Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of Glory enter. (Psalm 24:7, NLT).
The Jews had a tradition of singing Psalm 24 at the gates of the temple every Sunday morning.
This practice began with the building of Solomon’s temple in 950 B.C. and stopped when Solomon’s temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.
For 363 years, the Jews sang a Psalm (song) that said . . .
Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of Glory enter.
When the Jews returned from their Babylonian captivity, they built a rather modest replacement for Solomon’s temple in 516 B.C.
From 516 B.C. until 20 B.C., in their replacement temple, Israel continued their singing of Psalm 24 every Sunday.
Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of Glory enter.
In 20 B.C., wishing to curry favor with the Jews, King Herod began rebuilding and modernizing the replacement temple. He enlarged, restored, added white stone facing, lots of gold gilding, and turned the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world.
This version of the temple became known as King Herod’s temple, and the rebuilding lasted for 46 years till 26 A.D.
During this remodeling of Herod’s temple, every Sunday, the Jews sang Psalm 24:7 . . .
Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of Glory enter.
Now, let’s turn on the calculator app on our mobile devices and do some addition . . .
- Solomon’s temple: 950 B.C. (Solomon began building) to 587 B.C. (Babylonians destroyed) = 363 years of singing Psalm 24:7.
- Second modest temple: 516 B.C. to 20 B.C. = 496 years of singing Psalm 24:4.
- Herod’s temple building program: 20 B.C. to 26 A.D. for another 46 years of singing Psalm 24:7.
That’s 363 + 496 + 46, equaling 905 years of this verse being sung every Sunday morning at the temple . . .
Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of Glory enter.
Okay, using our app once more, let’s add another 7 years from 26 A.D. until 33 A.D. Our final tab for singing Psalm 24:7 at the temple gate every Saturday is 912 years.
Wow, talk about perseverance.
Then, one Sunday morning in 33 A.D. something happens.
After a 912-year history of singing the “open the gates, open the ancient doors” from Psalm 24, we read this passage in the New Testament . . .
They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on. As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him (Luke 19:35-36, NLT).
Christians know this day as Palm Sunday.
Nine hundred and twelve years of singing with expectation, waiting in anticipation, and now the King of Glory arrives. What happens?
Jesus was crucified the next Friday.
Fortunately, there are two “opening the gates” scenarios in Psalm 24. The verse 7 version ends — even with a 912-year history — with the Jews, in actual history, turning away the King of Glory.
But in verses 9 and 10 of Psalm 24, we read a second scenario of “opening the gates” for the King of Glory.
Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of Glory enter. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of Heaven’s Armies – He is the King of Glory.
After entering the gates the first time, Jesus was crucified. But He will come a second time with Heaven’s Armies.
The numbers tell an amazing, sad, but still-filled-with-hope story!