A. J. MATTILL, Jr.
We begin our examination of Psalm 24 with my rendition of this psalm based upon the King James Version, the New American Bible, Today’s English Version, and the Contemporary English Version: 1 The earth and everything in it, including the people who live there, belong to the Lord. 2 The Lord placed it all on the oceans and rivers. 3 Who may climb up to the Lord’s mountain and stand in his holy temple? 4 Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, that is, those who don’t worship idols, who do right for the right reasons, and who don’t tell lies under oath. 5 The Lord who saves them will bless them, 6 because they worship and serve the God of Jacob. 7 Open the ancient gates, so that the glorious king may come in. 8 Who is this king of glory? He is our Lord, a strong warrior, mighty in battle. 9 Fling wide the ancient gates so that the glorious king may come in. 10 Who is this king of glory? He is the Lord of hosts, the commanding general of armies.
Before we criticize Psalm 24, we must point out that commentators have highly praised this psalm: “This is one of the most majestic portions of the Psalter and retains an atmosphere of inexpressible grandeur.”—Elmer A. Leslie, The Abingdon Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1929), p. 527. Now we are ready to point out four untenable concepts found in Psalm 24. Untenable, of course, means not able to be defended, not reasonable.
Untenable Concept One: The Biblical World Picture. Psalm 24:2 pictures the Lord as placing the earth on the waters under the earth. In other words, the earth is immovably fixed in the center of the universe. Note Genesis 7:11, the fountains of the great deep”; Exodus 20:4, “the waters under the earth”; and Psalm 136:6, “the earth above the waters.” For more on how contrary to modern science Psalm 24:2 and a host of other passages are, see my The Seven Mighty Blows to Traditional Beliefs (Gordo, AL: The Flatwoods Free Press, 1995, second edition), pp. ii, 3-8.
Untenable Concept Two: A Mighty Man of War. Now hear this: The Lord is a strong warrior, mighty in battle. He’s the Lord of hosts, the commanding general of armies (Psalm 24:8, 10). These verses glorify the Lord as a man of war. Such a brutal God never heard of ahimsa, that is, non-violence in word, thought, and deed. On the contrary, the Lord’s motto is, “Kill, kill, kill!”
Untenable Concept Three: A Mass Slaughterer of Animals. Now let us focus our attention on Psalm 24:3, Who may stand in the Lord’s holy temple?” How tragic that “the Lord’s holy temple” was not a place where one could worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. On the contrary, the temple was the bloody place where the priests sacrificed zillions of animals and poured on the altar the lifeblood of sacrifices that supposedly atoned for sins. Priests killed an animal by cutting its throat so that the blood flowed from it. To slaughter birds, priests twisted their necks. Kill, kill, kill! Thus the God of Psalm 24 is responsible for slaughtering untold numbers of people and animals. The temple was the headquarters of bloody butcher-shop religion/pitiless packinghouse piety/senseless slaughterhouse spirituality.
Untenable Concept Four: A God Who Plays Favorites. Without batting an eye, Psalm 24:5-6 tells us upfront that those who serve the God of Jacob are the Lord’s chosen people. God is proud of his playing favorites with the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. God selected Israel as his chosen people and promised them the land of Palestine and the Messiah. Psalm 72:8-11 predicts that the king of the chosen people will have dominion over all the earth. How commendable is the action of Reform Jews in deleting from their prayer book all references to a chosen people!
“Thank God” for Celsus, a Roman philosopher who flourished about AD/CE 175-180. According to Celsus, “the very notion of an elect people of God is worse than irrational; it also leads Christians and Jews to imagine that their myths are superior to everyone else’s, and that their religion is true and all others are false.” For more on Celsus see my An Awesome Trinity: Charvaka, Celsus, Meslier (Gordo, AL: The Flatwoods Free Press, 1999), pp. 7-19.
Conclusion. We conclude that Psalm 24 is not an inspired, infallible psalm because it contains at least four untenable concepts: 1) Its biblical world picture; 2) God is a mighty man of war, whose motto is “Kill, kill, kill!”—that is Kill people!; 3) God is a bloodthirsty butcher, commanding his worshipers to “Kill, kill, kill!”—that is Kill animals! and 4) God enjoys playing favorites, selecting the Israelites as his chosen people. How can any person in his/her right mind kneel in awe before such a God as that?