Psalm 24

                Psalm 24 falls on the shorter end of the spectrum, but it contains some rather inspirational verses that have been the framework for multiple musical pieces, both older and newer.  Start with verses 3-6:
 

³Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?

Who may stand in his holy place?

⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to an idol

or swear by what is false.

⁵He will receive blessing from the Lord

and vindication from God his Savior

⁶Such is the generation of those who seek him,

who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

Now check out the lyrics to Charlie Hall’s Give Us Clean Hands.  There’s a very clear parallel between Psalm 24 and Hall’s work.  Verses 4 and 6 are reworked to create a beautiful prayer to God asking Him to give us the clean hands a pure heart needed to come into His presence and praying that we would be a generation that seeks the face of God.

                Continuing on, we come to verses 7-10 which should sound really familiar, especially around Christmas:

⁷Lift up your heads, O you gates;

be lifted up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in

⁸Who is this king of Glory?

The Lord strong and mighty,

the Lord mighty in battle.

⁹Lift up your heads, O you gates;

lift them up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

¹⁰Who is he, this King of glory?

The Lord Almighty –

he is the King of glory

George Frederic Handel used this text as the frame for movement 33 in Part 2 of his massive work Messiah.  It’s a very moving image and the notes suggest that this was a ritual part of worship at the early temple.  Verses 7 and 9 are a request from people outside the temple for the gates to be opened.  The priests, or someone else already inside, would then pose the question in verses 8 and 10 and the people would issue their reply.  This call to worship represented the people’s desire for God’s presence to dwell among them.

There are many more Psalms that have been used and reworked to create some very popular songs of worship and hymns.  As I come to them, I will point towards the modern rewrite.  It’s part of the reason I’m so drawn to the Psalms.  As a musician and worship leader, I find a tremendous amount of material here to use on Sunday morning.