Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
Hymn of the Month for December
This Pastor's Pen article continues Pastor Cowell's "Hymn of the Month" series in which he shares a brief commentary on the theology and history behind some of the hymns we enjoy singing from the Lutheran Service Book. The full text of the hymn is included at the bottom of the post.
Our Hymn of the Month for December, Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates, is a beautiful collection of Advent texts and themes. The title and first stanza of the hymn comes from Psalm 24 in which David says:
Zechariah 9:9 is another Advent text that echoes throughout the hymn. Here the prophet Zechariah records:
In the season of Advent we celebrate our Lord’s arrival in human flesh for our salvation as well as arrival among us as He delivers His salvation to us by means of the Word and Sacraments. It is fitting, then, that this Advent hymn instructs us in stanza 4 to: “Fling wide the portals of your heart; / Make it a temple set apart [...].” We likewise pray in stanza 5: “Redeemer, come and open wide / My heart to Thee; here, Lord, abide!”
The third of Christ’s Advents is one for which we still wait: His return on the Last Day to take us with Him to the New Creation. As we look forward to this great Day we conclude the hymn with the Advent prayer: “Thy Holy Spirit guide us on / Until our glorious goal is won.”
God bless you as you sing our Hymn of the Month this season of Advent!
Used throughout this devotion is content from: Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns, Vol. 1 (CPH: 2019), p. 26-29.
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]
Yet although the incarnate Christ is most certainly the LORD, mighty in battle, and the King of Glory, stanza 2 of the hymn proclaims that for our sake: “His chariot is humility, / His kingly crown is holiness, / His scepter, pity in distress.”Zechariah 9:9 is another Advent text that echoes throughout the hymn. Here the prophet Zechariah records:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
As we wait to celebrate the coming of our Lord in Bethlehem humbly in a manger, we have in mind His greater arrival in Jerusalem, humble and mounted on a donkey, to die on the cross for the sins of the world. This is what makes the Triumphal Entry of Jesus such a powerful Gospel lesson for the First Sunday in Advent.In the season of Advent we celebrate our Lord’s arrival in human flesh for our salvation as well as arrival among us as He delivers His salvation to us by means of the Word and Sacraments. It is fitting, then, that this Advent hymn instructs us in stanza 4 to: “Fling wide the portals of your heart; / Make it a temple set apart [...].” We likewise pray in stanza 5: “Redeemer, come and open wide / My heart to Thee; here, Lord, abide!”
The third of Christ’s Advents is one for which we still wait: His return on the Last Day to take us with Him to the New Creation. As we look forward to this great Day we conclude the hymn with the Advent prayer: “Thy Holy Spirit guide us on / Until our glorious goal is won.”
God bless you as you sing our Hymn of the Month this season of Advent!
Used throughout this devotion is content from: Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns, Vol. 1 (CPH: 2019), p. 26-29.
Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates, LSB 341
Tune and text: Public domain
Tune and text: Public domain
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