Who will climb the mountain of the Lord?, Psalm 15 and 24
Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? What does the Bible tell us?
Who will climb the holy mountain? Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?
Ezekiel 28:13-14 describes the Garden of Eden as being on “the holy mountain of God,” a landscape we may have been able to decipher from the description in Genesis 2:10-14 of the river flowing from Eden, which branches into four heads to fructify the earth.
After man sank into sin, who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?
Our first parents, then, had tasted the joy of living in the Presence of God on the holy mountain. They once knew a little of what it means to be human, having experienced the goal of our creation: Communion or intimacy with God in an all-encompassing life of worship that could only be described by the word “glory.” But from this awesome height, radiant with the countenance of God, Adam’s sin plunged all mankind into the dark abyss of exile from the divine Presence: A “Fall”, no doubt…Who shall ascend the mount of Jehovah? ?.
Who will go up to the mountain of the Lord?, for humanity descended from the mountain of the Lord
Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? Who will now ascend?
Mankind, once enjoying the paradise of God himself, was compelled to come down from the mountain of the LORD. Who, now, will ascend? Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? After all, it was God our Maker who, in holy justice, expelled us, for the Bible says: “So he expelled the man, and placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword that flashed through all sides, to guard the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24). Who dares to enter through that gate? Indeed, how can any human attempt to approach God not be considered presumptuous? mount of Jehovah?
This tragic central event, the exile of humanity from the presence of God, drives the plot of history itself…Who will climb the mount of Jehovah?…The tragedy of the Fall is the catastrophe on which the narrative of the Bible, a narrative that finds its denouement (or resolution) through the promised Messiah who, bearing our sins on the Cross to bear holy wrath, will one day carry us into the glory of our Father’s Presence.
Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?…What was once the goal of creation, in other words, is now the goal of salvation, that is, worship. And in the inscrutable wisdom of God, that adoration, that blinding glory of life before Deity, will far exceed in the new creation what it would have been if there had never been a tragic fall, for then we could not sing about the vast immensity of that love shed with blood, the blood of God’s own Lamb. Now we wonder who will climb the mountain of Jehovah?
But I’m ahead of myself. Between the original creation (and the subsequent Fall) described at the beginning of Genesis and the glory of humanity dwelling with God in the new creation at the end of Revelation, there is a powerful story.
After the fall of Genesis 3, who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?
The question remains, who will go up to the mountain of the Lord?… Being so used to life in a “fallen” world, we can easily forget that all the Biblical narratives after the fall of Genesis 3 are in one way or another, and to varying degrees, moving this story forward, developing the plot until it is finally resolved, and one can continue to keep one’s eyes (and, surely, one’s heart) fixed on the central question given to us in Israel’s book of worship. : “Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? “I think this theme at the heart of Scripture would be helpful for us to explore.
So, who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?
Who will go up to the presence of God? Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?
Paradise on top of Mount Eden is described in Genesis 2-3 as a well-watered garden with an abundance of fruit trees, a place where humanity and animals lived in harmony. These physical blessings, however, were but signs (and small indeed) of the greatest delight of his Source: God’s very life-giving Presence, but who shall ascend the mount of Jehovah?
Who will ascend? Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?
After the sin of Adam and Eve, and the consequent descent from the mountain of the LORD, who will climb the mountain of Jehovah?, the biblical narrative continues to deal with the dilemma: How will we abide in the divine Presence? Who will ascend? Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?
Unfortunately, as the narrative progresses, we find a progressive movement away from the Presence found in paradise. We read of Cain murdering his brother and therefore must go “from the presence of the LORD” and dwell (presumably further) “east of Eden” (Genesis 4:16).
From here, the descent into sin and estrangement from the LORD continues: We are introduced to the tyrannical Lamech who turns God’s mercy into a license for violence (Genesis 4: 23-24), a wickedness that spread until all the earth became corrupt, full of violence (Genesis 6:11). And now, who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?
And so the narrative that had begun with “In the beginning…” leads to the divine declaration that “the end” has come (Genesis 6:13). God, the righteous Judge of all the earth, will reverse his creative act of separating the waters above from the waters below, causing a flood to overwhelm the world. So far the story of the “world that was” (2 Peter 3:7). And yet, the focus of the Flood account is not so much on the destruction of the wicked as on the deliverance of Noah and his house.
Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? Cause that’s the only place of refuge
In other words, since we too are promised the “end” of this world, how can we escape judgment? How did Noah escape? This question, as will become evident, is not very different from that of the psalmist in Psalm 15 and 24: “Who shall go up to the mountain of the LORD?” – because that holy mountain is the only place of refuge (see Psalm 46, 48).
By the power of God’s Spirit, a renewed world emerges from the deep waters just as it had before (compare 8:1 with 1:2). There, on top of one of the mountains of Ararat, Noah is with his family, peacefully surrounded by all the creatures of the animal kingdom and enjoying the Presence of God. “Be fruitful and multiply,” comes the Creator’s blessing, “and fill the earth.”
Who shall go up to the mount of the Lord?… Noah, delivered through the waters, was carried by the ark to the mount of the Lord. So, salvation is inextricably linked with worship, Noah builds an altar and (how unlike Cain) offers a splendid burnt offering, pleasing to the LORD.
Now is when we come to understand the meaning of the Ark, the psalmist’s question will come to light: Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? Because the Ark was the divinely revealed means of salvation, its entrance is given proper prominence in the narrative: Who can enter and be saved? Just like the divinely barred gate of Eden, the gate of the Ark is presided over by God.
Who can enter? Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?
The Lord calls Noah to enter, “Go into the ark, you and all your household” (Genesis 7:1), and the Lord himself closes the door, barring entry afterwards (7:16). Life on the holy mountain can only be found inside that door, who can enter? Why was Noah given entry?
The narration, allowing us to listen to the LORD, leaves us in no doubt as to the answer to the previous question: “…Because I have seen you right before me” (7:1). For this reason Noah was given entrance, but who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah?…
In fact, Noah is presented to us in Genesis 6:9 as “just” and “blameless”, the same two qualifications given in Psalm 15: “Lord, who will dwell in your tabernacle? Who will dwell on your holy mountain? The one who walks in integrity (blameless) and the one who does justice ”(vv 1, 2). Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? The one who walks in integrity and the one who does justice.
Otherwise, the term “blameless” is most often translated “without blemish,” which describes the kind of sacrifice acceptable to the Lord, offered at “the entrance of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord” (Lev 1: 3). (There is another door, the dimensions of the Tabernacle curiously proportional to those of the ark).
Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? He who walks in integrity and does justice
The Scriptures, then, are uniformly consistent. Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? He who walks in integrity and does justice. Also Psalm 24:4 says: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart…”
As the first human being called “just” in the Bible, Noah’s justice is undoubtedly emphatic. However, lest we be tempted to think that Noah’s justice was done by himself, the verse that precedes his description tells us: “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6: 8).
In fact, when we come to the next righteous man in Genesis, Abraham, we learn that such righteousness is credited to those who believe in the Lord (15:6).
Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? Who will climb the mountain to contemplate its beauty?
Who will climb the mountain of the Lord?, Worship brings us closer to God
Worship, drawing near to the living God, is the central concern of Scripture and a vital aspect of its narrative. Who will climb to the top of the Lord’s dwelling to contemplate his beauty? Who will go up to the mountain of Jehovah? In the context of this prevailing question, the Tower of Babel episode in Genesis 11 is especially stark in its depiction of the titanic pride of fallen humanity.
“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, whose top reaches to heaven; and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth” (Genesis 1:4). The word translated as “tower” is migdol in Hebrew, understood here as a reference to a ziggurat, that is, to a architectural sacred mount.
Interestingly, most religions around the world seem to make use of an artificial mountain structure, a ziggurat, or a pyramid of some kind. Names like “the gate of heaven” and “link of heaven and earth”, the ziggurats, considered the heart of a city, were attempts devised by…