TEHILLIM LIGHT

Commentaries

Mizmor 024, Verse 007

שְׂא֤וּ שְׁעָרִ֨ים ׀ רָֽאשֵׁיכֶ֗ם וְֽ֭הִנָּשְׂאוּ פִּתְחֵ֣י עוֹלָ֑ם וְ֝יָב֗וֹא מֶ֣לֶךְ הַכָּבֽוֹד

Se'u she'orim  rosheichem vehinnose'u pischei olom veyovo melech hakkovod

You gates, lift your heads and be uplifted, you everlasting portals, so that the King of Glory may come in.

MIDRASH TEHILLIM

1.....(24.10)
Lift up your hweads, O you gates...
You find that after Solomon build the Holy Temple, he sought to bring the Ark into the Holy of Holies, but the gates held fast one to other. Solomon cried out twenty four times, but he was given no responce. But when he said: "O Lord God, do not turn back the face of Your anointed one; remember the kind deeds of David Your servant." (Divrei Hayamim II - II Chronicles 6:42), at that moment the gates lifted up their heads, and the Ark entered, and a fire came down from heaven.
Why was Solomon put to such trouble?
Because he was arogant, having said: "I have surely built You a house to dwell in;" (Melachim I - I Kings 8:13).

RADAK

1.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
In the Haggadic interpretation (Shoher Tov; Babli, Shabbath 30a; Moed Katon 9a; Sanhedrin 107b, and in other places): "it is clear that the gates were fastened together when Solomon sought to bring in the Ark into the house of the Holy of Holies."
According to the literal interpretation he seems to speak metaphorically, as (in Ps. xcvi. 2:12), "Let the sea roar and the fulness thereof; let the field exult and all that is in it." And so he says, Lift up your heads, O you gates!
2.
And be you lift up, you everlasting doors; that the King of Glory may come in:
For great glory shall you receive on the day when the King of Glory comes into you. And because the Glory rested on the Ark, between the two cherubim, he calls it by the name of the Lord, the King of Glory.
And so (Shmuel II - II Samuel 6:2), "which is called a name, the name of the Lord of Hosts who dwell upon the cherubim [being] upon it."

Rabbi HIRSCH

1.
Lift up your heads, O gates, be lifted up to become portals of the future, so that the King of Glory may come in.
It is not only HAARETS that is the LORD's. His world order does not rule only in the sphere of immutable Nature. It is His wish rather to found His kingdom in the sphere of unfettered human activity, where His moral Law shall help shape human affairs. Therefore the call goes out to the SHAARIM, the gates of the world of human society to "be lifted up". Let them be lifted up for the "the King of Glory,” to Whom alone all honor is due, whose greatness is revealed by all the splendors of heaven and earth.
Most men have searched for His ways and His glory “beyond the gates of the life of the community of mankind,” in the sphere of “nature.” Therefore, now, “lift up your heads, o gates” so that the King of Glory may enter at last into the sphere of the life of human society and so that this life may freely make way for the rule of His Sovereignty.
At first, however, the gates of human society do not heed this call to open out of their own free will. Therefore the call is repeated, this time asking that "the gates be lifted up" by an external force, to become the gates of the future that is "hidden" to the human eye and brought about by God Himself, so that the "the King of Glory” may come in. Therefore we have the question and answer as stated in Verse 8.

WORDS