Is there another statement, that only those who are good and righteous in good works will be with the Lord?
3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.
Let’s face it. Who truly has clean hands? And honestly? A pure heart? If that is the case, then the mountain of the Lord may be a place devoid of people. But is this what this means? Sort of.
We have to understand the nature of Hebrew poetry and here we see an example of synonymous paralellism. Hebrew poetry was rhyming thoughts, not necessarily the rhyming of words.
In English the poetry rhymes sounds such as
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet,
And so are you.
In Hebrew, it is about rhyming thoughts, saying the same thing but in a difererent way called synonymous parallelism and it’s seen throughout Psalms.
Your word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path.
(Ps 119:105).
The psalmist isn’t saying two different things in this verse but rather saying the same thing in a different.
In Ps 24 we also see this:
” one who has clean hands and a pure heart” is explained by the next line and tells us who this is:
“who has not set his mind on what is false and who has not sworn deceitfully.”
The one who is clean and pure before God is the one who by faith trusts in God and who has not trusted in other gods or followed what is false. It’s the man or woman who follows have God in faith that will be the one who stands in the holy places of God.
