Christ alone is worthy, praise God! And like a good pastor, Johnson proclaimed that “only those united in him, cleansed and washed by his blood,” are qualified. This brings us back to the same question of who is worthy, as well as the passage that Derek Thomas opened the conference with: Rev. God has set the path of joy before us, and yet, as Johnson pointed out, it is “an impossibly high standard.” True joy is an impossibly high standard.īut we do not despair, because Johnson’s second point is that our passage is a reminder for our need of Christ. 24:4, that “we are to be pure both within and without,” how this covers our “deeds, hearts, desires, and words,” and that “whatever we lift up our souls to we are worshipping,” I thought about how true joy is premeditated, intentional, and filled with particular expectation. As I was listening to him develop his message from Ps. And so we were challenged by Johnson not to have a playful approach to worship (James 4:8).Īs Johnson expounded on this, I wrote down a thought: True joy is not casual. And Johnson reminds us that “God is not to be trifled with.” Even when we have reference to David and the Israelite’s celebratory music being played before the Lord in v.

We are not to worship according to what sounds good to us, but according to truth. Sounds good enough, that is, if God hadn’t made specific commands about how the arc was to be moved (see Exod. Johnson’s first point was about this hard lesson: “a lesson about true worship.” In verse three we see that David and his men brought the arc up on a new cart. 6, you will see that this truth was magnified for David when their first attempt to return the ark didn’t go as he envisioned. Of course we know that “only the righteous are qualified to stand before God and worship.” But if you read 2 Sam. 6, where David is bringing the ark of God to the City of David, leading worship, and asking these responsive questions. 6:20: “Who is able to stand before the Lord?” Johnson spoke about how this Psalm is the third in a messianic Psalm trilogy, and that it was most likely written for the event recorded in 2 Sam.

This was a very well-organized talk that took us all the way back to the same question in 1 Sam. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is falseand does not swear deceitfully.He will receive blessing from the Lordand righteousness from the God of his salvation.Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. This is the title of Phil Johnson’s first talk at this year’s PCRT conference.

Heart and hands are clean and pure