Psalm 24 was written after Uzzah was killed by reaching out to the ark of God with unclean hands. David now asks in Psalm 24:3-4 (NLT) “Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies.”
David is giving us the answer on how we are going to enter the presence of God. Only with clean hands and a clean heart.
Matthew 23:25-26 (NLT) “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.”
1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV) “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Matthew 15:18–19 (ESV) “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”
James 4:8 (ESV) “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
We need a sanitisation of our hands and our heart. We cannot have his presence, without the cleansing of our hands and heart.
You cannot approach God in an easy cart. Apparently, David didn’t seek the Lord on how the ark should be transported. He used an easy way. A new cart. His method of transport seems to be similar to the Philistine approach of putting the ark on a new cart pulled by two cows. (1 Samuel 6:7).
1 Chronicles 15:2 “No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the LORD chose them to carry the ark of the LORD and to minister before him forever.”
1 Chronicles 15:13″It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the LORD our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.”
1 Chronicles 15:12 (NLT) “He said to them, “You are the leaders of the Levite families. You must purify yourselves and all your fellow Levites, so you can bring the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it.”
2 Samuel 6:13 (NLT) “After the men who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.”
1 Chronicles 21:24 (NLT) “No, I insist on buying it for the full price. I will not take what is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not present burnt offerings that have cost me nothing!”
All over the world, you see the signs, wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.
If you want God’s presence in your life you need clean hands and a clean heart.