Gleanings From The Word

Category: Bible Reading

  • Open Gates – Welcome the King of Glory

    Open Gates – Welcome the King of Glory

    I have been reading in the Psalms and stopped to meditate on Psalm 24. It’s a Psalm of ascent; that is, it was sung on the way up to the temple and is often overshadowed by its more well-known neighbor, Psalm 23.

    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 Psalm 24 ESV

    The Psalm opens with the recognition that everything that exists belongs to God. He is the creator and sustainer of everything in the created universe. With that recognized, the psalm moves quickly to God’s calling for personal righteousness.

    Who can come before the Lord and receive His blessings? Only “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.“

    Of course, we know, as did the ancient people of Israel and Judah, that no one can meet those requirements. They trusted in YAHWEH by faith to redeem them and take away their sin, so they could stand before the Lord. They did not yet know Jesus by name, as He had not come, but they knew the Lord had promised a savior and trusted that promise.

    The very city itself is called to open its gates for the coming King. The King of Glory, the Lord of Hosts, is coming. Jesus has come now, but we know He is returning. The King of Glory is coming back to the place He owns.

    Will we have clean hands and hearts to be in His presence and receive His blessings?

    Will we open our hearts and gates? Will we make Him welcome, or will we close up and try to hold out against His undefeatable power?

    With Christ’s imputed righteousness, we too can come before the Lord and be blessed. We must trust in what He has done by faith. He’s coming for the believer and unbeliever, one to eternity in His presence and blessing, the other to eternal separation and damnation.

    Let’s be found with open gates, clean hearts and singing praises in anticipation of the day He comes back.

    Be blessed, Kevin

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    SUMMARY

    As I sat with Psalm 24, I was struck by how quickly it moves from declaring God’s ownership of all creation to asking who is fit to stand in His presence, and the answer is a standard none of us can meet on our own. I’m reminded that only through Christ’s imputed righteousness can we approach the King of Glory with clean hands and open hearts, ready for the day He returns.

    TAKEAWAY

    Everything that exists belongs to God as Creator and Sustainer, which sets the stage for the Psalm’s call to personal holiness

    No one meets the standard of clean hands and a pure heart apart from trusting in the Lord’s promised redemption, first by faith in YAHWEH’s promise and now through Christ

    The ancient call to “lift up your heads, O gates” points forward to Christ’s return, and the question becomes whether our hearts will be open or closed when the King of Glory comes back

    Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone) 

    © 2001, 2026 K.F. “Kevin” Corbin, “Gleanings From the Word.” All rights reserved. 

    From Gleanings From The Word (Kevin Corbin, 2001– ), a Scripture-based devotional work.

  • Why the Old Testament Still Matters to Christians Today

    Two Christian friends were debating the value of the Old Testament to Christianity. One was spouting the heresy that the God of the Old Testament was different than the God of the New. Of course we know Scripture explicitly claims that isn’t so. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

    He went on to say there is no need for the Old Testament, since we have grace in the New Testament and are not under the Law. When asked about what Jesus thought of the Old Testament, he stammered and changed the subject.

    Jesus knew the Old Testament perfectly both in wording and spirit. Depending on how you count, He explicitly quoted the Old Testament ~40 times and alluded to it is somewhere between 180-250 times in the gospels alone. 

    Many “new” things Jesus taught are straight out of the Old Testament. In Psalm 105, we read a recap of the Exodus story. Here’s an excerpt:

    Then He brought them out with silver and gold,
    And there was none among His tribes who stumbled.
    Egypt was glad when they went out,
    For the dread of them had fallen upon them.
    He spread a cloud for a covering,
    And fire to give light by night.
    They asked, and He brought quail,
    And He satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
    He opened the rock and water flowed out;
    It ran in the dry places like a river.
    For He remembered His holy word
    With Abraham His servant;
    And He brought His people out with joy,
    His chosen ones with a shout of joy.     Psalm 105:37-40

    Jesus takes His audience back to the Old Testament and shows Himself to be the chosen one, the long awaited Messiah.

    Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread. Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:31-34

    I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and also the bread which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” John 6:48-51

    Jesus shows from a historical passage that He is the one they have been waiting for. That doesn’t count the estimated 300 places that there is a prophetic mention of His coming.

    Without the Old Testament, we have no idea that there was even a Messiah who would come to rescue us. With it, we would have no basis to evaluate His claims.

    Augustine said, “Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet.” For most of us who don’t speak Latin, that is “The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.” Or as it is sometimes translated, “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.”

    While certainly there are passages in the Old Testament that don’t apply to us directly, like the ceremonial and dietary laws. There are passages that seem obscure and uninteresting, like the long genealogies. Still, the Old Testament is vital to our understanding of the New and to our understanding of God and our need for Him.

    Praise God we have both.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

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