Psalm Chapter 24

Psalm 24: The Gates That Must Grow Taller

The psalm opens with the largest claim a human mouth can make: the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, and everyone on it. One might expect such a vast beginning to lead somewhere equally vast — a tour of the heavens, perhaps, or a catalog of nations. Instead it asks the smallest and most personal question in the Psalter: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place?" The cosmic zooms suddenly to the intimate, to clean hands and a pure heart, to whether you and I might actually come near. And then, as if from outside the walls of the city, the psalmist throws his voice and begins to shout at the architecture itself. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates! Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors!" The gates must grow taller, because the King of glory is too large for a low door. Everything in us that has grown stooped and small — our expectations, our imaginations, our sense of what is possible — must rise up on its tiptoes to let Him in.

00:00 The Earth Is the Lord's
00:15 Who Shall Ascend the Hill
00:30 Clean Hands and a Pure Heart
00:45 The Generation That Seeks Him
01:00 Lift Up Your Heads, O Ye Gates
01:15 The Lord Strong and Mighty
01:30 The King of Glory Shall Come In