Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

“He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to vanity and has not sworn deceitfully.” (Psalms 24:4)

David wrote this in response to his question, “Who shall go up into the hill of Jehovah? Or who shall stand in His holy place?” (Psalms 24:3) His reply is “He who has clean hands and a pure heart.” They go together. Clean hands have to do with how we live, a righteous life. A pure heart is the product of that righteous living. “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that dying to sins, we might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.” (1Peter 2:24) Peter reveals to us that this was the reason for the death and resurrection of Jesus. In our sinful state, we were not living righteously. No matter how good a person we thought we were and others saw that we were, the truth is that our hearts were dark, full of sin with no light whatsoever. We could have maintained our appearance of goodness deceiving ourselves and others, but in the recesses our heart lurked dark, dirty, sinful and hateful desires. We couldn’t help it. We were residents in the kingdom of sin and darkness. This was normal for us. It was what life was for us.

But Jesus, the Redeemer came and removed all the obstacles to living a righteous life. Jesus took our sin upon Himself so that He could suffer the punishment and death for our sin. That left us sinless. His shed blood cleansed us, washed us causing a miraculous event, a rebirth. This rebirth is not a natural birth, but a supernatural one. It’s birth by and through God. “But as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become the children of God, to those who believe on His name, who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God.” (John 1:12-13) At which time we are taken out of the kingdom of darkness and “translated” into the kingdom of Jesus. “For He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son;” (Colossians 1:13) where there is love, joy, hope, life and light. The removal of our sin and the translation into God’s kingdom enables us to live a life of righteousness. Before in the kingdom of darkness, we couldn’t help but produce darkness. We couldn’t even if we tried to produce a life of love and light. Love was selfish and there was no light nor life in our hearts.

We, meaning believers and followers of Jesus are the ones with clean hands and a pure heart. Our hearts are pure not through anything we have done, but because of what Jesus has done for us. Our hearts are clean, pure and holy. But we are to keep from defiling our hearts through our association with things of this world and giving in to the flesh. James wrote to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion who were the Christian Jews who had scattered from the Promised Land throughout the Roman empire because of persecution. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, double-minded ones.” (James 4:8) James points out that doublemindedness, living like the world or living in the flesh while proclaiming Jesus as Lord defiles the heart. But when we “cleanse our hands,” in other words reject the world and refuse the flesh, we can draw near to the Lord and He draws near to us. That means that we will be conscious of His presence. The Lord is always near us. His promise was to never leave us nor forsake us. (Hebrew 13:5) But when we live a life in the world and in the flesh, we lose our ability to sense His presence and hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. We alienate the Lord. Our heart continues to be pure, but our soul (mind, will and emotions) is no longer in fellowship with the Lord. We are defiled and alienated from Him. It is a choice that we have made by allowing the world and the flesh to rule in our lives. We have rejected the righteous life that Jesus died to give us.

David mentions that those who have not lifted their soul to vanity can draw near to God.  Vanity is the product of the world. It’s pride in oneself. This is ungodly because who we are and everything we do and have, come from the Lord. This pride in self, who we are, what we’ve accomplished and what we gained is not of God. Paul had accomplished much before his conversion. He was an admired zealous Jewish Pharisee. But after his conversion, he writes, “But no, rather, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be dung, so that I may win Christ and be found in Him; not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, but through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death; if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.” (Philippians 3:8-11) Our accomplishments are “dung,” worthless in the kingdom of God. What is worthy is what God does in us, for us and through us.

The last thing David writes is that those who have not sworn deceitfully also can draw near to God. The double-minded Christian pledges allegiance to God from one side of his mouth, but lives in the world and in the flesh. James addressed this. “But no one can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. By this we bless God, even the Father. And by this we curse men, who have come into being according to the image of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:8-10) They have a divided heart. What confusion rules in their soul. One minute they praise God. A second later they are cursing. Who can draw near to God then? ...the one who has determined not to allow the world or the flesh to rule in his life, the one who rejects the world and refuses to allow the flesh to rule and the one who is conscious of God’s presence and hears His voice in every moment of decision.

In summary, this one verse (Psalms 24:4) that David wrote teaches us that even if the Lord is ever present, by being double minded and defiling ourselves with the world and the flesh, we will distance ourselves from God’s presence.

Let us pray:

Father God I am so grateful for Your marvelous gift through Jesus my Lord and Savior. Thank You, Lord, that I am no longer a citizen in the kingdom of sin and darkness but that You have brought me into Your kingdom of love, peace, hope, light and life. Thank You, Lord, that I can now choose to live a life of righteousness and with the help of the Holy Spirit I get closer and closer to living like Jesus. Thank You, Lord, that my spirit is born of You and that it’s pure and holy. Help me and keep me from the world and from giving in to my flesh. All that I am and all that I have, whatever, be it, whether recognition, reputation, strength or gain, it has come from You. You are my everything. Thank You for Your faithfulness. Help me to be faithful to You and to Your Word. Help me to keep Your presence always in my consciousness. And Lord help me have communion with You about all things. In the Name of Jesus I pray, amen.