Psalm 24:7-8, “Lift up your heads, O gates(πύλη)! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? YHWH, strong and mighty, YHWH mighty in battle!”
In the immediate context, these verses picture the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, envisioning the Ark as the embodied presence of YHWH, come as the conquering king to His city. We can also see here a vision of YHWH’s victory in Christ—the risen Lord ascending to the heavenly Jerusalem following His crucifixion and resurrection, approaching the throne room of God as King of kings and Lord of lords.
But there is still another way to read these words because, in Matt. 16:18, we read of another pair of gates (πύλη)—namely, the gates of Hades. These indeed are ancient gates, gates which have never been “lifted up,” but have remained shut in brooding silence and immovable gloom since the beginning. And within these gates lie the hopeless dead, sealed away from all light and peace and memory—forgotten at the heart of the world.
And yet it is to precisely these gates that YHWH God—in Jesus Christ—descends in the mystery and the silence of Holy Saturday.
Here comes down one like the rest, a human soul, another mortal son of Adam, doomed to shadow and forgetfulness within the ever-sealed gates of Sheol—Yet with His coming, something has changed. The foundations of the Grave are shaken, the pillars of Death groan, the gates of Hades tremble before the footfalls of this human shade, of this child of dust, of this mortal son of man. And then the roar of seraphic heralds rings through those gloom-filled halls:
“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the KING OF GLORY may come in!”
And the bars are broken and the gates are splintered and the towers of Sheol crumble to dust before the Crucified.
“Who is the King of Glory? YHWH strong and mighty!”
And the patriarchs sing, and the prophets worship, and Eve comes weeping for wondering joy as Adam falls down at the feet of the Seed and Healer and Lord of his race.
“YHWH of hosts, He is the King of Glory!”
