Easter, Day 2: Lift Up Your Heads, O Gates!

Victoria Emily Jones

April 1

Lift up your heads, O gates!
    and be lifted up, O ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in!
Who is the King of glory?
    The LORD, strong and mighty,
    the LORD, mighty in battle.
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 of hosts,
    he is the King of glory. Selah

—Psalm 24:7–10

LOOK: Christ's Descent into Hell from the Stuttgart Psalter [HT]

*Christ's Descent into Hell*, from the Stuttgart Psalter, made at the scriptorium at St. Germain-des-Prés in Paris, ca. 820. Cod.bib.lat.fol.23, fol. 29v, Wurttembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, Germany. Click on image to see full page and explore further.

The above psalm passage is often read during Advent in relation to Christ's coming into the world (see, e.g., here). But in some illuminated psalters—such as the Stuttgart Psalter from ninth-century France—it is connected with Jesus's descent into hell between his death and resurrection.

On the Psalm 24 page of the Stuttgart Psalter, the manuscript's anonymous artist has depicted Christ storming the gates of hell, which are guarded by two winged, fire-spitting demons. Satan or Hades (Death) cowers in the bottom left corner, licked by flames and fearful of his imminent end. Encompassed in a green mandorla and accompanied by an angel, Christ breaches enemy territory, using a long slender cross to break down the doors behind which Satan has kept souls imprisoned. He is here to strike Death dead and gain back his beloveds in an awesome display of glory, power, and love.

LISTEN: "Lift Up Your Heads" | Text: Psalm 24:7–10 | Music by Joseph M. Martin and Jon Paige, 1996 | Performed by CMS College Choir Kottayam, dir. Vimal Kurian, 2015

Lift up your heads, you everlasting doors;
open up and let the King of glory come in.
Let the King of glory come in.
(Repeat)

Who is the King of glory?
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord of hosts!
He is the King of glory.
The Lord of hosts!
He is the King of glory.

Lift up your heads, you everlasting doors;
open up and let the King of glory come in.
Let the King of glory come in.

Alleluia, let us sing
To the one eternal King
Alleluia evermore
To the King and Lord of lords

Who is the King of glory?
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord of hosts!
He is the King of glory.
The Lord of hosts!
He is the King of glory.

Lift up your heads, you everlasting doors;
open up and let the King of glory come in.
Let the King of glory come in.
(Repeat)

You can purchase the sheet music for this choral piece at J.W. Pepper. For an album recording available on Spotify and elsewhere, see Written in Red (2011) by the East Valley Chorale.