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Psalm 24 (LXX 23) - The King of Glory Enters

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Psalm 24 begins with creation and ends with the King of Glory entering through everlasting doors. The earth belongs to the Lord, yet the question remains: who can ascend the mountain and stand in His holy place? The answer is finally Christ, the innocent and pure One, who ascends, opens the gates, enters as King, and brings His people with Him. The Psalm is therefore creation theology, moral examination, temple entrance, Resurrection proclamation, and Ascension hymn in one short text.

Psalm Metadata

FieldNotes
NKJV / Masoretic numberingPsalm 24
Septuagint / Coptic numberingPsalm 23. After the Septuagint combines NKJV Psalms 9 and 10 as LXX Psalm 9, this Psalm is shifted by one.
Accepted authorDavid by superscription. Brenton’s LXX superscription reads: “A Psalm for David on the first day of the week.”
Period in author’s lifeNo precise Davidic event is certain. The Psalm may fit a liturgical procession, ark movement, or temple entrance setting, but these remain possible contexts, not established dates.
Christ prophecy statusStrongly Christological by Orthodox liturgical reception. The King of Glory is Christ, especially in Resurrection, the harrowing of Hades, and the Ascension. It is not a direct New Testament citation in the way Psalm 22 is, but the Church receives it as royal-Messianic.
Coptic lectionary/service useThe full Psalm in the Agpeya Third Hour; earth-and-fullness verses at first-week Thursday Matins of Great Lent; King of Glory verses in named Ascension witnesses; a partial creation-and-purity excerpt during the Holy Fifty Days; annual fifth-Sunday Matins witnesses; and the full Psalm at the printed altar-consecration service’s First Offering of Incense.
Numbering issuePsalm 24 in NKJV / Masoretic numbering is Psalm 23 in Brenton’s LXX. Service references below retain each source’s printed label and identify the actual passage.

Historical and Scriptural Context

The Psalm’s first half declares the Lord’s ownership of creation and asks who may ascend His holy mountain. This links it to temple entrance and worship. It is not enough that the earth belongs to God. The worshipper must be made clean to stand before Him.

The second half is a royal entrance hymn: “Lift up your gates… and the king of glory shall come in.” In Christian reading, this opens toward Christ. He is the only truly clean-handed and pure-hearted man. He descends into death, rises on the first day of the week, ascends to the Father, and enters as Lord of hosts.

Geographical Significance ⛰️

The Psalm names the mountain of the Lord and His holy place. In the historical frame, this evokes Zion and temple worship. Spiritually, it points to ascent into God’s presence, the Church as holy place, and finally the heavenly sanctuary where Christ enters as High Priest and King (Hebrews 9:24).

🕯️ Light from the Word

Psalm 23:1-2, the earth belongs to the Lord

23:1 A Psalm for David on the first day of the week. The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; the world, and all that dwell in it. 23:2 He has founded it upon the seas, and prepared it upon the rivers.

The Psalm starts with creation, not private devotion. The Lord owns the earth, its fullness, the world, and all who dwell in it. Worship begins by recovering reality: nothing is autonomous, nothing is ownerless, and no human power finally possesses what belongs to God.

The second verse gives the reason for that ownership: He founded and prepared the earth. Seas and rivers do not lie beyond His authority. The poetry presents the inhabited world established over the waters by its Creator, not a modern account of the earth’s physical structure. Before the worshipper asks to stand on God’s holy mountain, he confesses that even the ground beneath his feet owes its existence to God. The Lord of the sanctuary is the Lord of the whole earth.

The LXX heading, “on the first day of the week,” is striking for Christian readers. The first day is the day of creation’s light and the day of Christ’s Resurrection (Genesis 1:3-5; John 20:1). The Church does not need to force this heading into a prediction, but it naturally harmonizes with the Psalm’s Resurrection and Ascension use.

Christ, through whom all things were made, enters His own world (John 1:3). The King of Glory is not a stranger to creation. He is its Maker and Redeemer.

Psalm 23:3-6, clean hands, pure heart, and the generation that seeks Him

23:3 Who shall go up to the mountain of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? 23:4 He that is innocent in his hands and pure in his heart; who has not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour. 23:5 He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour. 23:6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek the face of the God of Jacob. Pause.

The Psalm asks the question every worshipper should fear and desire: who may stand before God? The answer is not mere ritual presence. Innocent hands, pure heart, refusal of vanity, and truthful speech are required.

Hands and heart bring outward conduct and inward desire together. The two refusals make this concrete: the worshipper must not give his soul to what is empty or deceive his neighbour under the appearance of a solemn promise. Worship cannot be separated from the truthfulness of our dealings with another person.

Yet the Psalm does not end this section with self-congratulation. The worshipper receives blessing and mercy from God his Saviour. Purity is required, and mercy is needed. Orthodox life holds both together. We do not approach casually, and we do not despair.

Christ alone fulfills the requirement perfectly. His hands are innocent, His heart is pure, His soul is never lifted to vanity, and no deceit is found in His mouth. In Him, the Church becomes the generation that seeks the face of God. The movement is not toward an isolated person’s spiritual achievement, but toward a people seeking the God of Jacob together.

Psalm 23:7-10, the King of Glory enters

23:7 Lift up your gates, ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in. 23:8 Who is this king of glory? the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. 23:9 Lift up your gates, ye princes; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in. 23:10 Who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is this king of glory.

The repeated command gives the Psalm its thunder. The gates must open because the King is arriving. The King is not merely admired; He enters.

Brenton’s command first addresses the princes: they are to lift their gates. It then addresses the everlasting doors themselves as though they could hear and rise. Those who exercise authority at the entrance must yield before the Lord. The repeated question does not leave His identity uncertain: first He is named strong and mighty in battle, then Lord of hosts.

This is royal entrance poetry. A temple or processional setting helps us hear its call and response, but the Psalm does not identify one certain historical ceremony. The Church receives this entrance imagery in the light of Christ’s victory over death and His Ascension, and also applies it to the heart’s welcome of Him. These readings unfold the image in Christ; they do not make Hades, heaven, a temple gate, and the human heart the same literal place.

Orthodox tradition hears this in the Resurrection and Ascension. In the Resurrection icon, Christ breaks the gates of Hades. In the Ascension, He is lifted up in glory. In both, the question “Who is this King of glory?” receives the same answer: the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord of hosts.

St Athanasius of Alexandria, a received Father of the Coptic Church, explicitly reads this Psalm’s entrance command as foretelling the Saviour’s bodily Ascension into heaven.1 Augustine, in the wider Christian exegetical tradition, likewise reads the King as Christ victorious over death and entering heaven to intercede for us. His explanation of the mighty Lord turns our eyes back to the Crucified One: “He whom you deemed weak and overwhelmed.”2

Fr Tadros Malaty’s modern Coptic pastoral commentary draws out the hope this gives the Church: Christ’s Ascension opens the way for His people to share His heavenly glory.3 The everlasting doors are not stronger than the risen and ascended Christ. Heaven receives Him, and in Him human nature is enthroned.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The whole Psalm and its shorter appointed excerpts illuminate different parts of its movement. The following examples belong to the named books and reading tables; their English wording is not always Brenton’s.

  • Agpeya Third Hour: The full Psalm appears as “Psalm 23 (24)” in the Saint Bishoy Agpeya. This hour remembers the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the apostles and asks for His renewal within us. The Church prays to become a pure-hearted generation seeking God’s face.4
  • Feast of the Ascension Liturgy: CopticChurch.net’s table for 25 May 2023 prints “Psalm 24:9” and “Psalm 24:10,” corresponding to Psalm 24:9-10 (LXX Ps 23:9-10), with the final answer naming the Lord of hosts. The working Katameros cycle instead lists Psalm 24:7-8 (LXX Ps 23:7-8), the earlier exchange naming the Lord mighty in battle. Both concern the King’s entrance, but they are distinct pairs. The dated table places its excerpt before Luke 24:36-53, which ends with Christ’s Ascension and the disciples’ worship.5
  • Thursday of the first week of Great Lent, Matins: CopticChurch.net’s table for 23 February 2023 prints “Psalm 23:1-2,” but its actual words concern the earth, its fullness, and its founding upon the waters: Psalm 24:1-2 (LXX Ps 23:1-2). The excerpt accompanies Luke 8:23-25, where Christ commands the wind and water. The appointed words confess the Creator’s authority; the holy mountain and gates belong to the whole Psalm’s wider context.6
  • Friday of the fourth week of the Holy Fifty Days, Liturgy: The table for 12 May 2023 prints “Psalm 24:1” and “Psalm 24:4,” corresponding to LXX Psalm 23:1 and the opening of verse 4. It joins the Lord’s ownership of the earth to clean hands and a pure heart, stopping before the clauses about vanity and deceit. Paschal joy does not set aside holiness.7
  • Annual fifth-Sunday Matins: CopticChurch.net’s table for the fifth Sunday of Babah, 9 November 2025, gives Psalm 24:3-4 (LXX Ps 23:3-4), including the refusals of idolatry and deceit, before John 3:17-21. The call to stand in God’s holy place meets the Gospel’s call to come into the light.8
  • Altar consecration, First Offering of Incense: The printed Consecration service places the whole Psalm, headed “Psalm (23) 24,” after the Shepherd Psalm. The bishop offers incense at the altar, surrounded by the priests. Creation, holy ascent, and the King’s entrance accompany the dedication of the place of worship. This is the First Offering of Incense, not the later principal Psalm and Gospel.9

Iconography Connection 🖼️

Psalm 24 belongs with the icon of the Resurrection, where Christ shatters the gates of Hades, and with the icon of the Ascension, where He is received in glory. It also pairs with temple and altar imagery: the King enters, and the holy place must be prepared.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Remember ownership. The earth is the Lord’s. Your body, time, money, home, and plans are not ownerless.
  2. Ask the entrance question before worship. Examine both hands and heart. Correct a misleading statement, keep a promise, or return what you have wrongfully kept. Turn from the pursuit of appearances toward seeking God’s face.
  3. Seek mercy without reducing holiness. The Psalm says the worshipper receives mercy from God his Saviour. Bring the sin you have recognized to confession rather than hiding it or treating it as beyond His healing.
  4. Open the gates Christ is already commanding. The heart, the home, and the Church must not stay locked against the King of Glory. Let His rule reach a decision you have kept apart from prayer and obedience.
  5. Let Ascension enlarge your hope. Christ does not rise alone. He lifts human nature into glory.

Footnotes

  1. St Athanasius of Alexandria, Letter to Marcellinus concerning the Psalms, discussion of the Saviour’s bodily Ascension citing LXX Psalm 23, and the later survey pairing LXX Psalms 23 and 46 with the Ascension. The English translation used here does not identify its translator; the teaching is paraphrased. ↩

  2. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 24, §§7-9, especially §8 for the quotation. Anonymous English translation, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, edited by Philip Schaff (1888), public domain; New Advent text revised and edited by Kevin Knight. The page uses Psalm 24 in its title while commenting on LXX Psalm 23. ↩

  3. Fr Tadros Y. Malaty, Psalms, chapter 24, “Its Messianic interpretation,” PDF page 276; see also PDF pages 287-289. Modern Coptic pastoral interpretation, paraphrased. ↩

  4. Saint Bishoy Agpeya, Third Hour, “Psalm 23 (24),” pp. 59-60; Gospel and litanies, pp. 75-76. ↩

  5. CopticChurch.net, Feast of the Ascension, 25 May 2023, Liturgy, printed Psalm 24:9 and 24:10; Gospel Luke 24:36-53. The working Katameros API cycle, Holy Fifty Days, week 6, Thursday, “The Ascension Of Our Savior Jesus Christ,” instead lists Psalm 24:7-8. These are source-specific appointments, not identical excerpts. ↩

  6. CopticChurch.net, Thursday of the first week of Great Lent, 23 February 2023, Matins, printed “Psalm 23:1-2,” earth-and-fullness text; Gospel Luke 8:23-25. ↩

  7. CopticChurch.net, Friday of the fourth week of the Holy Fifty Days, 12 May 2023, Liturgy, printed Psalm 24:1 and 24:4. The excerpt ends at clean hands and a pure heart; Gospel John 10:34-38. ↩

  8. CopticChurch.net, Fifth Sunday of Babah, 9 November 2025, Matins, Psalm 24:3-4; Gospel John 3:17-21. ↩

  9. Consecration, Part 3, “Consecration of the Altar,” “First Offering of Incense,” pp. 133-135; “Psalm (23) 24,” pp. 134-135. The rubric places the bishop at the altar surrounded by the priests; the Second Offering of Incense begins after this Psalm. ↩

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