The Gate, The Righteous, and The Salvation Text: Psalm 118:19-21
Introduction: The Triumphal Entry
We live in an age that wants a do-it-yourself spirituality. Men want to build their own Tower of Babel, their own stairway to Heaven, paved with their own good intentions and self-defined moralities. They want a god who is an indulgent grandfather, a salvation that is a group project, and a righteousness that they can cobble together from their better moments. But the Word of God is a wrecking ball to all such sentimental nonsense. There is one way to God, one gate to the City, one name by which men must be saved. And that way is not a system, not a religion, but a Person.
Psalm 118 is a psalm of high triumph, a Messianic song of victory. This is the psalm the crowds were quoting when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. This is the psalm that Jesus and His disciples almost certainly sang together after the Last Supper, just before He went out to the Mount of Olives to be betrayed. Think of that. With the cross looming, with the full weight of our sin about to descend upon Him, our Lord was singing this song of victory. This was not wishful thinking. It was a declaration of accomplished fact, sung in advance.
The portion before us today is the demand of the victorious king to enter the holy city, to come into the presence of God. But this is more than David returning from battle. This is the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ, demanding entry not just into the earthly Jerusalem, but into the heavenly courts, and He is not going alone. He is opening the way for His people to follow. These verses are a divine ultimatum to a world that thinks there are many ways to God. God says there is one gate. It is His gate. And only the righteous may enter. This presents us with a glorious invitation and a terrible problem. The invitation is to enter the presence of God. The problem is that none of us are righteous.
The Text
Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to Yah. This is the gate of Yahweh; The righteous will enter through it. I shall give thanks to You, for You have answered me, And You have become my salvation.
(Psalm 118:19-21 LSB)
The Demand for Entry (v. 19)
The psalm, spoken in the voice of the Messiah, begins with a royal demand.
"Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to Yah." (Psalm 118:19)
This is not a polite request. This is the summons of a conquering king demanding that the city gates be thrown open before Him. He is not asking for permission. He has won the right to enter. The battle is over, the victory is secured, and now He comes to the temple, the symbolic presence of God, to give thanks. The "gates of righteousness" are the gates of the temple precincts in Jerusalem, so-called because they are the entrance to the place where the righteous God dwells and where righteousness is required.
But the physical temple was always a shadow, a scale model of a greater reality. The ultimate "gate of righteousness" is access to the very presence of the Father. And who is it that has the right to demand this gate be opened? Only one who is Himself righteous. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. After His resurrection, having conquered sin, death, and Hell, He ascended to the Father. He did not sneak into Heaven. He demanded entry, and the everlasting doors lifted up their heads for the King of Glory to come in (Psalm 24:7). He is the vanguard, the firstfruits. He enters not for Himself alone, but as our representative.
And notice His purpose in entering: "I shall give thanks to Yah." True worship is the goal of our salvation. We are not saved from Hell simply to avoid punishment. We are saved for something, and that something is the worship of the triune God. Christ, as the perfect man, leads the chorus of praise. His entire life, death, and resurrection was an act of grateful obedience, and now He enters the heavenly sanctuary to present that perfect worship to the Father, and we, in Him, are invited to join that song.
The Divine Gate and Its Occupants (v. 20)
The response to the king's demand clarifies the nature of this gate and who is qualified to pass through it.
"This is the gate of Yahweh; The righteous will enter through it." (Psalm 118:20)
The gatekeeper, as it were, responds and affirms the king's claim. This is not just any gate; it is "the gate of Yahweh." It belongs to God. He sets the terms of entry. This immediately demolishes all man-made religions. We do not get to construct our own gates. We do not get to decide the criteria for admission. God owns the gate, and God makes the rules. The modern world hates this exclusivity, but it is the bedrock of the gospel. If there are many gates, then none of them are truly necessary, and the cross was a tragic waste.
And what is the entrance requirement? "The righteous will enter through it." Here is the heart of our predicament. God is perfectly holy, and His presence is a consuming fire. To enter, one must be righteous, perfectly and completely. Not relatively good, not trying hard, not better than the next guy. Righteous. This is the standard. And according to Scripture, "None is righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10). We are all disqualified. We are all on the wrong side of the gate with no hope of entry on our own merits.
So how can anyone enter? This is where the glory of the gospel shines. The only one who is truly righteous is the one demanding entry in the previous verse, Jesus Christ. And He does not enter as a private individual. He enters as the Head of His people. The gate is not a standard we must meet, but a person we must be in. Jesus Himself said, "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved" (John 10:9). He does not just open the gate; He IS the gate. To pass through the gate is to be united to Christ by faith.
The "righteous" who enter are not those who have achieved a state of personal perfection. They are sinners who have abandoned all trust in their own filthy rags and have been clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. This is the great exchange, the doctrine of imputation. Our sin was credited to His account on the cross, and His perfect righteousness is credited to ours the moment we believe. God looks at the believer and sees not our sin, but the perfect record of His Son. Therefore, we are declared righteous, and the gate swings open.
The Foundation of Thanksgiving (v. 21)
The final verse of our text gives the reason for the triumphant praise. It is a personal testimony from the Messiah that becomes the testimony of all His people.
"I shall give thanks to You, for You have answered me, And You have become my salvation." (Psalm 118:21)
The praise is grounded in a specific, historical act of God. "You have answered me." When did the Father answer the Son? He answered Him in the garden of Gethsemane, strengthening Him for the ordeal. He answered Him on the cross, not by removing the cup, but by accepting His sacrifice as sufficient. And supremely, He answered Him on the third day by raising Him from the dead. The resurrection was the Father's great "Amen!" to the Son's "It is finished!" It was the public vindication of His righteousness and the acceptance of His work.
And the result of this answered prayer is that God has "become my salvation." Notice the language. Salvation is not just a thing God gives; it is what He becomes for us. The Hebrew name for Jesus, Yeshua, means "Yahweh is salvation." This is the whole point. God did not send a plan, a philosophy, or a set of instructions. He sent a Person. He Himself entered our predicament. In Christ, God Himself became our salvation. He is not a distant benefactor; He is the rescue itself.
This is why our thanksgiving is not a vague sense of gratitude for "blessings." It is a specific, rugged, and intelligent praise directed to God for the objective work of Christ. We thank Him because He answered the Son, and in answering the Son, He answered for us all. We thank Him because He has not just provided salvation; He IS our salvation. He is the gate, He is the righteousness that allows us through the gate, and He is the salvation we find once we are inside.
Conclusion: Entering In
So, the demand echoes down through the centuries: "Open to me the gates of righteousness." This is the call of the gospel. Christ the King has already stormed the battlements of Hell and has taken the keys of death. He has ascended to the Father, and the gate is now open.
But it is not an automatic entry. The gate is Christ, and you must enter through Him. You must abandon your own attempts to build a separate entrance. You must confess that you are not righteous and cannot be, apart from Him. You must believe that He became your salvation, that His death was for you and His righteousness is for you.
To enter through this gate is to enter into a life of thanksgiving. The Christian life is one long "thank you" for a salvation we did not earn and a righteousness we could never achieve. It is to stand inside the city of God, looking back at the cross where our salvation was won, and forward to an eternity of praising the One who answered us, and became for us, everything.