Lift up your heads, O ye gates.
The ascension of Christ
It is generally admitted by expositors that these words have a secondary, if not a primary, reference to the return of the Mediator to heaven, when He had accomplished the work of human redemption. Bishop Horsley affirms that the Jehovah of this Psalm must be Christ; and the entrance of the Redeemer into the kingdom of His Father is the event prophetically announced. But you will say, Are we to rejoice in the departure of our Lord from His Church? Suppose that Christ had not been exalted to the right hand of God, would not the supposition materially affect our spiritual condition? The resurrection of Christ was both the proof and consequence of the completeness of His mediatorial work. If He had remained in the grave we could only have regarded Him as a man like one of ourselves: we could not have looked on Him as our substitute. It is easy to certify ourselves of the indispensableness of the resurrection, but why may not the risen Mediator remain with His Church? We reply, the reception of our nature, in the person of our surety, into heavenly places, was necessary to our comfort and assurance. So long as Christ remained on earth there was no evidence that He had won for our nature readmission to the paradise from which it had been exiled. If He had not returned to the Father we must always have feared that our redemption was incomplete. The plan of redemption was designed to reveal to the world the Trinity of the Godhead. There could not have been the thorough manifestation of the Divinity of the Son had not Christ ascended up on high. His ascension and exaltation may well furnish us with great matter of rejoicing. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The two ascensions of Christ
“The King of glory” is our Lord Jesus Christ, as we acknowledge Him every morning in the Te Deum, “Thou art the King of glory, O Christ.” He is the King of glory, the Giver and Owner of life and glory; the Brightness of His Father’s glory and the express Image of His Person. That holy Son had on the day of His incarnation emptied Himself of His glory for a while, and had become like unto the meanest of His creatures. On the day of His crucifixion He offered up all His humiliation, for a sacrifice to His Father; on His resurrection day He showed Himself ready to take His glory again; and on this ascension day He actually took it. The King of glory is Christ the Lord of Hosts, and the gates which He commands to be opened to Him are the gates of heaven--the gates of His own chief city, to which He is returning as David returned to Jerusalem, after His triumphant warfare against His and our enemies. He returns, as the Lord mighty in battle, having bruised Satan under His feet, first in His temptation, then in His passion on the Cross, lastly in His descent into hell. And as David came accompanied by his guards and soldiers, who had been fighting on his side, and could not but rejoice, as faithful and dutiful subjects, in their king’s victory; so the Psalm represents the Son of David returning to the Father’s right hand with a guard of angels; who, as they come near the holy and awful gate, cry aloud and say, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors.” But 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. Now observe the answer made this second time. 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 forever, 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 trod the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with Him.” He wrestled with death, hell, and Satan alone: alone He went up into heaven. Thus He showed Himself “the Lord mighty in battle,” mighty in that single combat. 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.” 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 habitations, all those who shall have been raised from their graves and found worthy. This is Christ’s second and more glorious ascension, in which He will be visibly and openly accompanied by the souls and bodies of the righteous, changed and made glorious, like unto His glorious body. The angels and saints will come with Him from heaven, and both they and all good Christians will return with Him thither. (J. Keble.)
The three processions
I. The primary reference of the text. See the account of the removal of the ark from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem.
II. The similar scene in the New Testament. The triumphal procession on palm Sunday. That procession could boast but few circumstances of dignity and majesty.
III. The spiritual passage of Christ by faith into the stronghold of the heart of man.
1. The heart is susceptible of comparison in many particulars with the literal city of Jerusalem.
2. The remedy is to be found in admission of Christ into the heart. He alone can thoroughly cleanse the desecrated temple.
3. Therefore lay aside your pride and self-righteousness, and become Christ’s disciples.
IV. The second advent is hastening forward. That progress is to be triumphant in character. Its issue must be certain victory. (E. M. Goulburn, D. C. L.)