wait for the salvation of the Lord.

Through the sin and brokenness of Jacob’s life and through the consequences

sin, God brought Jacob to a place of seeking him and trusting Him alone.

You see, through the sin and destruction that our sinful lives cause, God steps in

and brings conviction of sin in our hearts, and we wrestle with that conviction to

the point that it breaks us and leaves us broken, and in our brokenness, God

steps in and offers promise of blessings, righteousness, and salvation, and if we

will look and seek that salvation by repentance and faith, bowing the knee to

Jesus as the Lord of life, He is not ashamed to call Himself your God, and you

will receive the blessings, righteousness, and salvation being held out to you by

the God man who has ascended the hill and stood his ground.

Christopher Ash writes, “This Psalm portrays one flawless man bringing a whole

generation, a new community, of men and women with him, covered by his

righteousness and heirs of his blessing.”

Ephesians 1:3 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in

Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Jesus ascends to God and brings us with him.

3. Jesus Is The King Of Glory Who Has Conquered Our

Enemies On Our Behalf

Verse 7: Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the

King of Glory may come in.

I want you to consider with me how each part of the gospel of Jesus Christ

answers the most important questions of life and existance.

What does sinful man need to ascend the hill of a holy God?

We need a perfect man, a God-man.

So, God’s son is sent to earth, born of a virgin, meaning he is not represented in

Adam’s line of sin and death.

What qualities must he have? Clean hands, a pure heart, trust in God alone,

completely honest with both God and man, which is all typified in Jesus’ life and

ministry.

Who will take on the just punishment of God toward our sin and die for our sin

which leads to death? Jesus was crucified, suffered the wrath of God on the tree,

and died in our place for our sin.

Who will defeat the power that sin, Satan, and death hold over us as rebellious

sinners? God rose Jesus from the grave in the resurrection defeating the power

of sin, Satan, and death.

Who will ascend the hill of God and stand their ground before His holiness? The

resurrected Jesus ascended to Heaven in his physical body as the resurrected

God man.

At the gates of the New Jerusalem, at the gates of that eternal city, at the gates

of Heaven, who can open the gates wide for man to dwell with God? The King of

Glory, fully man and fully God, is qualified to open the gates of the eternal city

wide and to be the first man in physical body to boldly approach the thrown of

God and sit at His right hand as the King of Glory.

It was way back in the Garden of Eden when mankind fell into sin that we were

evicted from God’s garden and the way back to the tree of life and the presence

of God was shut.

It was at the ascension, after Jesus gave his disciples the great commission then

they saw him ascend back to heaven, that Jesus came to the gates of the

heavenly city and declared the gates open for the second Adam, the better

representative for humanity, the God man, to enter into the great city of God

and to invite all who seek Him in repentance and faith to follow after him into

the city of God where God dwells with man.

The idea of the command to the gates to lift up your head seems to be this idea

to look up and see, witness the first man who is qualified to have the gates open

before him and to enter boldly.

Lift up your head and see not only the first man to enter the gates of heaven, but

look up and see the generation of those who seek him being ushered in as the

redeemed of God, the church and bride of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Paul wrote:

Ephesians 3:10 ESV

10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made

known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

See the King of glory who is strong and mighty in battle. Behold Him with the

eyes of your heart!

He who waged war against every sin, every evil, every spiritual force that was

hellbent on ruining God’s plan and God’s creation,

Every sin, evil, and spiritual force that was hellbent on leaving you in your sin

leading to death and destruction outside of the good presence of God.

The one who has defeated every act of our unclean hands, and every desire of

our impure hearts,

Who has defeated the trust that we have put in things created, and every lie we

have ever believed or spoken against our God, against ourselves, and against

others.

You see, one of the greatest needs we have as followers of Jesus who are are

presently redeemed saints, but also still sinners and sufferers, is to daily, hourly,

even minute by minute look again to the glory of our great King the Lord Jesus,

to seek him through faith in His word, prayer in intimate relationship, gathering

with God’s people, sitting under the word preached in order to be reminded of

the great victory that He has already won for us.

And to find hope in the soon coming day of the Lord.

And to find freedom from guilt and shame for present sin by confession,

repentance, and trust in the glorious Son who sits at the right hand of the Father

interceding for you.

See, we are tempted to believe that guilt and shame are going to help us stop

sinning and say no to sin, but it’s actually the opposite that is true.

Guilt and shame lead us to say: well, I’ve sinned anyway! What’s the point?

It is only when you understand that Jesus has defeated your guilt and shame

that you now have the freedom to step out of the prison of guilt and shame, and

walk in the light of God’s freedom and ways empowered by the victory He has

already won for you.

You may be dealing with some heavy consequences due your sin and the sin of

others.

Let me remind you that while the consequences of sin in this life are real, and

heavy, and lead to real brokenness and loss, God is using all of those things to

lead you into deeper repentance.

What a grace it is that the Lord would show you the consequences of our

unclean hands and impure hearts now!

What a grace it is that the Lord would use these consequences to stop lifting up

your soul to what is false, but to learn to trust your Creator and Redeemer alone.

To lead you to be honest toward God and toward others.

And in all of it, you remember that the King of Glory, the Lord, strong and mighty

in battle, has defeated all your sin and death in his cross and resurrection,

And He has ascended to Heaven and walked through its gates with His physical

resurrected body.

And He has boldly approached the thrown of God and taken his rightful place at

the right hand of God, and He daily makes intercession for you.

He has sealed your blessing, righteousness, and salvation in heaven which

cannot ever be taken from you.

So, you seek His face. Seek the face of the God of Jacob who is not ashamed to

call Himself your God, your Lord, your lover, and your redeemer.

Walk in victory as you await the day when you will approach the gates of

Heaven, and they will lift their heads and observe as Jesus welcomes you and

you enter with Him to spend eternity in unhindered worship and praise to the

Lord of hosts, the King of glory, mighty in battle.

Trust him, confess to him, stay committed to His word and His people, cling to

the ultimate victory of Christ in every circumstance, that your soul would trust in

Him alone.