Who Shall Stand?

It is said that the twenty-fourth psalm was written to celebrate the triumphal entry of David and his followers into Jerusalem, the last stronghold of the Jebusites to be given up. It seems that their citadel was on mount Zion, and as they were not only a warlike tribe, but also more highly developed intellectually than any of the other dwellers in Canaan, the taking of this city was in a sense the crowning event of David’s career. This psalm opens with the statement that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof;” but we know the whole of Canaan had been occupied by those who knew not God nor obeyed His laws, by people whose concepts of God and man were grossly material, hence cruel and oppressive. It was therefore the mission of Israel to establish the true religion which would bless all mankind.

The Israelites were taught that only as they did that which was right would they gain possession of the promised land; that their enemies would be driven out before them as darkness flees before light, and we find in Exodus this command: “Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” That the Israelites to a large extent held a purer concept of God and man than those about them, and that they were influenced by it, is very evident; but the demand was for fuller obedience to divine law, in order that greater victories should be won and the kingdom of God, with all that this implies, universally established. We thus come to a question which should mean so much to the student of Christian Science: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” The answer is: “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart,”—he is fitted to receive the blessing, even “righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

In the fifteenth psalm, the question is asked: “Who shall abide in thy tabernacle?” and the answer begins: “He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.” Such a one is ready to go forward against the most fearsome foes, and to challenge, in the name of omnipotent Mind, all their arrogant but baseless claims to place and power. In the light of Christian Science we no longer think of driving out persons or peoples, but the entrenched beliefs of life, substance, and intelligence separate from God, which for long centuries have seemed to dominate the race of mortals and to decide the issues of life and death, claiming to govern men by material law while utterly ignoring the spiritual. To challenge these beliefs which falsely claim authority, we must “ascend into the hill of the Lord,” or, as Mrs. Eddy so finely gives it, “rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good” (Science and Health, p. 393). The next thing to do is to “stand” in the holy place of Spirit, until the might and majesty of divine Truth is fully acknowledged. All that would seem to bar our entrance will yield to the spiritual declaration of the one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who refuses to admit for a moment that any other than the “King of glory” is strong or mighty.

It sometimes seems strange that the ages have waited so long for the spiritual purity and strength which alone can ascend above earth and earthliness and stand in the holy place, safe and secure, especially as Christ Jesus “the forerunner” has gone before us and made the way so plain. But Christian Science has now come to restore his teachings in their pristine power, and to show that his humblest follower who accepts the truth may, yes, must, leave behind him the barren belief in “repentance from dead works,” and press on unto perfection. A young student of Christian Science was once called to heal one who to sense was very ill and where intense fear seemed to bar the approach to the patient’s thought. Then came to the student the majestic words of the psalmist, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; . . . and the King of glory shall come in.” More than once this demand was repeated, and the long-closed gates of human consciousness opened to let in the divine idea that ever comes, as did Christ Jesus, with life abundant, and sickness quickly gave place to health and harmony. Who would not stand forever in this holy place?