From Glory To Glory: The Story Of Christ In Psalms 15–24 (Part 16): Psalm 24:3–10 And The King’s Exaltation (Part 2)

by on April 25, 2026 | 2 Comments

The previous installment in this series reflected on the significance of making an entrance. We see in Psalm 24 the importance of an entrance before God since God’s presence is where blessing is found forevermore. In considering Psalm 24:1–2 about God as the creator who owns all things, we were brought to amazement by considering God’s tremendous glory. In light of his glory as creator, we are forced to ask, Who can come before this God to receive blessing? We ended the previous essay on this cliffhanger question. We pick up with this question.

Church

The answer to this question appears in verses 3–6. The psalmist asks in verse 3,

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?

And who shall stand in his holy place?

Something reverent, somber, and serious ought to strike us about the asking of this question. The modern world does not even think to ask this question. Instead they think, “Of course I come before God. Wouldn’t he be delighted to have me?” This modern question is not the Bible’s question, though. The psalmist asks, “Who can even come before this God?” He answers,

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.

Such is the generation of those who seek him,

who seek the face of the God of Jacob. (vv. 4–6)

The three sections of Psalm 24 can seem disconnected: creation, coming before God, and God’s entry through his city’s gates. Yet there is a real flow of logic in that creation, as the scope of God’s dominion, draws our attention back to problems that began at the fall. Earlier in this section of the Psalter, Psalm 19 reminded us about this connection in bringing together creation, God’s law, and the need for someone—namely, the king—to fulfill the creational obligations of God’s law. So this entrance question in Psalm 24:3 reminds us of concerns that the Psalms have already put before us—namely, about when a faithful Adam who can stand before God on his holy hill would enter to be the proper king over earth on God’s behalf.1 As was the case in Psalm 15, Psalm 24 repeats that the real requirement to enter God’s holy hill is true righteousness, providing a list of four criteria to ascend into the Lord’s presence.2

This section, then, tells us that the one who can enter God’s presence is the one who is truly righteous. We have to ask ourselves, Does this description really fit me? When we are honest with ourselves, we know that it does not.

This section then reminds us why it is no small thing to come before the Creator God. He is the sovereign Lord over all creation who can demand whatever he wishes by sheer virtue of being the one who made everything. Additionally, the requirement to be received with blessing into his presence is perfection—true righteousness. It reminds us that we ought not prance into God’s presence as if God has no expectations for his creatures and just rejoices about whatever we might decide to do with our lives. It is a somber and reverent thing to come before the God who made us.

But we see that the condition to come before the Creator God for blessing is righteousness. This signals that we ought to be looking for a king who furnishes this true righteousness to open the doors of heaven for God’s people to enter.

Verses 5–6 explain how we might have hope to enter God’s presence even though we do not meet the criteria of righteousness ourselves. In verse 5, blessing and righteousness stand in parallel as something that we will receive.3 Verse 6 then says that a whole generation will be coming before God. But we should realize that this is true only because a righteous king will be the one to meet these criteria and then set the captives free to enter into glory with him. As one commentator explains, “Psalm 24:3–6 indicates that the generation who seeks Yahweh’s face will be made righteous by the one who has the right to ascend Yahweh’s mountain and stand in Yahweh’s holy place.”4

This king of Psalm 24 is the one who brings a whole generation with him into blessing.5 So Christopher Ash says, “When Christ is vindicated in resurrection and ascension, his blessing can overflow to all people.”6 Since Psalm 24 presumes a great battle has occurred with the king returning in glorious victory, the fuller significance to ascend God’s mountain becomes even clearer in light of the entry that is about to occur in verses 7–10.7 The victory in view is the king winning this righteousness and blessing for his people by defeating death.

Christ is this king. As Psalm 24 unfolds, it leads us to see that Christ must be its focus. He has won his battle against sin and death by living this perfectly righteous life that is necessary to come before God. So despite dying on the cross and spending three days in the grave, he returns in exaltation by his resurrection and in his full ascension. He ascends from the grave in his resurrection and ascends all the way up God’s mountain by ascending into heaven, received in victory.

Christ now fills the earth. He owns the earth and the fullness thereof by nature as God. Still, in redemption he is reclaiming his dominion though his church and reclaims its fullness by spreading his kingdom through the gospel.8

Comfort

The last section in verses 7–10 confirm that a king has come who fulfilled that criteria to enter God’s presence for blessing. In verse 7, the psalmist exclaims,

Lift up your heads, O gates!

And be lifted up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Now we come to the critical question of the whole psalm. We have the king in view as he enters in victory. Who is he?

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD, strong and mighty,

the LORD, mighty in battle!

Lift up your heads, O gates!

And lift them up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD of hosts,

he is the King of glory! (vv. 8–10)

This announcement is about arrival in glorious victory. The striking thing is that as Psalm 24 asks, “Who gets to ascend God’s mountain?” it explains that the victorious king who will win the right to come before God for blessing will be God himself.9 We must ask, How it could ever be that God would enter before God? We must realize that Psalm 24 makes sense only if it is truly about Jesus Christ. It is the Lord who is the King of glory who gets to come before the Lord. Yahweh himself fulfills the requirements to ascend his own mountain. Hence, anyone who would enter Yahweh’s presence needs Yahweh’s own righteousness so that the gates would open to him.10

The resolution to this tension is that God himself stepped into history to be this king who would fulfill all righteousness and so open the gates into his own presence. God the Son came to earth, and we know him as Jesus Christ the Savior. He owned all creation as its maker and yet came to meet the conditions that we could not meet so that we could enter his presence for blessing.

Jesus Christ has fought the battle and won. His return to the heavenly places in Psalm 24 explains that he defeated the grave, where he laid in Psalm 23. His glorious victory means that he rose from death and stands forever in resurrection life. He has ascended to the heavenly gates to take his victory all the way to God’s presence. The purpose is to bring his generation—his elect—with him since he gives righteousness and blessing to all who take refuge in him (Ps 2:12).

Christ’s death in Psalm 22 is of great hope for us because he paid for our sins as he died. By that death, all who believe in him are forgiven. Christ’s perfect life in Psalms 19–21 offers great hope, too, because by his righteousness, which he shares with us who believe in him, he has opened the gates of heaven for everlasting life.

Still, Christ’s ascension is of immense comfort for us, and we do not think about it enough. Heidelberg Catechism 49 asks, “How does Christ’s ascension to heaven benefit us?” It answers, “First, he is our advocate in heaven in the presence of his Father. Second, we have a pledge of our own flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that Christ our head will also take us, his members, up to himself. Third, he sends his Spirit to us on earth as a corresponding pledge. By the Spirit’s power we seek not earthly things but the things above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand.”11 That second benefit stands out here as basically the point of Psalm 24. Christ has met our obligations for us and has ascended to the throne as a promise that we will join him.

Conclusion

This series has exposited Psalms 15–24 to show how they are truly about Christ in all his work for us. They tell the story of his incarnate ministry twice, first in reverse order, then forward. Accordingly, this block of psalms begins and ends on the note of Christ’s ascension in victorious glory.

The reason for telling Christ’s work twice is because his saving ministry is the answer to the provocative question that frames these psalms, Who may ascend God’s holy mountain to dwell in his presence for blessing? The one who is righteous may do so—or, the one who takes refuge by faith in the divine King who has provided this righteousness for his people to open the doors of God’s heavenly abode to us.

In this respect, Psalm 24 is not simply a repeat telling of Christ’s ascension as we read of it in Psalm 15. Psalm 24 is also the high point of the narrative arc causing us to place our hopes where they need to be in the end. When our heads hang low from the burdens of this age, when we would rather look at the ground because of the things that sit heavily on our shoulders, Psalm 24 teaches us the godly response. Lift up your head because Christ has come in victorious. Let us lift our heads to heaven itself. Christ is there. He has gone there on our behalf. He has gone in victory. He has opened the doors so that we might follow him there.

Notes

  1. Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary (Crossway, 2024), 278; and James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Lexham Academic, 2021), 1:302.
  2. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:298, 303; Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms (Kregel Academic Press, 2011–16), 1:579–82; and John Goldingay, Psalms, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms (Baker Academic, 2006–8), 1:356.
  3. Ash, Psalms, 2:283.
  4. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:305.
  5. Ash, Psalms, 2:284.
  6. Ash, Psalms, 2:283.
  7. Ash, Psalms, 2:279; Hamilton, Psalms, 1:307; and Ross, Psalms, 1:577.
  8. Saint Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, trans. Maria Boulding OSB (New City Press, 2000), 1:246; and Carissa Quinn, The Arrival of the King: The Shape and Story of Psalms 15–24, Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology (Lexham Academic, 2023), 58–59.
  9. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:301, 308; Quinn, Arrival of the King, 59–60; and Goldingay, Psalms, 1:361.
  10. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:306–7.
  11. Chad Van Dixhoorn, ed., Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms: A Reader’s Edition (Crossway, 2022), 304–5 (emphasis added).

© Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

You can find this whole series here.

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2 comments

  1. Sincere thanks to Dr. Perkins for this truly inspirational exposition. It has opened my eyes to see the beauty of these Psalms in a way I had not recognized. Thanks also to the HRA for providing this forum to bring this teaching to us.

    Reply ↓

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