The Lord as the Universal Ruler
All right, let’s look through this together. A Psalm of David. 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. 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. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 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. Selah.
Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we’re grateful for this wonderful and beloved passage from your word, a familiar psalm appropriate for this day. We pray that you’ll open our eyes to see it and to see afresh the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ. Draw our hearts to him, uplift him in our hearts for praise. And for those who do not yet know him, bring them today to bow before him as he rightly deserves. We pray in his name, amen.
We have in Psalm 24 a hymn of praise. It is also an enthronement psalm. The king, as you see from verses 7 to 10, the king is making his way to Mount Zion. It is a victory psalm of sorts. The king, verses 7 and following, is described in terms of having won a battle, and now he’s coming through the gates with victory shouts and celebrations. So it is a hymn of praise. The king is taking his throne. He is coming after battle. He is assuming the place of kingship.
Now you’ll notice in the superscript that we have, it is a psalm of David. Now, in the Septuagint, that is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, in the Septuagint, once in a while, you’ll find that the superscripts differ just a little bit. And in this case, we have a case in point, and that is in Psalm 24, the Septuagint adds “a Psalm of David for the first day of the week.” And so evidently, this was read as part of the liturgy on the first day of the week, on Sundays. And in fact, the Jewish Talmud confirms that for us, that Psalm 24 was, in fact, sung by the priests in the temple every Sunday morning. It was part of the regular liturgy, and it was designated psalms for each day of the week to be read. This one was for the first day of the week.
In a similar way, in Christian traditions, various ones of them, Psalm 24 has been traditionally read on Palm Sunday morning or sung on Palm Sunday morning. It describes the triumphal entry of the king. It is a notable and a happy providence. I take a break from my series of messages here for Christmas Sunday. I’ll do the same for Easter Sunday. I rarely do it for any other Sundays; I have on occasion, but rarely, including for Palm Sunday. I have rarely taken exception for that, and it’s a happy providence that in the planning of the preaching schedule, Psalm 24 just fell to today for Palm Sunday, and it is in fact a Palm Sunday psalm, as we’ll see as we go through it.
The setting for the psalm isn’t stated for us explicitly, but because of various hints in the psalm, it’s assumed by most to be—the most common suggestion, at least, is that it’s 2 Samuel 6, or 2 Samuel 5 and 6, and then in 1 Chronicles 15 and 16 as well, and that’s the occasion when David brings the ark to Jerusalem. You remember David had constructed a tent. The Ark of the Covenant had resided in Kiriath-Jearim for a number of years, and now it was time to bring it to the tent in Jerusalem that David had constructed for it. That was quite an episode in itself. You’ll remember it was a time of celebration and quite an occasion for Israel to bring God’s throne into Jerusalem, into the capital city. David had now, in these chapters, defeated the Jebusites. They had occupied Jerusalem and Mount Zion, and he had driven them out. Now David has consolidated his rule. Both the northern and the southern kingdoms are acknowledging David as their king. And as the new capital city, he wants to bring the Ark of the Covenant now into Jerusalem, into this tent that he’d constructed for it.
So they start the procession and it’s coming through. And you remember the incident with a man named Uzzah. An ox carrying the Ark of the Covenant stumbles, and Uzzah reaches up to touch the Ark to steady it, and it says the anger of the Lord was kindled against him, and he was struck dead on the spot. You don’t trifle with this God. And David looks at that and says, “You know, I’m not sure I want that ark near me in Jerusalem. This is a dangerous thing. Let’s put it over at Obed-Edom’s house.” And so it’s moved there, and it’s there for a number of months, and then you remember it’s reported to David that Obed-Edom has been blessed during this time when God’s presence was there with him. So David is encouraged, “Okay, I’ll bring it to Jerusalem.” He’s not careless about it at all. He brings it to Jerusalem, but he stops at six steps, makes a sacrifice, stops at six steps and makes a sacrifice, very careful as he makes its way to Jerusalem.
Finally it comes to Mount Zion where he has this tent constructed for it. It’s brought into it. It’s a time of celebration and praise. And this is the time you remember when David’s wife was a bit embarrassed at the exuberance of David’s praise at the occasion. But the presence of God, the symbol of his presence, the Ark of the Covenant is being brought into Jerusalem and it is a time of rejoicing. The king over the king, God himself represented now in the Ark of the Covenant, the throne, the footstool of God is brought into Jerusalem on Mount Zion. That, you might remember, was referred to last week. We saw it in Psalm 23, verse 6, where David says, “I’ll dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” It is the tent there with the presence of God through the Ark of the Covenant that he’s referring to.
Well, Psalm 24, it seems, is written for that event, or at least in the wake of that event, and it is a pageantry that is being portrayed for us. We often see imagery in the Psalms. This has that, but it’s more than that. It’s pageantry, and it’s got the celebration coming through. We’ll see the pageantry more as we work our way through the Psalm. But it’s such a significant event in the history of Israel that became part of the regular worship of the temple each first day of the week.
By way of overview, Psalm 24, we have three stanzas that are uneven in their length. In verses 1 and 2, we have an introductory praise. And here the Lord is presented as the ruler of the world. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness of it. The world and those who dwell in it, all of it is his. So we have an introductory praise. The Lord is the ruler of the entire world.
In verses three through six, we have what we call an entrance liturgy, a liturgy going on as you come to the temple to enter it. And it describes God’s people who seek acceptance of God as they come into his presence. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? What are the requirements? What are the qualifications for those who can come and be accepted?
And then verses 7 to 10, the king himself now makes his entrance through the gates in a parade of glory, and the crowd sings, “Lift up your heads, O gates, be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in.” All right, so let’s work our way through this Palm Sunday psalm.
In verses 1 and 2, we have the Lord as the universal ruler. Look at those verses again. 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. Now obviously here he’s referring back to Genesis 1 and the creation account. That’s clearly in view. He founded the world. He established it on the rivers. But the focus here is not on the creation so much as it is on the creator as owner and ruler of the entire world. The earth is the Lord’s. That is a note of possession. He owns it. It’s his. It belongs to him. And then he repeats it. The earth, that’s the land, the planet, and the world, that’s the inhabited world—those who dwell there in it, they all belong to him. The earth and everything and everyone that resides on it, they all belong to God.
Now why is that? Verse 2 gives us the reason: “For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” And the logic is very simple. He made it. It’s his. He made it all. It’s all his. And it’s his to deal with as he sees fit. That is to say, then, Yahweh, the God of Israel, is not just some local deity. Now, he’s Israel’s God in a particular sense. Of course, he chose Israel. He made them his. He entered into covenant relationship. But he is no less God over every nation and every people. He made them all. He is the rightful sovereign over all of them. They’re all his and they’re all his to be disposed of as he sees fit. So he can let the Jebusites run things on Mount Zion and Jerusalem if he wants, or if he wants, he can run them out and give it to David. It’s all his. The world, the earth, and the people that live on it, they’re all his.
I don’t know if you’ve ever recognized that or not. The basic question, the big question is not so much what will you do with him; it’s what will he do with you. We are his, and we are his to dispose of as he sees fit. This is a big theme in the Prophets. We saw it recently in a Sunday evening message in Amos, where he notes the transgressions of Damascus. “For three transgressions of Damascus, yea for four, I will not withhold your punishment.” He does the same with Edom, and he does the same with Tyre, and he does the same with Israel and Judah. All the nations belong to God and it is his to dispose of as he sees fit. And the same is true, by the way, with regard to the United States. We are no exception to that. We live under God, our creator. And his lordship is not dependent, is not dependent on our acknowledging of it. And God will not be domesticated by our contemporary pluralistic ideals. He is God over all. Well, this has massive implications with regard to the consummated kingdom that we’ll see later on in this psalm.
God’s People Are Prepared for His Arrival
But that brings us now to verses 3 to 6, and here God’s people are prepared for his arrival. Verse 3: “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place?” Answer: “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.”
All right, so picture now this grand procession making its way up to Mount Zion. This is not, as I mentioned, not just imagery; this is pageantry. There’s celebration, there’s music, there’s musical instruments, there’s singers, there’s choirs, there’s this procession that goes in order making its way up the hill. And we don’t know exactly how it was sung, but perhaps verses one and two, the people all sang together: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and all who live in it.” And then maybe, verse 3, was a soloist, I don’t know, or another choir: “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?” Maybe this is a Levitical priest watching the gate. We’ve mentioned before some of the gatekeeping idea at the entrance of the house of the Lord. Well, that might be it. In verse 3, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place?” And then maybe another choir, verse 4. Answer: “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.”
Now you might remember when we looked back at Psalm 15, Psalm 15 was what we called an entrance liturgy. It raises the same kind of question. Psalm 15 verses 1 and 2: “O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” And then the answer comes: “He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.” The idea is that there are ethical requirements, moral requirements for entering into the presence of God. And these psalms that have an entrance liturgy, as we call it, highlight that for us, and they note for us who is acceptable in worship.
Well, Psalm 24 is a psalm like that. It asks the question in verse 3, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place?” The idea there is not just who can go there. The idea is who can be accepted. Who’s acceptable? Who can go there and remain in God’s presence? This is the dwelling place of the holy God. Surely there must be demands of some sort, moral and ethical requirements. They must reflect the purity, the holiness, the righteousness of God. What are those requirements?
Now, it might be that that question here in this psalm was prompted by the events that had just transpired in recent days with Uzzah. This is not a God to be trifled with. And so the question comes, who can dwell? Who can go there and be accepted? Who’s qualified? And so verse four gives the answer. Answer: “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.” This expression in the first part of the verse, in the first line, “clean hands and a pure heart,” that is purity in behavior and purity in motive as well. Clean hands and a pure heart. He does not lift up his soul to what is false. That is, he desires truth. His ambition is for righteousness. He’s loyal to the Lord God. And then the last line, “he does not swear deceitfully.” That is, he’s honest. His word is his bond. He makes a promise, he keeps it. He keeps his word.
Now we have two then with these clean hands, pure heart, and then the next two lines, we’ve got two of these qualifications that regard integrity or inner purity. He must have a pure heart, and he must not lift up his heart, his soul to what is false. And then we have two that pertain to the external manifestation of that pure heart. They have clean hands—he behaves, he does what he ought to do—and he does not swear deceitfully—he speaks truth.
All right, so that’s the one who can enter. Verse 5: “He [the one described in verse 4] will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” I think the NIV translates this here: “He will receive vindication from the God of his salvation.” So this person is one who’s accepted on Mount Zion in the presence of God, is the one who has integrity in his heart and integrity in his life. That’s the one who is accepted. We’ve seen this theme since Psalm 1. The Lord deserves worship. We are to, as Isaac Watts often translates this in his hymns from the Psalms, we are to “pay God our praise.” It is owed to him. But God is repulsed by the praise of the wicked. It is pretentious, it is not genuine, and he won’t have it. And so from Psalm 1 on, we have seen this note that this book, this book of praises, is for the righteous. And that’s the emphasis here in Psalm 24 as well. The person who is of clean hands and of pure heart, he is the one who is accepted.
Now that’s a problem. Unless you are not reading carefully, or unless your deceitful heart has you completely deluded, this is a problem. Who are those whom God accepts? It’s just those with the clean hands and the pure heart. That’s it. The question then: just how clean must my hands be? Just how pure must my heart be for God to accept me? If God is the standard in this, I’m a goner. But how could the standard be anything less than God’s own purity and God’s own righteousness? This is the person who is accepted.
Now that problem that I have just raised is not answered here explicitly in Psalm 24, but there are some hints. Hints that will be filled in later when we come to the New Testament. They’ll be filled in in full. But let’s notice some of them.
Hint number one: Verses three to six, this entrance liturgy, adds a dimension to the scene that in a sense might seem extraneous to the point of the Psalm. Verses 1 and 2 proclaim the Lord’s sovereign rule over the entire world. He’s made it. He owns it. It’s his to do with what he wants. And we might expect at that point, right after verse 2, we might expect then to read verse 7, where the king makes his entrance into the holy place and establishes his throne. He comes through the gates to be crowned. But no, instead we have verses three to six, which adds something entirely new. And only after this entrance liturgy, who’s qualified? Well, it’s only those who have clean hands and a pure heart; only they are qualified. Only after that do we come then to verse seven and following. And it’s not just the king then who enters the gates. It’s the king who enters the gates, his people coming with him. So it’s not just the king who’s entering the city in triumph; his people enter with him. And that, I think, is the first part of our answer to the problem of verses three and four: who can enter? They are accepted, but only because they are with him. In verses seven and following, it is for the king of glory that the gates are opened. Not for the people; it’s open for the king of glory, and they come in only because they are with him.
That’s one. We’ll come back to that. Another hint is verse 6: “Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” That is, they seek acceptance from God, they seek his favor; there’s on their part a genuine sense of dependence upon God, and they seek his favor accordingly. But again, that raises the question, though: how could God accept these people and give them the favor that they want when they themselves don’t measure up to it?
And that brings us to our third hint, and that’s back in verse 5 again: “He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” Now note the parallel here. We’ve talked about the parallelism in the Psalms. Hebrew poetry—they don’t rhyme sounds, they rhyme thought. And so the one line and then the other rhymes it together, brings it. What then is the blessing that they seek? Answer, the parallel: it is righteousness from the God of His salvation. So the blessing they receive from the Lord is righteousness.
Now that raises a big question. Receive righteousness. That’s a fascinating concept. Righteousness is properly not what we give God. It’s properly what we owe to God, but because of our sin we do not. Righteousness here is something that God gives us. Most properly, righteousness is not something he gives us; it is something that we owe to him. Righteousness is the norm; it’s the standard to which we are obliged to conform. Righteousness is what God is. God never swerves from that standard of righteousness. Now it’s not that there’s some external standard of righteousness to which God conforms, but he himself is that standard of righteousness and he acts always consistent with who he is as the righteous God that he is. Righteous is what God demands from us. Righteous is what God is. There is what’s called the rectoral righteousness of God. It’s that aspect of God’s righteousness by which he demands righteousness of his creatures and we owe it to him.
And then the most familiar concept of righteousness in the scriptures is righteousness is that standard by which God will judge us. God is righteous, he is himself the standard of righteousness, and that’s the standard by which we will be judged. Psalm 9 verse 8: “He will judge the world in righteousness.” We find it in the New Testament as well. Acts chapter 17: “God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness.” It’s probably the most common, most familiar and obvious connotation of God’s righteousness. There are endless samples of that in the scriptures. So God is righteous. God demands righteousness. This is the standard by which we will be judged.
And yet, popping up in the Old Testament over and again, is this idea that God saves in righteousness. Sometimes the salvation itself is described as righteous, like we will see in Psalm 51 verse 14: “Deliver me from those who seek my blood, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue will rejoice in your righteousness.” Sometimes righteousness is seen as the basis of God’s salvation and his saving work. And therefore it’s the basis of the appeal for salvation, like Psalm 31: “In your righteousness, deliver me.” Or Psalm 35: “Vindicate me, O Lord, according to your righteousness.” That’s a fascinating concept. When I approach God, justice is the last thing I want. Sometimes in the Old Testament, God himself is said to be our righteousness. Like Jeremiah 23 in verse 6: “This is the name by which they shall be called: The Lord is our righteousness.”
So somehow, this God who is righteous, this God who demands righteousness of us, this God who will judge us according to that standard of righteousness has made a way to save us somehow in a righteous way. He has somehow made a way to save—not condemn, but to save—his people in righteousness. And what we have here pointed to in Psalm 24 then: he has made a way for us to be righteous somehow by virtue of our association with the King of Glory. Now this is something of the—it’s been called the riddle of the Old Testament. How can God save a people who are unrighteous? How can God in righteousness save and justify and vindicate a people who are themselves unrighteous?
Well, of course, the gospel in the New Testament spells this out at great length. Jesus is the righteous one. He’s the one who has the clean hands and the pure heart. He is the righteous worshiper that God accepts, and we are justified before God only by virtue of our association with him, and that’s the whole heart and soul of the gospel. Jesus is the new Adam. He represents his people. He was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. He fulfilled righteousness for us and in our place. And he who knew no sin was made sin for us. He’s redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us. And it’s that great exchange that we find so often in the scriptures, that we go to him and give him our sin. He takes it and makes it his own. And in exchange, he gives us his righteousness so that Paul can say, all of those things that I used to boast in, Philippians 3, I’ve counted them all as loss—they’re nothing—that I might be found in him, not having my own righteousness, but of course having his.
And so, in the end, righteousness is something that God gives us. Pointed to in verse 5, we receive blessing from the Lord and we receive righteousness from the God of our salvation. Now, of course, it required the coming of Christ for all of this to happen. His incarnation, his death, his resurrection—all of that. And it required the fuller revelation of the gospel to put it all together. But Psalm 24 anticipates all of that for us. God’s people are making their way up Mount Zion under the lead of their king. He is righteous. They have appealed to him, asking his favor and asking for his blessing. He gives them the righteousness required of them, and now he leads the way into God’s presence. And because they are with him, they are accepted as well. Isn’t that your testimony? Certainly mine. The only factor by which I hope to have acceptance with God is my association with the King of Glory.
David Describes the King’s Triumphal Entry into the City
And so now we can come to verse 7 and following. David describes the king’s triumphal entry into the city. Again, keep in mind the pageantry of all of this and the changing voices, probably sung antiphonally with choirs echoing, perhaps, or with soloists back and forth. Verse 7, someone shouts on their way to the gates: “Lift up your heads, O gates, that the king of glory may come in.” Response comes back: “Who is this king of glory?” (Verse 8). Then verse 8b, the response comes back: “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. He is the king of glory.” And then verses 9 and 10, it’s all over again. Back and forth, this pageantry of the king making his entrance.
Now recall that in the Septuagint and in the Talmud, this psalm was sung by priests in the temple on the first day of the week. So picture that first Palm Sunday, that first Palm Sunday morning as Jesus makes his entry into the city of Jerusalem. He’s riding on a little colt, small animals, feet probably dragging the ground. The children are shouting “Hosanna!” The people are paving the way ahead of him with palm branches, paving the way as he makes his entrance into the city. And meanwhile, the priests back in the temple are singing, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, that the King of glory may come in.” Only God could orchestrate something like that.
We should note then that verses seven to 10, God pictures himself as passing through the gates in victorious glory. He’s presented as a warrior. “Lift up your heads, O gates, be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” And again, “Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” Verse 10: “Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts.” That is Yahweh Sabaoth. It’s a military designation. He’s lord of the armies. He is the king of glory.
And so in Psalm 24, the Lord God is the great king whose favor and presence his people seek. And he is the one who leads his people into the kingdom. And that first Palm Sunday, it was the Lord God, now incarnate, that joins his people and leads them into the city. Note again the military imagery. Not only is it God himself, but it is God the warrior, the king of glory, strong and mighty, mighty in battle, the Lord of hosts.
So up the hill comes this victorious king, with all of his people in his train. There’s pageantry, there’s music, there’s singing, there’s rejoicing, there’s choirs, and then someone shouts ahead: “Lift up your heads, O gates, be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” Another voice responds: “Who is this King of glory?” The answer is given: “The Lord. The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, he is the King of Glory.” Then verse 9, once again the shout goes up: “Lift up your heads, O gates, lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in.” And again the voice responds: “Who is this King of Glory?” And again the answer is given: “The Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory.” The God who created all things, the God to whom everything in the world belongs. He has come. He’s asserted his rightful throne and his right to rule. He’s triumphed over his enemies and now he comes to take his rightful throne and he ushers his people into the throne room with him to share in his reign.
And so Psalm 24 leaves us with a picture: the Lord God, the creator of the world, the ruler of all the nations, reigning over all, seated on his throne. Now for anyone who’s read the rest of the story, all of this is very clear. It’s prospective. It’s anticipating something. Verses 1 and 2, the Lord has worldwide rule. He made it all, it all belongs to him. Verses 7 and following, he takes his throne after the battle. David bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Mount Zion is prospective of the consummated kingdom—the Lord establishing his full rule. And verses 3 to 6, his redeemed people following along in his triumph.
It was the great hope of the Old Testament. You find it over and again: the coming of God. The coming of God. God will come and he will enter into history itself and he himself will take over and it will be his day. God will come and he will rescue and vindicate his people and he’ll defeat his enemies. And right alongside that, all through the Old Testament, we find another strand of Israel’s hope. Not only the coming of God, but the coming of David’s son. This king who will come, this descendant of David who will come, and God will rule through him, and he will rule, and he will shepherd his people, and he’ll defeat all of his enemies. And you read all of that, including Psalm 24 then, in perspective of the Psalter, in the perspective of the Old Testament, and certainly in the perspective of the New Testament, you have to see that Psalm 24 points us to the Lord Jesus Christ.
God will establish his rule through his appointed king. The Old Testament rings with that. God will establish his rule through his appointed king. We come to the New Testament, we have the incarnate Son of God, the Son of David, born in Bethlehem. As God, he’s the rightful creator of the world and the owner of all that’s in it. As the sinless man, he’s the accepted worshiper. And as God’s appointed king, he establishes the kingdom of God on earth. And this is the meaning of his death and resurrection and ascension. It is not that God will just come and take over, but to vindicate his people, he must come and do a work on their behalf. And he dies in their place and takes their sin and strips from the devil his right to rule over humanity, because the means by which Satan rules is their sin. And having answered that problem of sin, the kingdom and the right to rule has been taken and God vindicates him in resurrection. He ascends to the throne of the universe where he reigns over all and he sends his spirit to rescue his people one by one into his kingdom.
But one day, one day he’ll return in glory, and he’ll bring that kingdom to its final consummation. And he’ll defeat all of those who refused his rule, and he’ll gather all of his people to himself, and we who are his will share in his reign forever. It’s the message of the whole Bible, the great prospect of the Psalter, the kingdom of God. It’s the great prospect of the Old Testament, the prospect of the New Testament. It’s the hope of the church, culminating in the return of Jesus Christ to bring God’s rule to its culminating glory. And we, God’s people, we have that hope, not because of anything about us, but because we’re associated with him. By means of my union with Jesus Christ, I expect I’ll be accepted. Amen.
Let’s pray. Our Father, what a wonderful passage this is, appropriate for this day. We’re reminded again of the greatness of Jesus Christ. We thank you for him. We pray that you will give us through this a firmer sense of confidence in your word, a firmer sense of the glory of Jesus and the value of being his. We thank you in his name. Amen.