Everlasting Doors

[Skepti Que]

PS 24:7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who [is] this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift [them] up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he [is] the King of glory.

Where are these doors? Have they been there from the beginning of time or from creation? Will they be destroyed? How long is everlasting?
SQ

[Dr. John Nay]

This is translated in a few different ways, e.g.

?ancient ?, e.g. NIV, NLT, NASB, God?s Word, Living (paraphrase)

?everlasting?, KJV, NKJV, ASV, Darby, LitV, MKJV, WEB

?eternal?, Douay, My Spanish Translation

Note: The literal meaning of the Hebrew word here is ?everlasting? or ?eternal?

The doors referred to by the psalmist may refer to the doors (or gates) to the city of Jerusalem or the doors of the Temple.

Doors of Jerusalem:

If this psalm is a psalm of David, it may well be referring to his bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (2 Samuel, Chapter 6) and placing it in a new tent (2 Sam 6:17 cf. 1 Chro 15:1). If this is the case, my personal view is that this is a ?type? of the New Jerusalem described in Revelation, chapter 21. which is (to be?) eternal.

Doors of the Temple:

Some propose that the doors referred to are the doors of the Temple. If this is a psalm of David, perhaps a processional liturgy, it would most likely not be referring to the Temple for the following reasons:

1. David dies in approximately 970 BC(1 Kings 2:10)

1. The initial temple, Solomon?s Temple was completed in 959 BC and destroyed by the Babylonians in approximately 586 BC.

2. Zerubbabel?s Temple was completed in 516 BC, refurbished by Herod the Great (basically completely rebuilt) and destroyed by the Roman General Titus in AD 70.

3. The doors are referred to as being ?lifted up?. It appears that the doors of the temples did open as doors (hinging mechanism). There is good archaeological support (pun?) that the doors or gates to Jerusalem lifted up, as portcullis gates, i.e. gates similar to the castle gates in the feudal ages that were lifted up by weights and pullies. According to Barnes? Notes, Psalms, p. 218, ?In some of the old ruins of castles in Palestine there are still to be seen deep grooves in the posts of the gateway, showing that the door did not open and shut, but that it was drawn up or let down.?

Sooooooo, personally I believe this passage is referring initially to the doors (or gates) of Jerusalem and ultimately to the New Jerusalem.