Early in the Covid season, when the nation was on lockdown and movement restrictions were in place, our media houses filled our screens with instructions on how to stay safe. One of these instructions that my five-year-old son then, was particularly fond of, was one done by Teacher Wanjiku (a Kenya comedian) that was in Swahili which went something like, “Rule number one, osha mikono (wash your hands). Rule number 2, usiguze uso (don’t touch your face). Rule number three Usikohoe koho (if you need to cough, cough on the inner part of the elbow). Although hilarious, it served as a good reminder to us on how to stay safe and take care of those around us. Thankfully, we did not contract the disease. God also gives us instructions on how to stay safe in Him- clean hands and a pure heart (Psalm 24)

David wondered in Psalm 24: 3-4 who exactly had the right to stand before God. Clean hands and a pure heart refer to the purity of our actions (hands) and intentions (heart). Clean hands are important for good hygiene, but this speaks of much more than washing with water. Pontius Pilate during the time of Jesus’ crucifixion washed his hands, but they were not clean because clean hands must be connected to a pure heart. True religion is heart-work.” Spurgeon reminds us.

It’s easy like David, to look at this text and despair because our hands are not always clean neither are our hearts always pure. We get jealous. We hate on people. We backbite them even at times in very subtle ways. We get angry and sin. We quench the voice of the Holy Spirit when He speaks to us. We have a slow fade in our relationship with God to mean that we have lost our first love for God.

We like to take matters into our own hands instead of letting God. We speak harshly against God yet claim to walk with Him (Amos 3:3). We hold onto a form of worship yet deny the power therein when we worship God with our lips yet our hearts are far away from Him. We have learnt to speak Christianese but no longer improve our literature by reading the word of God.

If we stay under the old covenant our situation looks hopeless, yet God has established a better covenant, a new covenant through the person and work of Jesus. Under the new covenant, C. H. Spurgeon says “Our Lord Jesus Christ could ascend into the hill of the Lord because his hands were clean and his heart was pure, and if we by faith in him are conformed to his image we shall enter too.” There is hope! We too can have clean hands and a pure heart to stand before the Lord.

As John wrote: If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth (1 John 1:6). We might say that under the Old Covenant a righteous walk was the precondition for fellowship with God while under the New Covenant, a righteous walk is the result of fellowship with God, founded on faith. God cares about the moral conduct of mankind, especially those who identify themselves as His people. We must practice purity in our actions and intentions.

Our intentional, personal and intimate walk with the Lord results in having clean hands which means we are living righteously and repenting when we have sinned and have a pure heart by embracing virtuous thoughts and righteous intentions as in Philippians 4:8. Cleansing and purification come through belief in the finished work of the cross, embracing God’s word and soaking in God’s love through prayer.

Do we have clean hands to enable us to climb the hill of the Lord? And a pure heart to allow us into the holy place?

Ponder that!

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