Michael Youssef - Palm Sunday: The Conquering King
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After Solomon completed the building of the temple, the priests of Israel and the leadership of Israel in the temple made a decision that they were going to sing a certain psalm on a certain day of the week. For example, on Wednesdays they sang Psalm 94, and not just once or twice, but they sang Psalm 94 all day. Then on Fridays they sang Psalm 93, and on Sundays, the day after the Sabbath, the first day of the week, they sang Psalm 24. Every Sunday, they sang Psalm 24. I'm going to share with you the significance of that in a moment, but I want you to think with me, before I even get to Psalm 24 and talk about it.
I want you to please think with me about the incredible, amazing, sovereign plan of God: that the temple choirs, the temple priests, and the temple ministers were all singing Psalm 24 on the first day of the week, on Sundays—the day when the Lord Jesus Christ victoriously entered into Jerusalem, which we call Palm Sunday. And we are celebrating today the whole apparatus inside the temple; they were singing Psalm 24. Think about how incredible this event is, the celebration of Palm Sunday.
Consider how amazingly sovereign God and his plan are for them, as the children were singing outside in the streets of Jerusalem, waving palms and saying, "Hosanna! Who comes in the name of the Lord?" Inside the temple, right in the very heart of the religious apparatus, they were singing Psalm 24. Not only that, but the following Sunday, the first day of the week, which we call Resurrection Sunday, when our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead and came out of that grave, the priests, the choirs, and the ministers in the temple were singing Psalm 24.
I want to give you a very quick historical context for this psalm, because without understanding the history behind it, it may not be as effective in understanding it. The nation of Israel lost the Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines, the enemies of God's people. And just to give you an idea, that ark wasn't a huge box; it was a small box, probably four or five feet by two or three feet. Inside the Ark of the Covenant were three items: first, the tablets of the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai. The second item in that box, called the Ark of the Covenant, was a jar of the manna that God rained from heaven to feed his people in the wilderness before they entered the Promised Land. To remind them of God's provision, he commanded Moses to preserve a jar of that manna that God provided in the wilderness. The third item was the staff of Moses, which he used to literally part the Red Sea for God's people to cross over.
God specifically told them to keep that Ark of the Covenant in their midst. Why? Because the Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God among his people. Now, that's a key word: "represented." So when superstitious Philistines saw and understood the power of the presence of God among his people, represented in that ark, they thought, "If we can hijack that box, if we can hijack the Ark of the Covenant and take it to our land, we can have power too, and we can have victory too." But there's more. The Ark of the Covenant did not only represent God's presence; it represented Israel's loyalty to God. It represented the very security in their lives and the life of Israel as a nation that belonged to God.
But for seven long months, the Israelites were separated from the symbol of the presence of God in their midst. For seven long months, the enemies of God's people, the Philistines, kept that Ark of the Covenant in their midst. If they hijacked this Ark of the Covenant, they thought they could hijack Yahweh's power. I want you to think with me: the very source of blessing to God's people has become the source of a curse to the enemies of God's people. Beloved, in the New Testament, we know, and the word of God tells us, that the cross, the cross, the cross, for the unbelievers is foolishness; but for those of us who believe, it is none other than the power of God unto salvation.
Finally, after seven long months of destruction and suffering in Philistia, they finally said, "Take it back. Give it back to them. We don't want all these illnesses. We don't want all this pain and suffering. Take it back to the Israelites." As you can imagine, of course, the day of the return of that Ark of the Covenant to God's people was an extremely joyous day. It was a day of celebration. It was a day of thanksgiving to God.
In the midst of this unspeakable joy, King David sits down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and writes down the psalm, Psalm 24. He's celebrating the presence of God and joyful thanksgiving in the midst of his people. So I want to tell you three things about this psalm, just to make it easier for you to follow. Three things: Psalm 24. This is a psalm that we just read that was sung by the priests, the choir, and the ministers in the temple every Sunday, and they sang it specifically on Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday.
So the first thing that our Lord wants us to know from his word is this: it is his declaration of his ownership of the universe (verses 1 and 2). Secondly, the Lord's greatest offer of salvation to humanity (verses 3–6). And thirdly, the Lord's ultimate victory is absolutely inevitable (verses 7 to 10). Let's look at this very quickly. The Lord's declaration of his ownership of the universe, verses 1 and 2: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." Some of you might say, "But isn't the earth Satan's? Isn't he Satan, the prince of the air? I thought the earth was controlled by Satan." Well, that's a good question. To be sure, there are many people on the earth who belong to Satan. In fact, the vast majority of the earth's population belongs to Satan. But I need to explain this very important point.
Listen carefully: the Lord owns the entire universe—the countless stars and planets, the vast space, the empires, the unfathomable orbits; they all are his. What is one planet out of the millions and billions of the galaxies in the Milky Way? It's a little dot, just a speck. But the tens of millions of stars that are spinning around the center of this giant disk, which is inconceivable a hundred thousand light-years from rim to rim, all of that is his. Some thirty thousand light-years from the center of the disk, there is a modest-sized star called the sun. The sun spins around the hub of the universe, carrying with it a family of baby stars. C.S. Lewis put it this way: he said, "These baby stars spin around like a bunch of kids holding on to mama's skirt." Yet the maker, the creator, and the owner of the whole universe focuses just on one planet. Why? Simply because there is nowhere in the universe that God needs to assert himself and his ownership as he needs to do with planet Earth.
Long before Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, long before the serpent in the garden, long before creation, Lucifer, the angel of light who reflected the light of the throne of God, rebelled against God and thought he could stage a coup against God and take his place. He was thrown out of heaven. He wanted to make the earth his domain, but he couldn't—he couldn't until Adam handed him the deeds of the earth when he sinned and rebelled against God. He handed it to him. That is why God had to reinstate his authority on planet earth. That is why God had to rescue planet earth from the foreign invaders of his property. And that is why 2000 years ago, on the hill called Calvary, the earth was restored back to the Lord, its rightful owner.
When we buy a house or buy any real estate, we go through what they call a title deed search, right? Why? To make sure that no one has a claim to the property we are about to buy. And then even after we buy it, we buy title insurance because we want to ensure this particular property against any false claims that a person may have on it. Are you with me so far? By far, by far, by far, when God came to earth 2000 years ago, he came so that he might claim his title deeds and throw out the imposter. That is why now Satan has no authority over Jesus's followers. He has authority only over those who have rejected Jesus Christ as their only savior and Lord.
The Lord's ownership of the whole universe; secondly, the Lord's offer of a lifetime (verses 3–6). What is that offer of a lifetime? Look at verse 3: "Who may ascend to the hill of the Lord? Who can stand in his holy place?" Answer: no one. No one. None of you. None of your pastors. No, none of us. No one is good enough or righteous enough to stand before the Lord.
You see, in the Old Testament, only the high priest was able to go into the Holy of Holies, and there he had to undergo all sorts of cleansing rituals. He went in there once a year for the briefest of times, and even then, he went in with such dread and fear lest the Lord's anger over unconfessed sin should snuff him out. That's why they had to put a bell on his foot, you see? There, he would offer a sacrifice for himself and his sins, and then the sins of the people. But here in Psalm 24, David looks forward with the eyes of faith to the New Testament. He looks forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when the Lord issues that greatest invitation—“whosoever, whosoever, whosoever”—the exclusive Christ is giving an inclusive invitation. So the question is, who can come to Christ? Verses 4 and 5 give us the answer: every repentant sinner, every recipient of the grace of God, everyone who would come to Jesus and crown him Lord of his and her life. Do you know what the one thing, other than that sin, God cannot do? He cannot remember the sins of repentant children who come to him in repentance and faith. He cannot remember the sins of everyone who is born again.
What does that mean? It means God experiences some sort of amnesia, right? No, that's not what it means. It means that he will not hold our sin against us on the day of judgment. Amen? Once you are justified, once you are redeemed, once you are adopted into his family, he does not keep a ledger. He does not keep a ledger on his own redeemed children. Praise God! Now, beloved, the Lord's ownership of the universe actually makes him the only one who can offer this offer of a lifetime: eternal forgiveness and eternal life in heaven with him.
The Lord's ownership of the universe, the Lord's great offer of salvation, and thirdly, the Lord's conquering and winning victoriously is absolutely categorically inevitable. “Who is the king of glory?” Twice he asks the question, “Who is the king of glory?” Answer: “The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle.” Then he comes to the second question, as if to say, “Please hear me right.” He says, “Did you hear this? Who is the king of glory?” As if to say, “I want to make sure that you understand this. Get it?” As if he is saying, “Let me say it again so that hell may tremble, so that the devil might tremble, so that the enemies of Christ may tremble.” He is the king of glory. He is the almighty conquering king of glory.
When we think of our king going to the cross and dying and then being buried, and then on the third day he rose again with his omnipotent power to defeat death once and for all, that should make us tremble before his majesty. Amen? And you ask, “Why? Why did he do this? Why did he leave the splendor of heaven and come to earth, die on a cross, rise again?” So that he might win the battle for us, so that he might be able to say, “It is finished.” So that he might stand before his father in the center of the universe and say, “Father, I've accomplished everything you asked me to accomplish. Father, I defeated Satan on the cross. Father, I've fully obeyed you and your will. Father, I have reclaimed the deeds of planet Earth from Satan.”
Listen to me: Christ came in weakness so that we might have his strength. He laid aside the splendor of his majesty so that we might receive his power. He gave up the trappings of his divinity—not his divinity, but the trappings of his divinity—so that we might have his divine nature. Look at verses 9 and 10 with me again: the conquering king Jesus is now calling his elect from every nation, every tribe, and every language. We are seeing it. Listen, we are seeing it with our own eyes right now! I am seeing it with my own eyes: those who were never his, those who for years pretended to be his, those who have deceived us into thinking that they are his—they're falling away now. They're falling away.
And yet others, we saw with our own eyes recently, can literally write their own death warrant when they get into the waters of baptism, and they are coming to Christ in large numbers. I don't know what that says to you, but I know what it says to me: that the Lord Jesus Christ is gathering his elect from every tribe, every language, and every nation. It tells me that the return of our conquering king is nearer than we think. The return of our conquering king is at the door. The return of our conquering king is about to sound the trumpet. The return of our conquering king is about to take place.