above all the powers of heaven, adored of angels, archangels, cherubim,
seraphim, and all those mighty and glorious spirits, and sitting there
crowned with infinite glory and majesty?
Joseph Hall.
Verses 7-10. In the twenty-fourth Psalm, we have an account of the
actual entrance of Christ into heaven. When the King of England wishes to
enter the city of London through Temple Bar, the gate being closed against
him, the herald demands entrance. "Open the gate." From within a voice is
heard, "Who is there?" The herald answers, "The King of England!" The gate
is at once opened, and the king passes, amidst the joyful acclamations of
his people. This is an ancient custom, and the allusion is to it in this
Psalm. "The Lord ascended with a shout;" he approached the heavenly portal
—the herald in his escort demanded an entrance, "Lift up your heads, O
ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory
shall come in." The celestial watchers within ask, "Who is the King of
glory?" The heralds answer, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty
in battle." The question and answer being repeated once more, the gates
lift up their heads, and the everlasting doors are lifted up. The Prince
enters his Father's palace, greeted with the acclamations of heaven, all
whose inhabitants unite in one shout of joy ineffable: "The Lord of Hosts,
he is the King of glory!"
Christmas Evans.
Verses 7-10. If we follow our Redeemer in his ascension and session at
the right hand of God, where he is constituted Lord of all, angels,
principalities, and powers being made subject to him, and where he sits till
his enemies are made his footstool, we shall observe the tide of celestial
blessedness rise higher and higher still. The return of a great and beloved
prince, who should by only hazarding his life, have saved his country, would
fill a nation with ecstasy. Their conversation in every company would turn
upon him, and all their thoughts and joys concentrate in him. See then the
King of kings, after having by death abolished death, and brought life and
immortality to light; after spoiling the powers of darkness, and ruining all
their schemes; see him return in triumph! There was something like triumph
when he entered into Jerusalem. All the city was moved, saying, "Who is
this?" And the multitude answered, It is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth;
and the very children sung, Hosannah to the Son of David: blessed be he that
cometh in the name of the Lord; hosannah in the highest! How much greater
then must be the triumph of his entry into the heavenly Jerusalem! Would
not all the city be "moved" in this case, saying, "Who is this?" See
thousands of angels attending him, and ten thousand times ten thousand come
forth to meet him! The entrance of the ark into the city of David was but a
shadow of this, and the responsive strains which were sung on that occasion
would on this be much more applicable.
Andrew Fuller.
Verses 7-10. Why is the song repeated? Why are the everlasting gates
invited to lift up their heads a second time? We may not pretend here, or
in any place, to know all the meaning of the divine Psalms. But what if the
repetition of the verse was meant to put us in mind that our Saviour's
ascension will be repeated also? He will not indeed die any more; death can
no more have any dominion over him; "there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sin." Neither of course can he rise again any more. But as he will come
again at the end of the world, to judge the quick and the dead, so after
that descent he will have to ascend again. And I say, this second ascension
may be signified by the psalmist, calling on the everlasting doors to lift
up their heads a second time, and make way for the King of glory. Now
observe the answer made this second time, "Who is the King of glory? The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye
gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall
come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of
glory." Before it was, "the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in
battle;" now it is "The Lord of hosts." Christ ascending the first time,
to intercede for us at his Father's right hand, is called "The Lord mighty
in battle." But Christ, ascending the second time, after the world hath
been judged, and the good and bad separated for ever, is called "the Lord
of hosts." Why this difference in his divine titles? We may reverently
take it, that it signifies to us the difference between his first and second
coming down to earth, his first and second ascension into heaven. As in
other respects his first coming was with great humility, so in this, that he
came, in all appearance, alone. The angels were indeed waiting round him,
but not visibly, not in glory. "He trode the winepress alone, and of the
people there was none with him." He wrestled with death, hell, and Satan,
alone. Alone he rose from the dead: alone, as far as man could see, he went
up to heaven. Thus he showed himself "the Lord mighty in battle," mighty in
that single combat which he, as our champion, our David, victoriously
maintained against our great enemy. But when he shall come down and go up
the second time, he will show himself "the Lord of hosts." Instead of coming
down alone in mysterious silence, as in his wonderful incarnation, he will
be followed by all the armies of heaven. "The Lord my God will come, and
all his saints with him." "The Lord cometh with ten thousand of his
saints." "The Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father, and all the
holy angels with him." "Thousand thousands will stand around him, and ten
thousand times ten thousand will minister unto him." Instead of the silence
of that quiet chamber at Nazareth, and of the holy Virgin's womb, there will
be the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God accompanying him. Thus
he will come down as the Lord of hosts, and as the Lord of hosts, he will
ascend again to his Father. After the judgment, he will pass again through
the everlasting doors, with a greater company than before; for he will lead
along with him, into the heavenly habitation, all those who shall have been
raised from their graves and found worthy. Hear how the awful sight is
described by one who will doubtless have a high place in that day near the
Judge. The great apostle and prophet St. Paul, says, "The Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout; and the dead in Christ shall rise
first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be
with the Lord."
John Keble, M.A.
Verses 7-10.—
In this blessed life
I see the path, and in his death the price,
And in his great ascent the proof supreme
Of immortality. And did he rise?
Hear, O ye nations! hear it, O ye dead!
He rose! He rose! He burst the bars of death.
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates!
And give the King of glory to come in.
Who is the King of glory? He who left
His throne of glory for the pangs of death.
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates!
And give the King of glory to come in.
Who is the King of glory? He who slew
The ravenous foe that gorged all human race.
The King of glory, he whose glory filled
Heaven with amazement at his love to man,
And with divine complacency beheld
Powers most illumined 'wildered in the theme.
Edward Young.
Verses 7-10.—
Lift up your heads, ye gates, and, O prepare,
Ye living orbs, your everlasting doors,
The King of glory comes!
What King of glory? He whose puissant might
Subdued Abaddon, and the infernal powers
Of darkness bound in adamantine chains:
Who, wrapp'd in glory, with the Father reigns,
Omnipotent, immortal, infinite!
James Scott.
Verse 8. "Who is the King of glory?" Christ in two respects is "the
King of glory." 1. For that all honour and glory belongs properly to him
—his is "the kingdom, the power, and the glory" (Matthew 6:13), called in
this regard, "The Lord of glory." 1 Corinthians 2:8. 2. For that Christ
maketh us partakers of his glory, termed in this respect our glorious Lord
Jesus. James 2:1. If the Lord of hosts, strong and mighty in battle, be
the King of glory, then Christ (having conquered all his enemies, and made
them his footstool, triumphing over death, and the devil which is the
founder of death, and sin which is the sting of death, and the grave which
is the prison of death, and hell itself which is the proper dominion of the
devil and death) is doubtless in himself, "the King of glory." And for as
much as he died for our sins, and is risen again for our justification, and
is ascended on high to give gifts unto men—in this life grace, in the
next glory—what is he less than a "King of glory" towards us, of whom
and through whom alone we find that fight his battles are delivered from the
hands of all that hate us, and so made victors (1 Corinthians 15:57), yea,
"more than conquerors." Romans 8:37.
John Boys.
Verse 8. "The Lord strong and mighty." "Strong and mighty" in
subduing all adversaries; and overcoming death and the devil who had the
power of death.
Ludolphus, quoted by Isaac Williams.
Verse 10. "Jehovah of hosts," or, as the Hebrew is, Jehovah Tsebaoth,
for so the word is used by the apostles, untranslated in the Greek,
Sabaoth. Romans 9:29. It signifieth hosts or armies standing ready
in martial order, and in battle array, and comprehendeth all creatures in
heaven and in earth, which are pressed to do the will of God.
Henry Ainsworth.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. The great Proprietor, his estates and his servants, his rights
and wrongs.
Verse 1. "The earth is the Lord's."
I. Mention other claimants—idols: pope, man, devil, etc.,
II. Try the suit.
III. Carry out the verdict. Use our substance, preach everywhere, claim all things for God.
IV. See how glorious the earth looks when she bears her Master's name.
Verse 1 ( last clause ). All men belong to God. His sons or his
subjects, his servants or his serfs, his sheep or his goats, etc.
Verse 2. Divine purposes accomplished by singular means.
Verse 2. Founded on the seas. Instability of terrestrial things.
Verse 3. The all-important question.
Verse 4 ( first clause ). Connection between outward morality and inward purity.
Verse 4 ( second clause ). Men judged by their delights.
Verse 4. "Clean hands."
I. How to get them clean.
II. How to keep them clean.
III. How to defile them
IV. How to get them clean again.
Verses 4, 5. Character manifested and favour received.
Verse 5 ( second clause ). The good man receiving righteousness and
needing salvation, or the evangelical meaning of apparently legal passages.
Verse 6. Those who truly seek fellowship with God.
Verse 7. Accommodate the text to the entrance of Jesus Christ into our
hearts.