Justin Tucker, LHBC Worship Pastor
Psalm 24:3-6
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 false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and 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.
Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh God let us be a generation that seeks
That seeks your face, oh God of Jacob
On March 20 of this year, Google released a Google Doodle of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis. He is known today as the pioneer of antiseptic measures. In the 1850’s, one in every six women were dying from fever after giving birth. Dr. Semmelweis made it his mission to lower the mortality rate for women postpartum. While performing a post mortem examination, a doctor was accidentally poked with a student’s scalpel and passed away. The pathology of the doctor that died and the mothers that had been dying was very, very similar. Dr. Semmelweis discovered that doctors were going from doing autopsies in the morgue to delivering babies in the birthing rooms…without ever washing their hands. The doctors themselves were actually contaminating the mothers and inadvertently killing them. Dr. Semmelweis started to experiment with a chlorine solution and in his area the death rate for new mothers went from 1 in 6 to 1 in 50. They had found a cure and it was literally as simple as washing their hands.
As we read verses 3 and 4, we need to ask ourselves “Are my hands clean before the Lord?” We need to examine our hearts, our thoughts and desires. We need to examine our words and our actions. For us to enter into the presence of God, we must have clean hands and pure hearts. We can’t do that under our own power. The only way for us to have clean hands and pure hearts is through Jesus. We have to go to Him daily and ask for His forgiveness, confess our sins, and ask Him to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We need this every day. If this isn’t part of your daily routine, I want to encourage you to add it to your schedule. Spend time in confession and allow Him to clean out the corners of your heart, and in the process, enter into a greater intimacy with God.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Oh God, who may stand in your holy place? The only way we can come before you is based on the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for our sins. God, examine our hearts, help us to see any and everything that is not clean and pure and holy in us. God, cleanse us by your grace so that we might experience the fullness of your presence. Make us a people of confession and repentance. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK:
Psalm 34:1
I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.