Lifting Up

Ben Nevis, the highest point in Scotland.
Photo by Drew Wilkins

The Psalms are some pretty crazy things to have in a "holy book."  They raise TONS of questions, they provide few answers, and the answers they do give usually only lead to more questions!  Of late I have found myself very interested in the more intangible aspects of Christianity, and I have been amazed at how much the Psalms both focus on and reflect the experience of the life lived in the intentional awareness of the presence of God.

Several months ago I read through Psalm 24, a psalm extolling the holiness of God and questioning what character one must have in order to approach him.  After describing God's grandeur and authority as the creator of the earth, the question is asked, "Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?  And who may stand in his holy place?"  In other words, given that he is so powerful as to have so beautifully crafted the entirety of this world in which we live, how is it that God desires to be approached by man?  The answer that it gives in the next lines continues to challenge my own understanding of not only who I am, but of how I am to grow.  

The answer it gives is, "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."  Though to do it well is still far beyond reach, I can understand what most of this means pretty easily:

• clean hands = lives righteously
• pure heart = motivated rightly
• does not swear deceitfully = lives honestly

However, the piece that continues to catch me up short is "who does not lift up his soul to what is false."  What a challenge!  To what do I lift up my soul; to what do I offer myself?  And if I am to avoid what is "false," what then is true?  What is worthy of my soul?

Personally, I wrestle with this a lot.  I find myself "lifting up my soul" to all kinds of things!  And yet, I believe that the only true thing worthy of my soul is the one who created it.  To lift it up to anything else is to serve the creation rather than the Creator, to love the sign more than the thing signified, to try to eat at the billboard rather than the restaurant it advertises.  Here again, I fall very far short of the mark.  And yet, here again, is where God's grace supplies my need.  It is by his grace alone, that I am continually learning how to lift up my heart to what is true.

The challenge of the Psalm is this:  Would you approach God?  Then to what do you lift up your soul?

Psalm 25 actually rolls on to model how to rightly lift up one's soul, but that is a post for another time.  For now, rise to the challenge of 24: to what do you lift up your soul?

- Drew