'Lift up your heads, O ye gates: and be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 8. Who is this King of
glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. 9.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting
doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 10. Who is this King of
glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory.'
--PSALM xxiv. 7-10.
This whole psalm was probably composed at the time of the bringing of
the ark into the city of Zion. The former half was chanted as the
procession wound its way up the hillside. It mainly consists of the
answer to the question 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?' and
describes the kind of men that dwell with God, and the way by which they
obtain their purity.
This second half of our psalm is probably to be thought of as being
chanted when the procession had reached the summit of the hill and stood
before the barred gates of the ancient Jebusite city. It is mainly in
answer to the question, 'Who is this King of Glory?' and is the
description of the God that dwells with men, and the meaning of His
dwelling with them.
We are to conceive of a couple of half choirs, the one within, the other
without the mountain hold. The advancing choir summons the gates to open
in the grand words: 'Lift up your heads, O ye gates! even lift them up,
ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.' Their lofty
lintels are too low for His head to pass beneath; so they have to be
lifted that He may find entrance. They are 'everlasting doors,' grey
with antiquity, hoary with age. They have looked down, perhaps, upon
Melchizedek, King of Salem, as he went forth in the morning twilight of
history to greet the patriarch. But in all the centuries they have never
seen such a King as this King of Glory, the true King of Israel who now
desires entrance.
The answer to the summons comes from the choir within. 'Who is this King
of Glory?' the question represents ignorance and possible hesitation, as
if the pagan inhabitants of the recently conquered city knew nothing of
the God of Israel, and recognised no authority in His name. Of course,
the dramatic form of question and answer is intended to give additional
force to the proclamation as by God Himself of the Covenant name, the
proper name of Israel's God, as Baal was the name of the Canaanite's
God, 'the Lord strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in battle,' by whose
warrior power David had conquered the city, which now was summoned to
receive its conqueror. Therefore the summons is again rung out, 'Lift up
your heads, O ye gates! and the King of Glory shall come in.' And once
more, to express the lingering reluctance, ignorance not yet dispelled,
suspicion and unwilling surrender, the dramatic question is repeated,
'Who is this King of Glory?' The answer is sharp and authoritative in
its brevity, and we may fancy it shouted with a full-throated
burst--'The Lord of Hosts,' who, as Captain, commands all the embattled
energies of earth and heaven conceived as a disciplined army. That great
name, like a charge of dynamite, bursts the gates of brass asunder, and
with triumphant music the procession sweeps into the conquered city.
Now these great words, throbbing with the enthusiasm at once of poetry
and of devotion, may, I think, teach us a great deal if we ponder them.
I. Notice, first, their application, their historical and original
application, to the King who dwelt with Israel.
We must never forget that in the Old Testament we have to do with an
incomplete and a progressive revelation, and that if we would understand
its significance, we must ever endeavour to ascertain to what point in
that progress the words before us belong. We are not to read into these
words New Testament depth and fulness of meaning; we are to take them
and try to find out what they meant to David and to his people; and so
we shall get a firm basis for any deeper significance which we may
hereafter see in them. The thought of God, then, in these words is
mainly that of a God of strong and victorious energy, a warrior-God, a
conquering King, one whose word is power, who rules amidst the armies of
heaven, and amidst the inhabitants of earth.
A brief consideration of each expression is all which can be attempted
here. 'Who is this King of Glory?' The first idea, then, is that of
sovereign rule; the idea which had become more and more plain and clear
to the national consciousness of the Hebrew with the installation of
monarchy amongst them. And it is very beautiful to see how David lays
hold of that thought of God being Himself the King of Israel; and dwells
so often in his psalms on the idea that he, poor, pale, earthly shadow,
is but a representative and a viceroy of the true King who sits in the
heavens. He takes off his crown and lays it before His throne and says:
'Thou art the King of Israel, the King of Glory.'
The Old Testament meaning of that word 'glory' is a great deal more
definite than the ordinary religious use of it amongst us. The 'glory of
God' in the Old Testament is, first and foremost, the supernatural light
that dwelt between the cherubim and was the manifestation and symbol of
the divine Presence. And next it is the sum total of all the impression
made upon the world by God's manifestation of Himself, the Light, of
which the material and supernatural light between the cherubs was but
the emblem; all by which God flames and flashes Himself upon the
trembling and thankful heart; that glory which is substantially the same
as the Name of the Lord. And in this brightness, lustrous and dark with
excess of light, this King dwells. The splendour of His regalia is the
brightness that emanates from Himself. He is the King of Glory.
Next, we have the great Name, 'the Lord,' Jehovah, which speaks of
timeless, independent, unchanging, self-sufficing being. It declares
that He is His own cause, His own law, His own impulse, the staple from
which all the links of the chain of being depend, and not Himself a
link, the fontal Source of all which is.
We say: 'I am that which I have become; I am that which I have been
made; I am that which I have inherited; I am that which circumstances
and example and training have shaped me to be.' God says: 'I AM THAT I
AM.' This name is also significant, not only because it proclaims
absolute, independent, underived, timeless being, but because it is the
Covenant name, and speaks of the God who has come into fellowship with
men, and has bound Himself to a certain course of action for their
blessing, and is thus the Lord of Israel, and the God, in a special
manner, of His people.
'The Lord mighty in battle.' A true warrior-God, who went out in no
metaphorical sense, but in prose reality, fought for His people and
subdued the nations under them, in order that His name might be spread
and His glory be known in the earth.
And then, still further, 'the Lord of Hosts,' the Captain of all the
armies of heaven and earth. In that name is the thought to which the
modern world is coming so slowly by scientific paths, that all being is
one ordered whole, subject to the authority of one Lord. And in addition
to that, the grander thought, that the unity of nature is the will of
God; and that as the Commander issues His orders over all the field, so
He speaks and it is done. The hosts are the angels of whom it is said:
'Bless the Lord all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His that do His
pleasure.' The hosts are the stars that fill the nightly heavens, of
whom it is said, 'He bringeth out their host by number.' The hosts are
all creatures that live and are; and all are the soldiers and servants
of this conquering King. Such is the name of the Lord that dwelt with
Israel, the great conception that rises before this Psalmist.
II. Now turn to the second application of these great words, that speak
to us not only of the God that dwelt in Zion in outward and symbolical
form, by means of a material Presence which was an emblem of the true
nearness of Israel's God, but yet more distinctly, as I take it, of the
Christ that dwells with men.
The devout hearts in Israel felt that there was something more needed
than this dwelling of Jehovah within an earthly Temple, and the process
of revelation familiarised them with the thought that there was to be in
the future a 'coming of the Lord' in some special manner unknown to
them. So that the whole anticipation and forward look of the Old
Testament system is gathered into and expressed by almost its last
words, which prophesy that 'the Lord shall suddenly come to His Temple,'
and that once again this King of Glory shall stand before the
everlasting gates and summon them to open.
And when was that fulfilled? Fulfilled in a fashion that at first sight
seems the greatest contrast to all this vision of grandeur, of warlike
strength, of imperial power and rule with which we have been dealing;
but which yet was not the contrast to these ideas so much as the highest
embodiment of them. For, although at first sight it seems as if there
could be no greater contrast than between the lion might of the Jehovah
of the Old Testament, and the lamb gentleness of the Jesus of the New,
if we look more closely we shall see that it is not a relation of
contrast that exists between the two. Christ is all, and more than all,
that this psalm proclaimed the Jehovah of the Old Covenant to be. Let us
look again from that point of view at the particulars already referred
to.
He is the highest manifestation of the divine rule and authority. There
is no dominion like the dominion of the loving Christ, a kingdom based
upon suffering and wielded in gentleness, a kingdom of which the crown
is a wreath of thorns, and the sceptre a rod of reed; a dominion which
is all exercised for the blessing of its subjects, and which, therefore,
is an everlasting dominion. There is no rule like that; no height of
divine authority towers so high as the authority of Him who rules us so
absolutely because He gave Himself for us utterly. This is the King, the
Prince of the kings of the earth, because this is the Incarnate God who
died for us.
Christ is the highest raying out of the divine Light, or, as the Epistle
to the Hebrews calls it, 'the effulgence of His glory.' The true glory
of God lies in His love, and of that love Christ is the noblest and most
wondrous example. So all other beams of the divine character, bright as
their light is, are but dim as compared with the sevenfold lustre of the
light that shines from the gentle loving-kindness of the heart of
Christ. He has glorified God because He shows us that the divinest thing
in God is love.
For the same reason, He is the mightiest exhibition of the divine
power--'the Lord strong and mighty.' There is no work of God's hand, no
work of God's will so great as that by which we are turned from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. The Cross is God's
noblest revelation of power; and in Him, His weakness, His surrender,
His death, with all the wonderful energies that flow from that death for
man's salvation, we see the divine strength made perfect in the human
weakness of Jesus. The Gospel of Christ 'is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth.' _There_ is divine power in its
noblest form, in the paradoxical shape of a dying man; in its noblest
effect, salvation; in its widest sweep to all who believe.
''Twas great to speak a world from nought,
'Tis greater to redeem.'
This 'strong Son of God' is the arm of the Lord in whom live and act the
energies of omnipotence.
Christ is 'the Lord mighty in battle.' True, He is the Prince of peace,
but He is also the better Joshua, the victorious Captain, in whom dwells
the conquering divine might. Through all the gentleness of His life
there winds a martial strain, and it is not in vain that the Evangelist
who was most deeply penetrated by the sweetness of His love, is the one
who most often speaks of Him as overcoming, and who has preserved as His
last words to His timid followers, that triumphant command, 'Be of good
cheer! I have overcome the world.' He has conquered for us, binding the
strong man, and so He will spoil his house. Sin, hell, death, the devil,
law, fear, our own foolish hearts, all temptations that hover around
us--they are all vanquished foes of a 'Lord' that is 'mighty in battle.'
And as He overcame, so shall we if we will trust Him.
Christ is the Commander and Wielder of all the forces of the universe.
As one said to Him in the days of His flesh, 'I am a man under
authority, and I say to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. So do Thou
speak and Thy word shall be sovereign.' And so it was. He spake to
diseases and they vanished. He spake to the winds and the seas and there
was a great calm. He spake to demons, and murmuring, but yet obedient,
they came out of their victims. He flung His word into the recesses of
the grave, and Lazarus came forth, fumbling with the knots on his
grave-clothes, and stumbling into the light. 'He spake and it was done.'
Who is He, the utterance of whose will is sovereign amongst all the
regions of being? 'Who is the King of Glory?' 'Thou art the King of
Glory, O Christ!' 'Thou art the Everlasting Son of the Father.'
III. And now, lastly, let me ask you to look, and that for a moment, at
the application of these words to the Christ who will dwell in our
hearts.
His historical manifestation here upon earth and His Incarnation, which
is the true dwelling of Deity amongst men, are not enough. They have
left something more than a memory to the world. He is as ready to abide
as really within our spirits as He was to tabernacle upon earth amongst
men. And the very central message of that Gospel which Is proclaimed to
us all is this, that if we will open the gates of our hearts He will
come in, in all the plenitude of His victorious power, and dwell in our
hearts, their Conqueror and their King.
What a strange contrast, and yet what a close analogy there is between
the victorious tones and martial air of this summons of my text. 'Lift
up your heads, O ye gates! that the King of Glory may come in,' and the
gentle words of the Apocalypse: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock;
if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him.' But
He that in the Old Covenant arrayed in warrior arms, summoned the rebels
to surrender, is the same as He who, in the New, with the night-dews in
His hair, and patience on His face, and gentleness in the touch of His
hand upon the door, waits to enter in. Brethren! open your hearts, 'and
the King of Glory shall come in.'
And He will come in as a king that might seek to enter some city far
away on the outposts of his kingdom, besieged by his enemies. If the
King comes in, the city will be impregnable. If you open your hearts for
Him He will come and keep you from all your foes and give you the
victory over them all. So, to every hard-pressed heart, waging an
unequal contest with toils and temptations, and sorrows and sins, this
great hope is given, that Christ the Victor will come in His power to
garrison heart and mind. As of old the encouragement was given to
Hezekiah in his hour of peril, when the might of Sennacherib insolently
threatened Jerusalem, so the same stirring assurances are given to each
who admits Christ's succours to his heart--'He shall not come into this
city, for I will defend this city to save it for Mine own sake' Open
your hearts and the conquering King will come in.
And do not forget that there is another possible application of these
words lying in the future, to the conquering Christ who shall come
again. The whole history of the past points onwards to yet a last time
when 'the Lord shall suddenly come to His temple,' and predicts that
Christ shall so come in like manner as He went up to heaven. Again will
the summons ring out. Again will He come arrayed in flashing brightness,
and the visible robes of His imperial majesty. Again will He appear,
mighty in battle, when 'in righteousness He shall judge and make war.'
For a Christian, one great memory fills the past--Christ has come; and
one great hope brightens the else waste future--Christ will come. That
hope has been far too much left to be cherished only by those who hold a
particular opinion as to the chronology of unfulfilled prophecy. But it
should be to every Christian heart 'the blessed hope,' even the
appearing of the glory of Him who has come in the past. He is with and
in us, in the present. He will come in the future 'in His glory, and
shall sit upon the throne of His glory.' All our pardon and hope of
God's love depend upon that great fact in the past, that 'the Lord was
made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.' Our purity
which will fit us to dwell with God, our present blessedness, all our
power for daily strife, and our companionship in daily loneliness,
depend on the present fact that He dwells in our hearts by faith, the
seed of all good, and the conquering Antagonist of every evil. And the
one light which fills the future with hope, peaceful because assured,
streams from that most sure promise that He will come again, sweeping
from the highest heavens, on His head the many crowns of universal
monarchy, in His hand the weapons of all-conquering power, and none
shall need to ask, 'Who is this King of Glory?' for every eye shall know
Him, the Judge upon His throne, to be the Christ of the Cross. Open the
doors of your hearts to Him, as He sues for entrance now in the meekness
of His patient love, that on you may fall in that day of the coming of
the King, the blessing of the servants who wait for their returning
Lord, that 'when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him
immediately.'