What does that phase "Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates" mean?
The phrase is from Psalm 24:7. The note for verse 7 in the Lutheran Study Bible explains "gates. Worshipers ascending to the tabernacle reach Jerusalem's gates and call for them to open before God. David personifies the gates, showing that it is an honor to be in God's presence. If the gates are to lift up their heads in honor, how much more should God's people rejoice in His gracious presence."
Here are three explanations or devotions that I pulled from the web:
This hymn from Georg Weissel makes use of the language of Psalm 24 to help us pray that God would come to us as our Savior and King. This is not only a past or future event; He comes to us now to bring us life and salvation. Even as a King, He comes in humility and holiness to show us pity and bring an end to our woes. To have Christ as our King is true blessedness; therefore, we welcome Him as He comes to make us His temple. He answers our prayer and dwells with us, giving us His Holy Spirit to lead us unto eternal life. For all this, God alone be praised!
“The Hymns of Advent” is a series on Sharper Iron that looks at a variety of the hymns found in the Advent section Lutheran Service Book. The season of Advent prepares us for Christ’s coming. The hymns of Advent teach that this is more than getting ready for Christmas; the Word of the Lord sung in hymnody helps us to receive Christ as He comes to us now in the means of grace and when He comes again in glory on the Last Day.
Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God’s Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen.
Sharper Iron is underwritten by Lutheran Church Extension Fund, where your investments help support the work of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit lcef.org.
Lutheran Service Book 341
1 Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates!
Behold, the King of glory waits.
The King of kings is drawing near;
The Savior of the world is here.
Life and salvation He doth bring;
Therefore rejoice and gladly sing.
To God the Father raise
Your joyful songs of praise.
2 A righteous Helper comes to thee;
His chariot is humility,
His kingly crown is holiness,
His scepter, pity in distress.
The end of all our woe He brings;
Therefore the earth is glad and sings.
To Christ the Savior raise
Your grateful hymns of praise.
3 How blest the land, the city blest,
Where Christ the ruler is confessed!
O peaceful hearts and happy homes
To whom this King in triumph comes!
The cloudless sun of joy is He
Who comes to set His people free.
To God the Spirit raise
Your happy shouts of praise.
4 Fling wide the portals of your heart;
Make it a temple set apart
From earthly use for heav’n’s employ,
Adorned with prayer and love and joy.
So shall your Sov’reign enter in
And new and nobler life begin.
To God alone be praise
For word and deed and grace!
5 Redeemer, come and open wide
My heart to Thee; here, Lord, abide!
O enter with Thy grace divine;
Thy face of mercy on me shine.
Thy Holy Spirit guide us on
Until our glorious goal is won.
Eternal praise and fame
We offer to Thy name.
https://mo.lcms.org/lift-up-your-heads-ye-might-gates/
Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Psalm 24:7-10
It is estimated that twelve million people died across Central Europe during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Historians suggest that twenty percent of the people of Germany died during the conflict that ripped their land and people apart. Just a year before conflict broke out, Georg Weissel returned to the University of Konigsberg to prepare for pastoral ministry. He would complete his studies and be ordained at a Lutheran church in Konigsberg where he would serve his entire ministry until his death in 1635.
Though his ministry would take place in the midst of death and destruction, Weissel would be remembered as prolific writer of hymns of joy. During the dark days of the never-ending war, he would write the beloved Advent hymn “Lift Up Your Heads Ye Mighty Gates.” Based on Psalm 24 and authored by King David, scholars believe that the hymn was a celebratory call to the people of Jerusalem to welcome the return of the Ark of the Covenant. Like David, Weissel applies the text to God’s people preparing for the coming of the true King of glory.
During this Advent season, it often seems that the darkness is overtaking the light. The days are short and the nights long. The disdain for the King of glory is as apparent today as it has been in the past. But we joyfully lift up the gates and the doors in preparation to welcome the King of glory, whose first Advent we remember and whose second Advent we await. And though we may live in the midst of darkness, with King David and Georg Weissel and the countless host who have suffered while waiting for the King of glory, we raise our “joyful songs of praise” to the One has come and who will come again.
While these are dark days, we are sustained by waiting for the New Jerusalem, where the gates will always be open because there is no darkness and the King of glory will give it light. Dear friends in Christ, we do not lose heart or despair because we wait with certain hope of the return of the King. Through the Spirit’s work of calling and enlightening us, we are bold to fling wide the portals of our hearts in repentance and faith, “adorned with prayer and love and joy” as the King of glory comes to us through His Word and Sacraments and as we wait for His final coming on the last day.
Prayer – Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Fraternally in Christ,
President Lee Hagan
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-lift-up-your-heads-ye-mighty-gates
History of Hymns: "Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates"
"Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates"
Georg Weissel; translation by Catherine Winkworth
The United Methodist Hymnal, No. 213
Lift up your heads, you mighty gates;
Behold, the King of glory waits;
The King of kings is drawing near;
The Savior of the world is here!
This hymn for the first Sunday in Advent comes from a devastating time in 17th-century Europe—the Thirty-Years’ War (1618-1648). The struggles between the Protestant princes of Bohemia and the tyranny of the Catholic Emperor led to the plundering of the land by troops and untold suffering bringing on disease and famine.
Yet, this is an era that has given to Christianity some of its finest German hymns: “Now thank we all our God” by Martin Rinkart, “Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended” by Johann Heermann, and the hymns of Paul Gerhardt, several of which were translated by John Wesley. Among these hymns is Georg Weissel’s reflection on Psalm 24:7.
Georg Weissel (1590-1635) was a Prussian scholar, school-teacher and pastor who wrote about 20 hymns. Most of Weissel’s hymns are on the themes related to the various seasons of the Christian Year. This Lutheran pastor received his education at the University of Königsberg as well as Wittenberg, Leipzig, Jena, Strassburg, Basel and Marburg. He became pastor of the Altrossgart Church in Königsberg in 1623 and served this congregation until his death in 1635.
“Lift up your heads” first appeared in posthumously in 1642 in Preussische Festlieder in five stanzas of eight lines each in an 88.88.88.66 meter. The famous British translator of German hymns, Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878), rendered the hymn into English in five, eight-line stanzas as well for her Lyra Germanica (1855). The version that appears in hymnals today usually reduces the hymn to four, four line stanzas in Long Meter (88.88).
Psalm 24 has traditionally been associated with the Advent season, especially verse 7: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” (KJV) The first stanza places this verse in the context of waiting for the “King of glory” who is the “Savior of the world.”
Stanza two reflects the pietistic origins of the hymn writer and the time. The gates are not literally openings to a walled city, but a metaphor for the “portals of [our] heart.” Our hearts become a “temple set apart from earthly use for heaven’s employ.”
In stanza three the “King” becomes a “Redeemer” who will “abide” within our wide-open hearts. Once again the focus is not on an external being, but on one whose “inner presence [we] feel” and whose “grace and love in us [are] reveal[ed].”
The concluding stanza is adapted from the final lines of Winkworth’s translation. It is an eschatological petition to the Holy Spirit to “lead us on until the glorious race is won,” or in other words to lead us to eternity.
The complete original translation of the hymn places it somewhat more explicitly in the context of the Thirty-Years’ War with stanzas that refer to “distress” and “woe.” According to hymnologist Albert Bailey, “The poet takes refuge from present misery in contemplating what his land would be if Christ were really ruler.”
The essential themes of Advent are present in this hymn: waiting for a Savior who will not only change our hearts now, but will come in glory in the fulfillment of time.
Dr. Hawn is professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology.
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