John Calvin Commentary Psalms 24:3

"Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah? And who shall stand in his holy place?" — Psalms 24:3 (ASV)

Who shall ascend to. It being very well known that it was by pure grace that God established His sanctuary and chose for Himself a dwelling-place among the Jews, David makes only a tacit reference to this subject. He insists chiefly on the other point contained in the verse: distinguishing true Israelites from the false and illegitimate.

He takes his argument for exhorting the Jews to lead a holy and righteous life from the fact that God had separated them from the rest of the world to be His peculiar inheritance. The rest of mankind, it is true, since they were created by Him, belong to His dominion; but he who occupies a place in the church is more nearly related to Him.

All those, therefore, whom God receives into His flock He calls to holiness, and He places them under obligation to follow it by His adoption.

Moreover, by these words David indirectly rebukes hypocrites, who did not hesitate to falsely take to themselves the holy name of God. We know that they are usually lifted up with pride because of the titles they take without having the excellencies these titles imply, contenting themselves with bearing only outward distinctions.

Indeed, he purposely magnifies this singular grace of God, so that every man may learn for himself that he has no right of entrance or access to the sanctuary unless he sanctifies himself to serve God in purity.

The ungodly and wicked, it is true, were in the habit of resorting to the tabernacle. Therefore, God, by the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 1:12), reproaches them for coming unworthily into His courts, and wearing the pavement thereof. But David here treats of those who may lawfully enter God’s sanctuary.

The house of God being holy, if any rashly and without a right rush into it, their corruption and abuse are simply polluting it.

Therefore, since they do not go up there lawfully, David takes no account of their going up. Indeed, these words include a severe rebuke of the conduct of wicked and profane men in daring to go up into the sanctuary and pollute it with their impurity.

On this subject I have spoken more fully on Psalm 15. In the second part of the verse, he seems to denote perseverance, as if he had said, Who shall go up into the hill of Sion, to appear and stand in the presence of God? The Hebrew word קום, kum, it is true, sometimes signifies to rise up, but it is generally taken for to stand, as we have seen in Psalm 1.

And although this is a repetition of the same idea stated in the preceding clause, it is not simply so. Instead, David, by expressing the end for which they ought to go up, illustrates and amplifies the subject; and we find him often making use of this repetition and amplification in other psalms.

In short, however much the wicked were mixed with the good in the church in the time of David, he declares how vain a thing it is to make an external profession unless there is, at the same time, truth in the inward man. What he says concerning the tabernacle of the covenant must be applied to the continual government of the church.