Lift Up Your Heads | Psalm 24 | Morning Psalms & Prayer

Watch This Episode on Psalm 24

In this Morning Psalms & Prayer reflection, Pastor Mark Groen walks through Psalm 24, exploring how its central question—“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?”—ultimately points us to the risen and ascended Christ. This short devotion highlights Jesus as the One with clean hands and a pure heart, the true King of Glory who entered heaven on our behalf. With pastoral warmth and biblical clarity, this episode encourages confidence in prayer and deep gratitude for our ascended Mediator.

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Good morning and welcome to Morning Psalms and Prayer for Monday, July 6th. We begin with a prayer for illumination from Hughes Oliphant Old. Blessed you are, Lord, great God. Blessed you are, eternal God, in times past and yet today.

You have spoken in the past and your people have been guided through all kinds of wildernesses and supported in all kinds of exiles and tribulations. Speak to us today in the midst of our own peculiar confusions. Speak to us through your law and give us a sense of order and direction. Speak to us through your gospel.

Transform us by your grace. Renew us in hope, for yours is the future, even more than the past. All right, we are in Psalm 24. This is one of my absolute favorite psalms.

I look forward to not only reading it, but talking about it. It's just a beautiful, beautiful psalm. And here we go. Verse 1, hear the word of the Lord.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

He will receive blessings from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. Who is this King of Glory?

The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts.

He is the King of Glory. So I want to start off with verses three and four: who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. You know, when we read that, we might skim over it. But when you stop and you think about who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, who can go in the presence of God? Who can stand in the holy place?

Well, here's the answer. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. Well, that's a problem. You know, as a sinner, my hands are not clean and my heart is not pure.

I have lifted up my soul to what is false. I have been deceitful. So, what's the story for me? Can I ascend to the hill of the Lord?

That's an important question. We are forced to deal with whether or not our hands are clean and whether our hearts are pure. And that's something we should do every day. You know, obviously we have an assurance in Christ that through Him our sins are forgiven.

But we need to ask ourselves, are we on our own, apart from the work of Christ for us, able to ascend the hill of the Lord? Can we stand in the Holy Place? The answer is no. But the beauty of this psalm is that it gives us the ultimate answer.

Essentially, what's happening is, who can go before God? Well, not anyone who doesn't have clean hands and a pure heart. So what are we going to do? Well, suddenly, what we have is, okay, open the doors now, because there is someone who can come.

Lift up your heads, O gates. The King of Glory may come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord is strong and mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O gates. The King of Glory may come in. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts.

He is the King of Glory. That is the one who can go before the Lord. Who is this?

Well, clearly this psalm is messianic. Clearly, this psalm is pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot go before the face of God on our own. We need somebody who is that person.

And so, the psalm is saying here, like I said, open the doors now. Let in the King of Glory. He has pure hands. He has a pure heart.

He is able to go before God. And so we trust in this King of Glory, this Jesus, this Messiah that came and suffered and died, lived a perfect life and suffered and died in our place to bear the wrath of God on our behalf. And that is unbelievably good news that somebody is able to go before the Lord, somebody who has clean hands and a pure heart. And the best part of it all is he is our representative.

He's the one who reconciles us to God. He is the one who lets us, that we're united to, and so that allows us to go into the presence of God. We can't go before God apart from the righteousness that we receive from Christ. We don't think about that often enough, in my opinion, that when we pray, we are able to trust that God hears us because we have a mediator at the right hand of the Father, the one who went through the gates, that went through the door, and was at the Father's right hand.

Who ascended to be on high, not simply to be a despot or to be in charge. No, no, that's not what he did. He came to rule on high on behalf of his people as a mediator. And so when we pray, we trust that the King of Glory, Jesus Christ, is at the Father's right hand advocating for us.

He's at the Father's right hand interceding for us. That is good news, and I think it's something that we forget. And so I hope that we're able to think of this psalm today and think about that amazing truth that we have an advocate who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not been deceitful. And so because of him, because we're united to him, we get to go with him to the right hand of the Father and we have an advocate for us there.

And so may we today, as we pray, whether it's with this video or when we pray ourselves, even if it's at our meal, may we remember the good news that we have one who was able to go before the Father. And because we're united to Him, we have that same access and we can call Him Father. Let us go to prayer. Gracious Father, we praise you because the earth is yours and the fullness thereof.

You rule over the world and all that dwell in it. As we come to you today, we pray that you would sanctify us, that we would have clean hands and a pure heart, and that we would not lift our souls to what is false, that we might receive a blessing from you. And we know that we have been infinitely blessed because of the work of Jesus for us, in which you gave us your righteousness and your salvation. Today we humbly ask that through your word and spirit you would make us a people of prayer.

We ask that we would go to our knees and trust that you are in control. Take our anxiety and our worry and replace it with prayerful patience. Give us a certain trust that you hear our prayers and confidence that because Jesus is at the right hand of the Father that we have access to the throne of God. Help us to understand the privilege and preciousness of being able to speak to the Almighty and to know we are being heard.

As we begin our day and our week, we dedicate our lives to you, for you are the King of Glory. We lift up our heads and throw open the doors to let you into our lives today. You are the Lord of hosts and the King of Glory, and we give you praise because you are eternally worthy of it. We pray this all in the precious name of Jesus.

Amen. All right. Have yourself a very blessed Monday. Take care.

Looking for more on Psalm 24 and the Ascension of Christ?

Watch the sermon Receive Your King for a deeper look at how Christ’s victory and glory are proclaimed through this powerful psalm.

For more reflections on Christ’s reign and return, visit our Ascension of Christ page, where you’ll find sermons, devotions, and an in-depth FAQ.