Psalm 24 NLT
Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior. Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob. (3-6)
Only the holy can stand in the holy place and there is no holiness apart from Jesus. It is He who makes our hands and hearts pure. It is He who gives us integrity of words and a desire to worship Yahweh alone. We gain all of the Lord’s blessing and we have a right relationship with God through Christ alone. Those who are in Christ are those who continually seek Him and worship in His presence. It seems our world is filled with people who claim to be His children and yet do not resemble Him in any way.
We have a saying here on the mission field, “Everyone wants to speak another language, but few actually want to learn another language.” In other words, we all wish we could be fluent and it is the dream, but there are only a few who actually put in the hard work to make that a reality. Until you do that, you are just wishing and dreaming but it won’t happen. In the same way, there are a lot of people who say they want to “climb the mountain of the Lord,” but not many who will actually stand in that holy place. Many think the right church, or the right words or the right “something” will get them there someday. You can tell who will be on that mountain in the future by how they are standing today. Wishing doesn’t make it so; it takes a relationship with Christ. Those who will be with Him in Heaven are those who are already “standing in the holy place” by abiding in the Holy One right now.
