Who Shall Stand In His Holy Place, Psalm 24: 4

The psalmist prayerfully asks, “Who shall stand in his holy place?” And the response is, “The one who is clean of hand and pure of heart, who has not given his soul to useless things, to what is vain. He will receive blessings from the Lord and justice from his saving God” (Ps. 24: 4-6). This is the honest prayer of one who desires to seek, to know, and to love the Lord with all of his or her being. This desire is a matter of faith, a living faith, a faith that requires our full attention, our whole will and strength. And we all know what a challenge that is, especially in this world so full of noise and distractions of every kind.

What is the virtue of Faith? It is important to understand that it is not merely a mental belief. Peter Kreeft, a philosopher and theologian, in his book, The Two Greatest Novels Ever Written: The Lord of the Rings and The Brothers Karamazov, writes that the biblical understanding of faith is that it “is not merely the cause of faithful actions; it is faithful actions.” Faith becomes actual only when it is freely practiced, not just thought or imagined. Faith acts, faith does, faith works.” The debate is not between faith and works; it is and can be nothing less than both. (See James 2:14-26) “So also faith itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” To put it simply, faith works.

Faith requires obedience. Faith tells us that our true ‘Master’ is the Lord God, the source and the goal of all that is good, true, and beautiful, who has shown us his face and revealed his nature to us in Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Word of God, out of his divine love for us, and out of his faithful obedience to the will of his Father, brought about our salvation from sin and death, and continues to lead us to eternal life. As his disciples, he commands us to love one another in the same way (Jn 15: 12). In faith, it makes perfect sense to willingly, humbly obey, and to follow his wisdom. In truth, it is this kind of faithful obedience to the will of God that brings us real freedom and the graces we need to live lives that are “clean of hand and pure of heart”.

But there is a deceptive kind of faith that we can give our ‘obedience’ to, as well. It is one that we see and know, and maybe even experience in our own lives. It involves putting our faith in and giving our obedience to masters that, in reality, enslave us rather than empower or free us. It is when we put our faith in lesser things than God, technology, fame, wealth, pleasures of all kinds, and power that we become, in fact, slaves. One kind of ‘faith’ seems like victory, freedom, and power, but is really enslavement. The other may seem like a surrender of freedom, but it is true freedom. One says, “Might makes right”, the other says, “Right makes might.” The world is ruled by the former. It has been so since Cain killed Abel. Jesus, our true master, our true teacher, teaches the latter. In which do we put our faith? To which do we give our obedience?

True faith is rooted in love. It is a response to Love itself. It is a virtue unique to relationships. We find happiness in our human relationships when they are built upon the bond of real self-giving love, when we can surrender ourselves, even to sacrifice for the good of the other. In other words, we have faith in one another’s love. Of course, as fallen creatures, we are not capable of perfect love; we fail in it often, for countless reasons. We fail in our relationship with God, too, despite our faith in him. This is not new, yet God knows our weaknesses, and he knows our inmost desires. In faith, the writer of Chronicles in the Old Testament recognized this writing: “May the Lord, who is good, grant pardon to everyone who has resolved to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, though he be not clean as holiness requires” (2 Chr. 30: 18-19). It is our honest resolve and our earnest ‘trying’ that God loves and responds to with grace, mercy, and kindness.

In all of this, we can see that faith in God is more than merely an intellectual assent. Jesus tells us, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 7: 21). Faith is a muscular, intentional thing that is recognized most clearly when it is seen not just in our words, but in our deeds toward others. The world needs (maybe more now than ever) to see our Faith in action. It needs to see our living, obedient, self-giving, self-sacrificing faith doing its work openly, courageously, even joyfully. Our faith in Jesus Christ needs to be seen, heard, and felt enough to bring those who walk in darkness into the light of Christ. This is the ‘work’ of faith in the world. It is those who openly live their faith that are becoming ‘clean of heart and pure of hand, who have not given their souls to useless things, who will be able to stand in his holy place. Amen. Alleluia!