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Psalm 24

Who can ascend the hill of the Lord? …

Those who have clean hands and a pure heart.

even after fifteen-hundred years, it is moving to stand in the area of Tara in County Meath in Ireland, and to realize that the palace of the high king once stood here overlooking the surrounding plain. In those days our eyes would have gazed out over a vast forest. The person who stood here long ago held power over everything he could see.

The psalmist gives us a similar image of God. But this time we are looking not over a small island kingdom, but across the planet. We are celebrating infinite power.

The psalmist now asks the question, “Who can ascend the hill of the Lord?” How can we experience the presence of God? What serves us best, if we would feel the power of God in our lives? The reply brings us up short. Power as our society thinks of it has no bearing on this matter. When asked to imagine who can stand on the high place with God, we instinctively think of human beings larger than life—powerful, courageous, strong, invulnerable. But our images are swept away as utterly mistaken.

We are given a markedly different set of standards for those who would be the companions of God. “Clean hands and a pure heart … not pledged … to falsehood [or] fraud.” We are being told that the criteria necessary for a relationship with God are essentially moral.

To extend these criteria into the realm of society is very much in keeping with the world of the psalms, where personal and communal life are constantly being linked. We live at a time when Western society as a whole is wrestling with the problem of morality, both public and private. On what grounds can moral stances be justified, especially in an increasingly plural society? “Who can stand?” asks the psalmist. Our question is rather, “On what can we stand?”

If we as a society are to “receive a blessing from the Lord”—to become a desirable, peaceful, and just society in which human beings can live creatively and happily—we know that we must find some acceptable moral ground. Without this we will weaken. But with it we will be powerful in the truest and most lasting sense.

Are there some issues of social morality that concern you? Recall how Jesus responded to moral issues. Consider his teachings— Two Great Commandments, Sermon on the Mount, Lord’s Prayer, Parables. Ask God to guide your discernment and compassion.