Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Gates - Shenandoah Christian Music Camp
Description
"Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Gates" composed by Andreas Hammerschmidt. Sung at the 17th Annual Choral Festival 2024 of Shenandoah Christian Music Camp (VA). Conducted by Lloyd Kauffman.
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The Historic Faith · Hymn Companion
Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Gates
Words by Psalm 24:7-10; English text from the King James VersionMusic by Andreas Hammerschmidt
Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors;
and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;
and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory.
Story Behind the Song
This is Andreas Hammerschmidt's German Lutheran motet commonly known by its original title, "Machet die Tore weit," a setting of Psalm 24:7-10. The text is traditionally associated with Advent, calling for the gates to be opened for the coming King of Glory. Hammerschmidt was a major seventeenth-century Lutheran church composer and organist in Saxony, and this motet remains one of his frequently sung sacred choral works.