Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
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.
O blest the land, the city blest,
Where Christ the ruler is confessed!
O happy hearts and happy homes
To whom this King of triumph comes!
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.
Redeemer, come! I open wide
My heart to Thee: here, Lord, abide!
Let me Thy inner presence feel:
Thy grace and love in us reveal.
So come, my Sov’reign, enter in!
Let new and nobler life begin!
Thy Holy Spirit guide us on,
Until the glorious crown be won.
Translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827–1878)
THE WORDS King David used in Psalm 24 to celebrate the arrival of God’s presence in Jerusalem inspired this beautiful Christmas hymn. Georg Weissel recognized that Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem was the ultimate fulfillment of the ancient psalmist’s praise. On that first Christmas, God came to be with us in a new way. He was Immanuel—“God with us.”
Weissel was a German scholar, teacher, and pastor who died at the height of the Thirty Years’ War—a period of unspeakable horror in Germany. Due to the war, repeated plagues, and other disasters, the population of sixteen million dwindled to only six million in thirty short years. Despite the horrors that surrounded him, Weissel found a reason for rejoicing because of God’s arrival in our world in the person of Jesus Christ.
Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter. Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty; the Lord, invincible in battle.
Psalm 24:7-8
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