EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (4)

Verses 7-10.—Oh, what tongue of the highest archangel of heaven can express the welcome of thee, the King of glory, into these blessed regions of immortality? Surely the empyreal heaven never resounded with so much joy: God ascended with jubilation, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. It is not for us, weak and finite creatures, to wish to conceive those incomprehensible, spiritual, divine gratulations, that the glorious Trinity gave to the victorious and now glorified human nature. Certainly, if, when he brought his only-begotten Son into the world, he said, “Let all the angels worship him;” much more now that he “ascends on high, and hath led captivity captive, hath he given him a name above all names, that at the name of Jesus all knees should bow.” And if the holy angels did so carol at his birth, in the very entrance into that state of humiliation and infirmity with what triumph did they receive him now returning from the perfect achievement of man’s redemption? and if, when his type had vanished Goliath, and carried his head into Jerusalem, the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and timbrels, how shall we think those angelical spirits triumphed in meeting of the great Conqueror of hell and death? How did they sing, “Lift up your heads, ye gates! and be lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” Surely as he shall come, so he went; and, “Behold, he shall come with thousands of his holy ones; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand thousands stood before him;” from all whom, methinks I hear that blessed applause, “Worthy is the Lamb that was killed, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and praise: praise and honour, and glory, and power, be to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for evermore.” And why dost not thou, O my soul, help to bear thy part with that happy choir of heaven? Why art not thou rapt out of my bosom, with an ecstacy of joy, to see this human nature of ours exalted 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 the 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 ecstacy. 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 this 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 in 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.—

Verses 7-10.—

Verse 8.—“Who is the King of glory?” Christ in two respects is “the King of glory.” 1. For that all honour and glory belong properly to him—his is “the kingdom, the power, and the glory” (Matt. vi. 13), called in this regard, “The Lord of glory.” 1 Cor. ii. 8. 2. For that Christ maketh us partakers of his glory, termed in this respect our glorious Lord Jesus. James ii. 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 that fight his battles are delivered from the hands of all that hate us, and so made victors (1 Cor. xv. 57), yea, “more than conquerors.” Rom. viii. 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. Rom. ix. 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.