Psalms 48: 1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the City of our God, in the Mountain of his holiness. 
2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north the City of the great King. 
 
3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge. 
 
The beginning verse of this song of the sons of Korah, one of David's chief musicians, urges us to praise the Lord in a great and mighty way. He speaks of a heavenly City, the holy City where God lives. He also alludes to an eternal mountain upon which this city auspiciously stands. We are speaking of the celestial Mount Zion, Israel's Holy hill and of it's seat of authority, the New Jerusalem. This is that city spoken of in Revelation, which will descend from heaven to the new earth in the latter days. This is the city God has been building and preparing from before the dawn of time. The question is boldly asked and the answer quickly given: Question: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?" 

Answer: Psalms 24:4 "He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 

5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.". 

To ascend into this heavenly hill of the Lord, and to stand confidently before Him in His holy throne room and have an audience with Him we must walk in the following way: 

*First, our hands must be clean. We must live and work with a strong focus on complete and total integrity. We must treat others as we'd want to be treated. We must not have an underhanded or crooked streak in our heart which carelessly uses other people to achieve our own ends. Rather, we must present ourselves lovingly and with an open hand toward God and others. 

*Second, we must operate out of a pure heart. This means that our motivation must be from an honest and righteous heart. Like Nathaniel, we must have no guile within us. There must be no hidden agenda, no ulterior motive. We must always ask ourselves the litmus test question: "Why am I really doing what I'm doing?" It's toward our internal motive that we often need to apply this "attitude check". 

*Third, we must be humble toward God and others. We must not walk in pride or think that somehow we have arrived. God can spot pride a mile away, in fact, it's the underlying root cause of satan's downfall in the very beginning. He was lifted up in pride. God will not allow pride to come into His presence. We must repent of it immediately if we see it within us. The Holy Spirit will be quick to point it out. Once again, we humble ourselves before the Lord, cast from us any pride and He will lift us up and make us stand. 

*Fourth, we must be men and women of our word. What we speak to others must be the truth only, and nothing but the truth. One of the seven things that Proverbs tells us that the Lord absolutely hates is a lying tongue. 

Proverbs 6:16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17 A proud look, a lying tongue... Out of our mouth let only the sweet water of truth flow. 

*Finally, He shall receive blessing and righteousness from the hand of the Lord. When we come to God with a humble and contrite heart, God will grant unto us his righteousness, hear our petition and bless our way. God is not holding out on us, but we must understand that the manner in which we come to Him has a great impact on the outcome of our prayer. He is our Heavenly Father and desires to bless us, but He is also a holy God who will not tolerate sin or pride in His presence. So, we must understand this etiquette of heaven when we approach this eternal Creator of all things. He can do anything, grant any prayer, provide any resource, He simply asks that we come to Him in the correct manner so that He may bless us with access into His presence and to receive the blessings we need. God is looking for a few good men and women, clean and pure, humble and honest, those He can trust with His Kingdom business. Before we go in before Him let's cleanse ourselves, repent of any wrongdoing or sinful way, then "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:16. Amen.