I’ve been soaking myself in the psalms lately. Something about the deep cry of the heart, the honest searching and longing from the depths of the Psalms is entirely where my heart has been. Strangely enough, it’s not a book of the Bible that I’ve spent months dwelling mainly in before. The heart wrenching cries for God, exalting Him, praising Him, these beautiful hymns bring soothing to the heart, as the ancient writings from the 10th to 5th century BC resinate and awaken our souls to the majesty of God and the cry from man for God, that has spanned generations. Songs of thanksgiving, praise, petitions. Songs of ascent and of the majesty of creation!
Psalm 24 (ESV), one of my favorites Psalms, is a Psalm of David that says , “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 blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
David is giving instruction here that is clearly saying, before you come before God, before you come to worship Him and pray to Him, seek to stand in His holy place, you better make sure your hands and heart are pure. This is also necessary in order to receive blessing from the Lord.
David is giving instruction here that is clearly saying, before you come before God, before you come to worship Him and pray to Him, seek to stand in His holy place, you better make sure your hands and heart are pure. This is also necessary in order to receive blessing from the Lord.
Why is it so important to do this? Because we are in process of being sanctified. The word Sanctification (Gk. hagiasmos) means to make holy, or morally and spiritually pure, separated from evil and dedicated to God, consecrated. To be sanctified means we have to be separated from sin. It is a process, that because of Jesus Christ’s victory over death on the cross, we are set free from sin’s power. He died so that we can be freed by Him, but now we must choose to live in the freedom He provided. (Romans 6:18). Daily, we have to examine our hearts and cry out to the Holy Spirit to search us, to purify us, and continue this process of sanctification.
Think of all the interactions and things that happen throughout your day that can start off as a tiny seed in your mind and then take root in your heart. How many opportunities do we have to take offense or get angry? Someone cut you off while you were driving. You had to wait in a long line. The cashier was rude to you when you checked out. Someone didn’t return your text or your phone call. Someone didn’t like your post on facebook. Your spouse didn’t tell you they loved you today. What about relationships at church? Relationships at work? Your family? We are balancing so many relationships and interactions that absolutely require the work of the Holy Spirit to continuously empower us to walk in purity and righteousness.
And this isn’t just about the “big” sins. And I say “big” in quotes because our human minds love to try and measure and judge the level of sins committed. What I mean is keeping a pure heart isn’t just about the “big” or “obvious” sins of not lying, committing adultery, or murder. It’s about diligently keeping our hearts pure, especially from the sneaky sins that can hide in our hearts. These types of sins take consistent tending on our part to guard our heart and stay pure! We have to continually pull those bitter roots out so those weeds don’t spread. They are also the types of sins that the enemy loves, because of how quickly those weeds can spread and wreak havoc in our hearts!
God is holy. He is pure. And we are humans who, because of sin in our lives, need a savior to make a way for us to have access to God. And it’s only through Jesus Christ that we have the power over sin in our life, which is why we must daily keep our hearts pure. God made a way through Jesus Christ for us to access Him, to “ascend the hill of the Lord”, but we have to allow the continuation of the Holy Spirit to purify us as we continue up the mountain towards him, or it will allow an opportunity for the devil!
Paul says to the church in Ephesus in 4:26-27 “…do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Clearly there is some direction here on the necessity for us to examine our hearts DAILY if we are to not let the sun go down upon our anger or we will give opportunity to the devil!
Also, in 4:31-32, he says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along will all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
The MSG translation says it this way, “Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”
The Passion translation says this, “Lay aside bitter words, temper tantrums, revenge, profanity, and insults.”
Between these three translations, this is a pretty thorough list! And it’s all summed up at the end, forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. We have to make a choice to forgive. It’s not a feeling, it’s not an emotion, it’s a choice. And only once we make that choice can our healing begin. How can we be followers of Christ and be burdened and imprisoned by unforgiveness? It’s the very trap the enemy wants you to get in so he can chain you to the bitterness that will grow rampant in your heart. How can you ascend the hill of the Lord when you are chained to bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness in your heart?
In Psalm 51:10, David writes, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Somehow, it seems, even though the Psalms are quoted and used immeasurably, the cry to “create in me a clean heart” and “wash me thoroughly from my iniquity” (Psalm 51:2) aren’t quite on the top of the list. I don’t see many magnets or posters with Psalm 51:2 on them! Interestingly enough though, the words “iniquity” and “iniquities” are actually listed almost 60 times in the Psalms! Iniquity is just another word for sin. So that list from Ephesians 4:31-32 is Paul warning us from allowing iniquity in our lives. He says, “put it away” from us.
We love to gravitate towards the majestic Psalms, or the Psalms that speak of God rescuing us and being our help, such as Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd…” or Psalm 121:1 “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”, which are beautiful and stunning, but we forget the importance of recognizing iniquity in our lives on a daily basis so we can become more like the very one in whom we stand in awe of, that the Psalms so beautifully glorifies, the creator of the heavens and the earth!
…we forget the importance of recognizing iniquity in our lives on a daily basis so we can become more like the very one in whom we stand in awe of, that the Psalms so beautifully glorifies, the creator of the heavens and the earth!
David was said to be a Man after God’s own heart, so I would suggest if we want any chance at seeking the heart of God, it would be good for us to heed his advice and recognize the importance of clean hands and pure hearts.
“Prove me, oh Lord, and try me; test my heart for integrity …” is David’s cry in Psalm 26.
One of the greatest acts of worship you can do before the Lord is to forgive those who have trespassed against you and to submit your heart before Him to be purified and cleansed. Do away with unforgiveness, resentment, anger, bitterness, wrath, jealousy and slander.
In Matthew 5:8 Jesus says during the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Perhaps you’ve wondered why you haven’t seen your breakthrough or have felt stuck in moving forward. It very well may be that the Lord is calling you to cleanse your heart. If you daily do away with iniquities in your heart and keep your heart pure before the Lord, you will make a way for His blessing in your life!
Pray with me. Father God, search me and know me. Examine my heart, I submit to you to make known to me any iniquity, any unforgiveness, wrath, anger, resentment, jealousy…anything that is unclean. I lay it down before you. Let me be one who will ascend your hill and see your glory come through me!
