Who Has Access to God?
How are we to approach God? What will get us into the presence of God?
Is it the person with the loudest voice, the most money, most popular, most influential, or with the most power? How and who gets access to God?
One of the Israelites fundamental beliefs is that God resides in the Temple. Therefore, the Temple in Jerusalem was the “house of God.” In Jewish thinking, Solomon’s Temple was the place where heaven and earth intersected.
On Sabbath days, as worshipers approached Solomon’s Temple, they would sing Psalm 24. “Who can ascend the Lord’s mountain?” refers to Jerusalem. “Who can stand in his holy sanctuary?” refers to Solomon’s Temple.
Who can get access to God? The priest replies, “Only the one with clean hands and a pure heart; the one who hasn’t made false promises, the one who hasn’t sworn dishonestly” (Psalm 24:4).
The psalm writer does something remarkable in reminding the people as they approach the Temple in their worship that the requirements to enter this sacred space are not ritual but moral. “Clean and pure” are ethical terms.
If you are not walking with integrity, you cannot show up in the holy place of divine and human intersection and expect to hear from God.
The entrance requirements are truth-telling and honesty.
True worship begins not when we walk into a church but when we treat one another with love and respect.