Beeson podcast, Episode 446 Douglas A. Sweeney May 28, 2019 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Now your host, Timothy George. Timothy George: Welcome to today's Beeson podcast. Today on the podcast, our preacher is Dr. Osvaldo Padilla. He joined the faculty of Beeson Divinity School back in 2008, teaches New Testament and Greek. A distinguished New Testament scholar, the author of several very important books, "The Acts of the Apostles." Also, a new book he's just writing on the pastoral epistles. Timothy George: A wonderful scholar, trained at the University of Aberdeen, and also studied at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He's married to Kirsten Padilla, who is the director of marketing and communications here at Beeson, and they are the parents of a wonderful young son, Phillip. They're members of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham. Timothy George: Dr. Osvaldo Padilla's sermon is, "Who is the King of Glory?" It's from Psalm 24, and it was a part of our chapel series back in 2018, "The Psalter of Jesus Christ." So, let's go to Hodge's Chapel and listen to this sermon by Dr. Osvaldo Padilla, "Who is the King of Glory?" Dr. Osvaldo Pad: Good morning, and a warm welcome to today's chapel where we are going to be speaking and thinking about Psalm 24. So, I would ask you to have your Bibles open there, please, or the bulletin where the text is printed for us. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: When I was a professor at Trinity up in Deerfield, Illinois for a short period of time, I preached in chapel and a student, who had been in many of my classes, came to me afterwards and said, "You preach like you teach, and you teach like you preach." I didn't know if that was a compliment, or what it was, but I want to try to live up to that today because I want to speak not just about the text, the subject of the text, Psalm 24, but also how we actually study this text. So, I wanted it to be something of a preaching that is like a teaching and a teaching that is like a preaching. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: The first part of this sermon, then, is going to be a close, exegetical reading of Psalm 24. Again, I invite you to follow with me through the text. The text begins with a thunderous affirmation. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." By reading the earth, "the earth," as the first two words in our English translations, we might think that the emphasis of the verse is ecological, but that is not the case. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: In reality, the emphasis falls entirely on the Lord for in the Hebrew text it begins with [Biblical Hebrew 00:03:27], and so on. "To the Lord belongs the earth. Of the Lord is the earth." As I prepare for sermons, I like to look at different translations in different languages. I think the French translation catches verse one well when it begins, [French 00:03:48]. That's how it begins. And the Spanish version, when it begins with [Spanish 00:03:55], the emphasis falls on the Lord. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: It is none other than the covenant God of Israel that the earth belongs to. In beautiful symmetry, and there is a lot of beautiful symmetry in this psalm, the psalmist highlights that the earth in its entirety belongs to the Lord. The second, flora and fauna that feeds and delights humans, and all of humanity itself belongs to the Lord. God has given to humans in abundance of His beautiful creation, which He made and said that it was good. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: Well, how do we know that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof? For this is a statement of faith to be sure, but faith has his reasons, and the reason given here is divine revelation. The Lord's ownership of the world, His creation of the world, and the goodness and plenty of the world, is not something that can be figured out by science, by Newtonian physics, or even less by the crazy world of quantum mechanics, or even by the impressive fine-tuning of the universe. Only God's revelation in Holy Scripture can be a reason for saying that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: And this is what the psalmist does when he alludes to Genesis 1 in verse two. Look now with me at verse two. Why is the earth and the fullness thereof the Lord's? The answer is given in verse two. It is an answer that is constitutive of Old Testament faith. The Lord is the master of the earth because He established it. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: Now, the Bible can't speak of the creation of the earth from many different perspectives, but here in verse two, the psalmist highlights the Lord's ordering of primeval chaos. Notice that he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the streams. Rivers or streams is the idea. And that kind of leads us back to Genesis 1 where the Lord takes control of disorderly entities and brings them into order. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: The fact that the Lord founded the earth shows that He is in absolute control. "Thus far shall you come and no farther, and here shall your proud ways be stayed," we hear in the Book of Job. God is in absolute control, and this absolute control of God over creation is to be a consolation for His people. Thus, already in statements of faith, in verses one and two, the power of God is viewed as a sense of comfort for His people. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: We now move to the second part of the psalm, verses 3-6. The wonderful words about God in verses one and two move the reader to want to know this God more, to want a relationship with Him. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have communion with just this God, creator of the earth? But who is able to have communion with this powerful and transcendent God? One may think that since He's so powerful, only the powerful of this world may meet with Him, but this is not so. When the pilgrim ... And you must imagine, when I say the word "Pilgrim," you must imagine psalm 24 as a group of pilgrims that are going up to worship the Lord. When the pilgrim asks, "Who shall ascend the Hill of the Lord?" That is to say, "Who shall stand in His Holy Temple?" The conditions given are entirely ethical and moral, not socioeconomic. This has the effect of leveling all the pilgrims. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: Isn't that nice? It's not the richest. Anyone. Who then can have communion with this God? The teachers of Israel, the Levites perhaps, respond, "He who has clean hands and a pure heart." The requirements are first given in summary fashion, referring both to the actual deeds and the thoughts behind the deeds. One good commentator states that by putting the requirement in summary fashion, the words have an annihilating result for the reader, for who is totally clean in deed and in thought? The worshipers must be perfect, but with the following clause the requirements become more specific and concrete, but just as lethal. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: So, who can ascend to the Temple of the Lord? "He who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully." These words have a vertical and horizontal reference. Vertically, with respect to God, the pilgrim must not be an idolater. "You shall have no other gods before me," Exodus 20:3, which is then cashed out in Deuteronomy 6:4 as, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." Dr. Osvaldo Pad: The second part of verse four has a horizontal dimension, our neighbor. The pilgrim must not use God's name in order to harm his neighbor. John Goldingay in his commentary on the psalms puts it this way: "They swear oaths in order to achieve a deceptive end, in order to cheat and defraud." Interestingly, Leviticus 19:11-18 cashes out the command to not profane God's name by the positive command, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." So it appears that the two commands with a vertical and a horizontal dimension are that we should love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and we should love our neighbors as ourselves. Those are the conditions for the pilgrim who wishes to enter the sanctuary. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: Verses five and six have a promise attached to these conditions. "He will receive blessing from the Lord." The second line clarifies that the blessing the pilgrim will receive is, "Righteousness from God, the God of his salvation." So, we can think of blessing in many ways, but the psalmist narrows it down, as it were, to righteousness from the God of his salvation. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: More than likely, the sense here is that the pilgrim will receive vindication from God, victory in battles and delivery from his enemies. In short, as verse six hints, both the requirement and the reward of the pilgrim is to seek and to find the face of the God of Jacob. And with that, the pilgrim has climbed the Holy Mountain and is ready to worship God with the other pilgrims. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: We now come to the third and last part of the psalm, verses 7-10. With this verse as we reach the climax of the psalm, one must imagine the multitude of pilgrims approaching the presence of God with music, shouts, exultations, and even dancing, rather like when David brought the Arc of the Covenant into Jerusalem. And here, the worship takes a liturgical, antiphonal call-and-response format. One group shouts boldly, "Lift up your heads, oh gates, and be lifted up, oh ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in." The other group responds with a question, "Who is this King of Glory?" To which the first group answers back, "The Lord, strong almighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory." Dr. Osvaldo Pad: The lentils of the ancient city gates must lift up very high for the Lord of Glory does not stoop as He enters His sanctuary. And why is He the King of Glory? Because He is the Creator and the Redeemer of His people. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: I want to move now for a more ... For lack of a better phrase, global reading of Psalm 24. The main tension that drives Psalm 24 is the relationship between the God who is praised and the person who desires to praise this God. There is the praise-worthy portrait of the Lord as Creator and King, a portrait that impels the reader to join the pilgrims in their praise of God. But with the surprising question of verse three, the reader realizes that there are conditions to go up the mountain to praise this God. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: On the one hand, there is the picture of God as beneficent Creator and King that makes communion with Him entirely desirable, but on the other hand, there is a reality of the ethical condition of clean hands and pure hearts. The reader wants to join the pilgrim in exalt and praise, but realizes that he cannot climb the Holy Hill because his hands are not clean and her heart is not pure. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: This tension ... I want to worship this Lord who is my creator but can I worship this Lord, is the tension that drives this psalm. How, as Christians, do we read this psalm and profit in meditation of it? This psalm seems to have similar logic to many others in the psalter. Think, for example, of the very first psalm, Psalm 1, and Psalm 15, and 26, 36, 112, 119, from which Paul House preached a couple of weeks ago, and other psalms where it appears that the blessing of God is commiserate with the amount of obedience performed by the reader. That is, it appears that those who do not keep God's Law, cannot know Him or receive a blessing from Him. This appears to be the case, also, with Psalm 24. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: In fact, if we were to put in thesis form what this psalm is communicating, we could perhaps put it in the following way. Here's my little summary statement of the text. "YHWH is the glorious King who requires of His people purity in order to have fellowship with Him." To me, that's a more-or-less fair thesis statement of the text. "YHWH is the glorious King who requires of His people purity in order to have fellowship with Him." Dr. Osvaldo Pad: I think of Psalm 24 and others like Psalms of Obligation. I don't know if [Gunko 00:16:34] had a category for this, but that's what I like to call them. "Psalms of Obligation," where it seems that to receive the blessing of the Lord, you have to be obedient to the Lord. I must confess that I have a difficult time with these psalms. I like the Psalms of Consolation. I like the Psalms of Confession. I'm still working through the ones of imprecation. I also like the Psalms of Thanksgiving and singing, but I have a particularly difficult time with the Psalms of Obligation. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: How do you deal with a Psalm of Obligation when you come across one? Do you start nervously searching in your mind for a good deed that would qualify as a condition of blessing or as a concrete example of obedience? Do you skip the psalm? Could always do that. Do you negotiate with your apparent failures by promising to do better next time? Do you run to Jesus Christ? Do you get depressed? How do you deal with these Psalms of Obligation such as Psalm 24? Dr. Osvaldo Pad: Here's what I wanted to say today. This is why I got up this morning. I want to say that unless you read the Obligatory Psalms, indeed the whole psalter, with a Christological foundation, the psalms, especially the obligatory ones, will crush you. Let me say that again. Unless you read Psalm 24 or indeed the entire psalter with a Christological foundation, they will crush you. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: This is why I love the title of this chapel serious, "The Psalter of Jesus Christ." I wonder what the Dean, and those who helped him organize this series, had in mind with the little word, "Of," in the "Psalter of Jesus Christ." May I give a Maximalist interpretation of the word, "Of" in this series? Well, I'm thinking Greek Genitives here. That is, it is the psalter that comes from Jesus Christ. It is the psalter that was read by Jesus Christ. It is the psalter that belonged to Jesus Christ. It is the psalter that is about Jesus Christ. Yes, all of the above, for the psalms will be of most benefit to you when the shadow of the face of Christ is the watermark on every page. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: What do I mean when I say that Psalm 24 must be read Christological? Is this Biblically and theologically legitimate? In answering this question, we must think together about the relationship within blessing and covenant that functions as the main tension of our psalm. I would put it this way: The blessings of the covenant people, their communion with Him are ultimately based on God's gracious covenant election of them, not their ability to be faithful to that covenant. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: The Torah was present in Israel to provide atonement for sins through sacrifice, to lead to repentance, and so on. In short, the Torah was there to regulate the already established relationship between God and His people. But on what basis did God establish this relationship with Him people in the first place? Why did He enter it? Why does He do it? Dr. Osvaldo Pad: He does it because this is His character, to be gracious and loving, and to seek communion with His own creation. "The Lord, the Lord," Exodus 34. This is who He is. And I think most people would agree with me here, I hope you would agree with me here, but the question becomes where does Jesus Christ fit in this picture of the Old Testament and the covenant relationship between God and His people? Where does Jesus Christ fit in this picture? Dr. Osvaldo Pad: My understanding from the revelation of the New Testament is that God has always, even in the Old Testament, related to His people through the mediation of His Son, Jesus Christ. God has constituted from eternity past that His relationship with His creation, including His people, would always be through Jesus Christ. Even in the Old Testament is this mediator relationship to be understood as the basis. Jesus Christ is not a posteriori to the covenant failure of Israel in the Old Testament, He's the a priori. And the covenant relationship exists at all because Jesus Christ is this a priori, thus even though only in the New Testament that we discovered that God related to His people through Jesus Christ, in the divine ontology, in the divine being, God has always related to His people through Jesus Christ. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: If this is true, then Christians, we, "Upon whom the end of the ages have come," as Paul says in 1 Corinthians, we must read Psalm 24 and the whole psalter through a Christological framework. It is the psalter of Jesus Christ in everything. May I now rephrase the thesis of Psalm 24? I would now put it like this, "Jesus Christ is the Glorious King who has won redemption for us in order that we may have communion with Him. Therefore, draw near to Him with exaltation and commitment." Dr. Osvaldo Pad: When we reread Psalm 24 then with this Christological basis, we realize that it was through the Word, the Logos, that God established the Earth that we read about in verses one and two. He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was light, and the light was the light of men. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: And the phrase in verse two, "The earth is the Lord's," excuse me, "And those who dwell therein," verse one. That phrase would one day include God Himself. He Himself will dwell upon this earth. "What about the conditions?" Says verses 3-6. "Who shall ascend?" I know that I can't because my ability to love God and neighbor is imperfect. That's my wife. She's sitting there. My ability to love God with all my heart, soul, and spirit, and to love my neighbor as myself is imperfect. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: "We have not loved Him with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves," The Book of Common Prayers says in the time of confession. But Christ, in His incarnation for us and for our salvation, in His death and resurrection, He is my pure heart and my clean hands. He has obeyed the commands perfectly that I might ascend to the Holy Temple. The reality of Jesus Christ makes the imperatives of the Psalms into indicatives. The reality of Jesus Christ makes the "ought" of the psalm into an "is." The reality of Jesus Christ makes the "if" of the psalm into a "since." And all this without at the same time removing my obligation and capacity by the Holy Spirit to love God and neighbor. Indeed, precisely because He has redeemed me do I desire wholeheartedly to obey Him and repent when I fail. Do you see how it is? Dr. Osvaldo Pad: And what about the final part of Psalm 24? It is not surprising that the Church has read this psalm on the celebration of Ascension Day. For the identity of the King of Glory is no longer in shadow, for "We know that there is no God behind the back of Jesus Christ," as one Scottish theologian liked to say. But now, we realize that what makes the Lord of Psalm 24 glorious is not just His act of creation, but also His act of redemption. And this glorification of King Jesus began when He ascended Mount Golgotha with a cross on His back, continued when they crucified the Lord of Glory, and climaxed when He was raised and sat at the right hand of the Father. Dr. Osvaldo Pad: Who is this King of Glory? The Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Beeson podcast with host, Timothy George. You can subscribe to the Beeson podcast at our website, beesondivinity.com. Speaker 1: Beeson Divinity School is an interdenominational Evangelical divinity school, training men and women in the service of Jesus Christ. 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