«　WEEK 7　DAY 2　»

　　Jer. 11:20 But, O Jehovah of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the inward parts and the heart…

　　Psa. 24:9-10 Lift up your heads, O gates; and lift up, O long enduring doors; and the King of glory will come in. Who is this King of glory? Jehovah of hosts—He is the King of glory! Selah

　　[Psalm 24:7-10 shows] us the victorious Christ as the coming King in God’s eternal kingdom….The gates are of the cities of the nations. The doors are of the houses of the people. The long enduring doors indicate waiting and expecting with long endurance (Phil. 3:20; 1 Cor. 1:7). This indicates that the people of the earth have been waiting and expecting Christ’s second coming. In Haggai 2:7 we are told that Christ is the desire of all the nations. All the nations, in a general way, are expecting Christ to come, but Christ would not come that quickly according to our human concept. Thus, we need to wait and expect His coming with long endurance. (Life-study of the Psalms, p. 149)

　　Because we must wait for His coming with long endurance, we have a tendency to drop our heads in discouragement. This is why the psalmist says, “Lift up your heads” [Psa. 24:9]. If we expected someone dear to us to come and he does not come, we would drop our heads. But if we received a phone call from him, telling us that he is coming, we would lift up our heads; that is, we would be encouraged to expect his coming.

　　We must get ready to welcome Him. Psalm 24:8 asks, “Who is the King of glory?” The King of glory is “Jehovah strong and mighty! / Jehovah mighty in battle!” Jehovah is Jesus, and Jesus is the embodiment of the Triune God in resurrection. He is the One who is strong in fighting and victorious.

　　Verse 9 says, “Lift up your heads, O gates; / And lift up, O long enduring doors; / And the King of glory will come in.” Verse 7 says, “Be lifted up,” but verse 9 says, “Lift up.” To be lifted up means that we are still weak, needing someone to move us. But to lift up means we have become stronger. We can act to lift up ourselves. The King of glory, whom we welcome, is Jehovah of hosts. Hosts means armies. He is Jehovah of the armies. Jehovah is the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Triune God. He is the One in His resurrection coming back to possess the entire earth, to take it as His kingdom. The King of glory is Jehovah of hosts, the consummated Triune God embodied in the victorious and coming Christ (v. 10). (Life-study of the Psalms, pp. 149-150)

　　Even today, while we are enjoying the Lord’s presence so much, we still must say, “Lift up your heads, O gates; / And be lifted up, O long enduring doors” [Psa. 24:7]. We all must be so open to the Lord. If Christ could not come in to the church today in an adequate and fuller way, how could Christ come back to the earth? If the church, if Zion, is not absolutely open to Him, how can we expect the earth to be open to Him? So today we must respond and say, “Yes, open the doors; let us all open widely to Him. Come in, O come in, Lord! Before You come back to the earth, come in to the church, come in to fully possess this little mountain, the mountain of Zion.”

　　In the background of Psalm 24, the mountain of Zion was there, but the Ark was missing. Now the Ark is coming in; Christ is coming in. And while the Ark was entering, David said, “Lift up your heads, O gates; / And be lifted up, O long enduring doors; / And the King of glory will come in” [v. 7]. We may be the mountain of Zion, we may be the local church, but the King of glory is not so absolutely within. We need to be open, we need to be lifted up, to let the King of glory come in all the way. Then the church will be the steppingstone, the beachhead, for the Lord to return and possess the earth. (CWWL, 1969, vol. 3, “Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms,” pp. 46-47)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of the Psalms, msg. 30; CWWL, 1969, vol. 3, “Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms,” chs. 5, 12