Sunday, June 9, 2013

Psalm 24:4

Copyright Ó 2013 J. Neely
Psalm 24:4

4 He that hath clean [naqiy] hands, [kaph] and a pure [bar] heart; [lebab] who hath not lifted up [nasa'] his soul [nephesh] unto vanity, [shav'] nor sworn [shaba] deceitfully. [mirmah] KJV-Interlinear

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, And has not sworn deceitfully. NASB

So, who can reside within Gods dwelling? Who can stand within Gods presence?

Only the person who has clean hands.  The hands are the instruments of our activities.  We do things with our hands.  We work, we read or hold documents, we perform tasks of every type, and we use our hands to accomplish our daily work or hobbies or tasks.

Whether our activity is good or bad, is irrelevant.  Our hands symbolize the sum total of how we do things in life.

To have clean hands, means to conduct ourselves uprightly. To deal with ourselves with honesty, to deal with others with integrity, to do work in the right way, and not take shortcuts or cheat, and so forth.

One who has a pure heart, is a reference or the inner thoughts of your soul, the activity of your thoughts.

While the hands reveal the honor of ones actions or external self, the heart reveals the honor of ones thoughts and intents or the internal self.

Your mind is constantly thinking.  The heart of the soul is the thinking pump of the soul, the activity or circulation of your constant thoughts.  If you are constantly tempted, constantly angry, constantly negative, constantly without attitude, and so forth, then your heart is not pure.  This applies to every common person on earth, without exception

Who has not lifted up his soul to vanity, refers to emptiness, the emptiness of an empty life.  To lift up ones soul is to commit oneself to a pattern of life.  To pursue vanity, to pursue self-righteousness, to pursue asceticism, to pursue lasciviousness, to pursue crime, to pursue indifference, to pursue disobedience toward God and truth, all these and more then, are a pursuit of an empty life.

Your pattern of life reveals your pursuit.

An empty life is a nothing life.  One can often times wonder if there isn’t anything more in life, and that answer is of course, yes.  If you have nothing but emptiness, then there is a great deal more, you just have to change in order to get there.

But, you cannot relate to God when you reside in emptiness.

To swear deceitfully, is the verbal manifestation of your total being.  What you think, what you intend, what you want, what you do, all of your activity, is, sooner or later, revealed within your spoken words.

These things, both from your external self, from your internal self, from how you reveal your life, all of your essence disqualifies you from being able to stand before God, from being able to utilize Gods power.

Only one person qualifies in this manner and that person is Jesus Christ.  Your only access to God is through Him, because you cannot approach God, on your own or though anything or anyone else, or by any other means.