Psalm 24
July 30, 2023
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“There is a goal, but no way; what we call a way is hesitation.”

~ Franz Kafka, The Blue Octavo Notebooks

“When years seem like days to me,
No time on my hands.
I run away to a place in me to a faraway land.
When home seems so far from me,
Heaven’s lights grow dim.
It’s just as far as my deepest heart,
Where my heart’s father lives.
His quiet voice speaking in silence every day,
If I will only listen to the words he has to say.
I’ll walk in his spirit and see him in my face.
I will live cause he will live in my place.”

~ Ron Block, “Faraway Land”

“It is that of an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from happiness and from Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again. Apart from that, and considered only in its quality, it might almost equally well be called a particular kind of unhappiness or grief. But then it is a kind we want. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.”

~ C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

“I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you, only to be with you
I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls, these city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

~ U2, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”

Sermon Passage

Psalm 24 (ESV)

¹ The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
² for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.

³ Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
⁴ 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.
⁵ He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

⁷ Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
⁸ Who is this King of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle!
⁹ Lift up your heads, O gates!
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
¹⁰ Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
he is the King of glory! Selah