PSALM 118 [1]
Entering through the gates of righteousness
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Give thanks to Yahweh (vv.1-4) |
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1 Give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good; |
For His lovingkindness is everlasting. |
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2 Oh let Israel say, |
“His lovingkindness is everlasting.” |
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3 Oh let the house of Aaron say, |
“His lovingkindness is everlasting.” |
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4 Oh let those who fear
Yahweh say, |
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Personal testimony to YAH’s salvation: The nations
against the individual (vv.5-13) |
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5 From my distress I called upon
YAH; |
YAH answered me and set me in a
large place. |
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6 Yahweh is for me; I will not fear; |
What can man do to me? |
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7 Yahweh is for me among those
who help me; |
Therefore I will look with
satisfaction on those who hate me. |
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8 It is better to take refuge in Yahweh |
Than to trust in man. |
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9 It is better to take refuge in Yahweh |
Than to trust in princes. |
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10 All nations surrounded me; |
In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off.
[4] |
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11 They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me; |
In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off.
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12 They surrounded me like bees; [5] |
They were extinguished as a fire
of thorns; |
In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off.
[6] |
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13 You pushed me violently so
that I was falling, |
But Yahweh helped me. |
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Song of YAH’s salvation in the tents of the
righteous (vv.14-18; cf. Exodus 15:1-21) |
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14 YAH is my strength and song, |
And He has become my salvation. [7] |
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15 The sound of joyful shouting
and salvation is in
the tents of the righteous; |
The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly. |
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16 The right hand of Yahweh is exalted; |
The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly. |
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17 I will not die, but live, |
And tell of the works of YAH. [8] |
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18 YAH has disciplined me severely, |
But He has not given me over to death. |
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The “Center” of Psalm 118: Entrance into the gates
of righteousness (vv.19-21) |
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19 Open to me the gates
of righteousness; |
I shall enter through
them, |
I shall give thanks to YAH. |
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20 This is the gate of Yahweh; |
The righteous
will enter through it. [9] |
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21 I shall give thanks to You, |
for You have answered me, |
And You have become my salvation. |
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Temple building with the rejected stone (vv.22-25;
cf. Deut.31:24-32:47) |
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22 The stone which the builders
rejected |
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23 This is Yahweh’s doing; |
It is marvelous in our eyes. |
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24 This is the day [14]
which Yahweh has made; |
Let us rejoice and be glad in
it. |
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25 O Yahweh, hosanna [do save], we
beseech You; |
O Yahweh, we beseech You, do
send prosperity! |
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Give thanks to Yahweh (vv.26-29) |
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26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh; [15] |
We have blessed you from the
house of Yahweh. |
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27 Yahweh is God, and He has
given us light; |
Bind the festival sacrifice with
cords to the horns of the altar. |
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28 You are my God, and I give thanks [16]
to You; |
You are my God, I extol You. |
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29
Give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good; |
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[1] Martin Luther said of Psalm 118, “This is
my psalm, my chosen psalm. I love them
all; I love all Holy Scripture, which is my consolation and my life. But this psalm is nearest my heart, and I
have a familiar right to call it mine.
It has saved me from many a pressing danger, from which no emperor,
nor kinds, nor sages, nor saints could have saved me. It is my friend; dearer to me than all the
honours and power of the earth” (Rowland Prothero, The Psalms in Human
Life, 123). This was also the favorite Psalm of Donald Cargill and sung by him on
the scaffold on July 27, 1681 (ibid, 269). Quotations or allusions to
Psalm 118 are found in Matt.21:9,15,42-45; 23:39; Mark 11:9-10; 12:10-11;
Luke 13:35; 19:38; 20:17; John 10:9//118:20; 12:13; Acts 4:11; Romans
8:31//118:6; 9:33; 1 Corinthians 3:11; 2 Cor.6:9//118:18; Ephesians 2:20;
Hebrews 13:6 LXX//118:6; 13:6; 1 Peter 2:7,7//118:22 |
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[2]
The threefold division into Israel, the house of Aaron, and those who fear
Yahweh is also found in 115:9-11, O Israel, trust in Yahweh; He is their help and their shield. A fourfold division is found in Psalm 135:19-20, O house of Israel, bless Yahweh; O house of Aaron, bless Yahweh; You who fear Yahweh, bless Yahweh. |
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[3] “Now when the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of Yahweh, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise Yahweh according to the directions of King David of Israel. They sang, praising and giving thanks to Yahweh, saying, “For He is good, for His lovingkindness is upon Israel forever.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised Yahweh because the foundation of the house of Yahweh was laid” (Ezra 3:10-11) |
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[4] The refrain “I will surely cut them off”
can also be translated “I will surely circumcise them” which echoes David’s
circumcision of two hundred Philistines (1 Samuel 18:25-27). |
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[5] “The psalms present a virtual taxonomy of
dangerous animals to underscore the various threats encountered from within
the human community: encircling bulls (22:12), scavenging dogs (22:16a;
59:6,14), sharp-horned wild oxen (22:21b), venomous serpents (58:4-5), a
swarm of bees (118:12), a ravaging boar (80:13), and devouring lions (7:2;
10:9; 17:12; 22:13,21a; 35:17; 57:4; 58:6)” (William Brown, Seeing the
Psalms, 136). |
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[6] “In
verses 10-12, the four-times repeated verb “to surround” and the
thrice-repeated verb “I cut them off” effectively convey the back-and-forth
motion of battle” (Clifford, 206). |
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[7] Verse 14 is an exact quotation of Israel’s
first song in Exodus 15:2a. Isaiah
12:2b is also an exact quotation of Ex.15:2a except Exodus 15:2a has “Yah”
and Isaiah 12:2b has “Yah Yahweh.” The “right hand of Yahweh” is mentioned three times in Psalm 118 as
it is also mentioned three times in the Song of Moses (Exodus 15:6 [2x],12). “In our Lord’s passion, this
psalm would have been particularly meaningful. His singing of this poem was a
part of his divine preparation for the cruel and hateful events he would
face, following his observance of the Seder and his transforming institution
of the Lord’s Table. In the context of this grand psalm, on the eve of the
atonement, Jesus was given the words of faith and confidence in the Father
that mirrored the words of Israel fifteen hundred years earlier: “The LORD is
my strength and song, / And He has become my salvation” (Psalm 118:14). These
were the words that God would use in the hours that lay before him. As God
had delivered his people in the past, so now he would deliver his Son. They
had passed “through the water” to the other side. He would pass through death
itself to the other side” (Ronald Allen, “Worship in the Psalms: Exodus 15
and the Praise of God” [Part Two]; Reformation and Revival; Volume 9:3,
p.110). |
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[8] These words were appropriated by John
Wyclif on his death bed and also inscribed on the walls of Luther’s study
(Rowland Prothero, The Psalms in Human Life, 123). |
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[9]
“Psalm 118 has an additional, and probably unique, element to support
its messianic character. The
processional event, described in the psalm, was typical of the Messiah’s
“royal entry into Jerusalem” when parts of this psalm were sung as people
accompanied Jesus into Jerusalem (e.g. Matt.21:9b). The processional is also prophetically
typical of the Messiah’s ascension (Gen.28:17, “gate of heaven”) – when he
returned triumphantly to the Father’s house of righteousness, the heavenly
Zion (cf. Gen.28:17) to occupy the throne from which he would reign
righteously” (Van Groningen, Messianic Revelation in the Old Testament, 403). |
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[10] cf. Isa.8:14-16; 28:14-16. “A cornerstone may mean a capstone, a keystone, or a copestone, which
exactly completes the arch of a large bay in its center to insure its
solidity. In general, the term designates
the fundamental stone. This is the way
the LXX understood the Hebrew words (cf. Matt 21:41; Acts 4:11; but cf. Isa
28:16; 1 Pet 2:6-7; cf. also Eph 2:20)” (Terrien, The Psalms, 785). |
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[11] Like the stone of Psalm 118, both Moses
and David were chosen by Yahweh, builders of Yahweh’s house (cf. Hebrews
3:1-6), opposed by the nations and rejected by their own people (Exodus
17:2-4; Numbers 12:1-3; 14:1-4,10; 1 Samuel 16:11; 17:28-29; 30:6; 2 Sam.1-3;
6:20-23; Psalm 69; see Isaiah 53; Acts 7:23-53; Hebrews 11:24-26). Moses also spoke a prophetic song about
Israel’s rejection of the Rock,
Jesus Christ, “For I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the
way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days,
for you will do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh, provoking Him to
anger with the work of your hands.” (Deuteronomy 31:29) “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— You are grown
fat, thick, and sleek— Then he forsook God who made him, And scorned the Rock
of his salvation. Thousands of years ago, ethnic
Israel would sing about the day when Gentiles would believe in the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (see Psalm 65-67; 72; 87). Now in the mystery of God’s election,
Gentiles have been engrafted into the rich olive tree of the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. In the mystery of
God’s unsearchable judgments Gentiles now sing about the day when ethnic Israel
will embrace the Messiah of Holy Scripture and sing with us, “Blessed is He
Who comes in the Name of the LORD, hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 23:39;
cf. Romans 9-11). |
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[12]
Victorious kingship in Scripture is followed by house building (Exodus 15:7-10,13,17;
2 Samuel 7:1-2,12-13; Psalm 98; 118; Ezekiel 36-48; Matthew 16:13-28;
Ephesians 2; Hebrews 3:2-6; Revelation 12; 20:7-22:5). “[T]he literary unity of the Book of Exodus
is evidenced by the identification of its comprehensive thematic structure
with the pattern of divine triumph and house-building…Channeled through the
Davidic covenant, the history of Yahweh’s triumphantly royal house-building
reached forward to the age of the new covenant…Having vanquished the Satanic
dragon (cf. Rev.12:1ff.), Christ was invested with cosmic authority and
proceeded according to the Old Testament paradigm to build his royal
residence. In this Messianic son of
David the dynastic house firmly established by God’s covenant with David
culminated; he is the son of David who builds the true and eternal house of
God. Surpassing the intimations of the
ancient oracle, he not only builds but himself is the true temple of God” (M.
G. Kline, The Structure of Biblical Authority [Eugene Oregon: Wipf and
Stock, 1997] 80-86). |
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[13] Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754) preached a famous sermon on this text at the opening of the Synod of Perth and Stirling on October 10, 1732. |
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[14] Day highlights Messianic hope
(Psalm 2:7; 72:7; 110:3,5; Acts 13:33; 2 Corinthians 6:1-2; Hebrews 1:5; 3-4;
5:5; cf. 1 Samuel 17:46). |
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[15]
Coming “in the name of Yahweh” has Messianic and Kingly undertones, “Then David said to the Philistine
[Goliath], “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come
to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel…” (1
Samuel 17:45). |
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[16]
Giving thanks is also prominent in Psalms 18, 21, 20, 33, 34, 40, 65–68, 92, 116, 118, 124, 138 and 144. |
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[17] This is the most oft repeated thanksgiving
in the Psalms (106:1; 107:1; 118:1,29; 136:1-26; cf. 1 Chron.16:34; 2
Chron.20:21). Psalm 118 is an inclusio (sometimes called a circular structure; bookends) meaning that it begins and ends with a similar refrain. Inclusio reminds us that parallelism is not only from side to side (horizontal) but also from top to bottom (vertical). Other inclusions in the Psalter: 1:1 and 2:12 with Psalm 40:1 and 41:1,13; 8; 21; 26:1,11; 58; 73; 103; 104; 106; 113; 117; 135; 145-150; see also Exodus 15:1,21 [Israel’s “first Psalm”]; 1 Chron.16:8,34). |