Psalm 24
This psalm includes some of my very favorite Scripture: “Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” (vs 7-8)
In reading commentaries on this chapter, I learned a couple of very interesting things that I thought I would share with you. First, this divine title, “King of glory,” is not used anywhere else in Scripture. This song of entrance is the only time where God is addressed in this way.
Second, a little-known fact about this psalm is that it was sung by the priests in the temple on Sundays. (There was a weekly schedule of psalms that were used in temple worship.) Thus, on Palm Sunday, when Christ was entering Jerusalem to the shouts of Hosanna! by the crowds outside the temple, the priests would have been inside singing, Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in!
Photo © Unsplash/Brigitta Schneiter
I think that’s pretty cool. (It was yet another opportunity for the priests to get thumped on the head with the reality that Jesus was the Messiah.) And not only that, but the crowds outside echoed the priests’ singing: “When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds answered, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.’” (Matt 21:10-11)
So, why is this refrain repeated in the psalm? Why is it sung twice? I think there might be several possible answers for that. First, Jesus is going to have two advents to this Earth—the first was in Bethlehem, but He will come again soon to wrap things up and take us home. Second, God comes to us in different ways—He entered our world in a physical way, but He is also hoping to enter our lives in a spiritual way (Rev 3:20).
Photo © Unsplash/Filip Kominik
Either way, God is always coming to us. He is always knocking. Sometimes, as in the case of the priests and rabbis, we need a lot of knocking. But no matter what God has to do to get our attention, He is always inviting us to open the door so He may come in.
Lift up your heads!