O Come, Emmanuel 7: David’s Key

My seventh Christmastide reflection on that beautiful carol, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, focusses upon its fourth verse’s first couple of lines:

O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home.

The author implies the existence of a large door we are unable to open. Beyond lies paradise, Eden, the heavenly presence of Almighty God. Yet the way is barred: a colourful but thick veil blocks our way and a flaming, cherubic sword guards the approach. We have resorting to building Babel’s tower and have tried to thrust our way in, but we just bickered incomprehensibly, and dispersed. We invented religions which seemed right to us, but they only ended in death. We have sought favour by ritual and good deeds, but none were enough. Yet the heir of David came and unlocked the gate, removing the barrier, opening wide the door. None of us had the strength to push, nor the right to open, but He, the Key of Life, came and bade us enter. Isaiah the prophet writes:

And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. (22:22)

So, too, John in Revelation:

…These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth. (Revelation 3:7b)

And David's is not the only key upon His ring, for:

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1:18)

He has the keys of life and heaven, death and hades. He has authority over each and commands over all four. And those He invites to His heaven, shall enter; and those whom He judges to hell, shall go. The heir of David came that we might join His greater, Davidic kingdom, an earthly-heavenly realm of righteousness under the just and perfect rule of a Sovereign and holy King.

This is the real meaning of Christmas.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel;
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o'er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer,
Our Spirits by Thine Advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, thou Lord of Might
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law,
In cloud, and majesty, and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

From the text of the 1851 translation by John Mason Neale of from the twelfth-century hymn Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861)