DECEMBER 26, 2012
Clean Hands
Read: Psalm 24
Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who
may stand in His
holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. —Psalm 24:3-4
It
seems that wherever you go these days, you see signs encouraging
people to wash
their hands. With the constant threat of germs and viruses
spreading disease
throughout the general public, health officials continually
remind us that
unwashed hands form the single greatest agent for the
spread of germs. So, in
addition to the signs calling for vigilant hand- washing,
public places will
often provide hand sanitizers to help take care of germs and bacteria.
David
also spoke of the importance of “clean hands,” but for a dramatically
different
reason. He said that clean hands are one key to being able to enter
into God’s
presence for worship: “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy
place?” he asked. And the answer? “He who
has clean hands and a pure heart”
(Ps. 24:3-4). Here “clean hands” is not a reference to personal hygiene but a
metaphor for our spiritual condition
—being cleansed from sin (1 John 1:9). It
speaks of a life committed to what
is right and godly—enabling us to stand
blameless before our Lord in the
privilege of worship.
As
His life is lived out in our lives, He can help us to do what’s right so that
our hands are clean and our hearts are ready to give worship to our great God.
Worship, praise, and adoration,
All are due to Jesus’ name.
Freely give your heart’s devotion,
Constantly His love proclaim. —Anon.
The road to worship begins with gratefulness
for the cleansing of God.
Source: Our Daily Bread 2012
