Psalm 118 (19 of 31 notes)

19. Open to me the gates of righteousness. The grateful champion, having reached the entrance of the temple, asks for admission in set form, as if he felt that he could only approach the hallowed shrine by divine permission, and wished only to enter in the appointed manner. The temple of God was meant for the righteous to enter and offer the sacrifice of righteousness; hence the gates are called the gates of righteousness. Righteous deeds were done within its walls, and righteous teachings sounded forth from its courts. The phrase “the gate” is sometimes used to signify power or empire; the entrance to the temple was the gate of righteousness, the palace of the Great King, who is in all things just. I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord. Only let the gates be opened, and the willing worshiper will enter; and he will enter in the right spirit, for the best of purposes, that he may render homage unto the Most High. Alas, there are multitudes who do not care whether the gates of God’s house are opened or not; and although they know that they are opened wide they never care to enter, neither does the thought of praising God so much as cross their minds. The time will come for them when they will find the gates of heaven shut against them, for those gates are the gates of righteousness through which there will by no means enter anything that defiles. Our champion might have praised the Lord in secret, and doubtless he did so; but he was not content without going up to the assembly, there to register his thanksgivings. Those who neglect public worship generally neglect all worship; those who praise God within their own gates are among the readiest to praise him within his temple gates. Our hero had also in all probability been sore sick, and therefore like Hezekiah he says, “The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of my life in the house of the Lord.” Public praise for public mercies is every way most appropriate, most acceptable to God, and most profitable to others.