Music courtesy of The Falls Church Anglican Choir, Falls Church, Virginia, under the musical direction of Simon Dixon. Audio mastering by Andrew Schooley. From Messiah by George Frideric Handel (1742)

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As levitical priests carried the ark of God’s Presence into the ancient city of Jerusalem, King David sang. With musicians, horns, lyres, harps, and cymbals, thousands of people danced and celebrated with loud songs of praise.¹

Their song invited the King to enter the city and dwell among them. The King was coming. No not just David, the poet-warrior-king of Israel, but Yahweh, the Creator and King of all the earth (Ps. 24:1).

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates.” In other words, “open up wide.” The King of Glory, of unlimited power and strength, of heaven’s triumphant armies, who from everlasting alone is God—He is coming. Psalm 24 is a celebratory song inviting God in. It tells of God’s Presence coming to Jerusalem. It also points to the coming of God’s King, the Messiah—One of clean hands and a pure heart who blesses, saves, and vindicates God’s people.

Rabbinic tradition associates Psalm 24 with the opening of the East Gate of Jerusalem.² Today this is a double gate with one side commonly called the Gate of Mercy and the other the Gate of Judgment. During the Temple Period, the East Gate was opened only on the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement—when a goat was sacrificed and a scapegoat sent out to carry away the sins of the people (see Lev. 16:21). It seems that Jesus also used the East Gate, during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Luke 19:28–38).

Today the East Gate of Jerusalem is sealed shut (Ezek. 44:1–2). It’s been that way for most of the past two thousand years. It was closed over a concern that the Messiah might arrive again and attempt to conquer the city.

How are your gates? Are they sealed shut or open wide? Is there anything preventing you from receiving Jesus the Messiah?

Notes:
¹ Many scholars believe that Psalm 24 was sung during the time of 1 Chronicles 15.
² J. Morgenstern, The Gates of Righteousness. Hebrew Union College Annual 6 (1929): 1–37. (See also Zech. 14:4–9.)