He will receive blessing 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. Selah
In this next section of Psalm 24, King David speaks of receiving a blessing from GOD. Pastor Albert Barnes states that receiving blessings from the LORD literally is “bear away a blessing.”
King David says of those who are allowed to ascend the Holy Mountain and stand before GOD must have “clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” They must already be Righteous Ones. I think of Esther’s fear—in the Book of Esther—of approaching the king. If she did so unbidden, the king could either invite her in or have her killed. This same fear prevented the people of Israel from approaching Mount Sinai in the desert after their rescue from Egypt.
To ascend to the Temple, to bear away a blessing from GOD, we must be pure. Again, Apostle Paul plainly states we are not at all, in any way, righteous.
Before the destruction of The Temple, we could offer a sacrifice. Annually the Chief Rabbi offered sacrifices for the people during Yom Kippur. It was all a little like wrapping a leaking pipe with tape. Works for a minute, then fails.
GOD has a plan. He had it before creation. He knows, as the Scriptures state, the heart of humankind. He provided a way. The only way to the Father is through His Son, Jesus. We, through Jesus, are now pure and are entitled to stand before GOD. We take away a blessing.
That blessing, wrote Pastor Barnes, is to “be welcomed and treated as a friend of God. The wicked and the impure could not hope to obtain this; but he who was thus righteous would be treated according to his real character, and would meet with the assurances of the divine favor. It is as true now as it was in the days of the psalmist, that it is only the man who is in fact upright and holy that can obtain the evidences of the divine approval. God will not regard one who is living in wickedness as a righteous man, nor will he admit such a man to His favor here, or to His dwelling-place hereafter.”
Thanks be to GOD our Father, and to His Son, our Savior.
LORD Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
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Jonah’s Song 