“Who is this King of glory?”
That’s the question of Psalm 24. Check it out, Psalm 24:8-10, the psalmist repeats it twice. The answer is that the King of glory is our God. He is the Lord of armies. He is the Lord victorious. He is the one who is strong and mighty, mighty in battle, worthy of all praise and honor and worship because of his supreme majesty.
All fortresses fall. All gates open. Nowhere can stand against our powerful God.
The wonder of this song is not that God is powerful and mighty and worthy of praise. Of course he is. The wonder of this song is that we get to gather and sing. That we are drawing near. That we are getting to declare, to exalt, to bring praise.
Psalm 24 describes who gets to do this wonderful praise, who gets to ascend the hill of the Lord and stand and worship.
Those who have clean hands and a pure heart. Those who never have idols. Those who don’t deceive, ever.
So why in the world are we singing this song? That’s not us. We have dirty hands and impure hearts and are constantly falling into idolatry. Deception marks us.
Thus the gospel raises its head. Who is this king? He is not just the mighty warrior, the conquering sovereign. He is also the king who loves me. For my life he bled and died.
This king himself is our peace. He has broken down in himself the wall keeping us out. As Ephesians 2:16 says, he has “reconciled us to God in one body through the cross.” We get to stand in his presence simply and only because of what he has done for us, as we trust in this king of glory.
So don’t just pass over “we gather here to bring you praise,” or “we draw near to seek your face.” What amazing statements of wonder, that we who are nothing get to gather and praise the one who is everything.
We aren’t worthy. But he loves us. And look at what he’s done. Let’s worship the king together.