Children and grow-ups alike know and understand the joy of being reunited with a loved one after a period of separation.

And our children tend to be a little bit more exuberant than adults.

And I remember many years ago when our children was small and I was traveling overseas

a great deal, it was such a great joy to come home to the exuberance and the welcome of our

children. Adults also feel the same way, but they kind of don't let it all hang like children do.

And the reason I'm saying this is because Psalm 24 is a Psalm of an emotional reunion,

and it is expressed in a childlike exuberance, not in a reserve of those who are uncertain of their faith,

but of a childlike trust and confidence in the Lord.

It is not surprising, you know, that Jesus often used a child as an example.

It is not a surprise that Jesus often refer to a child's faith and a child's trust and a child's

innocence and child's enthusiasm and none of the adult's cynicism.

Let me put Psalm 24 in its historical context before I explain this uncontrollable exuberance

of the Psalmist in Psalm 24.

The nation of Israel lost their Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines.

The Ark of the Covenant, for those of you who don't know,

it's a box. It's a really very small box that God told Moses, he said, you put the Ten Commandments,

the two tablets in it, plus a jar of the manor and his staff, and to keep it in the middle of the

people, in the tent where God will show up. It is an indication. It is a symbol of

the presence of God in the midst of his people. It was a very significant object. It wasn't just

any box. It was to them God in the midst. It represented God's presence in their midst. It represented their national identity.

It represented who they are. Without that box, they are nobody and they are nothing.

So I want to impress on your mind the importance of that box, the importance of that

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