December 20: O Clavis David

O Key of David and scepter of the house of Israel, You open and no one can close, You close and no one can open: Come and rescue the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death!

You can hear Pr. Daenzer sing it here.

Revelation and Isaiah are dancing in the background of this name for our Lord. But the thought is clearly the opening of paradise, the door that was shut in the fall. Our Lord can set before us that open door and bid us come through, out of our death-bound prison into a life that never ends. For some reason I always think of the Last Battle, and the door to the stable. "In our world too a stable once had something inside that was bigger than our whole world," Lucy said. And that stable door which is opened for us at Bethlehem opens to a world where the "higher up and further in" never can be exhausted. This is the door that Christ opens for us. The door that He is. The door that He is the key to unlock. In HIM we find paradise restored and more. He lifts us higher than from where Adam fell. He invites us to step through the door with Him and become by grace what He is by nature: children of God.

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