"A Psalm of David.
1 The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
2 for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
5 He will receive blessing from the Lord
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah
7 Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may 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 gates!
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory! Selah"
Psalm 24
What was said in the previous note leads naturally to the third lesson of the Psalm, namely the coming of the King to his people. God must first have the victory over us. And so we can change the picture slightly and think of the gates and doors as the entrance into our hearts and lives. For it is just as true that the risen and ascended Lord comes to us and knocks for admittance. Just as, in the story of David, the glory had departed from Israel because of her sin and was now returning through the victory he had won over the Jebusites, so also had the glory of the creation of God departed from mankind through sin, and was restored only through the victory of Christ, the second Adam. This is what asks for an open door in our lives, and when the door is opened it is the beginning of the restoration of the image of God in us. Dr James Denney has a fine and moving comment on Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 2:14: 'When God wins a victory over man, and leads him captive in triumph, the captive too has an interest in what hap- pens: it is the beginning of all triumphs, in any true sense, for him....(The Damascus Road) was the beginning of God's triumph over him; for that hour God led him in triumph in Christ. But it was the beginning also of all that made the Apostle's life itself a triumph, not a career of hopeless internal strifes, such as it had been, but of unbroken Christian victory.... Furthermore, the true meaning of the word, and the true connection of ideas just explained, remind us that the only triumphs we can ever have, deserving the name, must begin with God's triumph over us.' Well might the Psalmist cry 'Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in'!