Psalms 24:1-10

Psalms 1:41

Gordon Churchyard

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Who is the King of Glory?

Psalms 24

Gordon Churchyard

Pilate said to Jesus, "Are you a king?" Jesus answered, "You are right to say that I am a king". (John 18:37)

(Pilate was the Roman leader that killed Jesus.)

Psalms 24

(This is) a psalm of David

v1 The earth *belongs to the LORD.
Everything in it is his own.
The world *belongs to the LORD.
Everybody in it is his own.

v2 The LORD built it on the seas.
He *founded it on the waters.

v3 Who can go up the hill of the LORD?
Who can stand in his holy place?

v4 The person that has clean hands and a pure heart.
The person that does not worship *idols.
The person that does not believe in lies.

v5 The LORD will do good things to those people.
God will save them. He will say that they are right.

v6 They are the people that are looking for God.
They want to see the face of (the God) of *Jacob. SELAH

v7 Lift up your heads you gates (of the city).
Lift up your very old doors.
Then the king of glory will come in.

v8 Who is the king of glory?
The LORD that is strong and mighty.
The LORD that is powerful in war.

v9 Lift up your heads you gates of the city.
Lift up its very old doors.
Then the king of glory will come in.

v10 Who is the king of glory?
The LORD *Almighty.
He is the king of glory! SELAH

The Story of Psalms 24

The Jews had a box that they called the ark. This was not the ark that Noah made. Noah's ark was a ship. The Jews took their ark with them everywhere. In it were things that gave them help.

David was king of the Jews. His capital city was Jerusalem. It was a very old city. Everything in it was very old. David brought the ark into Jerusalem. He wrote a special psalm. The Jews sang it as the ark came into Jerusalem. It was Psalms 24. The story is in a part of the Bible called Samuel. Here is 2 Samuel 6:12-15; 2 Samuel 6:17.

v​12 David brought the ark of God to Jerusalem. There was a lot of happy noise.

v​13 When they had carried the ark a few metres, David made a sacrifice. He sacrificed a bull and a calf.

v​14 David danced before the LORD with all his power. He wore a linen shirt.

v​15 David and all the Jews brought the ark of the LORD into Jerusalem. They shouted a lot, and some people made music on trumpets.

...

v​17 David had made a tent for the ark. They put the ark of the LORD into the tent. Then David made more sacrifices to the LORD.

word list

sacrifice (noun)~ animal (that David killed)

sacrificed (verb) ~ killed (an animal)

bull, calf ~ a male cow and a baby cow

linen ~ material for making clothes

What Psalms 24 means

Verses 1 – 2: This means that God owns everything. This is because God made everything. First he made the seas. Then he made the dry land. In verse 2, the word "it" means the dry land. The waters are seas and rivers.

Verses 3 – 6: In verse 3, the hill of the LORD is Zion. It was a hill in Jerusalem. Solomon built the temple on it. He did this after David died. The holy place was the tent with the ark in it. Later it became the temple.

In verse 4, "clean hands and a pure heart" means righteous. It means God has forgiven these people. We explain "forgive" after Psalms 1 0r 5 0r 15. Our hearts are inside us. Only God sees inside us. Only he knows if we are clean inside.

Verses 7 – 10: When the Jews brought the ark into Jerusalem, they believed that God came in with it. God was so great that they told the gates, "Lift up your heads". This means, "God is great. He cannot get under you. You must make more room". The head of the gate or door is its top. The doors were very old. Jerusalem was a city long before David came. Many kings had lived there. They were not kings of the Jews.

The Jews believed that God was their king. They believed that he went everywhere with the ark. They carried the ark through the gates. This was a picture to the Jews. It was a picture of God as king of Jerusalem. The psalm calls God "the king of glory" 4 times. God had special servants. The Jews called them priests. The priests shouted, "Who is the king of glory?" All the people answered, "The LORD!"

Something to do

1. Read the psalm aloud. When you get to SELAH, stop. We do not know what SELAH means. Perhaps it means make music. Perhaps it means think and pray. Do one of these things!

2. When you see something good in the world pray about it. Tell God about it. Tell God that you believe that he made it.

3. Make sure you have clean hands and a pure heart. This probably means:

• clean hands: people can see you are good

• pure heart:: God can see you are good

4. When you do what is not good ask God to forgive you. Tell God:

• that you are sorry that you broke his rules

• that you want him to forgive you

• that you want his help to do better

(Remember to read about "forgive" after Psalms 1; Psalms 5 or 15!)

belongs ~ what belongs to people is their own
founded ~ another word for built
idol ~ a false god: false means not true
Jacob ~ another name for Israel
Jacob ~ another name for the Jews

Jacob, Israel ~ the seed of Jacob and Israel means the Jews
almighty ~ stronger than anyone else