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4/15 Reading Portions: Leviticus 19; Psalm 23-24; Ecclesiastes 2; 1 Timothy 4
Psalm 24:5
He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
SALVATION
The twenty-fourth psalm is surely a prophetic psalm of the Lord Jesus Christ. David asks,
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? Psalm 24:3
He answers:
He who has clean hands and a pure heart… Psalm 24:4
There is no descendant of Adam who has ever fit that bill except for virgin-born, Spirit-conceived, Jesus of Nazareth, who is perfect, pure, and sinless in His holy humanity. Nevertheless, the psalm also applies to us who have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus, by His grace through faith in Him. First, let’s look at our verse as it applies to the Lord Jesus. Surely, Jesus did not require salvation. He, as just mentioned, was the perfect, sinless Man. Nevertheless, as God’s holy Servant, who laid aside His glory as God (Phil 2:6-7), He walked in total submission to God as a Man (Phil 2:8). Therefore, as He ministered by the Holy Spirit’s anointing and by the Father’s unbroken fellowship, Jesus received every blessing of God as well as every benefit of God’s righteousness… until Jesus went to the cross. This is what made His suffering God’s wrath so infinitely anguishing (Psa 22; Isa 53; ad al). And though Jesus did not need salvation Himself, His purchasing salvation on our behalf did not make salvation any less His. In fact, His perfect Sacrifice made salvation His and His alone for the giving. Thus, salvation can only be dispensed by Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. There is salvation in no other because no other owns salvation except Jesus. He bought and paid for salvation with every breath He took on the cross, by every terror He suffered in receiving God’s wrath, by His death on that tree, and by every drop of blood He shed to forgive sins. Because we believe, His righteousness is imputed to us, and thus, Christ secures our blessings by His salvation. Therefore, in Christ, we will ascend to the Lord’s hill; in Christ, our hands are clean, our hearts are pure, and we do not lift up our souls to what is false. We receive every blessing from Jesus, the God of our salvation. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Who shall ascend the holy hill?
But those who worship Christ;
He sav’d our souls by gracious will,
And paid sin’s utmost price.
