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.
Psalm 24:3
There are two places in the Old Testament where people were usually found worshiping God. The first place was up in the hills and the second place was in the tabernacle, both showing the importance of sacrificing and making an effort to worship as we ascend into his presence.
To ascend the hill of the Lord teaches us this aspect of sacrifice and the effort to worship. Physically, in order to be able to ascend or climb up to the top of the hill, it requires strength, training, and effort — especially since we are walking an incline, rather than walking on flat ground. When walking up a hill, we will no doubt have to experience the resistance of gravity. In other words, we will have to push and force ourselves up. This physical aspect of going up hill helps us to have a better physical understanding of what can happen in the spiritual realm when we set our hearts to worship God.
At times, worshiping God can feel as if we are attempting to go up a hill, especially when our flesh and our humanity are weighing us down. Physically, when going up a mountain or a hill, there will be times when we will see rocks, holes, bushes or other forms of obstacles that will make our climb more difficult.
Similarly, our surroundings and our spiritual experience in worshiping God can have their own obstacles, some you may be familiar with: the style of the music of our church, the temperature of the building, the people around us, the worship leader, the lighting, or even our own thoughts can all come in between our worship of the Lord.
All of these factors can cause us to resist and to disengage in worship, to tune out the Holy Spirit, and to be indifferent when approaching worship. And then we simply decide to listen to our own discomfort rather than ascending the hill of the Lord. We choose whether or not we will have an encounter with him in a powerful way.
Sometimes we begin the climb but stop in the middle.
In doing so we never get to experience the true beauty of the presence of God, because
we are not completely there. We may start out by wanting to enter into the presence of God, but then get distracted by our own agendas, preferences, and everything that is going on around us. This ultimately impedes us from going up the hill of the Lord.
I believe that is why the psalmist wrote that the only people who will be able to ascend to the Holy place, the hill of the Lord, will be those whose hearts are pure – or in other words, the people who are completely focused on Jesus.
I am no less guilty of stopping halfway up the hill. When I attend church, I fall prey to focusing on my surroundings and how the worship is being led. Placing my attention on these things makes me miss out on the opportunity of ascending to the place where I
will encounter the Holy Spirit.
If you are like me and have these similarities, I encourage you to rid yourself of the distractions and place all your effort into ascending the hill of God. There is a great reward on the top of the hill to those who are willing to worship God in spirit and in truth.
On the hill of the Lord is the only place where there is revelation, healing, restoration, peace, and His still small voice.
My prayer is that every time we get the opportunity to come to church and worship as a family, we make the decision of coming into His presence and ascending the hill – because it is in that holy place where God will reveal himself to us like never before.
Be encouraged,
Israel
italamantes@b4church.org
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