“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.”
(Psalm 24:3–4, ESV)
(Psalm 24:3–4, ESV)
This scripture from Psalm 24 reveals something about the truly faithful. They have four traits, all found in the verses above. The Believer’s Bible Commentary explains it in this way:
“Four traits of character are specified. They have clean hands; in other words, their actions are righteous and blameless. They have a pure heart; that is, their motives are sincere and their minds uncorrupted. They do not subscribe to falsehood in any form. And finally, they do not pervert justice by testifying to what is not true. Their hands, their heart, their soul, their lips are all righteous.
These are the kind of people who will be subjects in Christ’s Millennial Kingdom. Though formerly ridiculed and despised by the ungodly, they will now be vindicated by the God of their salvation.” (William MacDonald, p. 582)
Though these two verses contain so much with so few words, I want to focus your heart on the part of this scripture which says that the one who “shall stand in God’s holy place” must “not lift up his soul to what is false” (Psalm 24:4). The holy person must not have a soul that is tainted with falsehoods and lies and deceit. These traits do not belong in the soul of the righteous believer.
You might think it obvious that a righteous believer would have no room for falsehoods in the soul. However, falsehoods and lies are not only the bread and butter of Satan’s actions (Satan is called the Father of Lies by Jesus in John 8:44!). They are also found in the soul of the unbeliever. AND those lies and falsehoods and deceit do not belong there.
You don’t have to look around to find that there are a lot of “fakes” in this world. On Ebay, you can find sellers selling fake merchandise made to look like the real thing, logos and all. You can buy fake jewelry that might look like diamonds but is just cheap, highly polished stones or glass. One article I read recently talked about “fake meat”. In the article, the author noted that some products sold as meat actually contain meat byproducts, soy, and other added ingredients. The advertising world has even attempted to hide the knowledge that some things are fake. A furniture store touts that an expensive recliner has “faux leather”. Did you notice how they don’t say “fake leather”, though it is literally fake leather usually made with a form of plastic? Food companies disguise the fact that they have added dangerous chemicals to their products. In the ingredients you will find words that are hard to decipher. In the end, they are nothing but additives and preservatives with scientific sounding names to make them seem more legitimate, even calling these foods “healthy alternatives” when most doctors know most of these processed foods are anything BUT healthy.
Even in the religious realm, there are falsehoods, deceptions, and lies being told. Many scriptures warn of “false prophets” that infiltrate the church. More than a dozen scriptures in Proverbs alone speak of God’s anger against “false witnesses” who lie to the court or to the church. The prophets of the Old Testament continually railed against false gods, with the very first commandment speaking out against these other gods. The Apostle Paul warned about false doctrines, false brethren, false teachers, false apostles, and more! Why are there so many falsities even in the religious world and churches? Because Satan uses such lies and deceit to manipulate believers and shipwreck faith.
When lies and deceit and false beliefs and half-truths and other such nonsense inhabits the soul, the person cannot in any way be right before God or a true believer. Sadly, the world promotes such lies. And believers are sucked in and deceived by these false truths every day.
A woman approached her pastor’s wife. She had a confession. She said to the pastor’s wife, “Please don’t tell your husband, but I am ashamed of my divorce. I was married to a good man. After complaining to a few of my girlfriends that my husband wasn’t attentive enough to my needs because he worked too much, my girlfriends told me to dump him and find a better man. Since my friends were all but one church goers, I thought their words were coming from God. Several of them are divorced. They still believe in God. So, I divorced my husband and took our daughter with me. To this day, I regret what I did. He has moved on. He remarried. He is happy. I am miserable. It was a huge mistake on my part. Now, I have a difficult time coming to church and an even more difficult time praying.” From that day on, the pastor’s wife helped the woman to make things right by God, put her sin away, and acknowledge the lies she told herself.
Even Christians can deceive fellow Christians. Even those who are close to God can fall for a cleverly disguised half-truth or lie. With even pastors and teachers espousing worldly ideals and cleverly making them sound biblical or godly, some find it hard to separate out what is true from what is false. Worldly pastor and church spread lies about the Bible, faith, believing, and even the character of Jesus.
In an article I read recently, a Christian pastor preached from the pulpit that Jesus was for transgenderism and transgender rights. The pastor said that because Jesus never said transgender beliefs were sinful, they must be faithful. When even church people play around with truth and logic and belief in such a way, is it no wonder that so many don’t really know God? There are many modern sins that weren’t even common in Jesus’ day. Just because Jesus didn’t outright condemn something doesn’t mean its practice today is faithful!
Some in the church have taken preaching and teaching and believing falsehoods as an artform! They dream up clever ways to make scriptures fit worldly ideals or individual sins.
Jesus mentioned that one way to separate out the false teachers from the faithful teachers are by the fruit of their work (Matthew 7: 16-20). Paul also believed this to be true. He taught the Galatian church more than a dozen fruits that will accompany false believers including but not limited to “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like” (Galatians 5:19-21).
There is so much that is false in this world. Make sure you are part of God’s truth. There are so many lies in this world told to justify sin. Be one of those who walks in the Spirit and truth. The deceitfulness of this world is enough to make a person lose their way. Don’t follow down the path of unrighteousness. Never let your soul be filled with “what is false” as our scripture for today warns. Your soul is only healthy when filled with God’s Spirit and God’s truth.
“Four traits of character are specified. They have clean hands; in other words, their actions are righteous and blameless. They have a pure heart; that is, their motives are sincere and their minds uncorrupted. They do not subscribe to falsehood in any form. And finally, they do not pervert justice by testifying to what is not true. Their hands, their heart, their soul, their lips are all righteous.
These are the kind of people who will be subjects in Christ’s Millennial Kingdom. Though formerly ridiculed and despised by the ungodly, they will now be vindicated by the God of their salvation.” (William MacDonald, p. 582)
Though these two verses contain so much with so few words, I want to focus your heart on the part of this scripture which says that the one who “shall stand in God’s holy place” must “not lift up his soul to what is false” (Psalm 24:4). The holy person must not have a soul that is tainted with falsehoods and lies and deceit. These traits do not belong in the soul of the righteous believer.
You might think it obvious that a righteous believer would have no room for falsehoods in the soul. However, falsehoods and lies are not only the bread and butter of Satan’s actions (Satan is called the Father of Lies by Jesus in John 8:44!). They are also found in the soul of the unbeliever. AND those lies and falsehoods and deceit do not belong there.
You don’t have to look around to find that there are a lot of “fakes” in this world. On Ebay, you can find sellers selling fake merchandise made to look like the real thing, logos and all. You can buy fake jewelry that might look like diamonds but is just cheap, highly polished stones or glass. One article I read recently talked about “fake meat”. In the article, the author noted that some products sold as meat actually contain meat byproducts, soy, and other added ingredients. The advertising world has even attempted to hide the knowledge that some things are fake. A furniture store touts that an expensive recliner has “faux leather”. Did you notice how they don’t say “fake leather”, though it is literally fake leather usually made with a form of plastic? Food companies disguise the fact that they have added dangerous chemicals to their products. In the ingredients you will find words that are hard to decipher. In the end, they are nothing but additives and preservatives with scientific sounding names to make them seem more legitimate, even calling these foods “healthy alternatives” when most doctors know most of these processed foods are anything BUT healthy.
Even in the religious realm, there are falsehoods, deceptions, and lies being told. Many scriptures warn of “false prophets” that infiltrate the church. More than a dozen scriptures in Proverbs alone speak of God’s anger against “false witnesses” who lie to the court or to the church. The prophets of the Old Testament continually railed against false gods, with the very first commandment speaking out against these other gods. The Apostle Paul warned about false doctrines, false brethren, false teachers, false apostles, and more! Why are there so many falsities even in the religious world and churches? Because Satan uses such lies and deceit to manipulate believers and shipwreck faith.
When lies and deceit and false beliefs and half-truths and other such nonsense inhabits the soul, the person cannot in any way be right before God or a true believer. Sadly, the world promotes such lies. And believers are sucked in and deceived by these false truths every day.
A woman approached her pastor’s wife. She had a confession. She said to the pastor’s wife, “Please don’t tell your husband, but I am ashamed of my divorce. I was married to a good man. After complaining to a few of my girlfriends that my husband wasn’t attentive enough to my needs because he worked too much, my girlfriends told me to dump him and find a better man. Since my friends were all but one church goers, I thought their words were coming from God. Several of them are divorced. They still believe in God. So, I divorced my husband and took our daughter with me. To this day, I regret what I did. He has moved on. He remarried. He is happy. I am miserable. It was a huge mistake on my part. Now, I have a difficult time coming to church and an even more difficult time praying.” From that day on, the pastor’s wife helped the woman to make things right by God, put her sin away, and acknowledge the lies she told herself.
Even Christians can deceive fellow Christians. Even those who are close to God can fall for a cleverly disguised half-truth or lie. With even pastors and teachers espousing worldly ideals and cleverly making them sound biblical or godly, some find it hard to separate out what is true from what is false. Worldly pastor and church spread lies about the Bible, faith, believing, and even the character of Jesus.
In an article I read recently, a Christian pastor preached from the pulpit that Jesus was for transgenderism and transgender rights. The pastor said that because Jesus never said transgender beliefs were sinful, they must be faithful. When even church people play around with truth and logic and belief in such a way, is it no wonder that so many don’t really know God? There are many modern sins that weren’t even common in Jesus’ day. Just because Jesus didn’t outright condemn something doesn’t mean its practice today is faithful!
Some in the church have taken preaching and teaching and believing falsehoods as an artform! They dream up clever ways to make scriptures fit worldly ideals or individual sins.
Jesus mentioned that one way to separate out the false teachers from the faithful teachers are by the fruit of their work (Matthew 7: 16-20). Paul also believed this to be true. He taught the Galatian church more than a dozen fruits that will accompany false believers including but not limited to “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like” (Galatians 5:19-21).
There is so much that is false in this world. Make sure you are part of God’s truth. There are so many lies in this world told to justify sin. Be one of those who walks in the Spirit and truth. The deceitfulness of this world is enough to make a person lose their way. Don’t follow down the path of unrighteousness. Never let your soul be filled with “what is false” as our scripture for today warns. Your soul is only healthy when filled with God’s Spirit and God’s truth.