Kootenai Church Morning Worship

Who is worthy to stand in the presence of a holy God? Psalm 24 asks that question directly, and this sermon traces the answer all the way to the ascended Christ.

A guest preacher walks through Psalm 24 as the third psalm in a trio that moves from priest, in Psalm 22, to prophet, in Psalm 23, to king, in this psalm, tracing three scenes, God as creator over all the chaos of the world, the question of who may ascend God's holy hill, and the celebration of the King of glory entering through the ancient gates.

The heart of the message rests on the psalm's demand for clean hands and a pure heart. Rather than turning that standard into a burden or a checklist for earning access to God, the preacher shows that no one meets it, and that the psalm itself points forward to the one man who could, Jesus Christ, whose righteousness is credited to everyone who seeks God's face by faith. The sermon connects this psalm to the doctrine of the ascension, a truth the preacher notes is often assumed rather than celebrated, and closes with a picture of Christ enthroned, victorious, and reigning even now.

This sermon reads an ancient psalm as a portrait of the gospel, meant to produce worship rather than guilt.