Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 24:5

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 24:5. He shall receive the blessing — Perhaps alluding to Obed-edom, at whose house the ark had been lodged, and on whom God had poured out especial blessings.

And righteousness — Mercy: every kind of necessary good. It is the mercy of God that crowns the obedience and fidelity of good men. For what made them good and faithful? God's mercy. What crowns their fidelity? God's mercy.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 24:0 The triumphal entry

Saul had taken little interest in the religious life of Israel. During his reign the ark of the covenant (or covenant box) remained in a country house in Kiriath-jearim. David set about correcting this state of affairs by restoring the ark, symbol of God’s presence, to its rightful place at the centre of the nation’s religious life. One of the greatest days of his life, therefore, was the day on which he brought the ark into Jerusalem (1 Samuel 7:1-2; 2 Samuel 6:12-19; 2 Samuel 6:12-19). This was probably the occasion on which Psalms 24:0 was first sung.

As the procession approaches the hill of the Lord (Jerusalem), a question is asked: who is able to enter the presence of the almighty Creator, Yahweh, the holy God of Israel (1-3)? The answer comes back: only those who have ‘clean hands’ in all their dealings with others and pure hearts in their loyalty to God (4; cf. 2 Samuel 6:1-13; Psalms 15:1-5). Such are God’s true people, and God will defend them against their opponents (5-6).

At the gate of the city the procession stops and demands entrance in the name of the king of glory (7). The gatekeepers challenge the right of the procession to enter, by asking the identity of this king of glory. They receive the reply that he is Yahweh, the almighty God of Israel who gave the nation victory over its enemies (8-10).

Whatever meaning the song may have had to the Israelites of Old Testament times, it will have added meaning if it is sung at the king of glory’s greater victory procession that is yet to come (cf. Philippians 3:20-21; Revelation 19:1-8).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"He shall receive a blessing from Jehovah, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek after him That seek thy face, even Jacob. (Selah)"

"He shall receive a blessing… and righteousness" (Psalms 24:5). Again we have a statement that requires the application of this passage to the Christ. The only righteousness that this world ever achieved was that which was wrought by Jesus Christ our Lord. Of the totality of mankind, other than Christ, it is stated, "That there is none righteous, no not one."

Furthermore, the promise of "righteousness" to be received by men here from "Jehovah" is a reference to those who become servants of Jesus Christ whose "righteousness" becomes the possession of mortals when they are baptized "into Christ," thereby becoming partakers of his "righteousness."

"This is the generation" (Psalms 24:6). "The meaning of `generation' in this passages is `breed' or `circle' of people."Derek Kidner, p. 76. It appears to be a reference to the `kind of people' who seek to know God.

"That seek thy face, even Jacob" (Psalms 24:6). The Septuagint (LXX) renders this place even the God of Jacob; and to this writer it appears to make better sense than our own version. Dahood supported the LXX here, and a number of other scholars also accept the change. However, Leupold supported our version, affirming that, "It is a perfectly valid and satisfactory rendition, and requires no such emendation as the insertion of the word `God' and translating it, `O God of Jacob.' It is unthinkable that the word `God' could have been carelessly dropped by a scribe out of the sacred text."H. C. Leupold, p. 220.

We feel compelled to accept our American Standard Version as correct in this. What the psalm is saying is that the generation then seeking the face of God were doing so in the same manner that the patriarch Jacob had done when he wrestled with the Lord at Peniel.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

He shall receive the blessing from the Lord - literally, “He shall bear away a blessing from Yahweh.” The blessing here referred to means His favor and friendship. He shall be recognized and treated as His. In other words, God bestows His favor on those who possess the character here referred to.

And righteousness from the God of his salvation - He shall be regarded and treated as righteous. Or, he shall obtain the divine approval as a righteous person. The idea of the psalmist would seem to be, not that he would obtain this as if it were a gift, but that he would obtain the divine “approval” of his character as righteous; he would be recognized and dealt with as a righteous man. He would come to God with “clean hands and a pure heart” Psalms 24:4, and would be welcomed and treated as a friend of God. The wicked and the impure could not hope to obtain this; but he who was thus righteous would be treated according to his real character, and would meet with the assurances of the divine favor. It is as true now as it was in the days of the psalmist, that it is only the man who is in fact upright and holy that can obtain the evidences of the divine approval. God will not regard one who is living in wickedness as a righteous man, nor will he admit such a man to His favor here, or to His dwelling-place hereafter.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

5.He shall receive blessing. The more effectually to move the minds of the Israelites, David declares that nothing is more desirable than to be numbered among the flock of God, and to be members of the church. We must here consider that there is an implied contrast between true Israelites and those of them who were degenerate and bastards. The more license the wicked give themselves, the more presumptuous are they in pretending to the name of God, as if he were under obligation to them, because they are adorned with the same outward symbols or badges as true believers. Accordingly, the demonstrative pronoun this, in the following verse, is of great weight, for it expressly excludes all that bastard generation which gloried only in the mask of external ceremonies. And in this verse, when he speaks of blessing, he intimates that it is not those who boast of being the servants of God, while they have only the name, who shall be partakers of the promised blessing, but those only who answer to their calling with their whole heart, and without hypocrisy. It is, as we have already observed, a very powerful inducement to godliness and an upright life, when the faithful are assured that they do not lose their labor in following righteousness, since God has in reserve for them a blessing which cannot fail them. The word righteousness may be explained two ways. It either means all the benefits of God, by which he proves himself to be righteous and faithful towards his people in keeping his promises to them, or it denotes the fruit or reward of the believer’s righteousness. Indeed, David’s meaning is abundantly manifest. He intends to show on the one hand, that it is not to be expected that the fruit or reward of righteousness will be bestowed on those who unrighteously profane God’s sacred worship; and on the other hand, that it is impossible for God to disappoint his true worshippers; for it is his peculiar office to give evidence of his righteousness by doing them good.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 24:1-10

Psalms 24:1-10 :

The earth is the LORD'S, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein ( Psalms 24:1 ).

It all belongs to God.

For he hath founded it upon the seas, he established it upon the floods ( Psalms 24:2 ).

Now the question, the whole thing is God's, the earth's the Lord's, the fullness thereof. He founded it. He made it. It belonged to him.

Who shall ascend ( Psalms 24:3 )

The question:

Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? ( Psalms 24:3 )

The answer:

He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart ( Psalms 24:4 );

Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" ( Matthew 5:8 ).

who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory ( Psalms 24:4-10 ).

Beautiful psalm. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. Ascent to the sanctuary 24:1-6

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 24

Only people characterized by righteous deeds and pure thoughts may enter the place where the glorious King of the Universe dwells.

The occasion that inspired the composition of this psalm is unknown. However, in view of its content, many interpreters believe David may have written it when he brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6). [Note: E.g., Delitzsch, 1:334.] Perhaps he wrote it when he returned from some victory in battle. [Note: Craigie, pp. 213-14.]

During the Exile, the Jews developed the tradition of reading this psalm every Sunday, celebrating the first day of Creation. They also read other psalms on the other days of the week: 48 on Monday, 82 on Tuesday, 94 on Wednesday, 81 on Thursday, 93 on Friday, and 92 on Saturday. [Note: See Roy A. Rosenberg, "Yahweh has become King," Journal of Biblical Literature 85 (1966):297-307.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

God will bless those individuals-who seek God’s fellowship by pursuing the ways of righteousness-by granting their desire.

"Whatever is functioning as it should is ’righteous’: in court, the man in the right; in character, the honest man; in the run of affairs, success. Probably all three are present in this context. This man has the smile of God upon him: he is accepted, he is helped to live an upright life, his affairs under God’s blessing will run as they should [cf. Psalms 23:3 b; Psalms 65:5]." [Note: Kidner, p. 114.]

The "generation" of those who seek Him probably refers to the group who seek God’s face (i.e., seek God). The psalmist referred to the God of Jacob (NIV) here. This reference to Jacob brings to mind Jacob wrestling with the Lord to receive a blessing from Him (Genesis 32:24-32). All who similarly struggle to obtain the Lord’s blessing by pursuing righteousness will receive His favor, as Jacob did.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

He shall receive the blessing from the Lord,.... Or "who receives" l; the future for the present; and so is a continuation of the description of a person proper to enter and abide in the church of God, as Psalms 24:6 seems to require; even one who has received every spiritual blessing in Christ in general, special grace out of his fulness; particularly the blessing of pardon, as also adoption, and a right to eternal life; though it may be that the following clause is explanative of this;

and righteousness from the God of his salvation; from Christ, who is God his Saviour, the author of salvation; and who has brought in an everlasting righteousness, which is in him, and is a gift of his grace, and is received from him by faith, and is a great blessing indeed; it secures from condemnation and death, and entitles to eternal life.

l ישא "qui accipit", Cocceius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?   4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.   5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.   6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

      From this world, and the fulness thereof, the psalmist's meditations rise, of a sudden to the great things of another world, the foundation of which is not on the seas, nor on the floods. The things of this world God has given to the children of men and we are much indebted to his providence for them; but they will not make a portion for us. And therefore,

      I. Here is an enquiry after better things, Psalms 24:3; Psalms 24:3. This earth is God's footstool; but, if we had ever so much of it, we must be here but a while, must shortly go hence, and Who then shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall go to heaven hereafter, and, as an earnest of that, shall have communion with God in holy ordinances now? A soul that knows and considers its own nature, origin, and immortality, when it has viewed the earth and the fulness thereof, will sit down unsatisfied; there is not found among all the creatures a help meet for man, and therefore it will think of ascending towards God, towards heaven, will ask, "What shall I do to rise to that high place, that hill, where the Lord dwells and manifests himself, that I may be acquainted with him, and to abide in that happy holy place where he meets his people and makes them holy and happy? What shall I do that I may be of those whom God owns for his peculiar people and who are his in another manner than the earth is his and its fulness?" This question is much the same with that, Psalms 15:1. The hill of Zion on which the temple was built typified the church, both visible and invisible. When the people attended the ark to its holy place David puts them in mind that these were but patterns of heavenly things, and therefore that by them they should be led to consider the heavenly things themselves.

      II. An answer to this enquiry, in which we have,

      1. The properties of God's peculiar people, who shall have communion with him in grace and glory. (1.) They are such as keep themselves from all the gross acts of sin. They have clean hands; not spotted with the pollutions of the world and the flesh. None that were ceremonially unclean might enter into the mountain of the temple, which signified that cleanness of conversation which is required in all those that have fellowship with God. The hands lifted up in prayer must be pure hands, no blot of unjust gain cleaving to them, nor any thing else that defiles the man and is offensive to the holy God. (2.) They are such as make conscience of being really (that is, of being inwardly) as good as they seem to be outwardly. They have pure hearts. We make nothing of our religion if we do not make heart-work of it. It is not enough that our hands be clean before men, but we must also wash our hearts from wickedness, and not allow ourselves in any secret heart-impurities, which are open before the eye of God. Yet in vain do those pretend to have pure and good hearts whose hands are defiled with the acts of sin. That is a pure heart which is sincere and without guile in covenanting with God, which is carefully guarded, that the wicked one, the uncle an spirit, touch it not, which is purified by faith, and conformed to the image and will of God; see Matthew 5:8. (3.) They are such as do not set their affections upon the things of this world, do not lift up their souls unto vanity, whose hearts are not carried out inordinately towards the wealth of this world, the praise of men, or the delights of sense, who do not choose these things for their portion, nor reach forth after them, because they believe them to be vanity, uncertain and unsatisfying. (4.) They are such as deal honestly both with God and man. In their covenant with God, and their contracts with men, they have not sworn deceitfully, nor broken their promises, violated their engagements, nor taken any false oath. Those that have no regard to the obligations of truth or the honour of God's name are unfit for a place in God's holy hill. (5.) They are a praying people (Psalms 24:6; Psalms 24:6): This is the generation of those that seek him. In every age there is a remnant of such as these, men of this character, who are accounted to the Lord for a generation,Psalms 22:30. And they are such as seek God, that seek they face, O Jacob! [1.] They join themselves to God, to seek him, not only in earnest prayer, but in serious endeavours to obtain his favour and keep themselves in his love. Having made it the summit of their happiness, they make it the summit of their ambition to be accepted of him, and therefore take care and pains to approve themselves to him. It is to the hill of the Lord that we must ascend, and, the way being up-hill, we have need to put forth ourselves to the utmost, as those that seek diligently. [2.] They join themselves to the people of God, to seek God with them. Being brought into communion with God, they come into communion of saints; conforming to the patterns of the saints that have gone before (so some understand this), they seek God's face, as Jacob (so some), who was therefore surnamed Israel, because he wrestled with God and prevailed, sought him and found him; and, associating with the saints of their own day, they shall court the favour of God's church (Revelation 3:9), shall be glad of an acquaintance with God's people (Zechariah 8:23), shall incorporate themselves with them, and, when they subscribe with their hands to the Lord, shall call themselves by the name of Jacob,Isaiah 44:5. As soon as ever Paul was converted he joined himself to the disciples,Acts 9:26. They shall seek God's face in Jacob (so some), that is, in the assemblies of his people. Thy face, O God of Jacob! so our margin supplies it, and makes it easy. As all believers are the spiritual seed of Abraham, so all that strive in prayer are the spiritual seed of Jacob, to whom God never said, Seek you me in vain.

      2. The privileges of God's peculiar people, Psalms 24:5; Psalms 24:5. They shall be made truly and for ever happy. (1.) They shall be blessed: they shall receive the blessing from the Lord, all the fruits and gifts of God's favour, according to his promise; and those whom God blesses are blessed indeed, for it is his prerogative to command the blessing. (2.) They shall be justified and sanctified. These are the spiritual blessings in heavenly things which they shall receive, even righteousness, the very thing they hunger and thirst after, Matthew 5:5. Righteousness is blessedness, and it is from God only that we must expect it, for we have no righteousness of our own. They shall receive the reward of their righteousness (so some), the crown of righteousness which the righteous Judge shall give,2 Timothy 4:8. (3.) They shall be saved; for God himself will be the God of their salvation. Note, Where God gives righteousness he certainly designs salvation. Those that are made meet for heaven shall be brought safely to heaven, and then they will find what they have been seeking, to their endless satisfaction.