From Glory To Glory: The Story of Christ In Psalms 15–24 (Part 15): Psalm 24 And The King’s Exaltation

by on April 18, 2026 | Comment

What is, at least in experience and emphasis, the pivotal moment in a wedding ceremony? When the bride enters and walks down the aisle. What is the most discussed aspect of our culture’s superficial awards ceremonies? The red carpet. What is the most forcefully hyped moment of any college football game? When the home team bursts onto the field. Whether consciously or subconsciously, we grasp that entrances have great importance. Especially when an event is of special significance, the entrance seems to matter all the more as arguably the most quintessential moment of celebration and commemoration.

Psalm 24 is about the entrance of the king of God’s people. As this section of the Psalter in Psalms 15–24 is framed by the question of who may ascend God’s holy mountain to dwell blessedly in his presence, Psalm 24 is about that entrance into God’s mountain in victorious righteousness. It is the culmination of every concern and theme that we have seen about how to enter God’s presence as well as about the king throughout these ten psalms.

The Psalms are about Christ but also about instruction in the godly response to the full spectrum of emotion and experience that we encounter in the Christian life. Psalm 24 teaches us about what our response should be to God as our Creator and Redeemer. We should realize that he owns us but also that we should rejoice at his work for us. The main point is that the God who owns creation redeems his elect.

This installment is really the first part of one continuous but lengthy exposition of Psalm 24. It places Psalm 24 in canonical context and then considers Psalm 24:1–2. The next essay will complete my exposition of Psalm 24 and bring this series on Psalms 15–24 to a close.

 

Context

Psalm 24 has three basic parts. Verses 1–2 establish the Lord’s universal dominion. Verses 3–6 address what is required to stand in blessing before this God who owns everything. Then, verses 7–19 show this covenant Lord entering triumphantly into his own city.1 One commentator believes, wrongly, that this psalm, with its shift from the whole world to the Lord entering the city, suggests that God truly travels.2 The foolishness in this suggestion is that it misses the whole theme in the Psalter so far about how to dwell blessedly in God’s presence. Psalm 24 highlights how we get to be in God’s presence for blessing because God comes near to us. He does not travel since he is omnipresent. But he does draw near relationally and for blessing his people.

The other side of this same point is that Psalm 24 is the climax of a narrative arc that has been building throughout Psalms 15–24. Both Psalm 15 and Psalm 24 raise this critical question about who may ascend God’s holy mountain and who gets to be welcomed there to dwell before him in blessing. This question has framed each of the psalms in between.3 The answer that has developed is that Jesus Christ is this faithful king who gets to ascend God’s holy mountain because his perfectly righteous life merits entry there. Inasmuch as Christ lived, died, and rose from the grave, his victorious entry into God’s holy hill was not for himself alone. Rather, he would bring the whole company of his people with him. This entry into God’s mountain goes back to Psalm 2 and the blessing for all who take refuge in this king (v. 12).4

Psalms 15–24 told the story of Christ’s incarnate ministry two times, first backward, starting with his ascension and ending with reflection on his perfect life. Then, we heard the same story of his life again in forward order. Psalm 24 culminates that story with a statement of his exaltation. As Christopher Ash explains, “In Psalm 24, this grand psalm, the ascending Christ goes up the hill of the Lord as the flawless man, leading a great assembly behind him, and enters heaven itself as the conquering King of glory and Lord Most High, God the Son returning to God the Father’s right hand, the second Adam ascending to govern the universe.”5 What is the significance of this victory?

In the previous installment, Psalm 23 gave a snapshot of Christ’s experience during his three days in the grave. Psalm 23 was, then, the low point of Christ’s humiliation. Now, Psalm 24 describes his exaltation, combining both his resurrection and ascension into one holistic event where his victory is made clear. As Saint Augustine says, Psalm 24 is “dealing with the glorification and resurrection of our Lord, which took place early in the morning on the first day of the week, now called the Lord’s day.”6 Christ ascends from the grave in resurrection glory and then ascends to heaven in glory to perform his work of intercession.

Psalm 24 is, then, about Christ’s victory over death. It is a high point in the story told in the Psalter so far. Psalms 3–14 are about revolt against God. Now, Psalms 15–24 record God’s response to that revolt in describing what kind of king God is sending against it.7 Psalm 24 is about how we should rejoice that the God who owns us has also delivered us.

Creator

David wrote Psalm 24 about the entry of a king coming back victorious from battle. At least by the end, we understand that some serious and significant battle has occurred.8 He reflects on the king’s return as he lives before God. So it celebrates the king’s triumphant return.

Psalm 24:1–2 sets up the stakes in David’s reflection. Why is it so important that the king has won this battle?

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,

the world and those who dwell therein,

For he has founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the rivers.

The opening statement of God’s sovereign dominion makes for a tension in the story that the Psalter is telling.

We have heard about how the nations are still raging against God and his king. The Psalms opened on the note that the blessed one is the one who walks faithfully before God as well as how God has his king and so laughs as the nations rage. Then, Psalms 3–14 focus on how the world is full of tragedy because the nations do rage and ask what we are to make of God’s promise as a result. This raging was true as we came to Psalm 15, and it is true in the world around us today.9

In this respect, Psalm 24 gives us the response to what we should think as we perceive the nations rage viciously. We have this statement that God owns everything, and verse 2 explains the reason why God’s sovereign ownership over all things must be true.10Namely, God created it all. It belongs to him because he made it.

In 1 Corinthians 10:26, Paul cited Psalm 24:1 to demonstrate why no food can be inherently immoral.11 The immoral aspect is our wrong use of the good things that God has made. Thus, Paul highlighted the connection between the creation and ethics, which is exactly the transition that happens in Psalm 24:3–6.12

As a starting point in another reflection about coming before God, Psalm 24:1–2 reminds us of the significance of coming before the Lord. We can easily develop a domesticated and soft view of God. We live in a world that invents and reinvents their view of God to fit what they want. The biblical God, the God in the Psalms, is often too intense for them. They wish that they could just pull him down, making him into a cuddly grandfather in the sky. God is certainly loving to his people, and we do not want to deny that reality or to take away from God’s tenderness.

This loving-kindness is still only part of the truth. He is the God who made everything! What makes God’s love for us astounding is precisely that we should not presume upon it. Rather, God is the divine ruler of all things and so has the right to ask of us whatever he wishes. In view of the Creator God who owns all things because he made them, who is permitted to ascend into his presence and stand before him in blessing?

Conclusion

The first part of our exposition of Psalm 24 closes on that cliffhanger question. The context of God as the magnificent Creator forces us to think again, as we began in Psalm 15, about who is allowed to come before this amazing God. We will begin with Psalm 24’s answer to this question in our final installment.

Notes

  1. Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary (Crossway, 2024), 2:277; James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Lexham Academic, 2021), 1:298–99; John Goldingay, Psalms, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms (Baker Academic, 2006–8), 1:356; Carissa Quinn, The Arrival of the King: The Shape and Story of Psalms 15–24, Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology (Lexham Academic, 2023), 49–52.
  2. Goldingay, Psalms, 1:362.
  3. Quinn, Arrival of the King, 52–53.
  4. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:302–3.
  5. Ash, Psalms, 2:277.
  6. Saint Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, vol. 1, trans. Maria Boulding OSB (New City Press, 2000),
  7. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:300.
  8. Ash, Psalms, 2:279; Hamilton, Psalms, 1:307; and Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms (Kregel Academic Press, 2011–16), 1:577.
  9. Ash, Psalms, 2:278.
  10. John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries (Baker, 2009), 4.2:402–3; Ross, Commentary on the Psalms, 1:578; and Hamilton, Psalms, 1:298, 301.
  11. Ash, Psalms, 2:281.
  12. Ash, Psalms, 2:282.

© Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

You can find this whole series here.

RESOURCES

Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

Subscribe to the Heidelblog today!


Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comments are welcome but must observe the moral law. Comments that are profane, deny the gospel, advance positions contrary to the Reformed confession, or that irritate the management are subject to deletion. Anonymous comments, posted without permission, are forbidden. Please use a working email address so we can contact you, if necessary, about content or corrections.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.