Psalm 24 - Lift up your heads

The word ‘everything’ is a very big word. It leaves nothing out, it overlooks nothing. This is the word we meet in verse 1 of Psalm 24: ‘The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.’ This is a mind-blowing truth. There is nowhere we can go, or visit, or imagine, where the LORD does not stamp His mark of ownership. The reason everything belongs to Him is given in vs 2, it is because He created all things that He now owns all things.

This ‘big truth’ immediately leaves David feeling very small, but more than that. David looks inside his own heart, he knows he is not what he should be. How can he draw near to God? How can he find any confidence in God’s presence? ‘Vindication’ (vs 5) is a word that is to do with being found to be in the right. Psalms like these point us forward to the cross where Jesus died, because it is only there that we can find the vindication we need; God accepting us not because we are good but because we can be forgiven.

The God of the Bible is revealed to us in Jesus not as someone who treats us as we deserve, but as someone who treats us as a ‘Saviour’ (vs 5). So for the Christian we come to God with empty hands, not trying to prove that we are good but accepting and admitting that we are not. It is in seeking this God that we find peace and hope whatever our circumstances. 

Psalm 24 ends with words of praise, heads lifted up not in pride or self-reliance but in a welcome of the King of Glory, who has come to rescue His people and to give them hope in this life and for eternity.

Pray: Father the whole earth is yours. Lord I admit that I cannot know you or approach you based on my merit. I need a Saviour if I am to know you. Thank you that Jesus can be my Saviour. Help me to place all my trust in Him.