Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 24:7

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors: And the King of glory will come in." — Psalms 24:7 (ASV)

Lift up your heads, O you gates - This refers to either the gates of the city or of the house erected for the worship of God; most probably, as has been remarked, the former. This may be supposed to have been uttered as the procession approached the city where the ark was to remain, as a summons to admit the King of glory to a permanent residence there. It seems quite probable that the gates of the city were originally made in the form of a portcullis, like the gates of old castles in the feudal ages, not to “open,” but to be “lifted up” by weights and pulleys.

In some of the old ruins of castles in Palestine, deep grooves can still be seen in the “posts” of the gateway, showing that the door did not open and shut, but was drawn up or let down. (The Land and the Book, vol. i. p. 376. One such I saw at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight; and they were common in the castles erected in the Middle Ages.) This design had some advantages, as they could be suddenly “let down” on an enemy about to enter, whereas it would have been difficult to close them quickly if they were made to open as doors and gates are commonly made.

Understood in this way, the “heads” of the gates would be the top, perhaps ornamented in a way that suggested the idea of a “head,” and the command was that these should be elevated to allow the ark of God to pass.

And be you lift up, you everlasting doors - This refers to the doors of a city or sanctuary that was now to be the permanent place for the worship of God. The ark was to be fixed and settled there. It was no longer to be moved from place to place; it had found a final home.

The idea in the word “everlasting” is that of permanence. The place where the ark was to remain was to be the enduring place of worship, or it was to endure as long as the worship of God in that form continued. There is no evidence that the author of the psalm supposed that these doors would be literally eternal; rather, the language is like that which we use when we describe something as permanent and abiding.

And the King of glory shall come in - This means the glorious King. The allusion is to God as a King. On the cover of the ark, or the mercy-seat, rested the symbol of the divine presence—the Shekinah—and hence, it was natural to say that God would enter through those gates.

In other words, the cover of the ark was regarded as His abode—His seat, His throne. By thus occupying the mercy-seat, He was about to enter the place of His permanent abode. (Exodus 25:20; Exodus 25:22).