OF DAVID. A psalm.
1The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
2for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters.
3Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.
5He will receive blessing from the LORD
and vindication from God his Savior.
6Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of Jacob.
Selah
7Lift up your heads, O you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
8Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
9Lift up your heads, O you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
10Who is he, this King of glory?
The LORD Almighty—
he is the King of glory.
Selah
Original Meaning
FROM THE NEED for provision in the desert and the desire to “dwell in the house of the LORD” expressed in Psalm 23, Psalm 24 moves to the city of Jerusalem and the approach to the temple itself. If Psalm 23 alludes subtly to the pilgrimage of members of the exilic or postexilic Jewish community through the dangerous “valleys” to the delights of the holy city, then Psalm 24 describes the convergence on the house of Yahweh of the seeking people.
The liturgical character of the psalm appears clearly in its antiphonal question-and-answer structure. Whether the disparate sections of the psalm constitute the actual progressive elements of a temple liturgy1 or simply bring ancient liturgical remnants together in a literary construction2 is impossible to determine. There is, however, almost universal agreement on the structural division of the psalm. Three elements describe the essential building blocks of the psalm: an introductory affirmation of Yahweh’s universal authority expressed by his creative establishment of the cosmos (24:1–2); an “entrance liturgy,” which declares standards for those who want to approach Yahweh’s “holy hill” upon which the temple sits (24:3–6); and a processional in which the “King of glory,” “the LORD Almighty,” enters the gates of the temple precincts (24:7–10). While these three segments are generally accepted, the significance of the arrangement is variously understood and forms the real crux of the interpretation of the psalm.3
The Heading (24:0)
THE HEADING CONTAINS no new terms but, like Psalm 23, is simply described as a “psalm of David.”4
Yahweh’s Creative Authority (24:1–2)
THE INTRODUCTORY VERSES affirm the authority of Yahweh over the whole earth, its contents and inhabitants, by employing creation terminology. Because he created it, the earth belongs to Yahweh. The paralleled words “earth” (ʾereṣ) and “world” (tebel) are a standard word pair, appearing often together.5 This pairing appears in several related types of contexts. In certain passages “earth” and “world” emphasize the stable character of the cosmos Yahweh creates and sustains. “The foundations of the earth are the LORD’s; upon them he has set the world” (1 Sam. 2:8). “Tremble before him, all the earth! The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved” (1 Chron. 16:30).6
In other contexts, the emphasis is on the authority that attaches to Yahweh as the creator of the cosmos. “The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it” (Ps. 89:11). “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (33:8–9).7
Closely related to the authority derived from his role as creator of the cosmos are those passages that describe Yahweh as judge over the creation and its inhabitants. “My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:9). “He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth” (Ps. 96:13; cf. 98:9).8 Because Yahweh creates and sustains the world, it is his in the sense that it depends totally on him for its continued existence—and he exercises authority and judgment over it.
The final group of passages employing ʾereṣ and tebel describe the fearful effects of the theophanic approach of the creator God into his fallen creation.9 “The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it” (Nah. 1:5). “Tremble before him, all the earth!” (1 Chron. 16:30). “Your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked” (Ps. 77:18).10
The earth is the LORD’s. In 24:1–2, it is the stabilizing influence of Yahweh’s creative and sustaining power that is primarily in view, with the extended concern to affirm his authority over what he has created. It is likely, however, that a theophanic approach of Yahweh is just under the surface of these opening verses. This explains the importance in verses 3–6 of one’s preparation for approaching “the holy place” and the description in verses 7–10 of the coming of Yahweh himself, the “King of glory.” The psalm points out that the stability and security of the creation cannot be isolated from right relationship with Yahweh. As a result, one must prepare for his coming.
Everything in it. It is not just the earth over which God exercises authority, but all that is in it. The Hebrew meloʾah is more literally “its fullness” or “what fills it.” The phrase occurs in a number of contexts that make it clear that God has authority over and concern for all creation: inanimate and animate, vegetation, animals, and humans—all are dependent on the creator for life and existence.11 This concern has implications for how we relate ourselves to the physical creation in which we live. I will return to this issue in the Contemporary Significance section.
He founded it upon the seas. Creation imagery clearly and appropriately dominates these opening verses. God’s authority over the earth and all its contents is derived from the fact that he created them. As a result, all creation is completely dependent for its very existence on his continuing mercy and grace. A similar thought is expressed in 135:6: “The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.”
In the creation narratives of ancient Mesopotamia, the seas and waters (actually, “rivers”) played an important role. The ancient chaotic waters were gods who resisted the creative movement toward stability and order associated with the younger gods. Creation took place in a context of divine struggle, in which the younger gods were the ultimate victors. Marduk, who led the younger gods to victory, used the bodies of defeated water gods, Apsu and Tiamat, to set the protective boundaries of the inhabitable world.12 As in the biblical narrative, the chaotic waters were banished to below the earth and above the heavens, where the gods controlled their introduction into the world as rain coming down or springs bubbling up.
In Canaanite myth, Yam (the Hebrew word for “sea”) is one name for the water god who struggles with Baal for control of the world; Yam’s alternate name is Judge Nahar (from the same Hebrew word for “waters” that appears in Ps. 24:2). This suggests that the Hebrews “demythologized” the Canaanite myths by removing the divine element associated with these chaotic waters subdued by Yahweh at creation.13 The connection in Psalm 24 is clear. Yahweh’s authority and concern for his creation is displayed in his subduing the chaotic waters that threaten the world and in his establishing the earth securely upon waters held in check only by his power. All creation is dependent on the mercy and grace of Yahweh, who alone sustains “all things by his powerful word” (Heb. 1:3).
Preparation to Enter the Presence of God (24:3–6)
HAVING AFFIRMED THE creative power and continuing authority of Yahweh over the whole world, the psalm now turns its gaze on the creature who would enter the presence of this creator God. The liturgical nature of the psalm becomes clearer in a series of antiphonal questions and answers. Many commentators have pictured a throng of pilgrim worshipers approaching the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, preparing to go up to participate in worship. We know that the southern approach to Herod’s temple was perforated with numerous small ritual baths in which the worshipers would cleanse themselves before approaching the holy precincts.
Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? The questions spoken here are intended to cause those who seek entrance to reflect humbly on their need for repentance and divine mercy. The liturgy is not so much a self-righteous declaration of innocence as it is a solemn admission of dependence on the merciful grace of the God, whom the worshiper approaches. It may well be that a priest (or priests) calls out these questions to those preparing to enter the temple precincts.
The setting is particularly fitting for exilic and postexilic pilgrims reaching the end of their long journey through treacherous lands and over dangerous seas to arrive at this moment of communal worship with an international fellowship. Having come from diverse nations and having survived the many perils of the journey, they were especially well situated to acknowledge—as the opening verses of the psalm do—that Yahweh is the creator Lord of the whole cosmos and all it contains.
Clean hands and a pure heart. The standard for approaching the presence of Yahweh is high but not as impossible as it might at first seem. One must first have “clean” hands. The term “clean” (naqi [“innocent”]) appears by far most frequently in the phrase dam naqi (“innocent blood”), which refers to those who are killed when they do not deserve to be. “Clean of hands” (naqi kappayim) would seem to mean those whose palms are “free” of the blood of such innocent victims. It is an outward measure of character and righteousness. Such people are “free” or “exempt” from guilt (and therefore punishment).
A “pure heart”14 shifts the issue of righteousness before God from external action to the interior nature of the person. Much as in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7), right relationship with God is determined not by obedience to an external law alone but by integrity, in which the outward acts of an individual are consistent with and flow out of an inner attitude of dependence on God. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).
Does not lift up his soul to an idol. The underlying Hebrew of BHS says literally, “. . . has not lifted up my soul [napši] to emptiness.” Most Hebrew manuscripts, however, read “his soul” (napšo) instead. A better rendering of nepeš is “self, essential being”15 rather than the traditional but misleading “soul.” Craigie translates the word as “mind,” seeking to focus on the interior allegiance of the worshiper to idols but misleading once again by the almost exclusive association of “mind” with mental processes.
The nepeš is much more than mind or soul. It is the essential integrated being that is sustained in life by the animating breath/spirit given by God. To speak to the nepeš is to seek to influence that person at the level of deepest concern. To “lift up one’s nepeš” is to offer16 one’s deepest commitment of the whole self to—in this case—“emptiness.” On the three other occasions (all in the Psalms) when one is described as “lifting up the soul,” it is always to Yahweh that the offering of self is made, and it is especially telling that Psalm 25 begins by proclaiming absolute loyalty to Yahweh: “To you, O LORD, I lift up my nepeš,” as if to offset by stark contrast the treacherous picture of 24:4.
The “emptiness” to which the integrated worshiper avoids offering himself or herself is most likely (as the NIV indicates) a foreign deity or idol. We have already seen the propensity of the psalmists to cloak references to foreign gods in terms of shame, delusion, and falsehood (4:2). As Dahood points out, a whole collection of passages confirms that šawʾ (“emptiness, vanity, falsehood”) was often used in this manner.17 Again, in a context of pilgrimage to Jerusalem from exile in foreign lands, this standard of absolute loyalty to Yahweh in the face of a real pressure to assimilate to foreign religious practices (cf. Dan. 3; 6) makes good sense.
He will receive blessing. The worshiper whose inner and outer worlds are integrated in loyalty to Yahweh “receives blessing from the LORD” (24:5). The wordplay that develops between this phrase and the preceding verse (24:4b) is subtle (especially in English translation) but significant. Instead of “lifting” (nśʾ ) himself to an idol (24:4b), the approved worshiper will “lift” (nśʾ ) himself to Yahweh (cf. 25:1). As a result, the integrated worshiper “receives” (nśʾ ) blessing from Yahweh. The Hebrew root nśʾ also plays a prominent role in the final section of Psalm 24, where it appears no less than four times in the liturgy concerning the “lifting up” of the gates and doors of the temple precinct at the approach of Yahweh the king.
Vindication. Along with blessing, the approved worshiper receives ṣedaqah (“righteousness, justice, what is right”) as well. The word ṣedaqah is a legal term that denotes a ruling by a judge regarding what should have occurred in a case under judgment. One who has fulfilled properly the expectations of justice in a case is declared ṣaddiq (“righteous”). The judge’s statement of what should have occurred is ṣedeq (“justice, righteousness”). When one is declared ṣaddiq, then one receives ṣedaqah, a public acknowledgement of compliance with the expectations in the case—or, as NIV puts it, “vindication.” In the case of the pilgrim approaching the temple precincts, the declaration gives permission to enter into God’s presence. The fact that this permission comes from “God his Savior” emphasizes that “righteousness” is granted by God, not earned by faultless compliance with external law.
Such is the generation of those who seek him. The final verse of this section can be taken as an admonition that the reader follow the path just described so as to be included in the “generation” characterized by seeking God. But this verse might also be considered the affirming liturgical response of the pilgrims as they dedicate themselves to the pursuit of right relationship with Yahweh.18 The connection of the psalm to pilgrimage is strengthened by the use here of the two verbs of “seeking”—drš and bqš—that Kraus calls “technical terms for the pilgrimage to the sanctuary.”19
The King of Glory Comes (24:7–10)
HAVING GAINED ADMISSION to the temple precincts, the gathered pilgrim worshipers anticipate the arrival of Yahweh himself. While on one level this might indicate that Yahweh had gone forth previously to lead the army of Israel to victory over the enemy, it also communicates the continuing sense that the temple can never fully contain the glory that is Yahweh; rather, it serves only as the meeting place of God and humans. As the divine “dwelling,” the temple is the place where Yahweh temporarily resides among his people and is the center from which he makes forays into his world.20
Who is this . . . ? The final four verses of the psalm (24:7–10) constitute an antiphonal liturgy of question and answer performed at the gates of the temple precinct. This ritual enactment has traditionally been associated with the return of the ark of the covenant—the visible sign of the invisible presence of Yahweh—from military victory. The language of verse 8 in particular accords well with this military tone: “The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.” The name “Yahweh of hosts” (yhwh ṣebaʾot; NIV “the LORD Almighty”) is also associated with Yahweh’s military leadership (24:10b). In this view, the victorious throng accompany the ark to the gates of the temple compound and demand entrance in a ritual liturgy calculated to emphasize the glory, strength, power, and majesty of their victorious God.
The repeated ritual questions from within the temple precincts—“Who is this king of glory?”—are not real questions of identity but serve only to delay entrance so that the claims of Yahweh can be repeated in ever more exalted form in the following verses until there can no longer be any doubt that “the LORD Almighty—he is the King of glory!” (24:10). The repeated pronouncement of “glory” in demand, question, and answer has the effect of exalting the glory of the divine king, Yahweh.21
The acknowledgment of Yahweh as “king” during the period of Israel’s monarchy would certainly have had a different effect than the same claim made during the exilic or postexilic period, when human monarchs no longer existed. As long as human kings ruled over the day-to-day affairs of Israel, there must always have been some overlap and conflict with the affirmation that Yahweh is king. Precisely to what extent human and divine kings were identified in Israel remains unclear. We do know that in the ancient Near East at large, kings were often considered the representatives on earth of the divine king. In places like Egypt and (later) Mesopotamia, the human king came to be considered divine—a god in his own right. While it is doubtful that Israel ever understood human rulers in the latter light, certainly the kings of Israel and Judah often found it difficult sharing authority with Yahweh, and conflicts consistently arose around their inability to submit their own will to that of God.
In the post-monarchical period, this claim that Yahweh is king must have taken on a decidedly different ring. Human kingship had proved itself ultimately a failure at ensuring the security and identity of the nation. Its collapse in defeat and exile raised strong questions and stringent critique of the validity of the very idea of human kings. People reached the conclusion that human kings were an ambiguously negative institution, tolerated only so long as subordinated under the kingship of Yahweh; this led to the erosion of the significance of human kingship and the exaltation of the divine kingship of Yahweh. As long as Yahweh is king, his faithful followers can live under the human rulership of any number of foreign monarchs and still maintain their loyalty and allegiance to the one true king, Yahweh.
In the present context, however, together with the preceding section setting standards for the entrance of worshipers into the presence of Yahweh, this final liturgy of divine entry into the temple represents in dramatic form the essential convergence of God and human that temple worship enacted at its core. When humans, rightly prepared in heart and action, wait for Yahweh in worship, the “King of glory” comes! That is the essential mystery of worship that this psalm celebrates. In the house of God, Yahweh deigns to be present with “the generation of those who seek . . . your face.”
Lift up your heads, O you gates. Lifting up the head is a sign of joyous anticipation and hope. When one lifts one’s own head, it is sign of the hope and joy that characterizes the person’s outlook. When one lifts another’s head, it is an indication of offering hope and joy where there is none. In 3:3, when God lifts the head of the struggling psalmist, God offers hope and joy in the midst of a threatening setting.
In our passage, the gates are instructed to lift up their heads, metaphorically announcing the hope and joy that approaches the gathered worshipers in the person of the victorious king, Yahweh. There is no evidence—archaeological or otherwise—that gates in the temple actually “lifted up.” As far as we know, they rotated horizontally on pivots in door sockets. The demand, then, is metaphorical, to announce the occasion of joy while at the same time asking for entrance.
You ancient doors. The Hebrew behind “ancient” is the venerable ʿolam (“eternity, long time”). The period of time that ʿolam represents can extend into the distant past or into the future. God is “from ʿolam to ʿolam” (90:2)—as close as Hebrew comes to talking about “eternity.” The references in 24:7b, 9b to “doors of ʿolam” may suggest the doors’ antiquity (e.g., NIV “ancient doors”) or their enduring character (e.g., REB “everlasting doors”). Kraus suggests a less likely alternative that ʿolam here refers to the transcendent doors of the heavenly dwelling of Yahweh.22 Regardless, the venerable doors of the temple are challenged to provide access in expectant hope and joy to the glorious divine warrior king, who comes to his worshiping people.
Bridging Contexts
THE EARTH IS YAHWEH’S. What does it mean that “the earth is the LORD’s”? The construction used here for the possessive is the familiar preposition le + yhwh, which is most often rendered “belongs to Yahweh.” The context in Psalm 24, however, suggests that what is at stake is not just a claim of divine possession or ownership. Such ownership could be the result of divine conquest and domination—as when a human king takes a vulnerable land and makes it his subordinate vassal.
When, however, verse 2 goes on to make a connection between Yahweh’s creation of the cosmos and his ongoing relationship to the world and its contents, the psalmist is pointing beyond God’s dominating authority to his essential role in the very origin of the world and its continued existence. What he is saying is not that we are Yahweh’s world because he has taken it for his own by power of conquest, but that the world must acknowledge its absolute dependence for being, sustenance, and continued existence on its creator and sustainer—Yahweh alone.
There is no other alternative, since there is no independent existence apart from Yahweh. To deny that all life relies totally on the sustaining power of God’s hand is to act the fool and to join those rebel nations of Psalm 2, whose futile determination to cast off divine rule brings such robust guffaws from the lips of Yahweh enthroned on high. To rebel as if one could be independent of God is to opt for “nonbeing” and is ultimately “ridiculous.” When God withholds his power, everything withers, fades, languishes, and comes to nothing (104:27–30).
The Lord comes to judge the earth. God’s relation to the world as its creator also means he has the right of judgment over it. This relationship of creation and judgment is most clearly expressed in the Yahweh malak psalms (Pss. 93; 95–99), which celebrate Yahweh as creator, king, and judge of the earth. “In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land” (95:4–5). “Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns.’ The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad . . . they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth” (96:10–11, 13).
The coming of Yahweh as king, then, as at the end of Psalm 24 and in the Yahweh malak psalms, is coupled with anticipation of judgment on the earth and its peoples. As Psalm 24 implies, Yahweh’s coming will issue either in great rejoicing for those who acknowledge their dependence on Yahweh and seek him rightly (24:3–6) or in judgment for those who do not.
Everything in the world. It is not just the earth that belongs to Yahweh, but everything in it as well. That implies that God has authority over everything in the world and that his concern is not just with human beings, or with their salvation, but with the shalom/well-being of the whole cosmos—animal, vegetable, and mineral.
This concern of Yahweh for the whole world is reflected in the legal traditions concerning the welfare of animals and the soil itself. God’s law provided for humane treatment of animals. An ox forced to grind grain in a mill could not be muzzled (Deut. 25:4). Rest was required for donkey and ox as well as humans on the Sabbath (Ex. 23:12; Deut. 5:14). The land was to be given rest every seventh year. Human blood spilled on the earth was not a matter of indifference but corrupted and polluted the land so that it was no longer useful. Pollution by human violence reached such extremes before the Flood that the deluge was as much a cleansing of the earth as a punishment of the human perpetrators (Gen. 6:5–13). Such divine concern for creation should have significant influence on how we relate to the nonhuman environment in which we live. I will return to this issue below
Contemporary Significance
LIVING IN GOD’S WORLD. If the earth is Yahweh’s because he created it, sustains it, cares for it, and judges it, we as believing followers of the creator should think in specific ways about the world and relate ourselves appropriately to it. Neither we nor the cosmos has any independent existence outside God’s will and power. To think, then, that we can act in ways that do not concern the creator or that how we use or abuse the creation is a matter of indifference to God is to join the fool in Psalm 14 in the self-deceptive denial of the existence of God.
The fact that the world is God’s creation and possession undermines all human pretensions to ownership. Israel understood this when she promulgated the Jubilee legislation. Every fiftieth year, this statute demanded, all debts were to be cancelled, and all property—in particular, land—was to revert to its original tribal allotment.23 This served to prevent any tribe or clan from becoming inordinately rich or powerful by accruing land to the detriment of others. It is not clear whether the Jubilee restoration of property ever occurred, but the effects on social relationships would be immense. The very existence of the legislation indicated the ideological understanding that the land could not in reality be possessed but only held as an agent of God.
In a different but related statute, all agricultural lands—regardless of ownership—were required to lie fallow every seventh year. This allowed the land itself to rest from labor, indicating once again that the land was not at the control and service of Israel but under the authority of Yahweh. Those who held the land did so under God’s authority and were responsible to him for the use they made of it.
The undermining of human ownership runs counter to the basic principles of capitalism, where ownership of property and the means of production are key ingredients of cornering a market, increasing demand, and commanding profitable prices. The financial news continues to be full of reports these days of attempts to monopolize commodities and products, create artificial scarcity, and thus create windfall profits. The ability of individuals or associations to manipulate or control a market is greatly inhibited when the world is seen as belonging to God.
It is the world that belongs to Yahweh, not just Israel. This means that God’s concern for the well-being of his creation extends far beyond the borders of the covenant people to include the Gentiles, the animals, and even physical creation. As God’s agents in the world, we are called to view the cosmos with God’s eyes, not through the lens of our own self-interest. How can we stockpile surplus grain when other countries are starving their way through drought? Is it ethical to allow companies to sell disease-resistant, genetically manipulated grain to Third World countries when the grain will not reseed itself, locking farmers into an endless return to the suppliers for the seed? While it is true that ethical questions are often raised and debated, it is still surprising just how often the primary justification given for decisions and actions is “national interest.” We have a long way to go to see the world as God’s world and to work for the benefit of the whole cosmos.
When the world is God’s, we are called to rely on him rather than our own power to control, exploit, and use the world to protect and benefit ourselves. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls us to give up an attitude of anxious striving and to depend on the care of God (Matt. 6:25–34). Psalm 104 makes much the same point by describing how Yahweh makes the earth fruitful so that plants, animals, and humans are satisfied with good things (104:10–16, 24–30). All are utterly dependent on his caring, for “when you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth” (104:29–30).
When we realize that our life is in God’s hands, we are emboldened to make decisions about our finances, relationships, and even the environment that are based on the well-being of the cosmos, not just personal benefit or concern. Like Christ, we should be willing to take on self-limitation, even suffering and death, in order to work for the restoration of all God’s world. Then and only then will we truly be able to say: “The earth is the LORD’S, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.”