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. —Psalm 24:3-4
For so long I thought that “those who have clean hands and a pure heart” meant I had to be good enough, moral enough, and try hard enough to be God-honoring in order to “ascend the hill of the Lord”, which means to be in His presence, and have closeness with Him.
But that is completely not true in light of what Scripture teaches. It teaches that my righteousness is “as filthy rags”, and that “I was an enemy of God”, a “child of wrath”, “dead in my trespasses”, “fallen short of the glory of God”, “slave to sin” (unable to choose good), “son of Adam” (I am inherently stained with sin, born into its slavery), and that righteousness is something I cannot attain on my own because it is “not of yourselves so that no man can boast”.
Yet, it is Christ’s righteousness imputed to us through faith that we are brought near to God. Indeed, “in and through faith in [Christ] we may approach God with freedom and confidence” (Eph 3:12).
See, every other religion tells us that we have to be good enough, better, and better still to warrant God’s acceptance, love, or favor. But see, this does not work. This approach does not produce love in our hearts for God— it makes us fearful, brings us into despair, and enslaves us into the constant pressure and burden of trying to measure up. But in Christianity, God gives His Son’s righteousness to us and swallows the death associated with our sin.
Thus, because of Christ, and by connection to Christ through faith, we stand already accepted, forgiven, redeemed, reconciled, loved, blessed, secured, assured, valued, and purposed. Indeed, we have “every spiritual blessing” by our being connected with Christ (Eph 1:3-14). Therefore, we are free from the burden of measuring up, and free from the enslavement of sin that brings gaping aches into our souls when we try to find acceptance, freedom, love, and peace apart from God. In fact, the gospel has already secured for us what our hearts really, fundamentally desire and go after when we sin anyways—acceptance, freedom, satisfaction, peace, and security—and we find these in God’s incredible love for us.
Thus, those “who may ascend the hill to the Lord” are indeed, those with “clean hands and a pure heart”. It is they who are united with Christ, those who have been cleansed by Jesus’ atonement by his making propitiation for our sins, and those who depend and boast in what Christ’s righteousness has fully achieved for us—knowing all the while that this is a “the gift of grace” that is not of ourselves—who will ascend the hill to be with God both now and forever. In fact, the following verse sums it up with clarity:
5 He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from God of his salvation.
If we are in Christ, we are seen by God with Christ’s pure heart and clean hands.
So let us ascend the hill.
