“Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully.” Psalm 24:3-4
Who do you invite to Christmas dinner? It can be a big question!
In times of covid it’s an even bigger question. Who will you bring into your bubble for the few days where restrictions are relaxed?
Under normal circumstances, most folk would want to get their closest families together. Or spend time with close friends. Maybe some families will invite those alone, or less fortunate to join them. But sadly that’s not the norm.
This Christmas, we’ll have plenty hand sanitiser, or anti-bacterial soap at the ready, to make sure everyone has clean hands as we sit down to our turkey.
I doubt there would be many, if anyone, willing to welcome even the closest family member to the dinner table if we knew they had been diagnosed and were highly infectious with the virus.
Psalm 24 asks the question: “Who can come close to God? Who is clean enough to stand before Him?”
And it answers: “Only someone who is truly, perfectly clean.”
None of us could wash our hands sufficiently with sanitiser to be clean enough for God’s presence. But the problem isn’t just our dirty hands. It’s our dirty hearts.
Each and every single human being who has ever existed has had a filthy, minging, stinking heart. It’s stained by sin. And sin is the most dangerous infection. Ever.
It’s not nice to think of ourselves as infected. It’s horrible to think that our infection means we’re heading for death. It would be crazy to ignore it though.
But that’s just what we do.
“I’m not that bad.” “I’m a good person really.” “At least I’m not as bad as a murderer.”
The reality though, is that even our selflessness is selfish, even our humility is pride, even our sacrifices are for our own benefit. We can’t do anything but live for ourselves. That’s the human, sinful condition.
Even when we try to do a good deed, show some kindness, or make a sacrifice, there is part of us that really wants to be recognised for it. We never operate with completely pure motives.
Ever since Adam and Eve rejected God’s commands, the whole world, and every human, has been tainted by sin.
Jesus was different though.
He was a different standard. There’s wasn’t the slightest bit of the dirt of sin on Him.
He was born to be the human we couldn’t be.
He was born to be the human that Adam should have been.
He had the clean hands. He had the pure heart.
He was born to ‘ascend the mountain of the Lord.’
He was born to ‘stand in his holy place.’
And He did.
The baby would one day carry a cross up a hill, standing before God on his people’s behalf. He did it, so that those people who trust Him could have clean hands, and a pure heart, and one day they too might be able to stand in the presence of God.
O Come Let us Adore Him!
A thought to remember: Jesus is the one human who was able to stand in the presence of Almighty God.
A question to ask: What dirt can you see in your heart? Consider how Jesus’ heart would be different.
A bit more to read: Psalm 24
A song to sing: I Stand Amazed (How Marvellous)