Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Is God merciful?Dozens of texts describe YHWH as merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loyalty — Exodus 34:6, Deut 4:31, the Psalms, the prophets, the New Testament l…
1 Chronicles 16:34(v1)Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.
Psalms 107:1(v1)Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.
Psalms 106:1(v1)Praise Yahweh! Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.
Jeremiah 33:11(v1)the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, ‘Give…
Psalms 118:29(v1)Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.
Show all 21 cross-references
1 Chronicles 16:8(v1)Oh give thanks to Yahweh. Call on his name. Make what he has done known among the peoples.
Psalms 103:17(v1)But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children,
Psalms 136:1(v1)Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good; for his loving kindness endures forever.
Psalms 100:5(v1)For Yahweh is good. His loving kindness endures forever, his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalms 22:23(v4)You who fear Yahweh, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him! Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel!
Psalms 115:9-11(v2)Israel, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield. House of Aaron, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield. You who…
Revelation 19:5(v4)A voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!”
Psalms 134:1-3(v3)Look! Praise Yahweh, all you servants of Yahweh, who stand by night in Yahweh’s house! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Praise Yahweh!…
Psalms 145:10(v2)All your works will give thanks to you, Yahweh. Your saints will extol you.
Psalms 135:19-20(v2)House of Israel, praise Yahweh! House of Aaron, praise Yahweh! House of Levi, praise Yahweh! You who fear Yahweh, praise Yahweh!
Psalms 147:19-20(v2)He shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done this for just any nation. They don’t know his…
1 Peter 2:5(v3)You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God…
Revelation 1:6(v3)and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 4:7-11(v3)The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like a man, and the fourth was…
Revelation 5:8-10(v3)Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and…
1 Peter 2:9-10(v2)But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (27 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn v11 Praise ye Jehovah In this passage we see…
1 Praise ye Jehovah In this passage we see that David does not merely in a private capacity render thanks to God, but that he loudly summons the people to engage in the common exercises of piety. This he does, not simply from his having been divinely appointed to be the captain and teacher of others; but, God having invested him with royal power, had manifested his sympathy with his distressed Church. Hence he exhorts the Israelites to magnify the grace of God, under whose kind protection he appears to re-establish them in safety. In the beginning of the psalm he alludes generally to the goodness and mercy of God, but he shortly instances himself as an evidence of his goodness, as will be seen in its proper place. It becomes us at present to recall to mind what I mentioned in the preceding psalm, that a reason for praising God is given to us on account of his mercy, in preference to his power or justice; because, though his glory shine forth in them also, yet will we never promptly and heartily sound forth his praises, until he win us by the sweetness of his goodness. Accordingly, in Psalm 51:17, we found that the lips of the faithful were opened to praise God, when they perceived that he was truly their deliverer. In restricting his address to Israel, and to the children of Aaron, he is guided by a regard to his own times, because, up to that period, the adoption did not extend beyond that one nation. He again resumes the order which he observed in Psalm 116:1; for, after exhorting the children of Abraham, who had been separated from the Gentiles by the election of God, and also the sons of Aaron, who, by virtue of the priesthood, ought to take the precedence in conducting the psalmody, he directs his discourse to the other worshippers of God; because there were many hypocrites among the Israelites, who, occupying a place in the Church, were yet strangers to it. This is not inconsistent with David’s here speaking by the spirit of prophecy, respecting the future kingdom of Christ. That kingdom, no doubt, extended to the Gentiles, but its commencement and first-fruits were among God’s chosen people.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v1Because God by creating David King, showed his mercy…
Because God by creating David King, showed his mercy toward his afflicted Church, the Prophet doth not only himself thank God, but exhorteth all the people to do the same.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Psa 118:1 O give thanks unto the LORD; for…
Psa 118:1 O give thanks unto the LORD; for [he is] good: because his mercy [endureth] for ever.
Ver. 1. O give thanks, &c.] See Psa 106:1.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1–4O give thanks; all sorts of persons, which are…
O give thanks; all sorts of persons, which are particularly expressed in the three next verses, as they are mentioned in like manner and order Psa 115:9-11, See Poole "Psa 115:9", See Poole "Psa 115:10", See Poole "Psa 115:11"
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1It appears here, as often as elsewhere, that David…
It appears here, as often as elsewhere, that David had his heart full of the goodness of God. He loved to think of it, loved to speak of it, and was very solicitous that God might have the praise of it and others the comfort of it. The more our hearts are impressed with a sense of God's goodness the more they will be enlarged in all manner of obedience. In these verses,
I. He celebrates God's mercy in general, and calls upon others to acknowledge it, from their own experience of it (Psa 118:1): O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is not only good in himself, but good to you, and his mercy endures for ever, not only in the everlasting fountain, God himself, but in the never-failing streams of that mercy, which shall run parallel with the longest line of eternity, and in the chosen vessels of mercy, who will be everlasting monuments of it. Israel, and the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, were called upon to trust in God (Psa 115:9-11); here they are called upon to confess that his mercy endures for ever, and so to encourage themselves to trust in him, Psa 118:2-4. Priests and people, Jews and proselytes, must all own God's goodness, and all join in the same thankful song; if they can say no more, let them say this for him, that his mercy endures for ever, that they have had experience of it all their days, and confide in it for good things that shall last for ever. The praises and thanksgivings of all that truly fear the Lord shall be as pleasing to him as those of the house of Israel or the house of Aaron.
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II. He preserves an account of God's gracious dealings with him in particular, which he communicates to others, that they might thence fetch both songs of praise and supports of faith, and both ways God would have the glory. David had, in his time, waded through a great deal of difficulty, which gave him great experience of God's goodness. Let us therefore observe here,
1. The great distress and danger that he had been in, which he reflects upon for the magnifying of God's goodness to him in his present advancement. There are many who, when they are lifted up, care not for hearing or speaking of their former depressions; but David takes all occasions to remember his own low estate. He was in distress (Psa 118:5), greatly straitened and at a loss; there were many that hated him (Psa 118:7), and this could not but be a great grief to one of an ingenuous spirit, that strove to gain the good affections of all. All nations compassed me about, Psa 118:10. All the nations adjacent to Israel set themselves to give disturbance to David, when he had newly come to the throne, Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Ammonites, etc. We read of his enemies round about; they were confederate against him, and thought to cut off all succours from him. This endeavour of his enemies to surround him is repeated (Psa 118:11): They compassed me about, yea, they compassed me about, which intimates that they were virulent and violent, and, for a time, prevalent, in their attempts against him, and when put into disorder they rallied again and pushed on their design. They compassed me about like bees, so numerous were they, so noisy, so vexatious; they came flying upon him, came upon him in swarms, set upon him with their malignant stings; but it was to their own destruction, as the bee, they say, loses her life with her sting, Animamque in vulnere ponit - She lays down her life in the wound. Lord, how are those increased that trouble me! Two ways David was brought into trouble: - (1.) By the injuries that men did him (Psa 118:13): Thou (O enemy!) hast thrust sore at me, with many a desperate push, that I might fall into sin and into ruin. Thrusting thou hast thrust at me (so the word is), so that I was ready to fall. Satan is the great enemy that thrusts sorely at us by his temptations, to cast us down from our excellency, that we may fall from our God and from our comfort in him; and, if Go had not upheld us by his grace, his thrusts would have been fatal to us. (2.) By the afflictions which God laid upon him (Psa 118:18): The Lord has chastened me sore. Men thrust at him for his destruction; God chastened him for his instruction. They thrust at him with the malice of enemies; God chastened him with the love and tenderness of a Father. Perhaps he refers to the same trouble which God, the author of it, designed for his profit, that by it he might partake of his holiness (Heb 12:10, Heb 12:11); howbeit, men, who were the instruments of it, meant not so, neither did their heart think so, but it was in their heart to cut off and destroy, Isa 10:7. What men intend for the greatest mischief God intends for the greatest good, and it is easy to say whose counsel shall stand. God will sanctify the trouble to his people, as it is his chastening, and secure the good he designs; and he will guard them against the trouble, as it is the enemies' thrusting, and secure them from the evil they design, and then we need not fear.
This account which David gives of his troubles is very applicable to our Lord Jesus. Many there were that hated him, hated him without a cause. They compassed him about; Jews and Romans surrounded him. They thrust sorely at him; the devil did so when he tempted him; his persecutors did so when they reviled him; nay, the Lord himself chastened him sorely, bruised him, and put him to grief, that by his stripes we might be healed.
2. The favour God vouchsafed to him in his distress. (1.) God heart his prayer (Psa 118:5): "He answered me with enlargements; he did more for me than I was able to ask; he enlarged my heart in prayer and yet gave more largely than I desired." He answered me, and set me in a large place (so we read it), where I had room to bestir myself, room to enjoy myself, and room to thrive; and the large place was the more comfortable because he was brought to it out of distress, Psa 4:1. (2.) God baffled the designs of his enemies against him: They are quenched as the fire of thorns (Psa 118:12), which burns furiously for a while, makes a great noise and a great blaze, but is presently out, and cannot do the mischief that it threatened. Such was the fury of David's enemies; such is the laughter of the fool, like the crackling of thorns under a pot (Ecc 7:6), and such is the anger of the fool, which therefore is not to be feared, any more than his laughter is to be envied, but both to be pitied. They thrust sorely at him, but the Lord helped him (Psa 118:13), helped him to keep his feet and maintain his ground. Our spiritual enemies would, long before this, have been our ruin if God had not been our helper. (3.) God preserved his life when there was but a step between him and death (Psa 118:18): "He has chastened me, but he has not given me over unto death, for he has not given me over to the will of my enemies." To this St. Paul seems to refer in Co2 6:9. As dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed. We ought not therefore, when we are chastened sorely, immediately to despair of life, for God sometimes, in appearance, turns men to destruction, and yet says, Return; says unto them, Live.
This also is applicable to Jesus Christ. God answered him, and set him in a large place. He quenched the fire of his enemies; rage, which did but consume themselves; for through death he destroyed him that had the power of death. He helped him through his undertaking; and thus far he did not give him over unto death that he did not leave him in the grave, nor suffer him to see corruption. Death had no dominion over him.
3. The improvement he made of this favour. (1.) It encouraged him to trust in God; from his own experience he can say, It is better, more wise, more comfortable, and more safe, there is more reason for it, and it will speed better, to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man, yea, though it be in princes, Psa 118:8, Psa 118:9. He that devotes himself to God's guidance and government, with an entire dependence upon God's wisdom, power, and goodness, has a better security to make him easy than if all the kings and potentates of the earth should undertake to protect him. (2.) It enabled him to triumph in that trust. [1.] He triumphs in God, and in his relation to him and interest in him (Psa 118:6): "The Lord is on my side. He is a righteous God, and therefore espouses my righteous cause and will plead it." If we are on God's side, he is on ours; if we be for him and with him, he will be for us and with us (Psa 118:7): "The Lord takes my part, and stands up for me, with those that help me. He is to me among my helpers, and so one of them that he is all in all both to them and me, and without him I could not help myself nor could any friend I have in the world help me." Thus (Psa 118:14), "The Lord is my strength and my song; that is, I make him so (without him I am weak and sad, but on him I stay myself as my strength, both for doing and suffering, and in him I solace myself as my song, by which I both express my joy and ease my grief), and, making him so, I find him so: he strengthens my heart with his graces and gladdens my heart with his comforts." If God be our strength, he must be our song; if he work all our works in us, he must have all praise and glory from us. God is sometimes the strength of his people when he is not their song; they have spiritual supports when they want spiritual delights. But, if he be both to us, we have abundant reason to triumph in him; for, he be our strength and our song, he has become not only our Saviour, but our salvation; for his being our strength is our protection to the salvation, and his being our song is an earnest and foretaste of the salvation. [2.] He triumphs over his enemies. Now shall his head be lifted up above them; for, First, He is sure they cannot hurt him: "God is for me, and then I will not fear what man can do against me," Psa 118:6. He can set them all at defiance, and is not disturbed at any of their attempts. "They can do nothing to me but what God permits them to do; they can do no real damage, for they cannot separate between me and God; they cannot do any thing but what God can make to work for my good. The enemy is a man, a depending creature, whose power is limited, and subordinate to a higher power, and therefore I will not fear him." Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die? Isa 51:12. The apostle quotes this, with application to all Christians, Heb 13:6. They may boldly say, as boldly as David himself, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me; let him do his worst. Secondly, He is sure that he shall be too hard for them at last: "I shall see my desire upon those that hate me (Psa 118:7); I shall see them defeated in their designs against me; nay, In the name of the Lord I will destroy them (Psa 118:10-12); I trust in the name of the Lord that I shall destroy them, and in his name I will go forth against them, depending on his strength, by warrant from him, and with an eye to his glory, not confiding in myself nor taking vengeance for myself." Thus he went forth against Goliath, in the name of the God of Israel, Sa1 17:45. David says this as a type of Christ, who triumphed over the powers of darkness, destroyed them, and made a show of them openly. [3.] He triumphs in an assurance of the continuance of his comfort, his victory, and his life. First, Of his comfort (Psa 118:15): The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous, and in mine particularly, in my family. The dwellings of the righteous in this world are but tabernacles, mean and movable; here we have no city, no continuing city. But these tabernacles are more comfortable to them than the palaces of the wicked are to them; for in the house where religion rules, 1. There is salvation; safety from evil, earnests of eternal salvation, which has come to this house, Luk 19:9. 2. Where there is salvation there is cause for rejoicing, for continual joy in God. Holy joy is called the joy of salvation, for in that there is abundant matter for joy. 3. Where there is rejoicing there ought to be the voice of rejoicing, that is, praise and thanksgiving. Let God be served with joyfulness and gladness of heart, and let the voice of that rejoicing be heard daily in our families, to the glory of God and encouragement of others. Secondly, Of his victory: The right hand of the Lord does valiantly (Psa 118:15) and is exalted; for (as some read it) it has exalted me. The right hand of God's power is engaged for his people, and it acts vigorously for them and therefore victoriously. For what difficulty can stand before the divine valour? We are weak, and act but cowardly for ourselves; but God is mighty, and acts valiantly for us, with jealousy and resolution, Isa 63:5, Isa 63:6. There is spirit, as well as strength, in all God's operations for his people. And, when God's right hand does valiantly for our salvation, it ought to be exalted in our praises. Thirdly, Of his life (Psa 118:17): "I shall not die by the hands of my enemies that seek my life, but live and declare the works of the Lord; I shall live a monument of God's mercy and power; his works shall be declared in me, and I will make it the business of my life to praise and magnify God, looking upon that as the end of my preservation." Note, It is not worth while to live for any other purpose than to declare the works of God, for his honour and the encouragement of others to serve him and trust in him. Such as these were the triumphs of the Son of David in the assurance he had of the success of his undertaking and that the good pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–4O give thanks unto the Lord,.... For all his…
O give thanks unto the Lord,.... For all his mercies, temporal and spiritual; as all should, who are partakers of them: this should be done always, and for all things, in the name of Christ; it is but reasonable service;
for he is good; in himself, and to others: is essentially and diffusively good; the fountain of all goodness, and the author of all good things;
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because his mercy endureth for ever; in his own heart, and in his covenant; his grace and lovingkindness displayed in Christ; the blessings and promises of it, which are the sure mercies of David: these always remain, notwithstanding the unworthiness of his people; and though he hides his face sometimes from them, and chastises them; see Psa 106:1; the goodness and mercy of God were seen in setting David on the throne; and abundantly more in giving Christ to be the Saviour of his people; for both which thanks should be given, and the kindness acknowledged, by the persons mentioned in the following verses.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn v1The form of this psalm seems to be dramatical,…
The form of this psalm seems to be dramatical, and several parts of it are spoken in the name of several persons; as it is in the book of the Song of Solomon, and in one part of Ecclesiastes. David speaks in his own name from the beginning to ver. 22, from thence to ver. 25, in the name of the people; and thence to ver. 28, in the name of the priests; and then concludes in his own name. He calls upon all about him to praise God, ver. 1-4. Encourages himself and others to trust in God, from the experience he had had of his power and mercy, ver. 5-18. He gives thanks for his advancement to the throne, as it was a figure of the exaltation of Christ, ver. 19-23. The people, the priests, and the psalmist himself triumph in the prospect of the Redeemer's kingdom, ver. 24-29.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–4A general exhortation to praise God for his mercy,…
PSALM CXVIII
A general exhortation to praise God for his mercy, 1-4.
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The psalmist, by his own experience, encourages the people to
trust in God, and shows them the advantage of it, 5-9;
then describes his enemies, and shows how God enabled him to
destroy them, 10-13.
The people rejoice on the account, 15, 16.
He speaks again of the help he received from the Lord; and
desires admission into the temple, that he may enter and
praise the Lord, 17-19.
The gate is opened, 20.
He offers praise, 21.
The priests, c., acknowledge the hand of the Lord in the
deliverance wrought, 22-24.
The psalmist prays for prosperity, 25.
The priest performs his office, blesses the people, and all
join in praise, 26, 27.
The psalmist expresses his confidence, 28.
The general doxology, or chorus, 29.
NOTES ON PSALM CXVIII
Most probably David was the author of this Psalm, though many think it was written after the captivity. It partakes of David's spirit, and every where shows the hand of a master. The style is grand and noble the subject, majestic.
Dr. Kennicott, who joins this and the hundred and seventeenth Psalm together, considers the whole as a dialogue, and divides it accordingly. The whole of the hundred and seventeenth he gives to the psalmist as part the first, with the first four verses of the hundred and eighteenth. The second part, which is from the fifth verse to the twenty-first inclusive, he gives to the Messiah. The third part, from the twenty-second verse to the twenty-seventh, he gives to the chorus. And the fourth part, the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth verses, he gives to the psalmist. Of the whole he has given an improved version.
Bishop Horsley is still different. He considers the hundred and seventeenth Psalm as only the exordium of this. The whole poem, he states, is a triumphant processional song. The scene passes at the front gate of the temple. A conqueror with his train appears before it; he demands admittance to return thanks for his deliverance and final success, in an expedition of great difficulty and danger. The conqueror and his train sing the hundred and seventeenth Psalm, and the first four verses of the hundred and eighteenth, as they advance to the gate of the temple, in this manner. - The hundred and seventeenth Psalm, Chorus of the whole procession. The first verse of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm, A single voice. The second, Another single voice. The third, A third single voice. The fourth, Chorus of the whole procession. Arrived at the temple gate, the conqueror alone sings the fifth, sixth, and seventh verses. The eighth and ninth are sung by his train in chorus. The conqueror, again alone, sings the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth verses. His train, in chorus, sing the fifteenth and sixteenth. The conqueror alone sings the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth verses. The twentieth is sung by the priests and Levites within, in chorus. The twenty-fifth by the conqueror alone within the gates. The twenty-sixth, by the priests and Levites in chorus. The twenty-seventh, by the conqueror's train in chorus. The twenty-eighth, by the conqueror alone. The twenty-ninth, by the united chorus of priests and Levites, and the conqueror's train, all within the gates. "Now," the learned bishop adds, "the Jewish temple was a type of heaven; the priests within represent the angelic host attending round the throne of God in heaven; the Conqueror is Messiah; and his train, the redeemed." On this distribution the bishop has given a new version. The simple distribution into parts, which I have given in the contents, is, in my opinion, the best. Ingenious as Dr. Kennicott and Bishop Horsley are, they seem to me too mechanical. This is the last of those Psalms which form the great hallel, which the Jews sung at the end of the passover.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v1Psa 118:1-4. O give thanks unto the Lord —…
Psa 118:1-4. O give thanks unto the Lord — All sorts of persons, which are expressed particularly in the next three verses, as they are mentioned in like manner and order Psa 115:9-11, where see the notes. Let Israel — After the flesh, all the tribes and people of Israel, except the Levites. Let the house of Aaron — The priests and Levites, who were greatly discouraged and oppressed in Saul’s time, but received great benefits under David’s government. Let them that fear the Lord — The Gentile proselytes, of whom there were greater numbers in David’s time than formerly had been, and were likely to be still more. Say, that his mercy endureth for ever — Not only in the everlasting fountain thereof, God himself, but in its never failing streams, which shall run parallel with the longest lines of eternity; and in the vessels of mercy, who will be for ever monuments of it. Israel, and the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, were called upon, Psalms 115., to trust in him. Here they are called upon to acknowledge his goodness, and join in the same thankful song, thus encouraging themselves to trust in him. Priests and people, Jews and proselytes, must all confess that his mercy endureth for ever; that they have had experience of it all their days, and that they confide in it for good things that shall last to all eternity.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–4O give thanks unto the Lord ... - Let…
O give thanks unto the Lord ... - Let others unite with me in giving thanks to the Lord; let them see, from what has occurred in my case, what occasion there is for praise. Every instance of a particular favor shown to anyone is to others an occasion for praise, inasmuch as it is an illustration of the general character of God. On this verse compare the notes at Psa 106:1. The language is nearly the same.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 118
Psalms 118
1 O give thanks unto the Lord;
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For he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever
2 Let Israel now say,
That His mercy endureth for ever.
3 Let the house of Aaron now say,
That his mercy endureth for ever.
4 Let them now that fear the Lord say,
That his mercy endureth for ever.
5 I called upon the Lord in distress:
The Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.
6 The Lord is on my side;
I will not fear: what can man do unto me?
7 The Lord taketh my part with them that help me:
Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.
8 It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in man.
9 It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in princes.
10 All nations compassed me about:
But in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.
11 They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about:
But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
12 They compassed me about like bees;
They are quenched as the fire of thorns:
For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
13 Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall:
But the Lord helped me.
14 The Lord is my strength and song,
And is become my salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous:
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted:
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
17 I shall not die, but live,
And declare the works of the Lord.
18 The Lord hath chastened me sore:
But he hath not given me over unto death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness:
I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:
20 This gate of the Lord,
Into which the righteous shall enter.
21 I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me,
And art become my salvation.
22 The stone which the builders refused
Is become the head stone of the corner.
23 This is the Lord’s doing;
It is marvellous in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the Lord hath made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord:
O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity,
26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord:
We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.
27 God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light:
Bind the sacrifice with cords,
Even unto the horns of the altar.
28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee;
Thou art my God, I will exalt, thee.
29 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good:
For his mercy endureth for ever.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—The Psalm begins with an exhortation, of an altogether liturgical character, to offer thanksgiving to Jehovah in acknowledgement of His mercy (Psa_118:1-4). It is addressed to the whole Church, its priests, and its members. In the next strophe the Psalmist, because he had himself experienced the help of the Hearer of prayer, praises joyfully the security of those who do not seek refuge in men, even in princes, but confidently seek it in God. This passage is interspersed with sentences repeated like a refrain (Psa_118:5-9). Confidence of victory in the name of Jehovah over enemies that have risen up all around him is then boldly expressed (Psa_118:10-12). And lastly he celebrates the power of Jehovah, who has helped and will help, and vows that he will proclaim His doings, because he has been delivered by Him (Psa_118:13-18). Then follows a command to open the temple-gates that the just may enter to praise Jehovah; for He had actually heard and answered prayer, and made the stone, rejected as useless by the builders, the corner stone, and that in a wonderful manner (Psa_118:19-23). This is succeeded by a demand for solemn rejoicing on the feast-day, with the usual prayers and blessings, and for the offering of the sacrifice (Psa_118:24-26). The Psalm then closes with a profession of faith made to God, and a vow of thanksgiving, returning to the mode of expression employed in the opening sentence (Psa_118:27-28.)
This is unmistakably a Temple-Song. Several expressions seem to allude to a particular feast, with its peculiar prayers and sacrifices.—One feels tempted to assign the several strophes to the several divisions of the congregation, priests or people, who were marching up to the temple, or welcoming the festal train, or preparing the sacrifice, or praising God. But there are no convincing grounds to enable us to pronounce decisively upon the special event, even if there is no reason to deny a definite historical situation and occasion for the composition (Hupfeld). There is no need of going down to the Maccabæan period in order to establish a connection with the inauguration of Simon (Venema, De Wette, Rosenmüller), or with Judas Maccabæus after the victory over Nicanor (Hesse), or with the rescue of King Demetrius II., by the help of the despised Jews, from the uprising in Antioch, 1Ma_11:44 ff (Olshausen), or with the return of Jonathan from his victorious campaign, 1Ma_11:74 (Hitzig). The period succeeding the return from Exile affords a more suitable occasion, and, since Psa_118:19-20 presuppose the completion of the Temple, this occasion could not have been the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month of the first year after the return, Ezr_3:1-4 (Ewald), or the laying of the foundation-stone of the Temple in the second month of the second year, Ezr_3:8 f. (Hengst.), but either the dedication of the completed Temple in the twelfth month of the sixth year of Darius, Ezr_8:15 ff. (Del.), or the first complete celebration, according to the legal ceremonies of the Feast of Tabernacles, Neh_8:14 ff. (Stier).
[Perowne adopts this last view. He thus sums up the arguments in its favor, mainly following the discussion by Delitzsch, from whom most of the remarks given above are also taken: ‘1. The use of the Psalm in the ritual of the Second Temple leads to the conclusion that it was originally composed for the Feast of Tabernacles. For the words of the 25th verse were sung during the feast, when the altar of burnt-offering was solemnly compassed, that is, once on each of the first six days of the feast, and seven times on the seventh day. This day was called ‘the great Hosanna’ (save now, Psa_118:25), and not only the prayers for the feast, but even the branches of trees, including the myrtles which were attached to the palm-branches, were called ‘Hosannas.’ Further, although the Psalm itself contains no allusion to any of the national feasts, the word ‘tents,’ in Psa_118:15, at least accords very well with the Feast of Tabernacles. 2. In the second place, it seems equally clear that the Psalm supposes the completion of the Temple. The language of Psa_118:19-20. … and the figure employed in Psa_118:22. … cannot be easily explained on any other supposition. The allusions in Psa_118:8-12 to the deceitfulness of human help and the favor of princes, as well as to the active interference of troublesome enemies, are exactly in accordance with all that we read of the circumstances connected with the rebuilding of the Temple. The most probable conclusion, therefore, is, that the Psalm was composed for the first celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, after the completion of the Second Temple.”—J. F. M.]
The Messianic interpretation (the Rabbins and most of the ancients) is based especially upon Psa_118:22; Psa_118:25-26, and confounds the application of the Psalm with the original sense. To seek, in addition, a three–fold prophetic sense (Stier), is at variance with the principles of a sound interpretation. Luther: “This is my Psalm, which I love. Although the whole of the Psalter, and of Holy Scripture itself, which is my only consolation in life, are also dear to me, yet I have chosen this Psalm particularly to be called and to be mine; for it has often deserved my love, and helped me out of many deep distresses, when neither emperor, nor kings, nor the wise and prudent, nor saints, could have helped me.”
[In the second member of each of the Psa_118:2-4, the translation, “for His mercy, etc.,” is most favored.—J. F. M.]
Psa_118:5. Through the wide expanse [E. V., and set me in a large place], that is, from His lofty heavens (Psa_20:7). But it is admissible also to translate: with the wide space=freedom (Olshausen), or to suppose a pregnant construction: by setting me in a large place (most). Instead of Jah at the end of Psa_118:5 b, there is a reading recognized also by the Masora (comp. Baer, Psalterium, p. 132), according to which the יָה, which expresses the utmost degree of any condition, is to be read as the final syllable of the preceding word (comp. Jer_2:31). If this be correct, boundless space would then be described. But the usual pointing, having the first member of the verse in view, is to be preferred.
Psa_118:6 is related to Psa_56:10, and Psa_118:7 to Psa_54:6. Accordingly, the meaning is not, that Jehovah was one among many helpers, but that He was the One, who surpassed all others. In an historical connection the passage may allude to the hostile efforts of the Samaritans and the Satraps during the building of the Temple, while the contrast which is drawn between the confidence placed in man and that placed in God, may bear some allusion to the fact, that the work, begun under Cyrus and already brought into suspicion under Pseudomerdis, was interdicted under Cambyses, and not resumed until the accession of Darius (Del.).
Psa_118:10. We ought perhaps to translate: “ward off” (Sept. and others), instead of “hew in pieces” [E. V., destroy], since the Hebrew word means literally: to cut off (Hupfeld). But it is scarcely to be supposed that this action was a token of violent subjection (1Sa_18:25; 2Sa_3:14; Josephus Ant. 13:9, 1; 2:3;) and mentioned with allusion to the sign which distinguished the Jew and the Gentile, Gal_5:12; Php_3:2 (J. H. Mich., Hengst.). Such a translation is held to be possible from a comparison with the Arabic, so that there is no need of changing אֲמִילָם into אֲכִילֵם (Hupfeld). [Alexander: The construction of the last clause is unusual and doubtful…. Perhaps the best solution is the one afforded by the Hebrew usage of suppressing the principal verb in oaths or solemn affirmations…. The sense will then be: in the name of Jehovah (1 swear or solemnly affirm) that I will cut them off.”
Psa_118:19-23. Gates of righteousness are identical with the gate of Jehovah, Psa_118:20, by which the righteous, that is, the Israelites, entered into the outer court of the Temple on the eastern side, it alone being accessible to them. There is not the slightest occasion to abandon this local designation, and to regard it as a figurative expression (Hupfeld) for turning to God, or to import into it religious and theological notions of righteousness (older and recent expositors with all possible references). For in Psa_118:27 religious rites are expressly spoken of. It is only through the symbolical significance and the typical aspect which all of these had in Israel that they contained the germs of a higher development, and it was in the process of development that they disclosed a deeper import and unfolded a richer meaning. The same principle also justifies the final reference to Jesus Christ of the statement (Psa_118:22 f.) with regard to the stone that had been rejected, but which became the chief corner-stone through God’s wonderful power (Mat_21:42 ff.; Mar_12:10 f.; Act_4:11; 1Pe_2:7). This purpose is equally well served whether the sentence be viewed as a proverb (De Wette, Ewald) or not. It is self-evident that the expression is figurative. So also is the allusion to the builders (Hupfeld), and therefore this designation is not to be pressed, in order to make it apply, so early as in this Psalm, specially and historically to the heathen (Kurtz), or to the Jews (Del.). The declaration of Jehovah, Isa_28:16 : “Behold it is I who have laid in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of a sure foundation—he who believes, shall not waver,” is specially important for the biblical conception of this figure. What is said of the servant of Jehovah in Isaiah 42. f. furnishes also essential points of comparison.
[Alexander: “As this Psalm was sung by the people at the last Jewish festival attended by our Saviour, He applies this proverb to Himself, as one rejected by the Jews and their rulers, yet before long to be recognized as their Messiah whom they had denied and murdered, but whom God had exalted as a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and the remission of sins (Act_5:31). This, though really another application of the proverb in its general meaning, has a certain affinity with its original application in the verse before us, because the fortunes of the ancient Israel, especially in reference to great conjunctures, bore a designed resemblance to the history of Christ Himself, by a kind of sympathy between the Body and the Head. Even the temple, which suggested the original expression, did but teach the doctrine of Divine inhabitation, and was therefore superseded by the advent of the Son Himself. The head of the corner means the chief or corner-stone of the foundation even in Zec_4:7, where the Engl. Vers. translates head-stone.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_118:24-29. This is the day,etc.—This word also admits of manifold applications to sacred seasons and to God’s gracious deeds in the lives both of individuals and of nations, and has always received them in full measure. In the passage before us it is applied to the celebration alluded to in this Psalm. This we are inclined to regard as that of the Feast of Tabernacles (Ewald), since Psa_118:25 appears to contain the exclamation with which, in the time of the Second Temple, the altar of burnt-offering was solemnly compassed, once on each of the first six days of the feast, and seven times on the seventh day (comp. Delitzsch, Der Hosannaruf, Zeitschrift für luther. Kirche und Theologie, 1855). [See the addition in the introduction to this Psalm.—J. F. M.]. At the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem this exclamation in the mouths of the people, when they hailed the visitor at the festival as the Messiah (Mat_21:9), was coupled with the words of Psa_118:26 a, with which according to Jewish tradition the inhabitants of Jerusalem were accustomed to greet the pilgrims to the Temple. Here it appears to have been the priests who welcomed the congregation as they ascended the Temple-hill with the animals to be sacrificed. [The view of Delitzsch; see the introduction above.—J. F. M.]. According to Ezr_6:17, the victims were very numerous. This appears to agree with Psa_118:27. For the translation: adorn the feast with boughs (Luther, Geier and others, after the Sept., Aquila, Jerome), is untenable. Although עֲבוֹת may perhaps mean: thickly-leaved clusters of twigs, Eze_19:11; Eze_31:3 f. (a meaning disputed, however, by Hengst. and Hävernick), yet אסר ב׳׳ cannot mean: to bind round, wrap round, and still less: to decorate, but only: to bind on with cords (Jdg_15:13; Jdg_16:11; Eze_3:25). חַג must therefore be taken in the sense of: victim, as in Eze_23:18; comp. 2Ch_30:22; Deu_16:2; Joh_18:28. And since the victims were not bound to the horns of the altar, but their blood was sprinkled upon them, the words “even unto” are not intended to mean that they were fastened close against the horns with short cords (Hitzig). The expression is either a pregnant one, conveying, in a general manner, the idea that the animals should be bound even until the sacrifice (Chald., Kimchi, J. H. Mich., Hengst., Hupfeld), or crowded so closely together as to fill up all the space even to the horns of the altar (Del. and others). [Del., referring the Psalm to the dedication of the Second Temple, compares Ezr_6:17, where it is mentioned that great numbers of animals were sacrificed on that occasion. On his explanation Perowne remarks: “But in this interpretation there is nothing appropriate in the mention of the horns of the altar. These have always a reference to the blood of the sacrifice.—The expression is apparently a pregnant one and the sense is: Bind the victim with cords till it is sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the horns of the altar.” Alexander explains: “Hold fast the sacrifice with cords until it comes to the horns of the altar, poetically put for the altar itself, not only as its prominent or salient points, but as the parts to which the blood, the essential vehicle of expiation, was applied.”—J. F. M.] According to the context the words of Psa_118:26 : in the name of Jehovah, are not to be connected with: he that cometh, but with: blessed. [For the force of the particles of entreaty in Psa_118:25, see on Psa_116:16 and the additional note.—J. F. M.]. The second clause of Psa_118:27 a [God is Jehovah and hath given us light], which is not to be rendered as a present (Luther, De Wette), but as a præterite, does not allude, as does Num_6:25, to the priestly blessing, but, like Exo_12:21; Exo_14:20, to the shining forth in the pillar of cloud and fire in the history of the march through the desert (Hupfeld), comp. Neh_9:12; Neh_9:19. It is only the application of this expression which can afford the idea of the light of mercy, freedom, and joy (Del.) The correction וַיָּאֵל and he led (Hitzig), is unnecessary.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Not only the priests, but all the members of God’s Church are to praise Him. The ordinary service of God affords opportunity for the expression of this relation in an edifying manner. The believer finds occasion for it in the goodness of the Highest, ever manifested anew in His kindness, which endures forever, of which individuals and the whole Church have rich experiences, while, by particular instances of prayer-hearing, they are urged to mutual encouragement. “Let him who can learn, learn here, and let every one become like a falcon, which in its distress soars far upwards into heaven. It is said: I called upon the Lord. Thou must learn to call, and not sit by thyself or lie upon the bench, hanging and shaking thy head, and letting thy thoughts bite and devour thee; but rouse up thou indolent fellow! fall upon thy knees, raise thy hands and eyes to heaven, repeat a Psalm or the Lord’s Prayer, and present thy distress before God with tears.” (Luther).
2. Under such experiences and the reception of such benefits, trust in God increases, along with the growing insight into the value of His help, and into the blessing of such trust. Thus increases also courage to face a hostile world in the midst of dangers and afflictions. The resulting evidences of our assurance have a vivifying and gladdening influence, but have nothing in common with the boasting of presumption. They are based, along with the confession of the perishableness of all earthly greatness and human power, upon the wonderful help of God’s mercy, and are therefore surrounded and sustained by thankful praise for that help, and by ardent entreaties for its continuance.
3. The sufferings which God’s people have to endure, are regarded by believers as chastenings from the hand of the Most High; and they are so severe, that they are felt to be heavy and painful strokes. But the same (Hand which has chastened them so severely, delivers them again from death and all their enemies, if they humble themselves before Him. By His wonderful working He makes the stone rejected by men, the cornerstone of a building indestructible and pleasing to Him, so that there is joy in the tabernacles of the righteous, and songs of thanksgiving resound in the house of the Lord.
4. God be praised that He has His house amongst us, and has opened its gates that His people might enter before His face, to celebrate those sacred feasts which He has ordained! May we, on the days consecrated by the Lord, always become ourselves consecrated, to perform joyfully the service which He requires of us: not to count up or lament the sacrifices demanded, but only to seek how we may please Him, how we, as “the righteous,” may go in and out, and receive and take with us the blessing which is held in readiness for those who come in the name of the Lord (Num_6:24 ff.; Deu_21:5).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Those are the right prayers which have thanks-giving for their support. God will not be weary of them; let us not be indolent or wearied in them.—We have certainly not deserved, and we cannot repay, all that God has done for us and for our house; but we can offer our thanks, and proclaim His goodness in His house.—God has attached great blessing to His day, and to coming to His house; but it rests with us to obtain that blessing.—If our church-going is one of blessing, it will be seen also to be one of prayer, of penitence, and of faith.—The courage of trust in God: (1) its sources; (2) its manifestations; (3) its results.—He who comes to God’s house as one of His people, is to pass through the gates of righteousness, and gain His presence, and will be blessed with the name of God.—If God’s judgments are not to tend to our death, but to our life, we are to make them serve as chastenings unto righteousness.
Starke: God’s goodness is unspeakably great, as well in the kingdom of nature as in the kingdom of grace.—The ground of thanksgiving and praise to God is the knowledge of His valiant doings and great goodness.—Well for the country, the city, and the Church, when the three great orders of the people are united in the true fear of God and in praising Him.—Religion does not make a life free from distress, but it does not allow us to remain held under distress.—The arm of men cannot take away my courage, as it cannot give me courage. The former is a groundless fear, the latter a vain hope.—Strong faith in God begets unwavering courage in all the events of life. The name of the Lord is a strong tower (Pro_18:10).—We have a Lord who helps us and holds us by the hand. Let him thrust at us who will; but who will help him whom God casts aside?—God is our Psalm; of Him we must glory and sing, and His name we must confess, though we should have to suffer for so doing.—He who praises with joy the power of the Divine mercy, will evermore share in His salvation.—The song of joy is born of the cross.—If God has given thee thy life, employ it in proclaiming His deeds of mercy.—Let him who would enter with praise and thanksgiving into the gates of glory, enter in faith the gates of God’s righteousness here, and glorify His name.—Do not wonder at it if the Lord deals with thee in wonderful ways. He who would be something precious in the sight of God must first be rejected and ennobled by affliction.—As the sun in heaven makes the natural day by his light, so does Christ the Sun of Righteousness make ours a spiritual day.—He who abides in the house of the Lord will hear from heaven and earth no word but of blessing.—If our service on our sacred days is to please God, we must come before Him with penitent hearts, so that He may give us light, and thus rejoice us.
Osiander: It is a greater work of God, to deliver a lost soul from the power of the devil, and make it blessed, than it is to create a new world.—Frisch: Behold how much faith can do! It gives an invincible courage which fears nothing.—Adam introduced a day of sadness, but another day is made by Christ: Abraham saw His day from afar, and was glad; we walk even now in His light.—Oetinger: The most insignificant event on the most unimportant occasion is to be ascribed to grace, which achieves also the greatest results in the most decisive junctures.—Rieger: Full trust in God may be excited and endure, while all trust in man is counted as nought, and, consequently, he who so trusts will be less controlled by the fear of man; and, at the same time, he will humbly resolve to submit to all chastening, yea, even to the suffering of death, and yet never yield the blissful hope of glory.—Tholuck: The glorious deliverances which God’s people experience give them the assurance of future victory.—Diedrich: God has brought us out of distress into blissful rest, that we may be enabled to have heartfelt delight in Him.—Expect no aid from the world; rather be prepared for all kinds of rebuffs from it: but God’s word will give thee strength enough for victory.—Our God welcomes all with blessing, who come together to enjoy that blessing in Israel; and those who are thus blessed on earth will also be blessed in heaven.—Stier: A song of thanksgiving for the victory of the Anointed and His people.—Taube: Whenever the everlasting goodness of God is sung, let all who have experienced it say Amen.—Schaubach: An evidence of the conflict, the victory, and the peace of the Redeemer.—Deichert: The victory of the risen Saviour, and its far-reaching consequences: (1) Death is vanquished; (2) the gates of righteousness are opened; (3) the corner-stone of the Church is laid.—G. Huyssen (Psa_118:15-21): The thanksgiving of the Christian in the joy of victory: (1) the joy of victory and its source; (2) the sacrifices of victory, and their significance; (3) the thanksgiving for victory, and the mode of rendering it.
[Matth. Henry: Without the Lord I am weak and sad, but on Him I stay myself as my strength, both for doing and suffering; and in Him I solace myself as my song, by which I both express my joy, and ease my grief; and making Him so, I find Him so; He doth strengthen my heart with grace, and rejoice my heart with His comforts. If God be our strength, He must be our song; if He work all our works in us, He must have all praise and glory from us. God is sometimes the strength of His people when He is not their song; they have spiritual supports, when they want spiritual delights; but if He be both to us, we have abundant reason to triumph in Him; for if He is our strength and our song, He is become not only our Saviour, but our salvation; for His being our strength is our protection to the salvation, and His being our song is an earnest and foretaste of the salvation.—We are weak and act but cowardly for our lives, but God is mighty and acts valiantly for us with jealousy and resolution, Isa_63:5, and when God’s right hand doeth valiantly for our salvation, it ought to be exalted in our praises.—It is not worth our while to live for any other purpose than to declare the works of the Lord, for His honor and for the encouragement of others to serve Him and trust in Him.—Sabbath days must be rejoicing days, and then they are to us as the days of heaven. See what a good Master we serve, who, having instituted a day for His service, appoints it to be spent in holy joy.
Scott: As we need not dread the rage of the ungodly, so we need not envy their carnal, vain, and vanishing mirth.—Our thanksgivings on earth must always be accompanied with prayers for further mercies and the continuance of our prosperity; our Hallelujahs with Hosannas.
Barnes (Psa_118:15). There is nothing that diffuses so much happiness through a family as religion; there is no joy like that when a member of a family is converted; there is no place on earth more happy than that where a family bows before God, with the feeling that all are children of God and heirs of salvation.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn v11-4. In this introduction, or joyful call upon all…
1-4. In this introduction, or joyful call upon all to join in the praises of God, the same enumeration of “Israel,” “the house of Aaron,” and “those who fear God,” is made as in Psa_115:11, which see. The whole band of singers must be supposed to join in this invitation.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn v11. As Psa_106:1 (see notes); Psa_107:1; Ezr_3:11.
1. As Psa_106:1 (see notes); Psa_107:1; Ezr_3:11.
because his mercy &c.] For his lovingkindness &c.
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2 ff. For the threefold division ‘Israel,’ ‘house of Aaron,’ ‘fearers of Jehovah,’ cp. Psa_115:9-13, and notes there.
Israel] The LXX as in Psa_115:9 reads the house of Israel, and adds after say, in Psa_118:2-4, that he is good. Hence P.B.V. with the Vulg. in Psa_118:2, ‘Let Israel now confess, that he is gracious.’
1–4. An introductory call to all Israel to join in praising Jehovah for His unfailing goodness.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn v1(1-4) Comp. Psa_115:9-13, where a similar choral arrangement is…
(1-4) Comp. Psa_115:9-13, where a similar choral arrangement is found.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–4AN antiphonal hymn, composed for a joyful occasion, when…
AN antiphonal hymn, composed for a joyful occasion, when there was to be a procession to the temple, a welcoming of the procession by those inside, and the solemn offering of a sacrifice upon the altar there. Dr. Kay"s conjecture, that the occasion was the joyful Passover which followed the dedication of the second temple in B.C. 516, (Ezr_6:19-22) is not improbable, though it cannot be regarded as more than a reasonable hypo thesis.
The first eighteen verses are the song of the procession as it winds its way slowly up the hill to the great gate of the temple, sung alternately, as it would seem, by the two halves of the procession. Ver. 19 is the utterance of the leader, in the name of the whole hand, on their arrival before the gates. Ver. 20 is the reply made to them by those inside. The procession, as it enters, sings vers. 21-24 antiphonally as before, all joining in ver. 25. Those already inside sing ver. 26 in welcome of their friends. Ver. 27 belongs to the leader of the pro cession, and initiates the actual sacrifice. Vers. 28, 29 are then sung, either by the whole congregation or by the two parts of the procession.
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O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good because his mercy endureth for ever. (comp. Psa_106:1, and the comment ad loc.)
The psalmist (or the nation) is passing, or has just passed, through great distress. He (it) has been the object of malignant and determined attack; he has been surrounded by enemies, and been in peril of his life; he has then, as always, sought help from above; and he has been so graciously relieved that he has the sense of deliverance in his soul, and the song of triumph on his lips.
I HUMAN OPPOSITION. This begins in:
1. Hatred; or a hostile feeling (ver. 7). It is bad enough that men should cherish a spirit of enmity toward us, that they should wish us evil. But this passes into:
2. A hostile attitude. Those who are opposed to us "compass us about" (vers. 10-12). They quietly surround us with the network of their intrigue. They go beyond this; they bring to bear on us:
3. Active opposition. They "thrust sore at us" (ver. 13); their voice is raised in accusation, in detraction, in opposition; they take active measures to defeat, to distress, even to ruin us. It may be that their efforts conduct to;
4. The most grave results. Positive disaster may impend (vers. 17, 18). It may be war "unto death.
II THE HOPE OF THE AFFLICTED. When thus engirt with enemies, our health, or our peace, or our position being seriously threatened, we have a refuge in God.
1. This trouble is so far of him that he has permitted it, and he has it under his control. Our appeal is therefore rightly directed to him.
2. His power against our adversaries is unquestioned and unbounded; let him lift his hand, and they are discomfited (ver. 16). With God at our side, animating and inspiring us, we ourselves shall prove wiser and stronger than they (vers. 10-12).
3. Conscious of our own integrity, with clean hands and a pure heart, assured that we are not seeking our own interests but those of the kingdom of Christ, we count confidently on his sympathy and succor (vers. 6, 7).
III DIVINE RELIEF. We call on God, and he answers us, and sets us "in a large place" (ver. 5). He takes us out of the straits in which we were hemmed in, and places us where we can breathe freely and can act happily and fearlessly. He has become "our salvation" (ver 14). Our liabilities are met, our enemies disarmed, our reputation cleared, our position secured, our friends reconciled and restored, our path is made plain; we "return unto our rest." Then comes the blessedness of
IV THANKSGIVING.
1. In the heart. (Vers. 1-4) Let every one that has been thus delivered, to whatever tribe he may belong, say that the pity of the Lord endureth forever," that it never fails.
2. In the home. (Ver. 15) The voice of praise should be heard beneath every roof where God is known and his goodness has been felt.
3. In the sanctuary. (Vers. 19, 20, 21) In the psalmody which is heard in the Church there is many a note, detected by the ear of God, which is the outpouring of a rescued and relieved human spirit.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv1–4In the book Ezr 3:10-11, we read that "when…
In the book Ezr 3:10-11, we read that "when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise he Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid." Now the words mentioned in Ezra are the first and last sentences of this Psalm, and we therefore conclude that the people chanted the whole of this sublime song; and, moreover, that the use of this composition on such occasions was ordained by David, whom we conceive to be its author. The next step leads us to believe that he is its subject, at least in some degree; for it is clear that the writer is speaking concerning himself in the first place, though he may not have strictly confined himself to all the details of his our personal experience. That the Psalmist had a prophetic view of our Lord Jesus is very manifest; the frequent quotations from this song in the New Testament prove this beyond all questions; but at the same time it could not have been intended that every particular line and sentence should be read in reference to the Messiah, for this requires very great ingenuity, and ingenious interpretations are seldom true. Certain devout expositors have managed to twist the expression of Ps 118:17, "I shall not die, but live, "so as to make it applicable to our Lord, who did actually die, and whose glory it is that he died; but we cannot bring our minds to do such violence to the words of holy writ.
The Psalm, seems to us to describe either David or some other man of God who was appointed by the divine choice to a high and honourable office in Israel. This elect champion found himself rejected by his friends and fellow countrymen, and at the same time violently opposed by his enemies. In faith in God he battles for his appointed place, and in due time he obtains it in such a way as greatly to display the power and goodness of the Lord. He then goes up to the house of the Lord to offer sacrifice, and to express his gratitude for the divine interposition, all the people blessing him, and wishing him abundant prosperity. This heroic personage, whom we cannot help thinking to be David himself, broadly typified our Lord, but not in such a manner that in all the minutiae of his struggles and prayers we are to hunt for parallels. The suggestion of Alexander that the speaker is a typical individual representing the nation, is exceedingly well worthy of attention, but it is not inconsistent with the idea that a personal leader may be intended, since that which describes the leader will be in a great measure true of his followers. The experience of the Head is that of the members, and both may be spoken of in much the same terms. Alexander thinks that the deliverance celebrated cannot be identified with any one so exactly as with that from the Babylonian exile; but we judge it best to refer it to no one incident in particular, but to regard it as a national song, adapted alike for the rise of a chosen here, and the building of a temple. Whether a nation is founded again by a conquering prince, or a temple founded by the laying of its cornerstone in joyful state, the Psalm is equally applicable.
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We propose to divide this Psalm thus, from Ps 118:1-4 the faithful are called upon to magnify the everlasting mercy of the Lord; from Ps 118:5-18 the Psalmist gives forth a narrative of his experience, and an expression of his faith; in Ps 118:19-21 he asks admittance into the house of the Lord, and begins the acknowledgment of the divine salvation. In Ps 118:22-27 the priests and people recognize their ruler, magnify the Lord for him, declare him blessed, and bid him approach the altar with his sacrifice. In Ps 118:28-29 the grateful hero himself exalts God the ever merciful.
Ver. 1. O give thanks unto the LORD. The grateful hero feels that he cannot himself alone sufficiently express his thankfulness, and therefore he calls in the aid of others. Grateful hearts are greedy of men's tongues, and would monopolize them all for God's glory. The whole nation was concerned in David's triumphant accession, and therefore it was right that they should unite in his adoring song of praise. The thanks were to be rendered unto Jehovah alone, and not to the patience or valour of the hero himself. It is always well to trace our mercies to him who bestows them, and if we cannot give him anything else, let us at any rate give him our thanks. We must not stop short at the second agent, but rise at once to the first cause, and render all our praises unto the Lord himself. Have we been of a forgetful or murmuring spirit? Let us hear the lively language of the text, and allow it to speak to our hearts: "Cease your complaining, cease from all self glorification, and give thanks unto the Lord."
For he is good. This is reason enough for giving him thanks; goodness is his essence and nature, and therefore he is always to be praised whether we are receiving anything from him or not. Those who only praise God because he does them good should rise to a higher note and give thanks to him because he is good. In the truest sense he alone is good, "There is none good but one, that is God"; therefore in all gratitude the Lord should have the royal portion. If others seem to be good, he is good. If others are good in a measure, he is good beyond measure. When others behave badly to us, it should only stir us up the more heartily to give thanks unto the Lord because he is good; and when we ourselves are conscious that we are far from being good, we should only the more reverently bless him that "he is good." We must never tolerate an instant's unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questionable, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; his dispensations may vary, but his nature is always the same, and always good. It is not only that he was good, and will be good, but he is good; let his providence be what it may. Therefore let us even at this present moment, though the skies be dark with clouds, yet give thanks unto his name.
Because his mercy endureth for ever. Mercy is a great part of his goodness, and one which more concerns us than any other, for we are sinners and have need of his mercy. Angels may say that he is good, but they need not his mercy and cannot therefore take an equal delight in it; inanimate creation declares that he is good, but it cannot feel his mercy, for it has never transgressed; but man, deeply guilty and graciously forgiven, beholds mercy as the very focus and centre of the goodness of the Lord. The endurance of the divine mercy is a special subject for song: notwithstanding our sins, our trials, our fears, his mercy endureth for ever. The best of earthly joys pass away, and even the world itself grows old and hastens to decay, but there is no change in the mercy of God; he was faithful to our forefathers, he is merciful to us, and will be gracious to our children and our children's children. It is to be hoped that the philosophical interpreters who endeavour to clip the word "for ever", into a mere period of time will have the goodness to let this passage alone. However, whether they do or not, we shall believe in endless mercymercy to eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is the grand incarnation of the mercy of God, calls upon us at every remembrance of him to give thanks unto the Lord, for "he is good."
Whole Psalm. This is the last of those Psalms which form the great Hallel, which the Jews sang at the end of the passover. Adam Clarke.
Whole Psalm. The whole Psalm has a peculiar formation. It resembles the Maschal Psalms, for each verse has of itself its completed sense, its own scent and hue; one thought is joined to another as branch to branch and flower to flower. Franz Delitzsch.
Whole Psalm. Nothing can surpass the force and majesty, as well as the richly varied beauty, of this Psalm. Its general burden is quite manifest. It is the prophetic expression, by the Spirit of Christ, of that exultant strain of anticipative triumph, wherein the virgin daughter of Zion will laugh to scorn, in the immediate prospect of her Deliverer's advent, the congregated armies of the Man of Sin (Ps 118:10-13). Arthur Pridham.
Whole Psalm. The two Psalms, 117th and 118th, are placed together because, though each is a distinct portion in itself, the 117th is an exordium to that which follows it, an address and an invitation to the Gentile and heathen world to acknowledge and praise Jehovah.
We are now arrived at the concluding portion of the hymn, which Christ and his disciples sung preparatory to their going forth to the Mount of Olives. Nothing could be more appropriate or better fitted to comfort and encourage, at that awful period, than a prophecy which, overleaping the suffering to be endured, showed forth the glory that was afterwards to follow, and a song of triumph, then only recited, but in due time to be literally acted, when the cross was to be succeeded by a crown. This Psalm is not only frequently quoted in the New Testament, but it was also partially applied at one period of our Saviour's sojourn on earth, and thus we are afforded decisive testimony to the purpose for which it is originally and prophetically destined. It was partially used at the time when Messiah, in the days of his humiliation, was received with triumph and acclamation into Jerusalem; and we may conclude it will be fully enacted, when our glorified and triumphant Lord, coming with ten thousand of his saints, will again stand upon the earth and receive the promised salutation, "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of Jehovah." This dramatic representation of Messiah coming in glory, to take his great power and reign among us, is apportioned to the chief character, "the King of kings and Lord of lords, "to his saints following him in procession, and to priests and Levites, representing the Jewish nation.
The Conqueror and his attendants sing the 117th Psalm, an introductory hymn, inviting all, Jews and Gentiles, to share in the merciful kindness of God, and to sing his praises. It is a gathering together of all the Lord's people, to be witnesses and partakers of his glory. Ps 118:1-3 are sung by single voices. As the procession moves along, the theme of rejoicing is announced. The first voice repeats, O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever. Another single voice calls on Israel to acknowledge this great truth; and a third invites the house of Aaron, the priesthood, to acknowledge their share in Jehovah's love. Ps 118:4 is a chorus; the whole procession, the living: and the dead who are raised to meet Christ (1Th 4:16), shout aloud the burden of the song, Ps 118:1. Arrived at the temple gate, or rather, the gate of Jerusalem, the Conqueror alone sings, Ps 118:5-7. He begins by recounting the circumstances of his distress. Next, he tells of his refuge: I betook me to God, I told him my sorrows, and he heard me. The procession, in chorus, sings Ps 118:8-9, taking up the substance of Messiah's chaunt, and fully echoing the sentiment, It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes. The Conqueror alone again sings Ps 118:10-14. He enlarges on the magnitude of his dangers, and the hopelessness of his situation. It was not a common difficulty, or a single enemy, whole nations compassed him about. The procession in chorus, Ps 118:15-16, attributes their Lord's gloat deliverance to his righteous person, and to his righteous cause. Justice and equity and truth, all demanded that Messiah should not be trodden down. "Was it not thine arm, O Jehovah, which has gotten thee the victory?" Messiah now takes up the language of a conqueror, Ps 118:17-19. My sufferings were sore, but they were only for a season. I laid down my life, and I now take it up again: and then, with a loud voice, as when he roused Lazarus out of the grave, he cries to those within the walls, Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD. The priests and Levites within instantly obey his command, and while they throw open the gates, they sing, This is the gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter. As he enters, the Conqueror alone repeats Ps 118:21. His sorrows are ended, his victory is complete. The objects for which he lived and died, and for which his prayers were offered, are now fulfilled, and thus, in a few short words, he expresses his joy and gratitude to God. The priests and Levites sing in chorus Ps 118:22-24. Depositaries and expounders of the prophecies as they had long been, they now, for the first time, quote and apply one, Isa 28:16, which held a conspicuous place, but never before was intelligible to Jewish ears. "The man of sorrows, "the stone which the builders refused, is become the headstone of the corner. The Conqueror is now within the gates, and proceeds to accomplish his good purpose, Lu 1:68. Hosannah, save thy people, O LORD, and send them now prosperity, Ps 118:25. The priests and Levites are led by the Spirit to use the words foretold by our Lord, Mt 28:39. Now at length the veil is removed, and his people say, Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Ps 118:26. The Conqueror and his train (Ps 118:27) now praise God, who has given light and deliverance and salvation, and they offer to him the sacrifice of thanksgiving for all that they enjoy. The Conqueror alone (Ps 118:28) next makes a solemn acknowledgment of gratitude and praise to Jehovah, and then, all being within the gates, the united body, triumphant procession, priests and Levites, end, as they commenced, O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. R. H. Ryland, in "The Psalms restored to Messiah, "1853.
Whole Psalm. It was Luther's favourite Psalm, his beauteous Confitemini, which "had helped him out of what neither emperor nor king, nor any other man on earth, could have helped him." With the exposition of this his noblest jewel, his defence and his treasure, he occupied himself in the solitude of his Patmos (Coburg). Franz Delitzsch.
Whole Psalm. 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 peculiar right to call it mine. It has saved me from many a pressing danger, from which nor emperor, nor kings, nor sages, nor saints, could have saved me. It is my friend; dearer to me than all the honours and power of the earth... But it may be objected, that this Psalm is common to all; no one has a right to call it his own. Yes; but Christ is also common to all, and yet Christ is mine. I am not jealous of my property; I would divide it with the whole world... And would to God that all men would claim the Psalm as especially theirs! It would be the most touching quarrel, the most agreeable to Goda quarrel of union and perfect charity. Luther. From his Dedication of his Translation of Psalm 118 to the Abbot Frederick of Nuremberg.
Ver. 1. For he is good. The praise of God could not be expressed in fewer words than these, "For he is good." I see not what can be more solemn than this brevity, since goodness is so peculiarly the quality of God, that the Son of God himself when addressed by some one as "Good Master, "by one, namely, who beholding his flesh, and comprehending not the fulness of his divine nature, considered him as man only, replied, "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God." And what is this but to say, If you wish to call me good, recognize me as God? Augustine.
Ver. 1. His mercy endureth for ever. What the close of Psalm 117 says of God's truth, viz., that it endureth for ever, Ps 118:1-4 says of its sister, his mercy or lovingkindness. Franz Delitzsch.
Ver. 1-4. As the salvation of the elect is one, and the love of God to them one, so should their song be one, as here four several times it is said, His mercy endureth for ever. David Dickson.
Ver. 1-4. Because we hear the sentence so frequently repeated here, that "the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever, "we are not to think that the Holy Spirit has employed empty tautology, but our great necessity demands it: for in temptations and dangers the flesh begins to doubt of the mercy of God; therefore nothing should be so frequently impressed on the mind as this, that the mercy of God does not fail, that the Eternal Father wearies not in remitting our sins. Solomon Gesner.
Ver. 1-4.
1. The subject of songs "O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good."
2. The chorus"His mercy endureth for ever."
3. The choir"Let Israel now say, "etc.; "Let the house of Aaron, "etc.; "Let them that fear the Lord, "etc.
4. The rehearsal"Let them now say, "that they may be better prepared for universal praise hereafter.
Psalms 118:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v1O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is…
Psa_118:1-4
O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: because His mercy endureth for ever.
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The perpetuity of Divine mercy
This is a subject for--
I. Joyous gratitude. O give thanks, etc. Why should the perpetuity of Divine mercy inspire such fervent gratitude?
1. Because all men that now live require mercy. All men are so guilty and depraved as to render them more or less unhappy here, and miserable hereafter. Mercy creates men anew in Christ Jesus in good works.
2. Because all men that will hereafter live require mercy. Thank God, then, that mercy is to run on to the crash of doom.
II. The celebration of all men. The perpetuity of mercy is a subject in which men of all characters, of all lands, of all times may triumphantly rejoice. Here we can all meet, both the rich and the poor. (Homilist.)
Boundless mercy
O this mercy of God! I am told it is an ocean. Then I place on it four swift-sailing craft, with compass, and charts, and choice rigging, and skilful navigators, and I tell them to launch away, and discover for me the extent of this ocean. That craft puts out in one direction, and sails to the north; this to the south; this to the east; this to the west. They crowd on all their canvas, and sail ten thousand years, and one day come up the harbour of heaven; and I shout to them from the beach, Have you found the shore? and they answer: No shore to Gods mercy. Swift angels, despatched from the throne, attempt to go across it. For a million years they fly and fly; but then come back and fold their wings at the foot of the throne, and cry: No shore; no shore to Gods mercy! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 118
Psalms 118
THIS is unmistakably a psalm for use in the Temple worship, and probably meant to be sung antiphonally, on some day of national rejoicing (Psa_118:24). A general concurrence of opinion points to the period of the Restoration from Babylon as its date, as in the case of many psalms in this Book 5 but different events connected with that restoration have been selected. The psalm implies the completion of the Temple, and therefore shuts out any point prior to that. Delitzsch fixes on the dedication of the Temple as the occasion; but the view is still more probable which supposes that it was sung on the great celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, recorded in Neh_8:14-18. In later times Psa_118:25 was the festal cry raised while the altar of burnt offering was solemnly compassed, once on each of the first six days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and seven times on the seventh. This seventh day was called the "Great Hosanna; and not only the prayers at the Feast of Tabernacles, but even the branches of osiers (including the myrtles), which are bound to the palm branch (Lulab), were called Hosannas" (Delitzsch). The allusions in the psalm fit the circumstances of the time in question. Stier, Perowne, and Baethgen concur in preferring this date: the last named critic, who is very slow to recognise indications of specific dates, speaks with unwonted decisiveness, when he writes, "I believe that I can say with certainty, Psalms 118 was sung for the first time at the Feast of Tabernacles in the year 444 B.C." Cheyne follows his usual guides in pointing to the purification and reconstruction of the Temple by Judas Maccabaeus as "fully adequate to explain alike the tone and the expressions." He is "the terrible hero," to whose character the refrain, "In the name of Jehovah I will cut them down," corresponds. But the allusions in the psalm are quite as appropriate to any other times of national jubilation and yet of danger, such as that of the Restoration, and Judas the Maccabee had no monopoly of the warrior trust which flames in that refrain.
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Apparently the psalm falls into two halves, of which the former (Psa_118:1-16) seems to have been sung as a processional hymn while approaching the sanctuary, and the latter (Psa_118:17-29), partly at the Temple gates, partly by a chorus of priests within, and partly by the procession when it had entered. Every reader recognises traces of antiphonal singing; but it is difficult to separate the parts with certainty. A clue may possibly be found by noting that verses marked by the occurrence of "I," "me," and "my" are mingled with others more impersonal. The personified nation is clearly the speaker of the former class of verses, which tells a connected story of distress, deliverance, and grateful triumph; while the other less personal verses generalise the experience of the first speaker, and sustain substantially the part of the chorus in a Greek play. In the first part of the psalm we may suppose that a part of the procession sang the one and another portion the other series; while in the second part (Psa_118:17-29) the more personal verses were sung by the whole cortege arrived at the Temple, and the more generalised other part was taken by a chorus of priests or Levites within the sanctuary. This distribution of verses is occasionally uncertain, but on the whole is clear, and aids the understanding of the psalm.
First rings out from the full choir the summons to praise, which peculiarly belonged to the period of the Restoration. {Ezr_3:11; Psa_106:1; Psa_107:1} As in Psalms 115, three classes are called on: the whole house of Israel, the priests, and "those who fear Jehovah"-i.e., aliens who have taken refuge beneath the wings of Israels God. The threefold designation expresses the thrill of joy in the recovery of national life; the high estimate of the priesthood as the only remaining God-appointed order, now that the monarchy was swept away; and the growing desire to draw the nations into the community of Gods people.
Then, with Psa_118:5, the single voice begins. His experience, now to be told, is the reason for the praise called for in the previous verses. It is the familiar sequence reiterated in many a psalm and many a life, -distress, or "a strait place," {Psa_116:3} a cry to Jehovah, His answer by enlargement, and a consequent triumphant confidence, which has warrant in the past for believing that no hand can hurt him whom Jehovahs hand helps. Many a man passes through the psalmists experience without thereby achieving the psalmists settled faith and power to despise threatening calamities. We fail both in recounting clearly to ourselves our deliverances and in drawing assurance from them for the future. Psa_118:5 b is a pregnant construction. He "answered me in [or, into] an open place"-i.e., by bringing me into it The contrast of a narrow gorge and a wide plain picturesquely expresses past restraints and present freedom of movement. Psa_118:6 is taken from Psa_56:9; Psa_56:11; and Psa_118:7 is influenced by Psa_54:4, and reproduces the peculiar expression occurring there, "Jehovah is among my helpers,"-on which compare remarks on that passage.
Psa_118:8-9 are impersonal, and generalise the experience of the preceding verses. They ring out loud, like a trumpet, and are the more intense for reiteration. Israel was but a feeble handful. Its very existence seemed to depend on the caprice of the protecting kings who had permitted its return. It had had bitter experience of the unreliableness of a monarchs whim. Now, with superb reliance, which was felt by the psalmist to be the true lesson of the immediate past, it peals out its choral confidence in Jehovah with a "heroism of faith which may well put us to the blush." These verses surpass the preceding in that they avow that faith in Jehovah makes men independent of human helpers, while the former verses declared that it makes superior to mortal foes. Fear of and confidence in man are both removed by trust in God. But it is perhaps harder to be weaned from the confidence than to rise above the fear.
The individual experience is resumed in Psa_118:10-14. The energetic reduplications strengthen the impression of multiplied attacks, corresponding with the facts of the Restoration period. The same impression is accentuated by the use in Psa_118:11 a of two forms of the same verb, and in Psa_118:12 a by the metaphor of a swarm of angry bees. {Deu_1:44} Numerous, venomous, swift, and hard to strike at as the enemies were, buzzing and stinging around, they were but insects after all, and a strong hand could crush them. The psalmist does not merely look to God to interpose for him, as in Psa_118:6-7, but expects that God will give him power to conquer by the use of his own strengthened arm. We are not only objects of Divine protection, but organs of Divine power. Trusting in the revealed character of Jehovah, we shall find conquering energy flowing into us from Him, and the most fierce assaults will die out as quickly as a fire of dry thorn twigs, which sinks into ashes the sooner the more it crackles and blazes. Then the psalmist individualises the multitude of foes, just as the collective Israel is individualised, and brings assailants and assailed down to two antagonists, engaged in desperate duel. But a third Person intervenes. "Jehovah helped me" (Psa_118:13); as in old legends, the gods on their immortal steeds charged at the head of the hosts of their worshippers. Thus delivered, the ginger breaks into the ancient strain, which had gone up on the shores of the sullen sea that rolled over Pharaohs army, and is still true after centuries have intervenel: "Jah is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation." Miriam sang it, the restored exiles sang it, tried and trustful men in every age have sung and will sing it, till there are no more foes; and then, by the shores of the sea of glass mingled with fire, the calm victors will lift again the undying "song of Moses and of the Lamb."
Psa_118:15-16 are probably best taken as sung by the chorus, generalising and giving voice to the emotions excited by the preceding verses. The same reiteration which characterised Psa_118:8-9 reappears here. Two broad truths are built on the individual voices autobiography: namely, that trust in Jehovah and consequent conformity to His law are never in vain, but always issue in joy; and that Gods power, when put forth, always conquers. "The tents of the righteous" may possibly allude to the "tabernacles" constructed for the feast, at which the song was probably sung.
Psa_118:17-19 belong to the individual voice. The procession has reached the Temple. Deeper thoughts than before now mark the retrospect of past trial and deliverance. Both are recognised to be from Jehovah. It is He who has corrected, severely indeed, but still "in measure, not to bring to nothing, but to make capable and recipient of fuller life." The enemy thrust sore, with intent to make Israel fall; but Gods strokes are meant to make us stand the firmer. It is beautiful that all thought of human foes has faded away, and God only is seen in all the sorrow. But His chastisement has wider purposes than individual blessedness. It is intended to make its objects the heralds of His name to the world. Israel is beginning to lay to heart more earnestly its world wide vocation to "tell forth the works of Jehovah." The imperative obligation of all who have received delivering help from Him is to become missionaries of His name. The reed is cut and pared thin and bored with hot irons, and the very pith of it extracted, that it may be fit to be put to the owners lips, and give out music from his breath. Thus conscious of its vocation and eager to render its due of sacrifice and praise, Israel asks that "the gates of righteousness" may be opened for the entrance of the long procession. The Temple doors are so called, because Righteousness is the condition of entrance. {Isa_26:2 compare Psalms 24}
Psa_118:20 may belong to the individual voice, but is perhaps better taken as the answer from within the Temple, of the priests or Levites who guarded the closed doors, and who now proclaim what must be the character of those who would tread the sacred courts. The gate (not as in Psa_118:19, gates) belongs to Jehovah, and therefore access by it is permitted to none but the righteous. That is an everlasting truth. It is possible to translate, "This is the gate to Jehovah"-i.e., by which one comes to His presence; and that rendering would bring out still more emphatically the necessity of the condition laid down: "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord."
The condition is supposed to be met; for in Psa_118:21 the individual voice again breaks into thanksgiving, for being allowed once more to stand in the house of Jehovah. "Thou hast answered me": the psalmist had already sung that Jah had answered him (Psa_118:5). "And art become my salvation": he had already hailed Jehovah as having become such (Psa_118:14). Gods deliverance is not complete till full communion with Him is enjoyed. Dwelling in His house is the crown of all His blessings. We are set free from enemies, from sins and fears and struggles, that we may abide forever with Him, and only then do we realise the full sweetness of His redeeming hand, when we stand in His presence and commune evermore with Him.
Psa_118:22, Psa_118:23, Psa_118:24, probably belong to the priestly chorus. They set forth the great truth made manifest by restored Israels presence in the rebuilt Temple. The metaphor is suggested by the incidents connected with the rebuilding. The "stone" is obviously Israel, weak, contemptible, but now once more laid as the very foundation stone of Gods house in the world. The broad truth taught by its history is that God lays as the basis of His building-i.e., uses for the execution of His purposes that which the wisdom of man despises and tosses aside. There had been abundant faintheartedness among even the restored exiles. The nations around had scoffed at these "feeble Jews," and the scoffs had not been without echoes in Israel itself. Chiefly, the men of position and influence, who ought to have strengthened drooping courage, had been infected with the tendency to rate low the nations power, and to think that their enterprise was destined to disaster. But now the Temple is built, and the worshippers stand in it. What does that teach but that all has been Gods doing? So wonderful is it, so far beyond expectation, that the very objects of such marvellous intervention are amazed to find themselves where they stand. So rooted is our tendency to unbelief that, when God does what He has sworn to do, we are apt to be astonished with a wonder which reveals the greatness of our past incredulity. No man who trusts God ought to be surprised at Gods answers to trust.
The general truth contained here is that of Pauls great saying, "God hath chosen the weak things of the world that He might put to shame the things that are strong." It is the constant law, not because God chooses unfit instruments, but because the worlds estimates of fitness are false, and the qualities which it admires are irrelevant with regard to His designs, while the requisite qualities are of another sort altogether. Therefore, it is a law which finds its highest exemplification in the foundation for Gods true temple, other than which can no man lay. "Israel is not only a figure of Christ-there is an organic unity between Him and them. Whatever, therefore, is true of Israel in a lower sense is true in its highest sense of Christ. If Israel is the rejected stone made the head of the corner, this is far truer of Him who was indeed rejected of men, but chosen of God and precious, the corner stone of the one great living temple of the redeemed" (Perowne).
Psa_118:24 is best regarded as the continuation of the choral praise in Psa_118:22-23. "The day" is that of the festival now in process, the joyful culminationof Gods manifold deliverances. It is a day in which joy is duty, and no heart has a right to be too heavy to leap for gladness. Private sorrows enough many of the jubilant worshippers no doubt had, but the sight of the Stone laid as the head of the corner should bring joy even to such. If sadness was ingratitude and almost treason then, what sorrow should now be so dense that it cannot be pierced by the Light which lighteth every man? The joy of the Lord should float, like oil on stormy waves, above our troublous sorrows, and smooth their tossing.
Again the single voice rises, but not now in thanksgiving, as might have been expected, but in plaintive tones of earnest imploring (Psa_118:25). Standing in the sanctuary, Israel is conscious of its perils, its need, its weakness, and so with pathetic reiteration of the particle of entreaty, which occurs twice in each clause of the verse, cries for continued deliverance from continuing evils, and for prosperity in the course opening before it. The "day" in which unmingled gladness inspires our songs has not yet dawned, fair as are the many days which Jehovah has made. In the earthly house of the Lord thanksgiving must ever pass into petition. An unending day comes, when there will be nothing to dread, and no need for the sadder notes occasioned by felt weakness and feared foes.
Psa_118:26-27 come from the chorus of priests, who welcome the entering procession, and solemnly pronounce on them the benediction of Jehovah. They answer, in His name, the prayer of Psa_118:25, and bless the single leader of the procession and the multitudes following. The use of Psa_118:26 a and of the "Hosanna" (an attempted transliteration of the Hebrew "Save, I beseech") from Psa_118:25 at Christs entrance into Jerusalem probably shows that the psalm was regarded as Messianic. It is so, in virtue of the relation already referred to between Israel and Christ. He "cometh in the name of Jehovah" in a deeper sense than did Israel, the servant of the Lord.
Psa_118:27 a recalls the priestly benediction, {Num_6:25} and thankfully recognises its ample fulfilment in Israels history, and especially in the dawning of new prosperity now. Psa_118:27 b, c, is difficult. Obviously it should be a summons to worship, as thanksgiving for the benefits acknowledged in a. But what is the act of worship intended is hard to say. The rendering "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar," has against it the usual meaning of the word rendered sacrifice, which is rather festival, and the fact that the last words of the verse cannot possibly be translated "to the horns," etc., but must mean "as far as" or "even up to the horns," etc. There must therefore be a good deal supplied in the sentence; and commentators differ as to how to fill the gap. Delitzsch supposes that "the number of the sacrificial animals is to be so great that the whole space of the courts of the priests becomes full of them, and the binding of them has therefore to take place even up to the horns of the altar." Perowne takes the expression to be a pregnant one for, "till [the victim] is sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the horns of the altar." So Hupfeld, following Chaldee and some Jewish interpreters. Others regard the supposed ellipsis as too great to be natural, and take an entirely different view. The word rendered sacrifice in the former explanation is taken to mean a procession round the altar, which is etymologically justifiable, and is supported by the known custom of making such a circuit during the Feast of Tabernacles. For "cords" this explanation would read branches or boughs, which is also warranted. But what does "binding a procession with boughs" mean? Various answers are given. Cheyne supposes that the branches borne in the hands of the members of the procession were in some unknown way used to bind or link them together before they left the Temple. Baethgen takes "with boughs" as " bearing boughs," with which he supposes that the bearers touched the altar horns, for the purpose of transferring to themselves the holiness concentrated there. Either explanation has difficulties, -the former in requiring an unusual sense for the word rendered sacrifice; the latter in finding a suitable meaning for that translated bind. In either c is but loosely connected with b, and is best understood as an exclamation. The verb rendered bind is used in 1Ki_20:14, 2Ch_13:3, in a sense which fits well with "procession" here-i.e., that of marshalling an army for battle. If this meaning is adopted, b will be the summons to order the bough-bearing procession, and c a call to march onwards, so as to encircle the altar. This meaning of the obscure verse may be provisionally accepted, while owning that our ignorance of the ceremonial referred to prevents complete understanding of the words.
Once more Miriams song supplies ancient language of praise for recent mercies, and the personified Israel compasses the altar with thanksgiving (Psa_118:28). Then the whole multitude, both of those who had come up to the Temple and of those who had welcomed them there, join in the chorus of praise with which the psalm begins and ends, and which was so often pealed forth in those days of early joy for the new manifestations of that Lovingkindness which endures through all days, both those of past evil and those of future hoped for good.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v11. The last of the group (113–118.) constituting the…
INTRODUCTION
1. The last of the group (113–118.) constituting the Hallel.
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2. Certainly a temple Psalm, most probably composed for a great occasion. “Some incline to the Davidic authorship, when he was anointed king, when he brought back the ark, or after (2Sa_21:16). Others to Hezekiah (cf. Psa_118:17 with Isa_38:1). Others, after the exile, in celebration either of Feast of Tabernacles (Ezr_3:1-4), or Founding of the Temple (Ezr_3:8-8), or its Dedication (Ezr_6:15-18), or Feast of Tabernacles (Neh_8:14).
3. Often quoted in New Testament. Many Rabbins interpret the Psalm of Christ; and Jerome says that the ancient Jews so interpreted it, which is borne out by Mat_21:9. This was Luther’s favourite Psalm.”
THE DIVINE MERCY
(Psa_118:1-4)
Our text forms an appropriate introduction to, and is a miniature of, the whole Psalm. It contains the germ of all God’s goodness, and the ground for all human gratitude. Next to the phrase, “Praise ye the Lord,” the expression of Psa_118:1 is of most frequent use in the Book of Psalms.
I. The nature of divine mercy.
1. It is divine. “His mercy.” It is therefore perfect. It is not liable to the fluctuations and temptations to which human mercy is exposed. The divine character is not only perfect as a whole, but in its parts. The divine perfections characterise each other. The divine mercy is omnipotent and all wise, beneficent, yet just. It always goes far enough, it never goes too far. Man’s mercy sometimes stops at the boundary of self-interest, and thus leaves its object unattained; sometimes goes beyond both and defeats its object. Not so with perfect mercy. It ascertains accurately the measure of our need, and powerfully supplies it.
2. It is the outcome of the divine goodness. Man’s mercy is often the result of weakness. Thus it rests on unworthy objects, encourages sin, and manifests itself in unproper ways. God’s mercy is ever governed by sound motives, manifested in good ways, to worthy objects and beneficent results.
3. It is everlasting. Man’s mercy is frequently a matter of mood, tense, and ability. God is always in a merciful mood, and always powerful to bless.
II. The objects and manifestation of the divine mercy.
1. Nations: “Israel.” God, as King of kings, cares for national life. Illustrations of this are plentiful in the history of Israel and in the history of England. The divine mercy is seen
(1) In the planting of nations, with due regard to wants and peculiarities. The characteristics of a nation may be due to the circumstances in which they are placed, but it may also be due in the divine adaptation of circumstances to temperament—e.g., Greece, art and poetry; England, commerce, &c.
(2) In the growth of nations. Wars, revolutions, reforms, &c.
(3) The decline of nations. When a nation has lost its virtue and its vigour it is a mercy to itself and to other nations that it should fall. Israel, Rome, &c.
2. Ministers: “House of Aaron.”
(1.) In their call (1Ti_1:16; Gal_1:15-16).
(2.) In their preparation for their work
(3.) In their encouragement in the midst of difficulties and dangers.
(4.) In their spiritual enrichment.
(5.) In their moral success.
(6.) In their eternal reward.
3. The Church, “Them that fear the Lord.”
(1.) As a whole. α In its marvellous preparation; the gradual consolidation of the world into a political brotherhood by the Persian, Alexandrian, and Roman conquests; the dispersion of the Jews; the spread of the Greek language and Roman civilisation; the yearning for spiritual life and unity. β. In the merciful gift of Jesus Christ to be its living head, and of the Spirit to guide it into all the truth. γ. In the persecutions which dispersed it, and the blood which watered it. δ. In its marvellous preservation when the whole world was against it. ε. In its enrichment by the stores of learning and art. ζ. In its Pentecostal baptisms in all ages. η. In its continual progress. θ. In the promise of its glorious close.
(2) As individuals; in conversion, the means of grace, &c.
III. The recognition of the divine mercy. “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord.”
1. This mercy is often unrecognised. Nations attribute their blessings to fortunate circumstances, patient perseverance, or martial prowess; ministers to their learning, eloquence, or zeal; the Church to its orthodoxy, political alliances, or enthusiasm; individuals to happy chances, or human sympathy and help.
2. This recognition is a matter of imperative obligation. Without this recognition
(1) the evils of selfishness and sin can never be extinguished,
(2) the mercy will be withdrawn, and
(3) retribution follow.
3. This recognition should take the form of devout, grateful, and earnest praise.
“MAN’S EXTREMITY GOD’S OPPORTUNITY”
(Psa_118:5-7)
I. Man in distress. מִרהַמֵּצַר “Out of straits.” The figure is that of a fortress surrounded by a beleaguering army, or of soldiers hemmed in on every side (see Psa_118:10), or of a torrent dammed up by the pass through which it rushes; imprisoned, constrained. This applies to—
1. The Church. How often is it surrounded and hemmed in by infidelity, ungodliness, superstition, persecution, want of opportunity, political restriction, and popular opinion!
2. The individual. In business, family, society, by temptations, hostility of friends, personal weakness, malignity of foes.
II. Man’s duty in distress. I. Prayer. Without this we shall always be in distress. Our own resources are soon expended. Friends are often unwilling or helpless. Let us “call upon the Lord.”
(1.) It is our duty to God, for He has commanded it.
(2.) It is our duty to ourselves. A prayerless man is a moral suicide. “Not sit by thyself, or lie upon thy bench, hanging and shaking thy head, and letting thy thoughts bite and devour thee; but rouse up, thou indolent fellow! fall upon thy knees, raise thy hands and eyes to heaven, and present thy distress before God with tears.”—Luther.
2. Courage. “I will not fear.” Fear blanches the courage, exhausts the strength, and diverts the aim. As long as courage lasts, hope is not extinct; but the moment fear comes in, defeat supervenes.
III. Man’s consolations in distress.
1. The Lord is on his side. The Lord has pledged Himself
(1) to be with His Church always;
(2) with His individual children. What is there then to fear? “Greater is He that is for you” (Isa_43:1-2).
2. The Lord consecrates all His confederates for His good (Psa_118:4). Whether they be friends or instrumentalities.
IV. Man’s deliverance in distress.
1. Victory over foes. This has been the realisation of the Church in all ages. (Rom_8:35; Rom_8:39).
2. Perfect liberty. “The Lord set me in a large place.” The misery of the Psalmist was that he was straightened. His deliverance was liberty in a large open plain. This may be applied
(1) to Missionary enterprise. The Lord is ever opening doors for His Church, loosing her bonds, and enlarging the field of her operations.
(2) To spiritual life. We are “called unto liberty,” freedom, from sin, of thought, of mental and moral cultivation, philanthropy.
COURAGE
(Psa_118:6-7)
Courage is a very complex and difficult subject. We speak of physical courage, mental, moral courage, courage of convictions, &c. Many a man who could walk up to a cannon’s mouth could not face a public audience. Many a man who has planted his country’s flag in the thick of her foes has betrayed his most cherished convictions. True courage is described in our text.
I. In its source. “The Lord is on my side.” Courage is supposed to spring from self-reliance. That man is counted brave who scorns all allies and dares to face the enemy alone. Hence much of human courage is reckless hardihood. True courage is the courage of trust in God.
II. In its manifestations. “I will not fear,” &c.
1. It trusts God to do for it what it cannot do for itself. It wisely dares to acknowledge that by itself it is unequal to certain enterprises. This of itself requires a great deal of courage, because it requires so much self-abnegation, is so unpopular, and is often apparently not warranted by circumstances.
2. This trust produces fearlessness of consequences. Who can fear who has taken this initial and most formidable step of declaring himself on the side of God? Young men, take this initial step; for who can fear who knows that God is on his side.
3. Fearlessness of consequences produces the true courage of fidelity. Why is it men are unfaithful? Consequences, unpopularity, poverty, &c. “The fear of man bringeth a snare.” “Fear Him, ye saints, and you will then have nothing else to fear.”
TRUST, HUMAN AND DIVINE
(Psa_118:8-9)
I. Man must trust. All experience proves this. Like the creeping parasite, the soul must throw its tendrils round some support.
II. Whom should man trust? Some one whose qualities warrant that trust.
1. He must be ail-sufficient, able to provide for all actual and possible necessities. To trust for wisdom to the foolish, for strength to the weak, &c., nothing but disappointment can follow.
2. He must be of supreme moral excellence. If we trust to the suspected or the worthless we shall be in a state of perpetual unrest.
3. He must be the same at all times. Trust in the feeble is ruin. Man must have as the object of his trust one whose omnipotent resources and spiritual perfection are beyond the mutation of this world and abide for ever.
III. Who warrants that trust?
1. Do men generally? No;
(1) man, is weak in wisdom and material resources;
(2) morally imperfect;
(3) ever changeful
2. Do princes? Least of all. They are but men, sometimes the weakest, worst, and most fickle of men. What they have done let the followers of Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed, the Pope, and Priestcraft everywhere tell. One thing: ruin.
IV. God offers Himself as the object of human trust. It is better that man should trust Him—
1. Because He warrants that trust. “He is able to do exceeding abundantly,” &c. He is “glorious in holiness.” He is “the same yesterday, to-day,” &c.
2. Because man’s confidence can thereby be secured. That confidence has been sadly shaken. Hence man’s distress. In God it will stand firm.
3. Because of the blessed consequences which will follow.
(1.) salvation;
(2.) inward peace;
(3.) human brotherhood;
(4.) heaven.
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
(Psa_118:10-13)
I. Danger.
1. A surrounding danger, “compassed.” The foes of the Christian are not all in the front or in the light. They are subtle, and everywhere. A sudden temptation may reveal a weakness hitherto unobserved. They assail us at all points, at home and abroad, at work and at rest, in the Church and in the world.
2. A formidable danger.
(1.) In point of numbers, “like bees.” We wrestle with principalities and powers. Countless multitudes are waiting for every weakness, and plotting for every fall.
(2.) In point of pertinacity. The fourfold repetition of the phrase, “They compassed me,” indicates assiduity and perseverance.
(3.) In point of weapons. The sting of the bee is formidable from its very insignificance. So it is not at first by great temptations, but by small, that we are assailed. The sting of the bee is sharp, so the weapons arrayed against us can pierce body, affections, temper, intellect, and soul.
(4.) In the point of dexterity. It is difficult to strike the bee when on the wing. Happy the man who has transfixed the tempter with the sword of the Spirit, and has him under his feet.
3. A fatal danger. “They thrust sore at me that I might fall.” Their aim is not to weaken, but to destroy. Hence quarter is neither given nor taken. Victory or death is the only issue for either side.
II. Help. “The Lord helped me.”
1. By fighting Himself where and when we are helpless. There are certain antagonists we can never cope with. Sin, Satan, and death have to be encountered by Him first, and their power crippled and themselves chained. In effecting this Christ becomes “the Captain of our salvation.”
2. By animating us with the warlike spirit. “God has not given to us the spirit of cowardice (διιλείας), but the spirit of power.”
3. By arming us for the conflict. (Eph_6:13-17).
4. By assurances of victory and reward.
III. Victory. “In the name of the Lord, I will destroy them.”
1. The victory will come swiftly. Like the dry thorns, they shall consume. It remains very much with the Christian, with his faith, courage, and fidelity, when the victory shall be won.
2. The victory shall be complete. “Destroy.” “Sin shall have no more dominion over you.” “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” “Death shall be swallowed up in victory.”
3. The glory of the victory shall be given to him to whom it is due. “In the name of the Lord.” Note:—This takes all the malevolence out of this determination. It was a judicial vengeance of which the Psalmist was only the instrument. God takes all the responsibility. Let persecutors see to it that they have God’s warrant. We know we have it in our war of extermination against sin. “Not unto us, but to Thy name,” &c.
PERSONAL AND FAMILY PIETY
(Psa_118:14-15)
Notice:—
I. That piety is sadly wanting. There are men to whom these words are unintelligible. They know nothing of God’s strength; they are strangers to His salvation; no song wells up from their thankless hearts. Sad is their condition; sad the condition of their homes. In many homes all is vice, misery, want, and broken-heartedness, as the result of the parent’s irreligion. In all houses which are not sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, the deepest wants of the family are unsatisfied.
II. That the want of piety is supplied. “The Lord … has become,” &c. Piety consists of three things.
1. Salvation. “The Lord is become … He is my salvation.” Not simply personal rescue or divine blessing, but indwelling God. This involves every other phase. It drives out sin, rescues from impurity and death, gives heaven.
2. Salvation employed. “My strength,” for use, of course. Strength unemployed will be strength dissipated. If we do not “work out our salvation,” viz., that which God has worked in, “to will and to do of His good pleasure,” spiritual loss and death will supervene.
3. Salvation acknowledged. “My song.” Salvation will and must express itself. The praiseless lip argues the thankless heart, and the thankless heart is the heart from which God has fled.
III. That piety must be personally appropriated. “My.”
1. Piety is a matter between the personal soul and its personal Saviour. There can be no mediation or proxy. No man can either get or keep our religion for us.
2. The means of its appropriation is personal faith. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
3. The test of its appropriation is personal experience. “Is become.” The Psalmist’s experience was no fiction. He knew that there was a time when he felt nothing of the sort. He knew that now that time was over. He had entered on a new phase in his career, and of that phase he was sensible.
IV. That piety is appropriated to be diffused. The sphere of its diffusion here is the home (Psa_118:15). Piety may be diffused at home by
1. Personal example.
2. Careful self-discipline.
3. Intelligent and patient training.
4. Interesting and constant worship, &c.
V. That piety, and piety alone, will make a home happy. “The voice of rejoicing … is in the tabernacles of the righteous.”
1. Some pious homes, it is said, are not happy. Does true piety reign there? or cant, laxity, or severity?
2. True piety must make a happy home, because it is “alway rejoicing.”
VI. A happy home is a miniature of and a nursery for heaven.
IN CONCLUSION.—(i.) Parents, it rests with you whether your home is a heaven or a hell. (ii.) Children, value your homes. The time may come when you will want them. (iii.) Children of pious parents, make your future home what your past has been.
THE LORD’S TRIUMPH
(Psa_118:15-16)
These words may be applied
(1) to God’s sovereignty over the material universe and His power over its laws;
(2) to national deliverances, such as Moses, David, elsewhere acknowledged, yes, and such as we ought to acknowledge. But
(3) it suggests (and we will consider it as suggesting) the triumphs of Christ and His Gospel in the world.
I. The personal triumph of Christ.
1. Over Satan. This began in the wilderness, continued without intermission during His life, and ended by the victory of the Cross.
2. Over the world. Our Lord confronted the world in all its forms, provincial, metropolitan, social, political, upper, lower. “He measured the world and condemned it. And it fully understood Him. It recognised His aim; it quailed before Him, and it hated Him; and it rested not till it had led Him to His Cross; but He said, ‘I have overcome the world.’ ”—Liddon.
3. Over sin, by bearing its penalty on Calvary.
4. Over death, by His resurrection.
5. This fourfold triumph condensed into one at His ascension (Col_1:15, Eph_4:8).
II. The triumphs of His Gospel in the human heart.
1. In its conversion from sin to holiness. Every other means has been tried and has failed, human efforts, education, moral philosophy. But Christ has subdued the will, cleansed the soul, introduced a powerful motive, and imparted a new life.
2. In empowering the soul to resist sin, strenuous opposition, favourable circumstances, human encouragement have been in vain.
3. In promoting the growth of moral excellence.
4. In giving us victory over the world, tribulation, and death.
III. The triumphs of His Church in the world.
1. Over persecution. Its early years were years of blood.
2. Over old heathenism, supported as it was by poetry, learning, and extensive popularity.
3. Over heresy, e.g.
(1) Arianism, in spite of its wide influence and royal patronage;
(2) Popery, that giant superstition, still reels under Luther’s blow, and will yet fall.
4. Over religious indifference. Nothing ever has, or ever will excite such interest and move so much as the simple preaching of the Gospel. Where are the crowds so numerous as at our churches?
5. Over human hearts. Witness Pentecost, the preaching of Luther, Latimer, Wesley, Whitfield, &c. Nor are its triumphs confined to one class. In its early ages the illiterate fisherman, the intelligent publican, and the learned rabbi were charmed and subdued. And the same Gospel has since exerted its influence over Bunyan the tinker and Newton the philosopher.
CHASTISEMENT
(Psa_118:17-18)
The first of these verses was hung up by Luther in his study, as his favourite verse of his favourite Psalm. “It has come to my aid again and again, and supported me in heavy trials, when Kaiser, king, philosopher, and saint could do nought” Chastisement—
I. Its nature. “The Lord hath chastened me sore.”
1. It was the Lord’s chastisement, therefore sovereign, fatherly.
2. By human instrumentality. His enemies were permitted to “thrust at him sore.”
3. Thorough. “Sore.” Not too much, not too little, but sufficiently to accomplish the divine purposes (Job_30:11).
II. Its limits. “He hath not given me over to death.”
1. Physical death.
2. Intellectual death. Despair.
3. Moral death. Destruction.
III. Its consolations. “I shall not die, but live.”
1. It was corrective, remedial, and therefore not simply punitive (Jer_10:24).
2. Hopefulness against the worst. “I shall not die.”
3. Confidence for the best. “But live” (Act_27:22-25).
IV. Its effects. “And declare the works of the Lord.”
1. Devout gratitude.
2. Personal improvement.
3. Religious earnestness and testimony. “No affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, but afterward,” &c.
THE SACRED ENCLOSURE
(Psa_118:19-21)
I. The enclosure.
1. Literal. Our text primarily refers to the sacred enclosure that was accessible to true Israelites alone. (Isa_26:2.) That enclosure was the house of God, where His glory was manifested, His name worshipped, and His people’s righteousness confirmed and strengthened. So the Christian Church is where God’s presence is felt, His word proclaimed, His worship celebrated, &c.
2. Moral. Christian life is a temple of the living God and the sphere of righteousness. A way of holiness where God dwells and walks with His people.
3. Heavenly (Psa_24:7). Heaven is the sanctuary of God, and the dwelling place of righteousness.
II. The gates of that enclosure. “The gates of righteousness.” “The gate of the Lord.”
1. The gate which belongs to the Lord. The Lord keeps the gate; not Peter, not His ministers, but Himself.
2. The gate is of the Lord’s appointment. All who enter by any other climb over the wall and are thieves and robbers. There is only one way opened. “There is only one name given under heaven,” &c.
3. The gate is the Lord Himself. “I am the way.” “I am the door.” Christ alone is the entrance to God’s righteousness.
III. The keys to that enclosure.
1. Ardent supplication. “Open,” implying need of entrance, desire to enter. “Ask;” “seek;” “knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
2. The divine willingness. “Thou hast heard.” God has a sovereign right to admit or exclude all He chooses; but we know that He will be guided by righteousness, and will not select on arbitrary principles.
3. Salvation. “Art become my salvation.” Nothing that is defiled or maketh a lie can enter. Only “the redeemed shall walk there.” They “enter in and find pasture.”
IV. The privileges and duties of that enclosure.
1. Worship. “I will praise the Lord.”
2. Righteousness.
IN CONCLUSION.—(i.) The outer courts are open to all.
(1.) Many privileges of the material sanctuary. But let the Church beware how she throws all her privileges open.
(2.) Opportunities for righteousness.
(3.) Opportunities for qualifying for heaven. (ii.) The inner court is open to all who are qualified to enter.
(1.) All the means of grace;
(2.) the fulfilment of all righteousness;
(3.) all the hopes and fruits of glory.
CHRIST THE CORNER-STONE
(Psa_118:22-23)
Whatever literal application these verses may have had, that application is now merged into the richer, larger, and undoubted application to the Messiah. No text is more frequently quoted in the New Testament. Six or seven times it is quoted word for word, and in innumerable instances is it unquestionably referred to where Christ is made the one, true, and only foundation of the Church. “Must we, in opposition to the perverted and obstinate exegesis even of believing commentators, begin to prove that this Psalm is Messianic—that the corner-stone is a real prophecy of the Spirit concerning Christ? We frankly confess ourselves to be so often vexed by such contentions with brethren who do not understand the scripture, that we lose patience; and, however unscientifically, are inclined rather to rebuke them with Christ (Luk_24:25) until their hearts burn, and their burning hearts begin to read in the light of the Pentecostal fire what is written.”—Stier. Observe—
I. That Christ is the corner-stone.
1. What the corner-stone is not.
(1.) Feelings towards Christ. These are most unsubstantial and shifting.
(2.) Doctrines concerning Christ. These merely tell us about the corner-stone.
(3.) The example of Christ. This is simply the character of the corner-stone.
(4.) The Church of Christ. That is the building reared on the corner-stone.
2. What the corner-stone is. “Jesus Christ Himself being the chief stone.” This only is solid, constant, and eternal. All else is sand. This is rock. Jesus Christ in His divine-human personality. Incarnate, crucified, risen, glorified, and reigning.
3. What the corner-stone is for.
(1.) For beauty. Corner-stones are the most costly, choice, and adorned. Other stones derive their excellency from them. So the Christian building derives its beauty from Him who is “full of grace and truth.” “Of His fulness all we have received, and grace for grace.”
(2.) Stability. They are chosen for firmness, strength, and durability. They uphold and maintain the building which without them would crumble and fall. So Christ supports the individual believer and the collective Church, in weakness, trials, hour of death, day of judgment.
(3.) Unity and compactness. Take away the corner-stone and the sides of the house become separate buildings. This unity is not uniformity. The other stones are of various sizes, value, colour, material. The corner-stone gives harmony. So different men have different capacities, preferences, modes of thought and feeling. Christ binds them into a mighty whole—His Church.
II. That Christ is the only cornerstone. There have been many rival corner-stones. They have been tried, but they have failed, and so have those who have built upon them. Paganism, Unbelief, Socialism, Philosophy, Ethics. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,” &c. He is the only cornerstone by which God and man can be brought together on terms that are at once honourable, amicable, strong, and abiding. He alone can bring the dispensations together into a harmonious whole and make them an enduring basis for faith and morals. He is the only means by which the disintegrated masses of mankind can find their principle of cohesion. “One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” He is the only means whereby the disorganised faculties of our nature can be reduced to order and compacted in strength and “so make our new man.”
III. That Christ is the divinely established corner-stone. “This is the Lord’s doings.” It is no myth or speculation. It is not the doing of men or angels, but of—
1. The Holy Trinity. The Father “sent forth His Son,” and consecrated Him. “Him hath God the Father sealed.” The Son “came,” and by His own power laid “down His life and took it again.” The Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ and imparts them to us.
2. The divine attributes. Wisdom devised it; justice instituted it; love gave it; and power laid it.
3. The divine providence.
(1.) By a wonderful preparation. Moral: the Jews; intellectual: the Greeks; political: the Romans.
(2.) In an age which by its peculiar fitness was “the fulness of the times.”
IV. That Christ is the rejected corner-stone. In all ages since His advent He has been the despised and rejected of men. The Jewish people and the whole heathen world combined at first to resist His claims. He was a stumbling-block to the one, and foolishness to the other. Persecution and controversy since have proved that the human heart is alien to Him. Sin, infidelity, heresy, and worldliness all refuse to build upon Christ.
V. That Christ is the marvellous corner-stone.
1. Marvellous when we consider who is the corner-stone.
(1.) In its unlikelihood. The man Christ Jesus, born in a manger; the Man of Sorrows, crucified as a malefactor.
(2.) In its condescension. The brightness of the Father’s glory, creator of the universe, governor of angels, Lord of man.
2. Marvellous when we consider the means by which He has become the cornerstone. By the simple preaching of truths alien to natural inclinations, political institutions, moral usages; demanding the resignation of pride of intellect, independence of will, pleasure, profit; by men, weak and unlearned in the world’s estimation, whose weapons were not learning or swords, but holiness, suffering, zeal, and prayer.
3. Marvellous when we consider the numbers and quality of those who have made it their corner-stone. Countless millions have eschewed beliefs consecrated by the profession of unnumbered ages, have thrown off their allegiance to priesthoods armed with every terror and device, have resisted the fascinations of philosophy, and have left darling vices and besetting sins. These have been from all ranks—monarchs, nobles, warriors, statesmen, poets, &c.
THE LORD’S DAY
(Psa_118:24)
I. The day—
1. Of temporal deliverance. God has made that. By a variety of providential dispensations. Indirectly, through men and other instrumentalities, e.g., in sickness, through the physician; in perplexities, by friendly advice and help. Directly, by the interposition of His mighty power.
2. Of salvation. The whole Christian dispensation is the time accepted by God in which to bless mankind. It is the time acceptable to man in which his pressing spiritual wants may be supplied.
3. Of conversion. The day when God gives, and we personally take, Jesus Christ to be our chief corner-stone. Let that “happy day” never be forgotten.
4. The sabbath day, by Jehovah’s rest and Christ’s resurrection.
(2.) Gladness. Let no man say that religion is a thing of gloom. God blesses us that we may be happy. Let the day of rest be the gladdest of all the seven.
BENEDICTIONS
(Psa_118:25-26)
This passage received its fulfilment only in Him who came in the supremest sense in the name of the Lord (Mat_21:9). Here, however, it admits of a human and general interpretation.
I. The blessing supplicated.
1. This supplication is the expression of a want. “Save.” “Send prosperity.” “Save,” implying moral evil and degradation; “Prosperity,” loss and misery.
2. This supplication was earnest. “Beseech.” Our need is great, so must be our cry. Listless prayer implies unconsciousness of need.
3. This supplication was urgent. “Save now.” “Send now.” Need is always present. Blessings are ever wanted.
II. The conditions of blessing fulfilled.
1. Coming.
(1.) This is inexorable. “Come, now, let us reason;” “Seek ye the Lord,” &c.
(2.) Can only be fulfilled through Christ. “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”
(3.) Is equivalent to Christian faith. Faith is the soul’s approach to God through Christ.
2. Coming in the name of the Lord.
(1) Not in our name, or
(2) by our own merits, but
(3) in the name of the Lord. Self-distrust, resignation, confidence.
III. The blessing vouchsafed.
1. Salvation; from the guilt, power, pollution, and punishment of sin.
2. Prosperity. The great gift of God through His Son and Spirit. Regeneration, sanctification, indwelling peace, joy, power, heaven.
IV. The place of blessing. “The house of the Lord.”
1. All the means of grace are there concentrated.
2. The vast majority of Christians receive their highest blessings there.
PERSONAL RELIGION
(Psa_118:27-29)
I. Personal religion consists in the acknowledgment of a personal God. Religion must rest on a dogmatic and theological basis. Whatever definition we give to the term religion, this is primarily involved. If it consists in the bond which unites the soul to the Supreme Being, then we must know who that Supreme Being is. If it consists in duty, then with reference to whom are those duties performed. To resolve God into a “stream or tendency which makes for righteousness” does not avoid theology or dogma.
II. Personal religion consists in the acknowledgment of a personal God accessible to man. God is accessible, because He is “good.” If He is not good, He is unapproachable, and must be the object of man’s fear. God is permanently accessible, because His mercy endureth for ever. Religion must have an object who can be approached through all the vicissitudes of life.
III. Personal religion consists in the apprehension of a personal God. “My God.” “This is a truth unknown beyond the precincts of revelation. The Almighty and Eternal gives Himself in the fulness of His being to the soul that seeks Him. Heathenism, indeed, in its cultus of domestic and local duties, of its penates, of its θεοὶ ἐπιχωρίοι, bare witness to the deep yearning of the human heart for the individualising love of a higher power. To know the true God is to know that such a craving is satisfied.”—Liddon.
IV. Personal religion consists in the acknowledgment and enjoyment of a divine revelation “which hath showed us light.” If God is to be approached and apprehended, He must reveal Himself. If man is to receive his Maker’s blessing, be united to his Maker’s person, and fulfil his Maker’s will, he must be told who that Maker is and what He would have him do. God hath showed us light in the Bible and in the revelation of Him who said, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
V. Personal religion consists in personal sacrifices (Psa_118:27).
VI. Personal religion consists in devout worship, thanksgiving, and praise (Psa_118:28-29).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1This inquiry may be regarded:—
Psa 118:6
This inquiry may be regarded:—
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I. As a check on human presumption.
II. As a warning against impious distrust.
III. As a rebuke of moral timidity.
IV. As an argument against all false confidences.
Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 272.
References: Psa 118:8.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 67. Psa 118:10.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 254. Psa 118:12.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 97.
Psa 118:17
I. What did these words mean in the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ? Before His crucifixion the words were clearly a prophecy of the Resurrection. But after the Resurrection the words must have had a fuller and, if we may dare to say it, a more literal meaning; they became to Him more literally true. "Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more"—this was their meaning; this is indeed the crowning glory of the Easter victory: it is final.
II. We listen here again to the heart of the Church of Christ, to an utterance that comes from it again and again during the centuries of its eventful history. In three ways the Church of Christ has been from time to time brought down to all appearance to the very chambers of the dead, and from this deep depression she has risen again to newness of life. (1) There have been the distress and suffering produced by outward persecution; (2) the decay of vital convictions within her fold; (3) moral corruption. Yet whatever might be the load of passing distress and discouragement, there has reigned all along the profound conviction that the faith and life of Christendom would not die out, that the Church still might say, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord."
III. In these words we have the true language of the individual Christian soul whether in recovery from illness or face to face with death. The legend that the risen Lazarus was never seen to smile expresses the sense of mankind as to what becomes the man who has passed the threshold of the other world; and surely a new and peculiar seriousness is due from those who have had to pass it, and who have returned to life by what is little less than a resurrection. Like the risen Jesus, and in virtue of His resurrection power, such a life must "declare the works of the Lord."
H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 296 (see also Contemporary Pulpit, vol. i., p. 352; and Easter Sermons, vol. i., p. 134).
References: Psa 118:17.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 268. Psa 118:19.—J. Morgan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 99.
Psa 118:22-24
I. There can be no doubt that it is our Lord Jesus Christ whom David here designates as "the stone which the builders refused." And when it has been ascertained that it is Christ whom David describes by the figure of a stone, there can be little debate that His resurrection placed Him at the head of the corner, for He rose from the dead as a Conqueror, though He went down to the grave like one vanquished by enemies; and henceforward there shall be "committed unto Him all power both in heaven and in earth."
II. The feelings of the psalmist were those of amazement and delight. (1) Never ought the resurrection of the Redeemer to appear to us other than a fact as amazing as it is consolatory, for there is a respect in which the resurrection of Christ differs immeasurably from every other recorded case of the quickening of the dead. Others were raised by Christ, or by men acting in the name and with the authority of Christ; but Christ raised Himself. The stone, rejected as it had been, and thrown by the builders into the pit, stirred of itself in its gloomy receptacle, instinct miraculously with life, forced back whatever opposed its return, and sprang to its due place in the temple of God. Verily we must exclaim, with the psalmist, "This is the Lord’s doing." (2) But amazement or admiration is not the only feeling which the fact before us should excite. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (a) There was no day before; it was not day to an apostate and darkened creation till the Sun of righteousness rose on it in His strength; and His rising was virtually the rising from the dead. We, then, who can rejoice, because there has arisen a Mediator between us and God, must therefore rejoice in the exaltation of the rejected stone. It was in the rising to the head of the corner that this stone swept down the obstacles to the forgiveness of man, and opened to him the pathway to heaven and immortality. (b) The resurrection of our own bodies is intimately connected with the resurrection of Christ, connected as an effect with a cause, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The resurrection of the body is a cause for joy.
This Psalm has been applied by our Church to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is looked upon as a triumphant hymn. All throughout are notes of thanksgiving; and all throughout are allusions to Christ, and to His victory, and the defeat of His enemies. It is full of the great tidings of a risen, conquering Lord; and these tidings are beyond all others of importance to man, the greatest, the gladdest, charged with most stupendous consequences.
I. If it belong to man to rejoice when some great captain has fought his country’s enemies, and beaten them, and led their chiefs captives, how much more surely ought the Christian to be glad and rejoice on each recurrence of Easter. For it is the anniversary of the Lord’s victory. He comes, leading the invader a prisoner, leading captivity captive. He comes to proclaim the victory.
II. The joy that a Christian feels today is a widespread joy; it is not only that the holy and innocent Jesus has shown Himself the Conqueror, but it is because the benefit of His victory reaches far and wide—reaches to all the race which He came to save. The enemy which Christ subdued is our enemy. The crown which He has won, the crown of life, is a crown that we too may hope to wear.
III. The resurrection of the dead is assured to us by what happened today. Sad and incessant are the inroads of Death, mighty in power, still a great severer of dear ties, a separator of chief friends; but his power is broken. Jesus has gone before us through the grave and gate of death; He speaks to us today from the other side of the flood: "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death."
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 3rd series, p. 92.
What are the joys of Easter? Why on this day above all days should we rejoice and be glad?
I. Our first and highest joy today is undoubtedly that Jesus is happy—happy that His work is done; happy that His people’s work is done in His.
II. The next joy is that those whom we have loved, and lost, and laid in their quiet graves will rise where He has risen. For as His grave hath opened, so hath theirs.
III. This is an Easter joy: your salvation is sure. Jesus and His atoning death have been accepted. "He is raised for your justification."
IV. If you are really a member in the mystical body of Christ, you were there when Christ rose; it is a risen life you are leading. You may look upon old things as a risen man may look upon his graveclothes. You are free—free from bondage; free to walk; free to run; free to soar in your holy liberty.
V. No one will pass his Easter rightly who does not get up in heart and life a little higher than he was before. The characteristic feature of the season is rising. There is no joy on earth like a life going up, ascending in the Christian scale. Consecrate this Easter by some one distinct upward step, some rise in the being of your immortality.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 11th series, p. 173.
We Christians, though born in our very infancy into the kingdom of God and chosen above all other men to be heirs of heaven and witnesses to the world, and though knowing and believing this truth entirely, yet have very great difficulty, and pass many years, in learning our privilege. This insensibility or want of apprehension rises in great measure from our exceeding frailness and sinfulness. Yet besides this, there are certainly other reasons too which make it difficult for us to apprehend our state and cause us to do so but gradually, and which are not our fault, but which arise out of our position and circumstances.
I. We are born into the fulness of Christian blessings long before we have reason. As, then, we acquire reason itself but gradually, so we acquire the knowledge of what we are but gradually also. We are like people waking from sleep, who cannot collect their thoughts at once or understand where they are. By little and little the truth breaks upon us. Such are we in the present world, sons of light, gradually waking to a knowledge of themselves.
II. Our duties to God and man are not only duties done to them, but they are means of enlightening our eyes and making our faith apprehensive. Every act of obedience has a tendency to strengthen our convictions about heaven.
III. While we feel keenly, as we ought, that we do not honour this blessed day with that lively and earnest joy which is its due, yet let us not be discouraged, let us not despond, at this. We do feel joy; we feel more joy than we know we do. We see more of the next world than we know we see. As children say to themselves, "This is the spring," or "This is the sea," trying to grasp the thought and not let it go; as travellers in a foreign land say, "This is that great city," or "This is that famous building," knowing it has a long history through centuries and vexed with themselves that they know so little about it, so let us say, "This is the day of days, the royal day, the Lord’s Day. This is the day on which Christ arose from the dead, the day which brought us salvation." It brings us in figure through the grave and gate of death to our season of refreshment in Abraham’s bosom.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vi., p. 94.
References: Psa 118:24.—J. Sherman, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. v., p. 26; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 255; A. Rees, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 328; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. iii., p. 275; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. iii., p. 123; H. P. Liddon, Easter Sermons, vol. i., p. 226, and Old Testament Outlines, p. 145. Psa 118:27.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 86.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant1903 · Public DomainOn v1The Head of the Corner.
The Head of the Corner.
The speaker in the first psalm is again one of the remnant of Israel of the latter days, the representative of the nation as wrought in by the Spirit of God; and the psalm itself is throughout prophetic. It has five sections, which are not in general difficult of connection. Any difficulty which we may find will be rather in detail.
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1. The perpetual goodness of Jehovah, so constantly and naturally before us in this Deuteronomic book of the Psalms, is again the thesis here. All are exhorted to give Him thanks for this, with the division that we have had elsewhere into Israel, the national witness for Him, -the house of Aaron; the priestly family, and those that fear Jehovah, which would include, at least, those turned to Him from the Gentiles. The separation of the house of Aaron from the rest of the nation would seem still to indicate the sacrificial basis upon which all ever depends for them.
There follows the practical expression of His loving-kindness whose name is shown by the constant reiteration of it to be so endeared to them. They called upon Him in strait: in a large place He answered. Way and end are simply enough connected thus; and the simplicity is the sweetness of it. What power is there in the cry of a needy suppliant for Him! As a result the soul becomes bold in its confidence: with Jehovah for him, what is it possible for man -all men -to do? He is among those that help him, their strength and inspiration, and the overthrow of enemies is sure to come.
2. The opposition is now seen in its full extent, according to the prophetic picture of Israel in the last days. It is prefaced with the reiterated assurance of how much better it is to trust in Jehovah than in men of any kind, even the nobles (nedibhim), the men of liberality and frank chivalrous action. All nations had gathered against Israel, only to be cut off by a feeble people sheltered and energized by Jehovah’s Name. Like bees they gather, like a fire of thorns, which burns up fiercely and dies out, they are quenched and gone.
3. Jehovah is then again celebrated as their sanctuary and refuge, -not merely a safe and sure retreat, but where the holiness of His presence is felt and finds response. The psalmist apostrophizes here the vanquished enemy. "Thou hast thrust at me hard, to make me fall; but Jehovah helped me. Jehovah is my strength and psalm: and He is become my salvation." Thus singing and salvation are now uttering themselves in the tents of the righteous, and it is as at the Red Sea and more marvelously, Jehovah’s right hand that has accomplished all: Jehovah is the "man of war"; "Jehovah’s right hand doeth valiantly."
But there is more for them than external deliverance in all this, even as the sorrow that they had been passing through was the sign and consequence of a spiritual condition which had forced Jehovah into opposition to them. They had had to face death with the terror of God’s wrath in it, as we have seen. Yet He had not given them over to it. The exercise had been profitable for them; the chastening had done its work; and now they would not die, but live. The gates of righteousness could now be opened to them, and they would enter in and give thanks to Jehovah.
4. But even so, this is not all: we are, in fact, only approaching the real and fundamental truth of their condition. The gate of righteousness which they have challenged -the way into Jehovah’s presence -belongs to Himself. He alone it is who can affix the terms of admission, terms which must be set by the demands of His own nature. True: "the righteous shall enter it": that, in some sort, is easily apprehended; but it only raises the old question, "How shall man be just with God?" And have they -these delivered Israelites -now found the answer?
Beautiful it is to see then that in the very next sentence they are speaking of "salvation": "I will give thanks to Thee, for Thou hast answered me, and become my salvation." Righteousness with God is indeed the portion of the saved, and only of the saved: it is a gift, and not a work wrought out by us, nor (in the sense in which we are speaking of it) even wrought out in us. While there is, assuredly, a practical righteousness which is wrought out in us, and which is necessarily connected with our capacity to enjoy, and our moral fitness for, the presence of God, it is not any the more the "gate" into His presence. Here the righteousness we need is in Another. Christ is Himself the gate." The purging of sin and the positive value in which we stand are found in One alone who is the Head of blessing. for His people. And thus we can realize to the full the personal element in the language here: "I will give thanks to Thee, for Thou hast answered me, and hast become my salvation."
We naturally ask, however, is not this, perhaps, too evangelic an interpretation of what may be more simply taken? Israel has been in peril from external enemies, the nations that had been gathered against her, and the so absolutely similar words of the 14th verse unmistakably refer to this temporal deliverance. Is there anything more in the present one than the thought of entering into the presence of God now, to thank Him for this decisive overthrow of all their adversaries?
This is a question which cannot, I believe, be decided by the words themselves, but only by the connection. And here it is certain that they have been speaking of a "gate" which "belongeth to Jehovah," and which necessarily implies conditions as to entering into His presence. "This gate" -what can it be? If it be simply their own righteousness, -the righteousness of a people just now threatened with judgment for their sins, -it would seem as if much stress could be hardly laid upon it; and here we naturally look for some reference to how the long tale of sin had been put away. But more than this, the very next verse does undoubtedly refer to Christ, and in such a character as completely to justify the thought that the foundation of the soul in the presence of God is in fact before them: -"A stone which the builders refused is become the Head of the corner."
The Lord Himself and the apostles quote and apply this scripture. Isaiah (28: 16) gives us the direct prophecy: "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation; a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious corner-[stone], a sure foundation." It is thus a foundation-stone that is in question; and we can read "the head of the corner" in no other way than it is read in Ephesians (Eph 2:20), "Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone." The "chief corner-stone" and the "head of the corner" are the same thing.
We are, of course, in Ephesians in the midst of Christian realities, and must take care, in any transference of texts to Jewish themes, to make account of resulting differences: but in the case before us we may find the differences themselves to give instruction. The apostle Paul is speaking of the church of God, which in the Old Testament was a mystery yet hidden. It is this of which he adds: "in whom the whole building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord." Thus he is speaking of a temple -a Christian one -and of Christ as its foundation. The connection in the psalm enables us to see that here also it is the foundation of a temple that is spoken of. In the gospel of Matthew, where the Lord refers to this text, it is in the temple that He actually is. When He finally leaves it, He calls it no longer God’s but "your house," and pronounces sentence upon it as such: not one stone would be left upon another (Mat 23:38; Mat 24:2). Upon their foundations, who in self-righteousness and unbelief rejected Him, no dwelling-place of God could stand.
Israel had thus remained for many generations without that which was their distinctive glory. But they are again to possess it; and the psalm contemplates this blessed time. Christ, hitherto rejected, will then be the foundation upon which the dwelling of God among them will securely rest. When we look at the typical house, even in the wilderness, we are at no loss to understand that the sockets of the boards which were its framework spoke of Him; being made of the silver money of atonement (Exo 28:27). As its curtained gates also spake of Him; and the beautiful curtains which were the very tabernacle itself. "In Him" the whole structure stood; and ark and mercy-seat, the very place of the Throne, still spake of Him. In this psalm we have no longer the tabernacle, but the solid foundations of the permanent building; but as to its essential meaning there could be no change; and when He declared to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," He spake of the temple of His body (Joh 2:21). Essentially -in its true spiritual reality -He was the whole thing; and in the psalm here it is as the Risen One, refused of the builders, and His life taken from the earth, but alive again from the dead, with His glorious work accomplished, He is the foundation of Israel’s praise for evermore.
We are carried thus far beyond the fact of their merely temporal deliverance, great and marvelous as that must be, and realize the foundation upon which the worshipers stand, and the "gate" which "belongeth to Jehovah," through which they come into His presence. Not any righteousness of their own is here in question. The once refused and slain; now risen and glorified One is all their joy.
"This cometh of Jehovah" is now their cry, "and it is marvelous in our eyes." So indeed it will be; and the whole "day" will be seen to be of Jehovah’s making. He has brought it all about, the trial and the sorrow which were His only way of blessing for them; and the end now reached its glorious consummation. And now, all hindrance to their blessing being removed, their "Hosanna" ("save now") can be heard: "Save now, Jehovah, I beseech Thee; I beseech Thee, Jehovah, send now prosperity."
For the time of real and full return of heart to God is now reached, in which that will be accomplished of which the Lord spoke in the hour of His rejection as that which would bring Him to them once again. "Ye shall not see Me henceforth," He says, "until ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord." Here we have the decisive word: "Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord" (Jehovah); and this is the indication of their spiritual condition: He had had to say of them: "I have come in my Father’s name, and ye receive Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." (Joh 5:43.) For alas, it was against God Himself that they were in hostility: with the desperate implacability of a heart set upon its own lusts, they both saw and hated "Him and His Father." (Joh 15:24.)
Now that which He had declared they would do, they have done. At the standpoint of the psalm; Antichrist has come in his own name, and been received; but a remnant wrought upon by divine grace has been turned to God; and in these is found the revival of the national life. Theirs is the cry, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of Jehovah," and "out of the house of Jehovah" -the sign; as we have seen; of restored favor -they are saluted with blessing. The last part of the verse is evidently a responsive greeting from within, as the worshipers approach Jehovah’s dwelling.
5. The last section is accordingly the joy and homage of those in restored and eternal relationship to God. "Jehovah is the Mighty One": they have proved Him such; but more, -"He hath given us light." Hence they fill the courts of His house with sacrifices, even up to the horns of the altar itself. He is their Mighty One, -their God; and they exalt Him. The psalm closes with the refrain of the anthem, heard ever and anon throughout this book: "Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good: for His loving-kindness endureth for ever."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1This Ps. was evidently written for the Temple worship…
This Ps. was evidently written for the Temple worship on the occasion of some great festival (Psa_118:24), when it might be used as a processional hymn. It has been variously referred (a) to the time when Zerubbabel laid the foundation of the second Temple; (b) to the time of Nehemiah; (c) to the cleansing of the Temple by Judas Maccabæus. It is a noble song. Luther declared that he owed more to Psalms 118 than to all the princes and friends who supported him.
Psa_118:1-18, dealing with the subject of God's mercy, which has brought them out of trouble, are sung by the procession antiphonally in halfverses; 19 is the request of the procession before the gates, and 20 the Levite reply; 21-24 are sung antiphonally; 26 is the cry of the Levite choir within; while 29 is a closing liturgical chant for the whole congregation.
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3. House of Aaron] the elite of the nation.
5. In distress] lit. 'in a strait place.' The lord] RM 'Heb. Jah,' a contraction of Jehovah.
12. Are quenched] but Bæthgen, with a slight change of Hebrew, renders, 'they flared forth like a fire of thorns,' and this makes admirable sense. Omit for.
13-16. The thought changes to the scene of the encounter.
14. Quoted from Exo_15:2.
15. The right hand, etc.] This and the following v. are what the voice says.
19. Gates of righteousness] i.e. the gates of the Temple whence God's righteousness streams forth, or it may mean the gates into which righteous men enter: cp. Psa_118:20.
22. The stone] i.e. Israel primarily. The builders] the nations of the world. There is, however, a tradition that such a stone really existed in the building of the second Temple. The ultimate application to Jesus Christ is most fitting: cp. Mat_21:42; Act_4:11, etc.
24. The day] a day of triumph.
25. Save now] Heb. hoshiea na anna hence, 'Hosanna,' which became a hturgical formula: cp. Mat_21:9.
26. Cometh] better, 'entereth' (the courts of the Lord).
27. Which hath shewed] RV 'and He hath given.' Bind, etc.] The Hebrew is obscure. 'Bind the sacrificial victim with cords even till you come to the horns of the altar,' or, less likely, 'Bind the procession with festal garlands and approach the horns of the altar.' There is nothing about binding the sacrifice to the horns, etc.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v4(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
fear
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1Psalm 118-119
Psalm 118-119
Psalm 118
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Christ the Head of the Corner
1. His mercy endureth forever (Psa 118:1-7)
2. The past experience (Psa 118:8-12)
3. Jehovah My Salvation (Psa 118:13-19)
4. The rejected stone the head of the corner (Psa 118:20-29)
This Psalm is the last one which is used from ancient times by the Jews in celebrating the Passover in the home. The Psalms sung begin with Psa 113:1-9 and end with this Psalm, the one hundred-eighteenth. It is called the “Hallel,” the Praise. Our Lord sang together with His disciples this Hallel (Mat 26:30; Mar 14:26). The One hundred-eighteenth Psalm was therefore the last which they sang, before the Lord with His disciples that memorable night when He was betrayed, went to the Mount of Olives. And speaking to the chief priests and elders our Lord applied this Psalm to Himself. See Psa 118:22 and compare with Mat 21:42. Furthermore Psa 118:26 is also used by our Lord in Mat 23:39. So there is no question that the Spirit of God speaks of Him in this Psalm. It has been suggested that this Psalm was written and used in connection with the completion and consecration of the second temple. That it was used in other feast days, apart from Passover, seems evident; perhaps in connection with the feast of tabernacles. The Psalm begins with thanksgiving for His mercy manifested towards Israel in their deliverance. Nations had compassed them about, but in the Name of the Lord they were cut off. Therefore Israel sings “The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.” The voice of rejoicing and salvation is therefore in the tabernacles of the righteous (Psa 118:14-15). They are delivered from death. Note the “gates of righteousness” in Psa 118:19, through which they wish to enter in to praise the Lord. But immediately after we read, “This gate is the LORD’s, the righteous shall enter it.” It is Christ the Door, through which Israel also must enter, as every other sinner must use Him as the gate, the door of salvation. We read therefore at once “I will praise Thee for Thou hast heard me and art become my salvation.”
And then the verse concerning the stone which the builders rejected and which has become the head of the corner. His people rejected Him and He became for them the stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. They were nationally broken to pieces (Mat 21:44). Then He became the cornerstone of another house, the church, of which He is the chief cornerstone. In the day of His second coming He will be the smiting stone, striking down Gentile dominion (Dan 2:1-49) and grinding opposing nations to powder (Mat 21:44). And after that He will be the cornerstone for His people Israel, upon whom all rests. This is indeed marvellous in their eyes as it is also to us. The cry “Hosanna,” or “Save now” (Psa 118:25) and “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the LORD is the welcome of Israel to her returning King.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1A Psalm for Festival Services.
A Psalm for Festival Services.
This hymn, written altogether in the style of David, bears a liturgical character and was, in fact, used in the Jewish Church upon the occasion of the great festivals, as part of their great hallel, chanted during the time when the Temple-offerings were brought, as well as by the individual families in the intervals of the Passover-meal, although it may originally have been composed for use at the Feast of Tabernacles. Sections of the psalm were in such general use that the pilgrims going forth to meet Jesus at the time of His last entry into Jerusalem chanted them almost spontaneously, Mat 21:9; Mar 11:9; Luk 19:38.
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v. 1. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, namely, in imparting His kindness in rich blessings upon the faithful; because His mercy endureth forever. Cf Psa 106:1; Psa 107:1; Psa 136:1.
v. 2. Let Israel, the entire nation, as the chosen people of God, now say that His mercy endureth forever.
v. 3. Let the house of Aaron, not only the priests, but the entire Church, as a congregation of priests, now say that His mercy endureth forever.
v. 4. Let them now that fear the Lord, all believers of all times, say that His mercy endureth forever. The urgent invitation having gone forth to the whole Church to join in praising the Lord, the psalmist now states the reason for his admonition.
v. 5. I called upon the Lord in distress, when he was in straits, in such difficulties that he could turn neither to the right nor to the left; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place, where he had freedom of movement on every side, where he was no longer cramped and hindered on account of being beset by dangers and enemies.
v. 6. The Lord is on my side, Rom 8:31; I will not fear; what can man, mere men, puny creatures, do unto me?
v. 7. The Lord taketh my part with them that help me, as his assistance, Jehovah’s help outweighing that of all other helpers; therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me, the enemies being bound to submit before His almighty power. The psalmist now urges the proper trust in Jehovah, as the One who is exalted in power above all men.
v. 8. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man, man at his best being but a weak and helpless creature.
v. 9. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes, for their power, after all, is small, and their favor deceitful.
v. 10. All nations compassed me about, or, "though all the heathen should surround me," but in the name of the Lord, trusting in the almighty power of Jehovah, will I destroy them, cut them down, exterminate them.
v. 11. They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about, though they attempt their attacks on all sides; but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them, he who makes the Lord his ally always having the balance of power in his favor.
v. 12. They compassed me about like bees, or, "like wasps," who were particularly troublesome and vicious during harvest-time; they are quenched as the fire of thorns, which flares up with great force, but is as quickly extinguished; for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. Sure of the assistance of Jehovah, the congregation is at all times possessed of a feeling of triumph.
v. 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall, the impersonal subject being used in the Hebrew, people have attempted in every possible way to wound and overcome the believer; but the Lord helped me. Therefore his song rings out with that of all the faithful.
v. 14. The Lord is my Strength, affording the believer might to overcome, and Song, the subject of hymns of praise at all times, and is become my Salvation, delivering him from all enemies.
v. 15. The voice of rejoicing and salvation, the happiness over the marvelous deliverance, as expressed in hymns of the congregation, is in the tabernacles of the righteous, in the homes of all believers, who have become partakers of the righteousness of the Messiah by the gift of God. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly, exalted in victory.
v. 16. The right hand of the Lord, emblem of almighty power, is exalted, in a rule over all enemies; the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly, in possession of victory.
v. 17. I shall not die, thus being deprived of the privilege of praising Jehovah, but live, being preserved by God’s mercy, and declare the works of the Lord, that being one of the glorious duties of all believers.
v. 18. The Lord hath chastened me sore, in the anxieties and distresses to which the psalmist had referred in v. 5; but He hath not given me over unto death. Although the psalmist speaks in the singular, he is speaking in the name of the congregation, setting forth their common experience.
v. 19. Open to me the gates of righteousness, this name being applied to the gates of the Temple, since they afforded an entrance to the place where God imparted His righteousness in His Word; I will go into them, together with all other members of the congregation, and I will praise the Lord, Jehovah of salvation;
v. 20. this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter, the sacrificial acts on the part of the congregation, and the sacramental acts on the part of God’s servants, uniting them with Him in the most intimate fellowship.
v. 21. I will praise Thee, in the full consciousness of this wonderful union with Jehovah; for Thou hast heard me and art become my Salvation.
v. 22. The stone which the builders refused, rejecting it with scorn as useless, is become the headstone of the corner, the corner-stone upholding the entire building of the Lord’s Temple. This is a direct prophecy, which, as Jesus says, was fulfilled in Himself, Mat 21:42; Mar 12:10-11; Act 4:11; 1Pe 2:7; Isa 28:16. The Jews rejected their Savior, refusing to acknowledge Him as the promised Messiah; but He, by the merciful counsel of the Lord, became the Corner-stone of the Christian Church, the Foundation upon which all believers rest their hope of salvation, Eph 2:20-22.
v. 23. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes, and its marvel grows with every new consideration of the manner in which our salvation was effected.
v. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made, the day, the period of grace and salvation extending down to the last day of the world, Isa 49:8; 2Co 6:2; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Cf Rev 19:7.
v. 25. Save now, the hosanna of the multitudes on Palm Sunday, I beseech Thee, O Lord! O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity, true spiritual happiness, Mat 21:9.
v. 26. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord, this cry of welcome as used by the chorus of Levites in the Temple-services and by the inhabitants of Jerusalem in greeting their brethren from a distance, being used in an unusually appropriate manner in the case of Christ upon His entrance into the city; we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord, wishing them the wonderful blessings which are dispensed at the Temple.
v. 27. God is the Lord, Jehovah is God, the only true God, which hath showed us light, with the spiritual enlightenment in His Word. Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar, the number of the offerings being so great upon festive occasions that the entire court was filled with the animals, so that some of them were led even to the space next to the altar of burnt offering, there to await their turn. This invitation is accepted by the worshiping multitude, in whose name the psalmist now answers.
v. 28. Thou art my God, and I will praise Thee, with joyful thanksgiving; Thou art my God, I will exalt Thee, giving Him the honor due His holy name.
v. 29. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever, this same merciful favor being the sustaining power in the believers of all the world to this day.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 3General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good
"Thank Yahweh because of the good things he does"
his covenant faithfulness endures forever
The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be translated with an adjective. AT: "he remains faithful to his covenant forever" (See: Abstract Nouns)
Let Israel say
The word "Israel" represents the people of Israel. AT: "Let the people of Israel say" (See: Metonymy)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1–2Ps 118 With an exultant testimony, the psalmist gives…
Ps 118 With an exultant testimony, the psalmist gives thanks for the Lord’s goodness and encourages others to trust in his faithful love (118:1-4, 29). This poem is the last of the Egyptian Hallel (Pss 113–118).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On v1 1 Praise ye Jehovah In this passage we see…
1 Praise ye Jehovah In this passage we see that David does not merely in a private capacity render thanks to God, but that he loudly summons the people to engage in the common exercises of piety. This he does, not simply from his having been divinely appointed to be the captain and teacher of others; but, God having invested him with royal power, had manifested his sympathy with his distressed Church. Hence he exhorts the Israelites to magnify the grace of God, under whose kind protection he appears to re-establish them in safety. In the beginning of the psalm he alludes generally to the goodness and mercy of God, but he shortly instances himself as an evidence of his goodness, as will be seen in its proper place. It becomes us at present to recall to mind what I mentioned in the preceding psalm, that a reason for praising God is given to us on account of his mercy, in preference to his power or justice; because, though his glory shine forth in them also, yet will we never promptly and heartily sound forth his praises, until he win us by the sweetness of his goodness. Accordingly, in Psalm 51:17, we found that the lips of the faithful were opened to praise God, when they perceived that he was truly their deliverer. In restricting his address to Israel, and to the children of Aaron, he is guided by a regard to his own times, because, up to that period, the adoption did not extend beyond that one nation. He again resumes the order which he observed in Psalm 116:1; for, after exhorting the children of Abraham, who had been separated from the Gentiles by the election of God, and also the sons of Aaron, who, by virtue of the priesthood, ought to take the precedence in conducting the psalmody, he directs his discourse to the other worshippers of God; because there were many hypocrites among the Israelites, who, occupying a place in the Church, were yet strangers to it. This is not inconsistent with David’s here speaking by the spirit of prophecy, respecting the future kingdom of Christ. That kingdom, no doubt, extended to the Gentiles, but its commencement and first-fruits were among God’s chosen people.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v1 Because God by creating David King, showed his mercy…
Because God by creating David King, showed his mercy toward his afflicted Church, the Prophet doth not only himself thank God, but exhorteth all the people to do the same.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Psa 118:1 O give thanks unto the LORD; for…
Psa 118:1 O give thanks unto the LORD; for [he is] good: because his mercy [endureth] for ever.
Ver. 1. O give thanks, &c.] See Psa 106:1.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–4 O give thanks; all sorts of persons, which are…
O give thanks; all sorts of persons, which are particularly expressed in the three next verses, as they are mentioned in like manner and order Psa 115:9-11, See Poole "Psa 115:9", See Poole "Psa 115:10", See Poole "Psa 115:11"
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 It appears here, as often as elsewhere, that David…
It appears here, as often as elsewhere, that David had his heart full of the goodness of God. He loved to think of it, loved to speak of it, and was very solicitous that God might have the praise of it and others the comfort of it. The more our hearts are impressed with a sense of God's goodness the more they will be enlarged in all manner of obedience. In these verses,
I. He celebrates God's mercy in general, and calls upon others to acknowledge it, from their own experience of it (Psa 118:1): O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is not only good in himself, but good to you, and his mercy endures for ever, not only in the everlasting fountain, God himself, but in the never-failing streams of that mercy, which shall run parallel with the longest line of eternity, and in the chosen vessels of mercy, who will be everlasting monuments of it. Israel, and the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, were called upon to trust in God (Psa 115:9-11); here they are called upon to confess that his mercy endures for ever, and so to encourage themselves to trust in him, Psa 118:2-4. Priests and people, Jews and proselytes, must all own God's goodness, and all join in the same thankful song; if they can say no more, let them say this for him, that his mercy endures for ever, that they have had experience of it all their days, and confide in it for good things that shall last for ever. The praises and thanksgivings of all that truly fear the Lord shall be as pleasing to him as those of the house of Israel or the house of Aaron.
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II. He preserves an account of God's gracious dealings with him in particular, which he communicates to others, that they might thence fetch both songs of praise and supports of faith, and both ways God would have the glory. David had, in his time, waded through a great deal of difficulty, which gave him great experience of God's goodness. Let us therefore observe here,
1. The great distress and danger that he had been in, which he reflects upon for the magnifying of God's goodness to him in his present advancement. There are many who, when they are lifted up, care not for hearing or speaking of their former depressions; but David takes all occasions to remember his own low estate. He was in distress (Psa 118:5), greatly straitened and at a loss; there were many that hated him (Psa 118:7), and this could not but be a great grief to one of an ingenuous spirit, that strove to gain the good affections of all. All nations compassed me about, Psa 118:10. All the nations adjacent to Israel set themselves to give disturbance to David, when he had newly come to the throne, Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Ammonites, etc. We read of his enemies round about; they were confederate against him, and thought to cut off all succours from him. This endeavour of his enemies to surround him is repeated (Psa 118:11): They compassed me about, yea, they compassed me about, which intimates that they were virulent and violent, and, for a time, prevalent, in their attempts against him, and when put into disorder they rallied again and pushed on their design. They compassed me about like bees, so numerous were they, so noisy, so vexatious; they came flying upon him, came upon him in swarms, set upon him with their malignant stings; but it was to their own destruction, as the bee, they say, loses her life with her sting, Animamque in vulnere ponit - She lays down her life in the wound. Lord, how are those increased that trouble me! Two ways David was brought into trouble: - (1.) By the injuries that men did him (Psa 118:13): Thou (O enemy!) hast thrust sore at me, with many a desperate push, that I might fall into sin and into ruin. Thrusting thou hast thrust at me (so the word is), so that I was ready to fall. Satan is the great enemy that thrusts sorely at us by his temptations, to cast us down from our excellency, that we may fall from our God and from our comfort in him; and, if Go had not upheld us by his grace, his thrusts would have been fatal to us. (2.) By the afflictions which God laid upon him (Psa 118:18): The Lord has chastened me sore. Men thrust at him for his destruction; God chastened him for his instruction. They thrust at him with the malice of enemies; God chastened him with the love and tenderness of a Father. Perhaps he refers to the same trouble which God, the author of it, designed for his profit, that by it he might partake of his holiness (Heb 12:10, Heb 12:11); howbeit, men, who were the instruments of it, meant not so, neither did their heart think so, but it was in their heart to cut off and destroy, Isa 10:7. What men intend for the greatest mischief God intends for the greatest good, and it is easy to say whose counsel shall stand. God will sanctify the trouble to his people, as it is his chastening, and secure the good he designs; and he will guard them against the trouble, as it is the enemies' thrusting, and secure them from the evil they design, and then we need not fear.
This account which David gives of his troubles is very applicable to our Lord Jesus. Many there were that hated him, hated him without a cause. They compassed him about; Jews and Romans surrounded him. They thrust sorely at him; the devil did so when he tempted him; his persecutors did so when they reviled him; nay, the Lord himself chastened him sorely, bruised him, and put him to grief, that by his stripes we might be healed.
2. The favour God vouchsafed to him in his distress. (1.) God heart his prayer (Psa 118:5): "He answered me with enlargements; he did more for me than I was able to ask; he enlarged my heart in prayer and yet gave more largely than I desired." He answered me, and set me in a large place (so we read it), where I had room to bestir myself, room to enjoy myself, and room to thrive; and the large place was the more comfortable because he was brought to it out of distress, Psa 4:1. (2.) God baffled the designs of his enemies against him: They are quenched as the fire of thorns (Psa 118:12), which burns furiously for a while, makes a great noise and a great blaze, but is presently out, and cannot do the mischief that it threatened. Such was the fury of David's enemies; such is the laughter of the fool, like the crackling of thorns under a pot (Ecc 7:6), and such is the anger of the fool, which therefore is not to be feared, any more than his laughter is to be envied, but both to be pitied. They thrust sorely at him, but the Lord helped him (Psa 118:13), helped him to keep his feet and maintain his ground. Our spiritual enemies would, long before this, have been our ruin if God had not been our helper. (3.) God preserved his life when there was but a step between him and death (Psa 118:18): "He has chastened me, but he has not given me over unto death, for he has not given me over to the will of my enemies." To this St. Paul seems to refer in Co2 6:9. As dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed. We ought not therefore, when we are chastened sorely, immediately to despair of life, for God sometimes, in appearance, turns men to destruction, and yet says, Return; says unto them, Live.
This also is applicable to Jesus Christ. God answered him, and set him in a large place. He quenched the fire of his enemies; rage, which did but consume themselves; for through death he destroyed him that had the power of death. He helped him through his undertaking; and thus far he did not give him over unto death that he did not leave him in the grave, nor suffer him to see corruption. Death had no dominion over him.
3. The improvement he made of this favour. (1.) It encouraged him to trust in God; from his own experience he can say, It is better, more wise, more comfortable, and more safe, there is more reason for it, and it will speed better, to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man, yea, though it be in princes, Psa 118:8, Psa 118:9. He that devotes himself to God's guidance and government, with an entire dependence upon God's wisdom, power, and goodness, has a better security to make him easy than if all the kings and potentates of the earth should undertake to protect him. (2.) It enabled him to triumph in that trust. [1.] He triumphs in God, and in his relation to him and interest in him (Psa 118:6): "The Lord is on my side. He is a righteous God, and therefore espouses my righteous cause and will plead it." If we are on God's side, he is on ours; if we be for him and with him, he will be for us and with us (Psa 118:7): "The Lord takes my part, and stands up for me, with those that help me. He is to me among my helpers, and so one of them that he is all in all both to them and me, and without him I could not help myself nor could any friend I have in the world help me." Thus (Psa 118:14), "The Lord is my strength and my song; that is, I make him so (without him I am weak and sad, but on him I stay myself as my strength, both for doing and suffering, and in him I solace myself as my song, by which I both express my joy and ease my grief), and, making him so, I find him so: he strengthens my heart with his graces and gladdens my heart with his comforts." If God be our strength, he must be our song; if he work all our works in us, he must have all praise and glory from us. God is sometimes the strength of his people when he is not their song; they have spiritual supports when they want spiritual delights. But, if he be both to us, we have abundant reason to triumph in him; for, he be our strength and our song, he has become not only our Saviour, but our salvation; for his being our strength is our protection to the salvation, and his being our song is an earnest and foretaste of the salvation. [2.] He triumphs over his enemies. Now shall his head be lifted up above them; for, First, He is sure they cannot hurt him: "God is for me, and then I will not fear what man can do against me," Psa 118:6. He can set them all at defiance, and is not disturbed at any of their attempts. "They can do nothing to me but what God permits them to do; they can do no real damage, for they cannot separate between me and God; they cannot do any thing but what God can make to work for my good. The enemy is a man, a depending creature, whose power is limited, and subordinate to a higher power, and therefore I will not fear him." Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die? Isa 51:12. The apostle quotes this, with application to all Christians, Heb 13:6. They may boldly say, as boldly as David himself, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me; let him do his worst. Secondly, He is sure that he shall be too hard for them at last: "I shall see my desire upon those that hate me (Psa 118:7); I shall see them defeated in their designs against me; nay, In the name of the Lord I will destroy them (Psa 118:10-12); I trust in the name of the Lord that I shall destroy them, and in his name I will go forth against them, depending on his strength, by warrant from him, and with an eye to his glory, not confiding in myself nor taking vengeance for myself." Thus he went forth against Goliath, in the name of the God of Israel, Sa1 17:45. David says this as a type of Christ, who triumphed over the powers of darkness, destroyed them, and made a show of them openly. [3.] He triumphs in an assurance of the continuance of his comfort, his victory, and his life. First, Of his comfort (Psa 118:15): The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous, and in mine particularly, in my family. The dwellings of the righteous in this world are but tabernacles, mean and movable; here we have no city, no continuing city. But these tabernacles are more comfortable to them than the palaces of the wicked are to them; for in the house where religion rules, 1. There is salvation; safety from evil, earnests of eternal salvation, which has come to this house, Luk 19:9. 2. Where there is salvation there is cause for rejoicing, for continual joy in God. Holy joy is called the joy of salvation, for in that there is abundant matter for joy. 3. Where there is rejoicing there ought to be the voice of rejoicing, that is, praise and thanksgiving. Let God be served with joyfulness and gladness of heart, and let the voice of that rejoicing be heard daily in our families, to the glory of God and encouragement of others. Secondly, Of his victory: The right hand of the Lord does valiantly (Psa 118:15) and is exalted; for (as some read it) it has exalted me. The right hand of God's power is engaged for his people, and it acts vigorously for them and therefore victoriously. For what difficulty can stand before the divine valour? We are weak, and act but cowardly for ourselves; but God is mighty, and acts valiantly for us, with jealousy and resolution, Isa 63:5, Isa 63:6. There is spirit, as well as strength, in all God's operations for his people. And, when God's right hand does valiantly for our salvation, it ought to be exalted in our praises. Thirdly, Of his life (Psa 118:17): "I shall not die by the hands of my enemies that seek my life, but live and declare the works of the Lord; I shall live a monument of God's mercy and power; his works shall be declared in me, and I will make it the business of my life to praise and magnify God, looking upon that as the end of my preservation." Note, It is not worth while to live for any other purpose than to declare the works of God, for his honour and the encouragement of others to serve him and trust in him. Such as these were the triumphs of the Son of David in the assurance he had of the success of his undertaking and that the good pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–4 O give thanks unto the Lord,.... For all his…
O give thanks unto the Lord,.... For all his mercies, temporal and spiritual; as all should, who are partakers of them: this should be done always, and for all things, in the name of Christ; it is but reasonable service;
for he is good; in himself, and to others: is essentially and diffusively good; the fountain of all goodness, and the author of all good things;
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because his mercy endureth for ever; in his own heart, and in his covenant; his grace and lovingkindness displayed in Christ; the blessings and promises of it, which are the sure mercies of David: these always remain, notwithstanding the unworthiness of his people; and though he hides his face sometimes from them, and chastises them; see Psa 106:1; the goodness and mercy of God were seen in setting David on the throne; and abundantly more in giving Christ to be the Saviour of his people; for both which thanks should be given, and the kindness acknowledged, by the persons mentioned in the following verses.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v1 The form of this psalm seems to be dramatical,…
The form of this psalm seems to be dramatical, and several parts of it are spoken in the name of several persons; as it is in the book of the Song of Solomon, and in one part of Ecclesiastes. David speaks in his own name from the beginning to ver. 22, from thence to ver. 25, in the name of the people; and thence to ver. 28, in the name of the priests; and then concludes in his own name. He calls upon all about him to praise God, ver. 1-4. Encourages himself and others to trust in God, from the experience he had had of his power and mercy, ver. 5-18. He gives thanks for his advancement to the throne, as it was a figure of the exaltation of Christ, ver. 19-23. The people, the priests, and the psalmist himself triumph in the prospect of the Redeemer's kingdom, ver. 24-29.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–4 A general exhortation to praise God for his mercy,…
PSALM CXVIII
A general exhortation to praise God for his mercy, 1-4.
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The psalmist, by his own experience, encourages the people to
trust in God, and shows them the advantage of it, 5-9;
then describes his enemies, and shows how God enabled him to
destroy them, 10-13.
The people rejoice on the account, 15, 16.
He speaks again of the help he received from the Lord; and
desires admission into the temple, that he may enter and
praise the Lord, 17-19.
The gate is opened, 20.
He offers praise, 21.
The priests, c., acknowledge the hand of the Lord in the
deliverance wrought, 22-24.
The psalmist prays for prosperity, 25.
The priest performs his office, blesses the people, and all
join in praise, 26, 27.
The psalmist expresses his confidence, 28.
The general doxology, or chorus, 29.
NOTES ON PSALM CXVIII
Most probably David was the author of this Psalm, though many think it was written after the captivity. It partakes of David's spirit, and every where shows the hand of a master. The style is grand and noble the subject, majestic.
Dr. Kennicott, who joins this and the hundred and seventeenth Psalm together, considers the whole as a dialogue, and divides it accordingly. The whole of the hundred and seventeenth he gives to the psalmist as part the first, with the first four verses of the hundred and eighteenth. The second part, which is from the fifth verse to the twenty-first inclusive, he gives to the Messiah. The third part, from the twenty-second verse to the twenty-seventh, he gives to the chorus. And the fourth part, the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth verses, he gives to the psalmist. Of the whole he has given an improved version.
Bishop Horsley is still different. He considers the hundred and seventeenth Psalm as only the exordium of this. The whole poem, he states, is a triumphant processional song. The scene passes at the front gate of the temple. A conqueror with his train appears before it; he demands admittance to return thanks for his deliverance and final success, in an expedition of great difficulty and danger. The conqueror and his train sing the hundred and seventeenth Psalm, and the first four verses of the hundred and eighteenth, as they advance to the gate of the temple, in this manner. - The hundred and seventeenth Psalm, Chorus of the whole procession. The first verse of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm, A single voice. The second, Another single voice. The third, A third single voice. The fourth, Chorus of the whole procession. Arrived at the temple gate, the conqueror alone sings the fifth, sixth, and seventh verses. The eighth and ninth are sung by his train in chorus. The conqueror, again alone, sings the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth verses. His train, in chorus, sing the fifteenth and sixteenth. The conqueror alone sings the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth verses. The twentieth is sung by the priests and Levites within, in chorus. The twenty-fifth by the conqueror alone within the gates. The twenty-sixth, by the priests and Levites in chorus. The twenty-seventh, by the conqueror's train in chorus. The twenty-eighth, by the conqueror alone. The twenty-ninth, by the united chorus of priests and Levites, and the conqueror's train, all within the gates. "Now," the learned bishop adds, "the Jewish temple was a type of heaven; the priests within represent the angelic host attending round the throne of God in heaven; the Conqueror is Messiah; and his train, the redeemed." On this distribution the bishop has given a new version. The simple distribution into parts, which I have given in the contents, is, in my opinion, the best. Ingenious as Dr. Kennicott and Bishop Horsley are, they seem to me too mechanical. This is the last of those Psalms which form the great hallel, which the Jews sung at the end of the passover.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v1 Psa 118:1-4. O give thanks unto the Lord —…
Psa 118:1-4. O give thanks unto the Lord — All sorts of persons, which are expressed particularly in the next three verses, as they are mentioned in like manner and order Psa 115:9-11, where see the notes. Let Israel — After the flesh, all the tribes and people of Israel, except the Levites. Let the house of Aaron — The priests and Levites, who were greatly discouraged and oppressed in Saul’s time, but received great benefits under David’s government. Let them that fear the Lord — The Gentile proselytes, of whom there were greater numbers in David’s time than formerly had been, and were likely to be still more. Say, that his mercy endureth for ever — Not only in the everlasting fountain thereof, God himself, but in its never failing streams, which shall run parallel with the longest lines of eternity; and in the vessels of mercy, who will be for ever monuments of it. Israel, and the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, were called upon, Psalms 115., to trust in him. Here they are called upon to acknowledge his goodness, and join in the same thankful song, thus encouraging themselves to trust in him. Priests and people, Jews and proselytes, must all confess that his mercy endureth for ever; that they have had experience of it all their days, and that they confide in it for good things that shall last to all eternity.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–4 O give thanks unto the Lord ... - Let…
O give thanks unto the Lord ... - Let others unite with me in giving thanks to the Lord; let them see, from what has occurred in my case, what occasion there is for praise. Every instance of a particular favor shown to anyone is to others an occasion for praise, inasmuch as it is an illustration of the general character of God. On this verse compare the notes at Psa 106:1. The language is nearly the same.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 118
Psalms 118
1 O give thanks unto the Lord;
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For he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever
2 Let Israel now say,
That His mercy endureth for ever.
3 Let the house of Aaron now say,
That his mercy endureth for ever.
4 Let them now that fear the Lord say,
That his mercy endureth for ever.
5 I called upon the Lord in distress:
The Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.
6 The Lord is on my side;
I will not fear: what can man do unto me?
7 The Lord taketh my part with them that help me:
Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.
8 It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in man.
9 It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in princes.
10 All nations compassed me about:
But in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.
11 They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about:
But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
12 They compassed me about like bees;
They are quenched as the fire of thorns:
For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
13 Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall:
But the Lord helped me.
14 The Lord is my strength and song,
And is become my salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous:
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted:
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
17 I shall not die, but live,
And declare the works of the Lord.
18 The Lord hath chastened me sore:
But he hath not given me over unto death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness:
I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:
20 This gate of the Lord,
Into which the righteous shall enter.
21 I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me,
And art become my salvation.
22 The stone which the builders refused
Is become the head stone of the corner.
23 This is the Lord’s doing;
It is marvellous in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the Lord hath made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord:
O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity,
26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord:
We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.
27 God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light:
Bind the sacrifice with cords,
Even unto the horns of the altar.
28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee;
Thou art my God, I will exalt, thee.
29 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good:
For his mercy endureth for ever.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—The Psalm begins with an exhortation, of an altogether liturgical character, to offer thanksgiving to Jehovah in acknowledgement of His mercy (Psa_118:1-4). It is addressed to the whole Church, its priests, and its members. In the next strophe the Psalmist, because he had himself experienced the help of the Hearer of prayer, praises joyfully the security of those who do not seek refuge in men, even in princes, but confidently seek it in God. This passage is interspersed with sentences repeated like a refrain (Psa_118:5-9). Confidence of victory in the name of Jehovah over enemies that have risen up all around him is then boldly expressed (Psa_118:10-12). And lastly he celebrates the power of Jehovah, who has helped and will help, and vows that he will proclaim His doings, because he has been delivered by Him (Psa_118:13-18). Then follows a command to open the temple-gates that the just may enter to praise Jehovah; for He had actually heard and answered prayer, and made the stone, rejected as useless by the builders, the corner stone, and that in a wonderful manner (Psa_118:19-23). This is succeeded by a demand for solemn rejoicing on the feast-day, with the usual prayers and blessings, and for the offering of the sacrifice (Psa_118:24-26). The Psalm then closes with a profession of faith made to God, and a vow of thanksgiving, returning to the mode of expression employed in the opening sentence (Psa_118:27-28.)
This is unmistakably a Temple-Song. Several expressions seem to allude to a particular feast, with its peculiar prayers and sacrifices.—One feels tempted to assign the several strophes to the several divisions of the congregation, priests or people, who were marching up to the temple, or welcoming the festal train, or preparing the sacrifice, or praising God. But there are no convincing grounds to enable us to pronounce decisively upon the special event, even if there is no reason to deny a definite historical situation and occasion for the composition (Hupfeld). There is no need of going down to the Maccabæan period in order to establish a connection with the inauguration of Simon (Venema, De Wette, Rosenmüller), or with Judas Maccabæus after the victory over Nicanor (Hesse), or with the rescue of King Demetrius II., by the help of the despised Jews, from the uprising in Antioch, 1Ma_11:44 ff (Olshausen), or with the return of Jonathan from his victorious campaign, 1Ma_11:74 (Hitzig). The period succeeding the return from Exile affords a more suitable occasion, and, since Psa_118:19-20 presuppose the completion of the Temple, this occasion could not have been the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month of the first year after the return, Ezr_3:1-4 (Ewald), or the laying of the foundation-stone of the Temple in the second month of the second year, Ezr_3:8 f. (Hengst.), but either the dedication of the completed Temple in the twelfth month of the sixth year of Darius, Ezr_8:15 ff. (Del.), or the first complete celebration, according to the legal ceremonies of the Feast of Tabernacles, Neh_8:14 ff. (Stier).
[Perowne adopts this last view. He thus sums up the arguments in its favor, mainly following the discussion by Delitzsch, from whom most of the remarks given above are also taken: ‘1. The use of the Psalm in the ritual of the Second Temple leads to the conclusion that it was originally composed for the Feast of Tabernacles. For the words of the 25th verse were sung during the feast, when the altar of burnt-offering was solemnly compassed, that is, once on each of the first six days of the feast, and seven times on the seventh day. This day was called ‘the great Hosanna’ (save now, Psa_118:25), and not only the prayers for the feast, but even the branches of trees, including the myrtles which were attached to the palm-branches, were called ‘Hosannas.’ Further, although the Psalm itself contains no allusion to any of the national feasts, the word ‘tents,’ in Psa_118:15, at least accords very well with the Feast of Tabernacles. 2. In the second place, it seems equally clear that the Psalm supposes the completion of the Temple. The language of Psa_118:19-20. … and the figure employed in Psa_118:22. … cannot be easily explained on any other supposition. The allusions in Psa_118:8-12 to the deceitfulness of human help and the favor of princes, as well as to the active interference of troublesome enemies, are exactly in accordance with all that we read of the circumstances connected with the rebuilding of the Temple. The most probable conclusion, therefore, is, that the Psalm was composed for the first celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, after the completion of the Second Temple.”—J. F. M.]
The Messianic interpretation (the Rabbins and most of the ancients) is based especially upon Psa_118:22; Psa_118:25-26, and confounds the application of the Psalm with the original sense. To seek, in addition, a three–fold prophetic sense (Stier), is at variance with the principles of a sound interpretation. Luther: “This is my Psalm, which I love. Although the whole of the Psalter, and of Holy Scripture itself, which is my only consolation in life, are also dear to me, yet I have chosen this Psalm particularly to be called and to be mine; for it has often deserved my love, and helped me out of many deep distresses, when neither emperor, nor kings, nor the wise and prudent, nor saints, could have helped me.”
[In the second member of each of the Psa_118:2-4, the translation, “for His mercy, etc.,” is most favored.—J. F. M.]
Psa_118:5. Through the wide expanse [E. V., and set me in a large place], that is, from His lofty heavens (Psa_20:7). But it is admissible also to translate: with the wide space=freedom (Olshausen), or to suppose a pregnant construction: by setting me in a large place (most). Instead of Jah at the end of Psa_118:5 b, there is a reading recognized also by the Masora (comp. Baer, Psalterium, p. 132), according to which the יָה, which expresses the utmost degree of any condition, is to be read as the final syllable of the preceding word (comp. Jer_2:31). If this be correct, boundless space would then be described. But the usual pointing, having the first member of the verse in view, is to be preferred.
Psa_118:6 is related to Psa_56:10, and Psa_118:7 to Psa_54:6. Accordingly, the meaning is not, that Jehovah was one among many helpers, but that He was the One, who surpassed all others. In an historical connection the passage may allude to the hostile efforts of the Samaritans and the Satraps during the building of the Temple, while the contrast which is drawn between the confidence placed in man and that placed in God, may bear some allusion to the fact, that the work, begun under Cyrus and already brought into suspicion under Pseudomerdis, was interdicted under Cambyses, and not resumed until the accession of Darius (Del.).
Psa_118:10. We ought perhaps to translate: “ward off” (Sept. and others), instead of “hew in pieces” [E. V., destroy], since the Hebrew word means literally: to cut off (Hupfeld). But it is scarcely to be supposed that this action was a token of violent subjection (1Sa_18:25; 2Sa_3:14; Josephus Ant. 13:9, 1; 2:3;) and mentioned with allusion to the sign which distinguished the Jew and the Gentile, Gal_5:12; Php_3:2 (J. H. Mich., Hengst.). Such a translation is held to be possible from a comparison with the Arabic, so that there is no need of changing אֲמִילָם into אֲכִילֵם (Hupfeld). [Alexander: The construction of the last clause is unusual and doubtful…. Perhaps the best solution is the one afforded by the Hebrew usage of suppressing the principal verb in oaths or solemn affirmations…. The sense will then be: in the name of Jehovah (1 swear or solemnly affirm) that I will cut them off.”
Psa_118:19-23. Gates of righteousness are identical with the gate of Jehovah, Psa_118:20, by which the righteous, that is, the Israelites, entered into the outer court of the Temple on the eastern side, it alone being accessible to them. There is not the slightest occasion to abandon this local designation, and to regard it as a figurative expression (Hupfeld) for turning to God, or to import into it religious and theological notions of righteousness (older and recent expositors with all possible references). For in Psa_118:27 religious rites are expressly spoken of. It is only through the symbolical significance and the typical aspect which all of these had in Israel that they contained the germs of a higher development, and it was in the process of development that they disclosed a deeper import and unfolded a richer meaning. The same principle also justifies the final reference to Jesus Christ of the statement (Psa_118:22 f.) with regard to the stone that had been rejected, but which became the chief corner-stone through God’s wonderful power (Mat_21:42 ff.; Mar_12:10 f.; Act_4:11; 1Pe_2:7). This purpose is equally well served whether the sentence be viewed as a proverb (De Wette, Ewald) or not. It is self-evident that the expression is figurative. So also is the allusion to the builders (Hupfeld), and therefore this designation is not to be pressed, in order to make it apply, so early as in this Psalm, specially and historically to the heathen (Kurtz), or to the Jews (Del.). The declaration of Jehovah, Isa_28:16 : “Behold it is I who have laid in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of a sure foundation—he who believes, shall not waver,” is specially important for the biblical conception of this figure. What is said of the servant of Jehovah in Isaiah 42. f. furnishes also essential points of comparison.
[Alexander: “As this Psalm was sung by the people at the last Jewish festival attended by our Saviour, He applies this proverb to Himself, as one rejected by the Jews and their rulers, yet before long to be recognized as their Messiah whom they had denied and murdered, but whom God had exalted as a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and the remission of sins (Act_5:31). This, though really another application of the proverb in its general meaning, has a certain affinity with its original application in the verse before us, because the fortunes of the ancient Israel, especially in reference to great conjunctures, bore a designed resemblance to the history of Christ Himself, by a kind of sympathy between the Body and the Head. Even the temple, which suggested the original expression, did but teach the doctrine of Divine inhabitation, and was therefore superseded by the advent of the Son Himself. The head of the corner means the chief or corner-stone of the foundation even in Zec_4:7, where the Engl. Vers. translates head-stone.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_118:24-29. This is the day,etc.—This word also admits of manifold applications to sacred seasons and to God’s gracious deeds in the lives both of individuals and of nations, and has always received them in full measure. In the passage before us it is applied to the celebration alluded to in this Psalm. This we are inclined to regard as that of the Feast of Tabernacles (Ewald), since Psa_118:25 appears to contain the exclamation with which, in the time of the Second Temple, the altar of burnt-offering was solemnly compassed, once on each of the first six days of the feast, and seven times on the seventh day (comp. Delitzsch, Der Hosannaruf, Zeitschrift für luther. Kirche und Theologie, 1855). [See the addition in the introduction to this Psalm.—J. F. M.]. At the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem this exclamation in the mouths of the people, when they hailed the visitor at the festival as the Messiah (Mat_21:9), was coupled with the words of Psa_118:26 a, with which according to Jewish tradition the inhabitants of Jerusalem were accustomed to greet the pilgrims to the Temple. Here it appears to have been the priests who welcomed the congregation as they ascended the Temple-hill with the animals to be sacrificed. [The view of Delitzsch; see the introduction above.—J. F. M.]. According to Ezr_6:17, the victims were very numerous. This appears to agree with Psa_118:27. For the translation: adorn the feast with boughs (Luther, Geier and others, after the Sept., Aquila, Jerome), is untenable. Although עֲבוֹת may perhaps mean: thickly-leaved clusters of twigs, Eze_19:11; Eze_31:3 f. (a meaning disputed, however, by Hengst. and Hävernick), yet אסר ב׳׳ cannot mean: to bind round, wrap round, and still less: to decorate, but only: to bind on with cords (Jdg_15:13; Jdg_16:11; Eze_3:25). חַג must therefore be taken in the sense of: victim, as in Eze_23:18; comp. 2Ch_30:22; Deu_16:2; Joh_18:28. And since the victims were not bound to the horns of the altar, but their blood was sprinkled upon them, the words “even unto” are not intended to mean that they were fastened close against the horns with short cords (Hitzig). The expression is either a pregnant one, conveying, in a general manner, the idea that the animals should be bound even until the sacrifice (Chald., Kimchi, J. H. Mich., Hengst., Hupfeld), or crowded so closely together as to fill up all the space even to the horns of the altar (Del. and others). [Del., referring the Psalm to the dedication of the Second Temple, compares Ezr_6:17, where it is mentioned that great numbers of animals were sacrificed on that occasion. On his explanation Perowne remarks: “But in this interpretation there is nothing appropriate in the mention of the horns of the altar. These have always a reference to the blood of the sacrifice.—The expression is apparently a pregnant one and the sense is: Bind the victim with cords till it is sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the horns of the altar.” Alexander explains: “Hold fast the sacrifice with cords until it comes to the horns of the altar, poetically put for the altar itself, not only as its prominent or salient points, but as the parts to which the blood, the essential vehicle of expiation, was applied.”—J. F. M.] According to the context the words of Psa_118:26 : in the name of Jehovah, are not to be connected with: he that cometh, but with: blessed. [For the force of the particles of entreaty in Psa_118:25, see on Psa_116:16 and the additional note.—J. F. M.]. The second clause of Psa_118:27 a [God is Jehovah and hath given us light], which is not to be rendered as a present (Luther, De Wette), but as a præterite, does not allude, as does Num_6:25, to the priestly blessing, but, like Exo_12:21; Exo_14:20, to the shining forth in the pillar of cloud and fire in the history of the march through the desert (Hupfeld), comp. Neh_9:12; Neh_9:19. It is only the application of this expression which can afford the idea of the light of mercy, freedom, and joy (Del.) The correction וַיָּאֵל and he led (Hitzig), is unnecessary.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Not only the priests, but all the members of God’s Church are to praise Him. The ordinary service of God affords opportunity for the expression of this relation in an edifying manner. The believer finds occasion for it in the goodness of the Highest, ever manifested anew in His kindness, which endures forever, of which individuals and the whole Church have rich experiences, while, by particular instances of prayer-hearing, they are urged to mutual encouragement. “Let him who can learn, learn here, and let every one become like a falcon, which in its distress soars far upwards into heaven. It is said: I called upon the Lord. Thou must learn to call, and not sit by thyself or lie upon the bench, hanging and shaking thy head, and letting thy thoughts bite and devour thee; but rouse up thou indolent fellow! fall upon thy knees, raise thy hands and eyes to heaven, repeat a Psalm or the Lord’s Prayer, and present thy distress before God with tears.” (Luther).
2. Under such experiences and the reception of such benefits, trust in God increases, along with the growing insight into the value of His help, and into the blessing of such trust. Thus increases also courage to face a hostile world in the midst of dangers and afflictions. The resulting evidences of our assurance have a vivifying and gladdening influence, but have nothing in common with the boasting of presumption. They are based, along with the confession of the perishableness of all earthly greatness and human power, upon the wonderful help of God’s mercy, and are therefore surrounded and sustained by thankful praise for that help, and by ardent entreaties for its continuance.
3. The sufferings which God’s people have to endure, are regarded by believers as chastenings from the hand of the Most High; and they are so severe, that they are felt to be heavy and painful strokes. But the same (Hand which has chastened them so severely, delivers them again from death and all their enemies, if they humble themselves before Him. By His wonderful working He makes the stone rejected by men, the cornerstone of a building indestructible and pleasing to Him, so that there is joy in the tabernacles of the righteous, and songs of thanksgiving resound in the house of the Lord.
4. God be praised that He has His house amongst us, and has opened its gates that His people might enter before His face, to celebrate those sacred feasts which He has ordained! May we, on the days consecrated by the Lord, always become ourselves consecrated, to perform joyfully the service which He requires of us: not to count up or lament the sacrifices demanded, but only to seek how we may please Him, how we, as “the righteous,” may go in and out, and receive and take with us the blessing which is held in readiness for those who come in the name of the Lord (Num_6:24 ff.; Deu_21:5).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Those are the right prayers which have thanks-giving for their support. God will not be weary of them; let us not be indolent or wearied in them.—We have certainly not deserved, and we cannot repay, all that God has done for us and for our house; but we can offer our thanks, and proclaim His goodness in His house.—God has attached great blessing to His day, and to coming to His house; but it rests with us to obtain that blessing.—If our church-going is one of blessing, it will be seen also to be one of prayer, of penitence, and of faith.—The courage of trust in God: (1) its sources; (2) its manifestations; (3) its results.—He who comes to God’s house as one of His people, is to pass through the gates of righteousness, and gain His presence, and will be blessed with the name of God.—If God’s judgments are not to tend to our death, but to our life, we are to make them serve as chastenings unto righteousness.
Starke: God’s goodness is unspeakably great, as well in the kingdom of nature as in the kingdom of grace.—The ground of thanksgiving and praise to God is the knowledge of His valiant doings and great goodness.—Well for the country, the city, and the Church, when the three great orders of the people are united in the true fear of God and in praising Him.—Religion does not make a life free from distress, but it does not allow us to remain held under distress.—The arm of men cannot take away my courage, as it cannot give me courage. The former is a groundless fear, the latter a vain hope.—Strong faith in God begets unwavering courage in all the events of life. The name of the Lord is a strong tower (Pro_18:10).—We have a Lord who helps us and holds us by the hand. Let him thrust at us who will; but who will help him whom God casts aside?—God is our Psalm; of Him we must glory and sing, and His name we must confess, though we should have to suffer for so doing.—He who praises with joy the power of the Divine mercy, will evermore share in His salvation.—The song of joy is born of the cross.—If God has given thee thy life, employ it in proclaiming His deeds of mercy.—Let him who would enter with praise and thanksgiving into the gates of glory, enter in faith the gates of God’s righteousness here, and glorify His name.—Do not wonder at it if the Lord deals with thee in wonderful ways. He who would be something precious in the sight of God must first be rejected and ennobled by affliction.—As the sun in heaven makes the natural day by his light, so does Christ the Sun of Righteousness make ours a spiritual day.—He who abides in the house of the Lord will hear from heaven and earth no word but of blessing.—If our service on our sacred days is to please God, we must come before Him with penitent hearts, so that He may give us light, and thus rejoice us.
Osiander: It is a greater work of God, to deliver a lost soul from the power of the devil, and make it blessed, than it is to create a new world.—Frisch: Behold how much faith can do! It gives an invincible courage which fears nothing.—Adam introduced a day of sadness, but another day is made by Christ: Abraham saw His day from afar, and was glad; we walk even now in His light.—Oetinger: The most insignificant event on the most unimportant occasion is to be ascribed to grace, which achieves also the greatest results in the most decisive junctures.—Rieger: Full trust in God may be excited and endure, while all trust in man is counted as nought, and, consequently, he who so trusts will be less controlled by the fear of man; and, at the same time, he will humbly resolve to submit to all chastening, yea, even to the suffering of death, and yet never yield the blissful hope of glory.—Tholuck: The glorious deliverances which God’s people experience give them the assurance of future victory.—Diedrich: God has brought us out of distress into blissful rest, that we may be enabled to have heartfelt delight in Him.—Expect no aid from the world; rather be prepared for all kinds of rebuffs from it: but God’s word will give thee strength enough for victory.—Our God welcomes all with blessing, who come together to enjoy that blessing in Israel; and those who are thus blessed on earth will also be blessed in heaven.—Stier: A song of thanksgiving for the victory of the Anointed and His people.—Taube: Whenever the everlasting goodness of God is sung, let all who have experienced it say Amen.—Schaubach: An evidence of the conflict, the victory, and the peace of the Redeemer.—Deichert: The victory of the risen Saviour, and its far-reaching consequences: (1) Death is vanquished; (2) the gates of righteousness are opened; (3) the corner-stone of the Church is laid.—G. Huyssen (Psa_118:15-21): The thanksgiving of the Christian in the joy of victory: (1) the joy of victory and its source; (2) the sacrifices of victory, and their significance; (3) the thanksgiving for victory, and the mode of rendering it.
[Matth. Henry: Without the Lord I am weak and sad, but on Him I stay myself as my strength, both for doing and suffering; and in Him I solace myself as my song, by which I both express my joy, and ease my grief; and making Him so, I find Him so; He doth strengthen my heart with grace, and rejoice my heart with His comforts. If God be our strength, He must be our song; if He work all our works in us, He must have all praise and glory from us. God is sometimes the strength of His people when He is not their song; they have spiritual supports, when they want spiritual delights; but if He be both to us, we have abundant reason to triumph in Him; for if He is our strength and our song, He is become not only our Saviour, but our salvation; for His being our strength is our protection to the salvation, and His being our song is an earnest and foretaste of the salvation.—We are weak and act but cowardly for our lives, but God is mighty and acts valiantly for us with jealousy and resolution, Isa_63:5, and when God’s right hand doeth valiantly for our salvation, it ought to be exalted in our praises.—It is not worth our while to live for any other purpose than to declare the works of the Lord, for His honor and for the encouragement of others to serve Him and trust in Him.—Sabbath days must be rejoicing days, and then they are to us as the days of heaven. See what a good Master we serve, who, having instituted a day for His service, appoints it to be spent in holy joy.
Scott: As we need not dread the rage of the ungodly, so we need not envy their carnal, vain, and vanishing mirth.—Our thanksgivings on earth must always be accompanied with prayers for further mercies and the continuance of our prosperity; our Hallelujahs with Hosannas.
Barnes (Psa_118:15). There is nothing that diffuses so much happiness through a family as religion; there is no joy like that when a member of a family is converted; there is no place on earth more happy than that where a family bows before God, with the feeling that all are children of God and heirs of salvation.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v1 1-4. In this introduction, or joyful call upon all…
1-4. In this introduction, or joyful call upon all to join in the praises of God, the same enumeration of “Israel,” “the house of Aaron,” and “those who fear God,” is made as in Psa_115:11, which see. The whole band of singers must be supposed to join in this invitation.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On v1 1. As Psa_106:1 (see notes); Psa_107:1; Ezr_3:11.
1. As Psa_106:1 (see notes); Psa_107:1; Ezr_3:11.
because his mercy &c.] For his lovingkindness &c.
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2 ff. For the threefold division ‘Israel,’ ‘house of Aaron,’ ‘fearers of Jehovah,’ cp. Psa_115:9-13, and notes there.
Israel] The LXX as in Psa_115:9 reads the house of Israel, and adds after say, in Psa_118:2-4, that he is good. Hence P.B.V. with the Vulg. in Psa_118:2, ‘Let Israel now confess, that he is gracious.’
1–4. An introductory call to all Israel to join in praising Jehovah for His unfailing goodness.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v1 (1-4) Comp. Psa_115:9-13, where a similar choral arrangement is…
(1-4) Comp. Psa_115:9-13, where a similar choral arrangement is found.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–4 AN antiphonal hymn, composed for a joyful occasion, when…
AN antiphonal hymn, composed for a joyful occasion, when there was to be a procession to the temple, a welcoming of the procession by those inside, and the solemn offering of a sacrifice upon the altar there. Dr. Kay"s conjecture, that the occasion was the joyful Passover which followed the dedication of the second temple in B.C. 516, (Ezr_6:19-22) is not improbable, though it cannot be regarded as more than a reasonable hypo thesis.
The first eighteen verses are the song of the procession as it winds its way slowly up the hill to the great gate of the temple, sung alternately, as it would seem, by the two halves of the procession. Ver. 19 is the utterance of the leader, in the name of the whole hand, on their arrival before the gates. Ver. 20 is the reply made to them by those inside. The procession, as it enters, sings vers. 21-24 antiphonally as before, all joining in ver. 25. Those already inside sing ver. 26 in welcome of their friends. Ver. 27 belongs to the leader of the pro cession, and initiates the actual sacrifice. Vers. 28, 29 are then sung, either by the whole congregation or by the two parts of the procession.
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O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good because his mercy endureth for ever. (comp. Psa_106:1, and the comment ad loc.)
Vers. 1-21. Opposition, deliverance, thanksgiving.
The psalmist (or the nation) is passing, or has just passed, through great distress. He (it) has been the object of malignant and determined attack; he has been surrounded by enemies, and been in peril of his life; he has then, as always, sought help from above; and he has been so graciously relieved that he has the sense of deliverance in his soul, and the song of triumph on his lips.
I HUMAN OPPOSITION. This begins in:
1. Hatred; or a hostile feeling (ver. 7). It is bad enough that men should cherish a spirit of enmity toward us, that they should wish us evil. But this passes into:
2. A hostile attitude. Those who are opposed to us "compass us about" (vers. 10-12). They quietly surround us with the network of their intrigue. They go beyond this; they bring to bear on us:
3. Active opposition. They "thrust sore at us" (ver. 13); their voice is raised in accusation, in detraction, in opposition; they take active measures to defeat, to distress, even to ruin us. It may be that their efforts conduct to;
4. The most grave results. Positive disaster may impend (vers. 17, 18). It may be war "unto death.
II THE HOPE OF THE AFFLICTED. When thus engirt with enemies, our health, or our peace, or our position being seriously threatened, we have a refuge in God.
1. This trouble is so far of him that he has permitted it, and he has it under his control. Our appeal is therefore rightly directed to him.
2. His power against our adversaries is unquestioned and unbounded; let him lift his hand, and they are discomfited (ver. 16). With God at our side, animating and inspiring us, we ourselves shall prove wiser and stronger than they (vers. 10-12).
3. Conscious of our own integrity, with clean hands and a pure heart, assured that we are not seeking our own interests but those of the kingdom of Christ, we count confidently on his sympathy and succor (vers. 6, 7).
III DIVINE RELIEF. We call on God, and he answers us, and sets us "in a large place" (ver. 5). He takes us out of the straits in which we were hemmed in, and places us where we can breathe freely and can act happily and fearlessly. He has become "our salvation" (ver 14). Our liabilities are met, our enemies disarmed, our reputation cleared, our position secured, our friends reconciled and restored, our path is made plain; we "return unto our rest." Then comes the blessedness of
IV THANKSGIVING.
1. In the heart. (Vers. 1-4) Let every one that has been thus delivered, to whatever tribe he may belong, say that the pity of the Lord endureth forever," that it never fails.
2. In the home. (Ver. 15) The voice of praise should be heard beneath every roof where God is known and his goodness has been felt.
3. In the sanctuary. (Vers. 19, 20, 21) In the psalmody which is heard in the Church there is many a note, detected by the ear of God, which is the outpouring of a rescued and relieved human spirit.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–4 In the book Ezr 3:10-11, we read that "when…
In the book Ezr 3:10-11, we read that "when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise he Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid." Now the words mentioned in Ezra are the first and last sentences of this Psalm, and we therefore conclude that the people chanted the whole of this sublime song; and, moreover, that the use of this composition on such occasions was ordained by David, whom we conceive to be its author. The next step leads us to believe that he is its subject, at least in some degree; for it is clear that the writer is speaking concerning himself in the first place, though he may not have strictly confined himself to all the details of his our personal experience. That the Psalmist had a prophetic view of our Lord Jesus is very manifest; the frequent quotations from this song in the New Testament prove this beyond all questions; but at the same time it could not have been intended that every particular line and sentence should be read in reference to the Messiah, for this requires very great ingenuity, and ingenious interpretations are seldom true. Certain devout expositors have managed to twist the expression of Ps 118:17, "I shall not die, but live, "so as to make it applicable to our Lord, who did actually die, and whose glory it is that he died; but we cannot bring our minds to do such violence to the words of holy writ.
The Psalm, seems to us to describe either David or some other man of God who was appointed by the divine choice to a high and honourable office in Israel. This elect champion found himself rejected by his friends and fellow countrymen, and at the same time violently opposed by his enemies. In faith in God he battles for his appointed place, and in due time he obtains it in such a way as greatly to display the power and goodness of the Lord. He then goes up to the house of the Lord to offer sacrifice, and to express his gratitude for the divine interposition, all the people blessing him, and wishing him abundant prosperity. This heroic personage, whom we cannot help thinking to be David himself, broadly typified our Lord, but not in such a manner that in all the minutiae of his struggles and prayers we are to hunt for parallels. The suggestion of Alexander that the speaker is a typical individual representing the nation, is exceedingly well worthy of attention, but it is not inconsistent with the idea that a personal leader may be intended, since that which describes the leader will be in a great measure true of his followers. The experience of the Head is that of the members, and both may be spoken of in much the same terms. Alexander thinks that the deliverance celebrated cannot be identified with any one so exactly as with that from the Babylonian exile; but we judge it best to refer it to no one incident in particular, but to regard it as a national song, adapted alike for the rise of a chosen here, and the building of a temple. Whether a nation is founded again by a conquering prince, or a temple founded by the laying of its cornerstone in joyful state, the Psalm is equally applicable.
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We propose to divide this Psalm thus, from Ps 118:1-4 the faithful are called upon to magnify the everlasting mercy of the Lord; from Ps 118:5-18 the Psalmist gives forth a narrative of his experience, and an expression of his faith; in Ps 118:19-21 he asks admittance into the house of the Lord, and begins the acknowledgment of the divine salvation. In Ps 118:22-27 the priests and people recognize their ruler, magnify the Lord for him, declare him blessed, and bid him approach the altar with his sacrifice. In Ps 118:28-29 the grateful hero himself exalts God the ever merciful.
Ver. 1. O give thanks unto the LORD. The grateful hero feels that he cannot himself alone sufficiently express his thankfulness, and therefore he calls in the aid of others. Grateful hearts are greedy of men's tongues, and would monopolize them all for God's glory. The whole nation was concerned in David's triumphant accession, and therefore it was right that they should unite in his adoring song of praise. The thanks were to be rendered unto Jehovah alone, and not to the patience or valour of the hero himself. It is always well to trace our mercies to him who bestows them, and if we cannot give him anything else, let us at any rate give him our thanks. We must not stop short at the second agent, but rise at once to the first cause, and render all our praises unto the Lord himself. Have we been of a forgetful or murmuring spirit? Let us hear the lively language of the text, and allow it to speak to our hearts: "Cease your complaining, cease from all self glorification, and give thanks unto the Lord."
For he is good. This is reason enough for giving him thanks; goodness is his essence and nature, and therefore he is always to be praised whether we are receiving anything from him or not. Those who only praise God because he does them good should rise to a higher note and give thanks to him because he is good. In the truest sense he alone is good, "There is none good but one, that is God"; therefore in all gratitude the Lord should have the royal portion. If others seem to be good, he is good. If others are good in a measure, he is good beyond measure. When others behave badly to us, it should only stir us up the more heartily to give thanks unto the Lord because he is good; and when we ourselves are conscious that we are far from being good, we should only the more reverently bless him that "he is good." We must never tolerate an instant's unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questionable, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; his dispensations may vary, but his nature is always the same, and always good. It is not only that he was good, and will be good, but he is good; let his providence be what it may. Therefore let us even at this present moment, though the skies be dark with clouds, yet give thanks unto his name.
Because his mercy endureth for ever. Mercy is a great part of his goodness, and one which more concerns us than any other, for we are sinners and have need of his mercy. Angels may say that he is good, but they need not his mercy and cannot therefore take an equal delight in it; inanimate creation declares that he is good, but it cannot feel his mercy, for it has never transgressed; but man, deeply guilty and graciously forgiven, beholds mercy as the very focus and centre of the goodness of the Lord. The endurance of the divine mercy is a special subject for song: notwithstanding our sins, our trials, our fears, his mercy endureth for ever. The best of earthly joys pass away, and even the world itself grows old and hastens to decay, but there is no change in the mercy of God; he was faithful to our forefathers, he is merciful to us, and will be gracious to our children and our children's children. It is to be hoped that the philosophical interpreters who endeavour to clip the word "for ever", into a mere period of time will have the goodness to let this passage alone. However, whether they do or not, we shall believe in endless mercymercy to eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is the grand incarnation of the mercy of God, calls upon us at every remembrance of him to give thanks unto the Lord, for "he is good."
Whole Psalm. This is the last of those Psalms which form the great Hallel, which the Jews sang at the end of the passover. Adam Clarke.
Whole Psalm. The whole Psalm has a peculiar formation. It resembles the Maschal Psalms, for each verse has of itself its completed sense, its own scent and hue; one thought is joined to another as branch to branch and flower to flower. Franz Delitzsch.
Whole Psalm. Nothing can surpass the force and majesty, as well as the richly varied beauty, of this Psalm. Its general burden is quite manifest. It is the prophetic expression, by the Spirit of Christ, of that exultant strain of anticipative triumph, wherein the virgin daughter of Zion will laugh to scorn, in the immediate prospect of her Deliverer's advent, the congregated armies of the Man of Sin (Ps 118:10-13). Arthur Pridham.
Whole Psalm. The two Psalms, 117th and 118th, are placed together because, though each is a distinct portion in itself, the 117th is an exordium to that which follows it, an address and an invitation to the Gentile and heathen world to acknowledge and praise Jehovah.
We are now arrived at the concluding portion of the hymn, which Christ and his disciples sung preparatory to their going forth to the Mount of Olives. Nothing could be more appropriate or better fitted to comfort and encourage, at that awful period, than a prophecy which, overleaping the suffering to be endured, showed forth the glory that was afterwards to follow, and a song of triumph, then only recited, but in due time to be literally acted, when the cross was to be succeeded by a crown. This Psalm is not only frequently quoted in the New Testament, but it was also partially applied at one period of our Saviour's sojourn on earth, and thus we are afforded decisive testimony to the purpose for which it is originally and prophetically destined. It was partially used at the time when Messiah, in the days of his humiliation, was received with triumph and acclamation into Jerusalem; and we may conclude it will be fully enacted, when our glorified and triumphant Lord, coming with ten thousand of his saints, will again stand upon the earth and receive the promised salutation, "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of Jehovah." This dramatic representation of Messiah coming in glory, to take his great power and reign among us, is apportioned to the chief character, "the King of kings and Lord of lords, "to his saints following him in procession, and to priests and Levites, representing the Jewish nation.
The Conqueror and his attendants sing the 117th Psalm, an introductory hymn, inviting all, Jews and Gentiles, to share in the merciful kindness of God, and to sing his praises. It is a gathering together of all the Lord's people, to be witnesses and partakers of his glory. Ps 118:1-3 are sung by single voices. As the procession moves along, the theme of rejoicing is announced. The first voice repeats, O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever. Another single voice calls on Israel to acknowledge this great truth; and a third invites the house of Aaron, the priesthood, to acknowledge their share in Jehovah's love. Ps 118:4 is a chorus; the whole procession, the living: and the dead who are raised to meet Christ (1Th 4:16), shout aloud the burden of the song, Ps 118:1. Arrived at the temple gate, or rather, the gate of Jerusalem, the Conqueror alone sings, Ps 118:5-7. He begins by recounting the circumstances of his distress. Next, he tells of his refuge: I betook me to God, I told him my sorrows, and he heard me. The procession, in chorus, sings Ps 118:8-9, taking up the substance of Messiah's chaunt, and fully echoing the sentiment, It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes. The Conqueror alone again sings Ps 118:10-14. He enlarges on the magnitude of his dangers, and the hopelessness of his situation. It was not a common difficulty, or a single enemy, whole nations compassed him about. The procession in chorus, Ps 118:15-16, attributes their Lord's gloat deliverance to his righteous person, and to his righteous cause. Justice and equity and truth, all demanded that Messiah should not be trodden down. "Was it not thine arm, O Jehovah, which has gotten thee the victory?" Messiah now takes up the language of a conqueror, Ps 118:17-19. My sufferings were sore, but they were only for a season. I laid down my life, and I now take it up again: and then, with a loud voice, as when he roused Lazarus out of the grave, he cries to those within the walls, Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD. The priests and Levites within instantly obey his command, and while they throw open the gates, they sing, This is the gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter. As he enters, the Conqueror alone repeats Ps 118:21. His sorrows are ended, his victory is complete. The objects for which he lived and died, and for which his prayers were offered, are now fulfilled, and thus, in a few short words, he expresses his joy and gratitude to God. The priests and Levites sing in chorus Ps 118:22-24. Depositaries and expounders of the prophecies as they had long been, they now, for the first time, quote and apply one, Isa 28:16, which held a conspicuous place, but never before was intelligible to Jewish ears. "The man of sorrows, "the stone which the builders refused, is become the headstone of the corner. The Conqueror is now within the gates, and proceeds to accomplish his good purpose, Lu 1:68. Hosannah, save thy people, O LORD, and send them now prosperity, Ps 118:25. The priests and Levites are led by the Spirit to use the words foretold by our Lord, Mt 28:39. Now at length the veil is removed, and his people say, Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Ps 118:26. The Conqueror and his train (Ps 118:27) now praise God, who has given light and deliverance and salvation, and they offer to him the sacrifice of thanksgiving for all that they enjoy. The Conqueror alone (Ps 118:28) next makes a solemn acknowledgment of gratitude and praise to Jehovah, and then, all being within the gates, the united body, triumphant procession, priests and Levites, end, as they commenced, O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. R. H. Ryland, in "The Psalms restored to Messiah, "1853.
Whole Psalm. It was Luther's favourite Psalm, his beauteous Confitemini, which "had helped him out of what neither emperor nor king, nor any other man on earth, could have helped him." With the exposition of this his noblest jewel, his defence and his treasure, he occupied himself in the solitude of his Patmos (Coburg). Franz Delitzsch.
Whole Psalm. 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 peculiar right to call it mine. It has saved me from many a pressing danger, from which nor emperor, nor kings, nor sages, nor saints, could have saved me. It is my friend; dearer to me than all the honours and power of the earth... But it may be objected, that this Psalm is common to all; no one has a right to call it his own. Yes; but Christ is also common to all, and yet Christ is mine. I am not jealous of my property; I would divide it with the whole world... And would to God that all men would claim the Psalm as especially theirs! It would be the most touching quarrel, the most agreeable to Goda quarrel of union and perfect charity. Luther. From his Dedication of his Translation of Psalm 118 to the Abbot Frederick of Nuremberg.
Ver. 1. For he is good. The praise of God could not be expressed in fewer words than these, "For he is good." I see not what can be more solemn than this brevity, since goodness is so peculiarly the quality of God, that the Son of God himself when addressed by some one as "Good Master, "by one, namely, who beholding his flesh, and comprehending not the fulness of his divine nature, considered him as man only, replied, "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God." And what is this but to say, If you wish to call me good, recognize me as God? Augustine.
Ver. 1. His mercy endureth for ever. What the close of Psalm 117 says of God's truth, viz., that it endureth for ever, Ps 118:1-4 says of its sister, his mercy or lovingkindness. Franz Delitzsch.
Ver. 1-4. As the salvation of the elect is one, and the love of God to them one, so should their song be one, as here four several times it is said, His mercy endureth for ever. David Dickson.
Ver. 1-4. Because we hear the sentence so frequently repeated here, that "the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever, "we are not to think that the Holy Spirit has employed empty tautology, but our great necessity demands it: for in temptations and dangers the flesh begins to doubt of the mercy of God; therefore nothing should be so frequently impressed on the mind as this, that the mercy of God does not fail, that the Eternal Father wearies not in remitting our sins. Solomon Gesner.
Ver. 1-4.
1. The subject of songs "O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good."
2. The chorus"His mercy endureth for ever."
3. The choir"Let Israel now say, "etc.; "Let the house of Aaron, "etc.; "Let them that fear the Lord, "etc.
4. The rehearsal"Let them now say, "that they may be better prepared for universal praise hereafter.
Psalms 118:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is…
Psa_118:1-4
O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: because His mercy endureth for ever.
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The perpetuity of Divine mercy
This is a subject for--
I. Joyous gratitude. O give thanks, etc. Why should the perpetuity of Divine mercy inspire such fervent gratitude?
1. Because all men that now live require mercy. All men are so guilty and depraved as to render them more or less unhappy here, and miserable hereafter. Mercy creates men anew in Christ Jesus in good works.
2. Because all men that will hereafter live require mercy. Thank God, then, that mercy is to run on to the crash of doom.
II. The celebration of all men. The perpetuity of mercy is a subject in which men of all characters, of all lands, of all times may triumphantly rejoice. Here we can all meet, both the rich and the poor. (Homilist.)
Boundless mercy
O this mercy of God! I am told it is an ocean. Then I place on it four swift-sailing craft, with compass, and charts, and choice rigging, and skilful navigators, and I tell them to launch away, and discover for me the extent of this ocean. That craft puts out in one direction, and sails to the north; this to the south; this to the east; this to the west. They crowd on all their canvas, and sail ten thousand years, and one day come up the harbour of heaven; and I shout to them from the beach, Have you found the shore? and they answer: No shore to Gods mercy. Swift angels, despatched from the throne, attempt to go across it. For a million years they fly and fly; but then come back and fold their wings at the foot of the throne, and cry: No shore; no shore to Gods mercy! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 118
Psalms 118
THIS is unmistakably a psalm for use in the Temple worship, and probably meant to be sung antiphonally, on some day of national rejoicing (Psa_118:24). A general concurrence of opinion points to the period of the Restoration from Babylon as its date, as in the case of many psalms in this Book 5 but different events connected with that restoration have been selected. The psalm implies the completion of the Temple, and therefore shuts out any point prior to that. Delitzsch fixes on the dedication of the Temple as the occasion; but the view is still more probable which supposes that it was sung on the great celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, recorded in Neh_8:14-18. In later times Psa_118:25 was the festal cry raised while the altar of burnt offering was solemnly compassed, once on each of the first six days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and seven times on the seventh. This seventh day was called the "Great Hosanna; and not only the prayers at the Feast of Tabernacles, but even the branches of osiers (including the myrtles), which are bound to the palm branch (Lulab), were called Hosannas" (Delitzsch). The allusions in the psalm fit the circumstances of the time in question. Stier, Perowne, and Baethgen concur in preferring this date: the last named critic, who is very slow to recognise indications of specific dates, speaks with unwonted decisiveness, when he writes, "I believe that I can say with certainty, Psalms 118 was sung for the first time at the Feast of Tabernacles in the year 444 B.C." Cheyne follows his usual guides in pointing to the purification and reconstruction of the Temple by Judas Maccabaeus as "fully adequate to explain alike the tone and the expressions." He is "the terrible hero," to whose character the refrain, "In the name of Jehovah I will cut them down," corresponds. But the allusions in the psalm are quite as appropriate to any other times of national jubilation and yet of danger, such as that of the Restoration, and Judas the Maccabee had no monopoly of the warrior trust which flames in that refrain.
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Apparently the psalm falls into two halves, of which the former (Psa_118:1-16) seems to have been sung as a processional hymn while approaching the sanctuary, and the latter (Psa_118:17-29), partly at the Temple gates, partly by a chorus of priests within, and partly by the procession when it had entered. Every reader recognises traces of antiphonal singing; but it is difficult to separate the parts with certainty. A clue may possibly be found by noting that verses marked by the occurrence of "I," "me," and "my" are mingled with others more impersonal. The personified nation is clearly the speaker of the former class of verses, which tells a connected story of distress, deliverance, and grateful triumph; while the other less personal verses generalise the experience of the first speaker, and sustain substantially the part of the chorus in a Greek play. In the first part of the psalm we may suppose that a part of the procession sang the one and another portion the other series; while in the second part (Psa_118:17-29) the more personal verses were sung by the whole cortege arrived at the Temple, and the more generalised other part was taken by a chorus of priests or Levites within the sanctuary. This distribution of verses is occasionally uncertain, but on the whole is clear, and aids the understanding of the psalm.
First rings out from the full choir the summons to praise, which peculiarly belonged to the period of the Restoration. {Ezr_3:11; Psa_106:1; Psa_107:1} As in Psalms 115, three classes are called on: the whole house of Israel, the priests, and "those who fear Jehovah"-i.e., aliens who have taken refuge beneath the wings of Israels God. The threefold designation expresses the thrill of joy in the recovery of national life; the high estimate of the priesthood as the only remaining God-appointed order, now that the monarchy was swept away; and the growing desire to draw the nations into the community of Gods people.
Then, with Psa_118:5, the single voice begins. His experience, now to be told, is the reason for the praise called for in the previous verses. It is the familiar sequence reiterated in many a psalm and many a life, -distress, or "a strait place," {Psa_116:3} a cry to Jehovah, His answer by enlargement, and a consequent triumphant confidence, which has warrant in the past for believing that no hand can hurt him whom Jehovahs hand helps. Many a man passes through the psalmists experience without thereby achieving the psalmists settled faith and power to despise threatening calamities. We fail both in recounting clearly to ourselves our deliverances and in drawing assurance from them for the future. Psa_118:5 b is a pregnant construction. He "answered me in [or, into] an open place"-i.e., by bringing me into it The contrast of a narrow gorge and a wide plain picturesquely expresses past restraints and present freedom of movement. Psa_118:6 is taken from Psa_56:9; Psa_56:11; and Psa_118:7 is influenced by Psa_54:4, and reproduces the peculiar expression occurring there, "Jehovah is among my helpers,"-on which compare remarks on that passage.
Psa_118:8-9 are impersonal, and generalise the experience of the preceding verses. They ring out loud, like a trumpet, and are the more intense for reiteration. Israel was but a feeble handful. Its very existence seemed to depend on the caprice of the protecting kings who had permitted its return. It had had bitter experience of the unreliableness of a monarchs whim. Now, with superb reliance, which was felt by the psalmist to be the true lesson of the immediate past, it peals out its choral confidence in Jehovah with a "heroism of faith which may well put us to the blush." These verses surpass the preceding in that they avow that faith in Jehovah makes men independent of human helpers, while the former verses declared that it makes superior to mortal foes. Fear of and confidence in man are both removed by trust in God. But it is perhaps harder to be weaned from the confidence than to rise above the fear.
The individual experience is resumed in Psa_118:10-14. The energetic reduplications strengthen the impression of multiplied attacks, corresponding with the facts of the Restoration period. The same impression is accentuated by the use in Psa_118:11 a of two forms of the same verb, and in Psa_118:12 a by the metaphor of a swarm of angry bees. {Deu_1:44} Numerous, venomous, swift, and hard to strike at as the enemies were, buzzing and stinging around, they were but insects after all, and a strong hand could crush them. The psalmist does not merely look to God to interpose for him, as in Psa_118:6-7, but expects that God will give him power to conquer by the use of his own strengthened arm. We are not only objects of Divine protection, but organs of Divine power. Trusting in the revealed character of Jehovah, we shall find conquering energy flowing into us from Him, and the most fierce assaults will die out as quickly as a fire of dry thorn twigs, which sinks into ashes the sooner the more it crackles and blazes. Then the psalmist individualises the multitude of foes, just as the collective Israel is individualised, and brings assailants and assailed down to two antagonists, engaged in desperate duel. But a third Person intervenes. "Jehovah helped me" (Psa_118:13); as in old legends, the gods on their immortal steeds charged at the head of the hosts of their worshippers. Thus delivered, the ginger breaks into the ancient strain, which had gone up on the shores of the sullen sea that rolled over Pharaohs army, and is still true after centuries have intervenel: "Jah is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation." Miriam sang it, the restored exiles sang it, tried and trustful men in every age have sung and will sing it, till there are no more foes; and then, by the shores of the sea of glass mingled with fire, the calm victors will lift again the undying "song of Moses and of the Lamb."
Psa_118:15-16 are probably best taken as sung by the chorus, generalising and giving voice to the emotions excited by the preceding verses. The same reiteration which characterised Psa_118:8-9 reappears here. Two broad truths are built on the individual voices autobiography: namely, that trust in Jehovah and consequent conformity to His law are never in vain, but always issue in joy; and that Gods power, when put forth, always conquers. "The tents of the righteous" may possibly allude to the "tabernacles" constructed for the feast, at which the song was probably sung.
Psa_118:17-19 belong to the individual voice. The procession has reached the Temple. Deeper thoughts than before now mark the retrospect of past trial and deliverance. Both are recognised to be from Jehovah. It is He who has corrected, severely indeed, but still "in measure, not to bring to nothing, but to make capable and recipient of fuller life." The enemy thrust sore, with intent to make Israel fall; but Gods strokes are meant to make us stand the firmer. It is beautiful that all thought of human foes has faded away, and God only is seen in all the sorrow. But His chastisement has wider purposes than individual blessedness. It is intended to make its objects the heralds of His name to the world. Israel is beginning to lay to heart more earnestly its world wide vocation to "tell forth the works of Jehovah." The imperative obligation of all who have received delivering help from Him is to become missionaries of His name. The reed is cut and pared thin and bored with hot irons, and the very pith of it extracted, that it may be fit to be put to the owners lips, and give out music from his breath. Thus conscious of its vocation and eager to render its due of sacrifice and praise, Israel asks that "the gates of righteousness" may be opened for the entrance of the long procession. The Temple doors are so called, because Righteousness is the condition of entrance. {Isa_26:2 compare Psalms 24}
Psa_118:20 may belong to the individual voice, but is perhaps better taken as the answer from within the Temple, of the priests or Levites who guarded the closed doors, and who now proclaim what must be the character of those who would tread the sacred courts. The gate (not as in Psa_118:19, gates) belongs to Jehovah, and therefore access by it is permitted to none but the righteous. That is an everlasting truth. It is possible to translate, "This is the gate to Jehovah"-i.e., by which one comes to His presence; and that rendering would bring out still more emphatically the necessity of the condition laid down: "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord."
The condition is supposed to be met; for in Psa_118:21 the individual voice again breaks into thanksgiving, for being allowed once more to stand in the house of Jehovah. "Thou hast answered me": the psalmist had already sung that Jah had answered him (Psa_118:5). "And art become my salvation": he had already hailed Jehovah as having become such (Psa_118:14). Gods deliverance is not complete till full communion with Him is enjoyed. Dwelling in His house is the crown of all His blessings. We are set free from enemies, from sins and fears and struggles, that we may abide forever with Him, and only then do we realise the full sweetness of His redeeming hand, when we stand in His presence and commune evermore with Him.
Psa_118:22, Psa_118:23, Psa_118:24, probably belong to the priestly chorus. They set forth the great truth made manifest by restored Israels presence in the rebuilt Temple. The metaphor is suggested by the incidents connected with the rebuilding. The "stone" is obviously Israel, weak, contemptible, but now once more laid as the very foundation stone of Gods house in the world. The broad truth taught by its history is that God lays as the basis of His building-i.e., uses for the execution of His purposes that which the wisdom of man despises and tosses aside. There had been abundant faintheartedness among even the restored exiles. The nations around had scoffed at these "feeble Jews," and the scoffs had not been without echoes in Israel itself. Chiefly, the men of position and influence, who ought to have strengthened drooping courage, had been infected with the tendency to rate low the nations power, and to think that their enterprise was destined to disaster. But now the Temple is built, and the worshippers stand in it. What does that teach but that all has been Gods doing? So wonderful is it, so far beyond expectation, that the very objects of such marvellous intervention are amazed to find themselves where they stand. So rooted is our tendency to unbelief that, when God does what He has sworn to do, we are apt to be astonished with a wonder which reveals the greatness of our past incredulity. No man who trusts God ought to be surprised at Gods answers to trust.
The general truth contained here is that of Pauls great saying, "God hath chosen the weak things of the world that He might put to shame the things that are strong." It is the constant law, not because God chooses unfit instruments, but because the worlds estimates of fitness are false, and the qualities which it admires are irrelevant with regard to His designs, while the requisite qualities are of another sort altogether. Therefore, it is a law which finds its highest exemplification in the foundation for Gods true temple, other than which can no man lay. "Israel is not only a figure of Christ-there is an organic unity between Him and them. Whatever, therefore, is true of Israel in a lower sense is true in its highest sense of Christ. If Israel is the rejected stone made the head of the corner, this is far truer of Him who was indeed rejected of men, but chosen of God and precious, the corner stone of the one great living temple of the redeemed" (Perowne).
Psa_118:24 is best regarded as the continuation of the choral praise in Psa_118:22-23. "The day" is that of the festival now in process, the joyful culminationof Gods manifold deliverances. It is a day in which joy is duty, and no heart has a right to be too heavy to leap for gladness. Private sorrows enough many of the jubilant worshippers no doubt had, but the sight of the Stone laid as the head of the corner should bring joy even to such. If sadness was ingratitude and almost treason then, what sorrow should now be so dense that it cannot be pierced by the Light which lighteth every man? The joy of the Lord should float, like oil on stormy waves, above our troublous sorrows, and smooth their tossing.
Again the single voice rises, but not now in thanksgiving, as might have been expected, but in plaintive tones of earnest imploring (Psa_118:25). Standing in the sanctuary, Israel is conscious of its perils, its need, its weakness, and so with pathetic reiteration of the particle of entreaty, which occurs twice in each clause of the verse, cries for continued deliverance from continuing evils, and for prosperity in the course opening before it. The "day" in which unmingled gladness inspires our songs has not yet dawned, fair as are the many days which Jehovah has made. In the earthly house of the Lord thanksgiving must ever pass into petition. An unending day comes, when there will be nothing to dread, and no need for the sadder notes occasioned by felt weakness and feared foes.
Psa_118:26-27 come from the chorus of priests, who welcome the entering procession, and solemnly pronounce on them the benediction of Jehovah. They answer, in His name, the prayer of Psa_118:25, and bless the single leader of the procession and the multitudes following. The use of Psa_118:26 a and of the "Hosanna" (an attempted transliteration of the Hebrew "Save, I beseech") from Psa_118:25 at Christs entrance into Jerusalem probably shows that the psalm was regarded as Messianic. It is so, in virtue of the relation already referred to between Israel and Christ. He "cometh in the name of Jehovah" in a deeper sense than did Israel, the servant of the Lord.
Psa_118:27 a recalls the priestly benediction, {Num_6:25} and thankfully recognises its ample fulfilment in Israels history, and especially in the dawning of new prosperity now. Psa_118:27 b, c, is difficult. Obviously it should be a summons to worship, as thanksgiving for the benefits acknowledged in a. But what is the act of worship intended is hard to say. The rendering "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar," has against it the usual meaning of the word rendered sacrifice, which is rather festival, and the fact that the last words of the verse cannot possibly be translated "to the horns," etc., but must mean "as far as" or "even up to the horns," etc. There must therefore be a good deal supplied in the sentence; and commentators differ as to how to fill the gap. Delitzsch supposes that "the number of the sacrificial animals is to be so great that the whole space of the courts of the priests becomes full of them, and the binding of them has therefore to take place even up to the horns of the altar." Perowne takes the expression to be a pregnant one for, "till [the victim] is sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the horns of the altar." So Hupfeld, following Chaldee and some Jewish interpreters. Others regard the supposed ellipsis as too great to be natural, and take an entirely different view. The word rendered sacrifice in the former explanation is taken to mean a procession round the altar, which is etymologically justifiable, and is supported by the known custom of making such a circuit during the Feast of Tabernacles. For "cords" this explanation would read branches or boughs, which is also warranted. But what does "binding a procession with boughs" mean? Various answers are given. Cheyne supposes that the branches borne in the hands of the members of the procession were in some unknown way used to bind or link them together before they left the Temple. Baethgen takes "with boughs" as " bearing boughs," with which he supposes that the bearers touched the altar horns, for the purpose of transferring to themselves the holiness concentrated there. Either explanation has difficulties, -the former in requiring an unusual sense for the word rendered sacrifice; the latter in finding a suitable meaning for that translated bind. In either c is but loosely connected with b, and is best understood as an exclamation. The verb rendered bind is used in 1Ki_20:14, 2Ch_13:3, in a sense which fits well with "procession" here-i.e., that of marshalling an army for battle. If this meaning is adopted, b will be the summons to order the bough-bearing procession, and c a call to march onwards, so as to encircle the altar. This meaning of the obscure verse may be provisionally accepted, while owning that our ignorance of the ceremonial referred to prevents complete understanding of the words.
Once more Miriams song supplies ancient language of praise for recent mercies, and the personified Israel compasses the altar with thanksgiving (Psa_118:28). Then the whole multitude, both of those who had come up to the Temple and of those who had welcomed them there, join in the chorus of praise with which the psalm begins and ends, and which was so often pealed forth in those days of early joy for the new manifestations of that Lovingkindness which endures through all days, both those of past evil and those of future hoped for good.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 1. The last of the group (113–118.) constituting the…
INTRODUCTION
1. The last of the group (113–118.) constituting the Hallel.
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2. Certainly a temple Psalm, most probably composed for a great occasion. “Some incline to the Davidic authorship, when he was anointed king, when he brought back the ark, or after (2Sa_21:16). Others to Hezekiah (cf. Psa_118:17 with Isa_38:1). Others, after the exile, in celebration either of Feast of Tabernacles (Ezr_3:1-4), or Founding of the Temple (Ezr_3:8-8), or its Dedication (Ezr_6:15-18), or Feast of Tabernacles (Neh_8:14).
3. Often quoted in New Testament. Many Rabbins interpret the Psalm of Christ; and Jerome says that the ancient Jews so interpreted it, which is borne out by Mat_21:9. This was Luther’s favourite Psalm.”
THE DIVINE MERCY
(Psa_118:1-4)
Our text forms an appropriate introduction to, and is a miniature of, the whole Psalm. It contains the germ of all God’s goodness, and the ground for all human gratitude. Next to the phrase, “Praise ye the Lord,” the expression of Psa_118:1 is of most frequent use in the Book of Psalms.
I. The nature of divine mercy.
1. It is divine. “His mercy.” It is therefore perfect. It is not liable to the fluctuations and temptations to which human mercy is exposed. The divine character is not only perfect as a whole, but in its parts. The divine perfections characterise each other. The divine mercy is omnipotent and all wise, beneficent, yet just. It always goes far enough, it never goes too far. Man’s mercy sometimes stops at the boundary of self-interest, and thus leaves its object unattained; sometimes goes beyond both and defeats its object. Not so with perfect mercy. It ascertains accurately the measure of our need, and powerfully supplies it.
2. It is the outcome of the divine goodness. Man’s mercy is often the result of weakness. Thus it rests on unworthy objects, encourages sin, and manifests itself in unproper ways. God’s mercy is ever governed by sound motives, manifested in good ways, to worthy objects and beneficent results.
3. It is everlasting. Man’s mercy is frequently a matter of mood, tense, and ability. God is always in a merciful mood, and always powerful to bless.
II. The objects and manifestation of the divine mercy.
1. Nations: “Israel.” God, as King of kings, cares for national life. Illustrations of this are plentiful in the history of Israel and in the history of England. The divine mercy is seen
(1) In the planting of nations, with due regard to wants and peculiarities. The characteristics of a nation may be due to the circumstances in which they are placed, but it may also be due in the divine adaptation of circumstances to temperament—e.g., Greece, art and poetry; England, commerce, &c.
(2) In the growth of nations. Wars, revolutions, reforms, &c.
(3) The decline of nations. When a nation has lost its virtue and its vigour it is a mercy to itself and to other nations that it should fall. Israel, Rome, &c.
2. Ministers: “House of Aaron.”
(1.) In their call (1Ti_1:16; Gal_1:15-16).
(2.) In their preparation for their work
(3.) In their encouragement in the midst of difficulties and dangers.
(4.) In their spiritual enrichment.
(5.) In their moral success.
(6.) In their eternal reward.
3. The Church, “Them that fear the Lord.”
(1.) As a whole. α In its marvellous preparation; the gradual consolidation of the world into a political brotherhood by the Persian, Alexandrian, and Roman conquests; the dispersion of the Jews; the spread of the Greek language and Roman civilisation; the yearning for spiritual life and unity. β. In the merciful gift of Jesus Christ to be its living head, and of the Spirit to guide it into all the truth. γ. In the persecutions which dispersed it, and the blood which watered it. δ. In its marvellous preservation when the whole world was against it. ε. In its enrichment by the stores of learning and art. ζ. In its Pentecostal baptisms in all ages. η. In its continual progress. θ. In the promise of its glorious close.
(2) As individuals; in conversion, the means of grace, &c.
III. The recognition of the divine mercy. “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord.”
1. This mercy is often unrecognised. Nations attribute their blessings to fortunate circumstances, patient perseverance, or martial prowess; ministers to their learning, eloquence, or zeal; the Church to its orthodoxy, political alliances, or enthusiasm; individuals to happy chances, or human sympathy and help.
2. This recognition is a matter of imperative obligation. Without this recognition
(1) the evils of selfishness and sin can never be extinguished,
(2) the mercy will be withdrawn, and
(3) retribution follow.
3. This recognition should take the form of devout, grateful, and earnest praise.
“MAN’S EXTREMITY GOD’S OPPORTUNITY”
(Psa_118:5-7)
I. Man in distress. מִרהַמֵּצַר “Out of straits.” The figure is that of a fortress surrounded by a beleaguering army, or of soldiers hemmed in on every side (see Psa_118:10), or of a torrent dammed up by the pass through which it rushes; imprisoned, constrained. This applies to—
1. The Church. How often is it surrounded and hemmed in by infidelity, ungodliness, superstition, persecution, want of opportunity, political restriction, and popular opinion!
2. The individual. In business, family, society, by temptations, hostility of friends, personal weakness, malignity of foes.
II. Man’s duty in distress. I. Prayer. Without this we shall always be in distress. Our own resources are soon expended. Friends are often unwilling or helpless. Let us “call upon the Lord.”
(1.) It is our duty to God, for He has commanded it.
(2.) It is our duty to ourselves. A prayerless man is a moral suicide. “Not sit by thyself, or lie upon thy bench, hanging and shaking thy head, and letting thy thoughts bite and devour thee; but rouse up, thou indolent fellow! fall upon thy knees, raise thy hands and eyes to heaven, and present thy distress before God with tears.”—Luther.
2. Courage. “I will not fear.” Fear blanches the courage, exhausts the strength, and diverts the aim. As long as courage lasts, hope is not extinct; but the moment fear comes in, defeat supervenes.
III. Man’s consolations in distress.
1. The Lord is on his side. The Lord has pledged Himself
(1) to be with His Church always;
(2) with His individual children. What is there then to fear? “Greater is He that is for you” (Isa_43:1-2).
2. The Lord consecrates all His confederates for His good (Psa_118:4). Whether they be friends or instrumentalities.
IV. Man’s deliverance in distress.
1. Victory over foes. This has been the realisation of the Church in all ages. (Rom_8:35; Rom_8:39).
2. Perfect liberty. “The Lord set me in a large place.” The misery of the Psalmist was that he was straightened. His deliverance was liberty in a large open plain. This may be applied
(1) to Missionary enterprise. The Lord is ever opening doors for His Church, loosing her bonds, and enlarging the field of her operations.
(2) To spiritual life. We are “called unto liberty,” freedom, from sin, of thought, of mental and moral cultivation, philanthropy.
COURAGE
(Psa_118:6-7)
Courage is a very complex and difficult subject. We speak of physical courage, mental, moral courage, courage of convictions, &c. Many a man who could walk up to a cannon’s mouth could not face a public audience. Many a man who has planted his country’s flag in the thick of her foes has betrayed his most cherished convictions. True courage is described in our text.
I. In its source. “The Lord is on my side.” Courage is supposed to spring from self-reliance. That man is counted brave who scorns all allies and dares to face the enemy alone. Hence much of human courage is reckless hardihood. True courage is the courage of trust in God.
II. In its manifestations. “I will not fear,” &c.
1. It trusts God to do for it what it cannot do for itself. It wisely dares to acknowledge that by itself it is unequal to certain enterprises. This of itself requires a great deal of courage, because it requires so much self-abnegation, is so unpopular, and is often apparently not warranted by circumstances.
2. This trust produces fearlessness of consequences. Who can fear who has taken this initial and most formidable step of declaring himself on the side of God? Young men, take this initial step; for who can fear who knows that God is on his side.
3. Fearlessness of consequences produces the true courage of fidelity. Why is it men are unfaithful? Consequences, unpopularity, poverty, &c. “The fear of man bringeth a snare.” “Fear Him, ye saints, and you will then have nothing else to fear.”
TRUST, HUMAN AND DIVINE
(Psa_118:8-9)
I. Man must trust. All experience proves this. Like the creeping parasite, the soul must throw its tendrils round some support.
II. Whom should man trust? Some one whose qualities warrant that trust.
1. He must be ail-sufficient, able to provide for all actual and possible necessities. To trust for wisdom to the foolish, for strength to the weak, &c., nothing but disappointment can follow.
2. He must be of supreme moral excellence. If we trust to the suspected or the worthless we shall be in a state of perpetual unrest.
3. He must be the same at all times. Trust in the feeble is ruin. Man must have as the object of his trust one whose omnipotent resources and spiritual perfection are beyond the mutation of this world and abide for ever.
III. Who warrants that trust?
1. Do men generally? No;
(1) man, is weak in wisdom and material resources;
(2) morally imperfect;
(3) ever changeful
2. Do princes? Least of all. They are but men, sometimes the weakest, worst, and most fickle of men. What they have done let the followers of Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed, the Pope, and Priestcraft everywhere tell. One thing: ruin.
IV. God offers Himself as the object of human trust. It is better that man should trust Him—
1. Because He warrants that trust. “He is able to do exceeding abundantly,” &c. He is “glorious in holiness.” He is “the same yesterday, to-day,” &c.
2. Because man’s confidence can thereby be secured. That confidence has been sadly shaken. Hence man’s distress. In God it will stand firm.
3. Because of the blessed consequences which will follow.
(1.) salvation;
(2.) inward peace;
(3.) human brotherhood;
(4.) heaven.
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
(Psa_118:10-13)
I. Danger.
1. A surrounding danger, “compassed.” The foes of the Christian are not all in the front or in the light. They are subtle, and everywhere. A sudden temptation may reveal a weakness hitherto unobserved. They assail us at all points, at home and abroad, at work and at rest, in the Church and in the world.
2. A formidable danger.
(1.) In point of numbers, “like bees.” We wrestle with principalities and powers. Countless multitudes are waiting for every weakness, and plotting for every fall.
(2.) In point of pertinacity. The fourfold repetition of the phrase, “They compassed me,” indicates assiduity and perseverance.
(3.) In point of weapons. The sting of the bee is formidable from its very insignificance. So it is not at first by great temptations, but by small, that we are assailed. The sting of the bee is sharp, so the weapons arrayed against us can pierce body, affections, temper, intellect, and soul.
(4.) In the point of dexterity. It is difficult to strike the bee when on the wing. Happy the man who has transfixed the tempter with the sword of the Spirit, and has him under his feet.
3. A fatal danger. “They thrust sore at me that I might fall.” Their aim is not to weaken, but to destroy. Hence quarter is neither given nor taken. Victory or death is the only issue for either side.
II. Help. “The Lord helped me.”
1. By fighting Himself where and when we are helpless. There are certain antagonists we can never cope with. Sin, Satan, and death have to be encountered by Him first, and their power crippled and themselves chained. In effecting this Christ becomes “the Captain of our salvation.”
2. By animating us with the warlike spirit. “God has not given to us the spirit of cowardice (διιλείας), but the spirit of power.”
3. By arming us for the conflict. (Eph_6:13-17).
4. By assurances of victory and reward.
III. Victory. “In the name of the Lord, I will destroy them.”
1. The victory will come swiftly. Like the dry thorns, they shall consume. It remains very much with the Christian, with his faith, courage, and fidelity, when the victory shall be won.
2. The victory shall be complete. “Destroy.” “Sin shall have no more dominion over you.” “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” “Death shall be swallowed up in victory.”
3. The glory of the victory shall be given to him to whom it is due. “In the name of the Lord.” Note:—This takes all the malevolence out of this determination. It was a judicial vengeance of which the Psalmist was only the instrument. God takes all the responsibility. Let persecutors see to it that they have God’s warrant. We know we have it in our war of extermination against sin. “Not unto us, but to Thy name,” &c.
PERSONAL AND FAMILY PIETY
(Psa_118:14-15)
Notice:—
I. That piety is sadly wanting. There are men to whom these words are unintelligible. They know nothing of God’s strength; they are strangers to His salvation; no song wells up from their thankless hearts. Sad is their condition; sad the condition of their homes. In many homes all is vice, misery, want, and broken-heartedness, as the result of the parent’s irreligion. In all houses which are not sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, the deepest wants of the family are unsatisfied.
II. That the want of piety is supplied. “The Lord … has become,” &c. Piety consists of three things.
1. Salvation. “The Lord is become … He is my salvation.” Not simply personal rescue or divine blessing, but indwelling God. This involves every other phase. It drives out sin, rescues from impurity and death, gives heaven.
2. Salvation employed. “My strength,” for use, of course. Strength unemployed will be strength dissipated. If we do not “work out our salvation,” viz., that which God has worked in, “to will and to do of His good pleasure,” spiritual loss and death will supervene.
3. Salvation acknowledged. “My song.” Salvation will and must express itself. The praiseless lip argues the thankless heart, and the thankless heart is the heart from which God has fled.
III. That piety must be personally appropriated. “My.”
1. Piety is a matter between the personal soul and its personal Saviour. There can be no mediation or proxy. No man can either get or keep our religion for us.
2. The means of its appropriation is personal faith. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
3. The test of its appropriation is personal experience. “Is become.” The Psalmist’s experience was no fiction. He knew that there was a time when he felt nothing of the sort. He knew that now that time was over. He had entered on a new phase in his career, and of that phase he was sensible.
IV. That piety is appropriated to be diffused. The sphere of its diffusion here is the home (Psa_118:15). Piety may be diffused at home by
1. Personal example.
2. Careful self-discipline.
3. Intelligent and patient training.
4. Interesting and constant worship, &c.
V. That piety, and piety alone, will make a home happy. “The voice of rejoicing … is in the tabernacles of the righteous.”
1. Some pious homes, it is said, are not happy. Does true piety reign there? or cant, laxity, or severity?
2. True piety must make a happy home, because it is “alway rejoicing.”
VI. A happy home is a miniature of and a nursery for heaven.
IN CONCLUSION.—(i.) Parents, it rests with you whether your home is a heaven or a hell. (ii.) Children, value your homes. The time may come when you will want them. (iii.) Children of pious parents, make your future home what your past has been.
THE LORD’S TRIUMPH
(Psa_118:15-16)
These words may be applied
(1) to God’s sovereignty over the material universe and His power over its laws;
(2) to national deliverances, such as Moses, David, elsewhere acknowledged, yes, and such as we ought to acknowledge. But
(3) it suggests (and we will consider it as suggesting) the triumphs of Christ and His Gospel in the world.
I. The personal triumph of Christ.
1. Over Satan. This began in the wilderness, continued without intermission during His life, and ended by the victory of the Cross.
2. Over the world. Our Lord confronted the world in all its forms, provincial, metropolitan, social, political, upper, lower. “He measured the world and condemned it. And it fully understood Him. It recognised His aim; it quailed before Him, and it hated Him; and it rested not till it had led Him to His Cross; but He said, ‘I have overcome the world.’ ”—Liddon.
3. Over sin, by bearing its penalty on Calvary.
4. Over death, by His resurrection.
5. This fourfold triumph condensed into one at His ascension (Col_1:15, Eph_4:8).
II. The triumphs of His Gospel in the human heart.
1. In its conversion from sin to holiness. Every other means has been tried and has failed, human efforts, education, moral philosophy. But Christ has subdued the will, cleansed the soul, introduced a powerful motive, and imparted a new life.
2. In empowering the soul to resist sin, strenuous opposition, favourable circumstances, human encouragement have been in vain.
3. In promoting the growth of moral excellence.
4. In giving us victory over the world, tribulation, and death.
III. The triumphs of His Church in the world.
1. Over persecution. Its early years were years of blood.
2. Over old heathenism, supported as it was by poetry, learning, and extensive popularity.
3. Over heresy, e.g.
(1) Arianism, in spite of its wide influence and royal patronage;
(2) Popery, that giant superstition, still reels under Luther’s blow, and will yet fall.
4. Over religious indifference. Nothing ever has, or ever will excite such interest and move so much as the simple preaching of the Gospel. Where are the crowds so numerous as at our churches?
5. Over human hearts. Witness Pentecost, the preaching of Luther, Latimer, Wesley, Whitfield, &c. Nor are its triumphs confined to one class. In its early ages the illiterate fisherman, the intelligent publican, and the learned rabbi were charmed and subdued. And the same Gospel has since exerted its influence over Bunyan the tinker and Newton the philosopher.
CHASTISEMENT
(Psa_118:17-18)
The first of these verses was hung up by Luther in his study, as his favourite verse of his favourite Psalm. “It has come to my aid again and again, and supported me in heavy trials, when Kaiser, king, philosopher, and saint could do nought” Chastisement—
I. Its nature. “The Lord hath chastened me sore.”
1. It was the Lord’s chastisement, therefore sovereign, fatherly.
2. By human instrumentality. His enemies were permitted to “thrust at him sore.”
3. Thorough. “Sore.” Not too much, not too little, but sufficiently to accomplish the divine purposes (Job_30:11).
II. Its limits. “He hath not given me over to death.”
1. Physical death.
2. Intellectual death. Despair.
3. Moral death. Destruction.
III. Its consolations. “I shall not die, but live.”
1. It was corrective, remedial, and therefore not simply punitive (Jer_10:24).
2. Hopefulness against the worst. “I shall not die.”
3. Confidence for the best. “But live” (Act_27:22-25).
IV. Its effects. “And declare the works of the Lord.”
1. Devout gratitude.
2. Personal improvement.
3. Religious earnestness and testimony. “No affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, but afterward,” &c.
THE SACRED ENCLOSURE
(Psa_118:19-21)
I. The enclosure.
1. Literal. Our text primarily refers to the sacred enclosure that was accessible to true Israelites alone. (Isa_26:2.) That enclosure was the house of God, where His glory was manifested, His name worshipped, and His people’s righteousness confirmed and strengthened. So the Christian Church is where God’s presence is felt, His word proclaimed, His worship celebrated, &c.
2. Moral. Christian life is a temple of the living God and the sphere of righteousness. A way of holiness where God dwells and walks with His people.
3. Heavenly (Psa_24:7). Heaven is the sanctuary of God, and the dwelling place of righteousness.
II. The gates of that enclosure. “The gates of righteousness.” “The gate of the Lord.”
1. The gate which belongs to the Lord. The Lord keeps the gate; not Peter, not His ministers, but Himself.
2. The gate is of the Lord’s appointment. All who enter by any other climb over the wall and are thieves and robbers. There is only one way opened. “There is only one name given under heaven,” &c.
3. The gate is the Lord Himself. “I am the way.” “I am the door.” Christ alone is the entrance to God’s righteousness.
III. The keys to that enclosure.
1. Ardent supplication. “Open,” implying need of entrance, desire to enter. “Ask;” “seek;” “knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
2. The divine willingness. “Thou hast heard.” God has a sovereign right to admit or exclude all He chooses; but we know that He will be guided by righteousness, and will not select on arbitrary principles.
3. Salvation. “Art become my salvation.” Nothing that is defiled or maketh a lie can enter. Only “the redeemed shall walk there.” They “enter in and find pasture.”
IV. The privileges and duties of that enclosure.
1. Worship. “I will praise the Lord.”
2. Righteousness.
IN CONCLUSION.—(i.) The outer courts are open to all.
(1.) Many privileges of the material sanctuary. But let the Church beware how she throws all her privileges open.
(2.) Opportunities for righteousness.
(3.) Opportunities for qualifying for heaven. (ii.) The inner court is open to all who are qualified to enter.
(1.) All the means of grace;
(2.) the fulfilment of all righteousness;
(3.) all the hopes and fruits of glory.
CHRIST THE CORNER-STONE
(Psa_118:22-23)
Whatever literal application these verses may have had, that application is now merged into the richer, larger, and undoubted application to the Messiah. No text is more frequently quoted in the New Testament. Six or seven times it is quoted word for word, and in innumerable instances is it unquestionably referred to where Christ is made the one, true, and only foundation of the Church. “Must we, in opposition to the perverted and obstinate exegesis even of believing commentators, begin to prove that this Psalm is Messianic—that the corner-stone is a real prophecy of the Spirit concerning Christ? We frankly confess ourselves to be so often vexed by such contentions with brethren who do not understand the scripture, that we lose patience; and, however unscientifically, are inclined rather to rebuke them with Christ (Luk_24:25) until their hearts burn, and their burning hearts begin to read in the light of the Pentecostal fire what is written.”—Stier. Observe—
I. That Christ is the corner-stone.
1. What the corner-stone is not.
(1.) Feelings towards Christ. These are most unsubstantial and shifting.
(2.) Doctrines concerning Christ. These merely tell us about the corner-stone.
(3.) The example of Christ. This is simply the character of the corner-stone.
(4.) The Church of Christ. That is the building reared on the corner-stone.
2. What the corner-stone is. “Jesus Christ Himself being the chief stone.” This only is solid, constant, and eternal. All else is sand. This is rock. Jesus Christ in His divine-human personality. Incarnate, crucified, risen, glorified, and reigning.
3. What the corner-stone is for.
(1.) For beauty. Corner-stones are the most costly, choice, and adorned. Other stones derive their excellency from them. So the Christian building derives its beauty from Him who is “full of grace and truth.” “Of His fulness all we have received, and grace for grace.”
(2.) Stability. They are chosen for firmness, strength, and durability. They uphold and maintain the building which without them would crumble and fall. So Christ supports the individual believer and the collective Church, in weakness, trials, hour of death, day of judgment.
(3.) Unity and compactness. Take away the corner-stone and the sides of the house become separate buildings. This unity is not uniformity. The other stones are of various sizes, value, colour, material. The corner-stone gives harmony. So different men have different capacities, preferences, modes of thought and feeling. Christ binds them into a mighty whole—His Church.
II. That Christ is the only cornerstone. There have been many rival corner-stones. They have been tried, but they have failed, and so have those who have built upon them. Paganism, Unbelief, Socialism, Philosophy, Ethics. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,” &c. He is the only cornerstone by which God and man can be brought together on terms that are at once honourable, amicable, strong, and abiding. He alone can bring the dispensations together into a harmonious whole and make them an enduring basis for faith and morals. He is the only means by which the disintegrated masses of mankind can find their principle of cohesion. “One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” He is the only means whereby the disorganised faculties of our nature can be reduced to order and compacted in strength and “so make our new man.”
III. That Christ is the divinely established corner-stone. “This is the Lord’s doings.” It is no myth or speculation. It is not the doing of men or angels, but of—
1. The Holy Trinity. The Father “sent forth His Son,” and consecrated Him. “Him hath God the Father sealed.” The Son “came,” and by His own power laid “down His life and took it again.” The Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ and imparts them to us.
2. The divine attributes. Wisdom devised it; justice instituted it; love gave it; and power laid it.
3. The divine providence.
(1.) By a wonderful preparation. Moral: the Jews; intellectual: the Greeks; political: the Romans.
(2.) In an age which by its peculiar fitness was “the fulness of the times.”
IV. That Christ is the rejected corner-stone. In all ages since His advent He has been the despised and rejected of men. The Jewish people and the whole heathen world combined at first to resist His claims. He was a stumbling-block to the one, and foolishness to the other. Persecution and controversy since have proved that the human heart is alien to Him. Sin, infidelity, heresy, and worldliness all refuse to build upon Christ.
V. That Christ is the marvellous corner-stone.
1. Marvellous when we consider who is the corner-stone.
(1.) In its unlikelihood. The man Christ Jesus, born in a manger; the Man of Sorrows, crucified as a malefactor.
(2.) In its condescension. The brightness of the Father’s glory, creator of the universe, governor of angels, Lord of man.
2. Marvellous when we consider the means by which He has become the cornerstone. By the simple preaching of truths alien to natural inclinations, political institutions, moral usages; demanding the resignation of pride of intellect, independence of will, pleasure, profit; by men, weak and unlearned in the world’s estimation, whose weapons were not learning or swords, but holiness, suffering, zeal, and prayer.
3. Marvellous when we consider the numbers and quality of those who have made it their corner-stone. Countless millions have eschewed beliefs consecrated by the profession of unnumbered ages, have thrown off their allegiance to priesthoods armed with every terror and device, have resisted the fascinations of philosophy, and have left darling vices and besetting sins. These have been from all ranks—monarchs, nobles, warriors, statesmen, poets, &c.
THE LORD’S DAY
(Psa_118:24)
I. The day—
1. Of temporal deliverance. God has made that. By a variety of providential dispensations. Indirectly, through men and other instrumentalities, e.g., in sickness, through the physician; in perplexities, by friendly advice and help. Directly, by the interposition of His mighty power.
2. Of salvation. The whole Christian dispensation is the time accepted by God in which to bless mankind. It is the time acceptable to man in which his pressing spiritual wants may be supplied.
3. Of conversion. The day when God gives, and we personally take, Jesus Christ to be our chief corner-stone. Let that “happy day” never be forgotten.
4. The sabbath day, by Jehovah’s rest and Christ’s resurrection.
II. The duties of that day.
(1.) Rejoicing. Implying intense gratitude, cheerful consecration, holy zeal.
(2.) Gladness. Let no man say that religion is a thing of gloom. God blesses us that we may be happy. Let the day of rest be the gladdest of all the seven.
BENEDICTIONS
(Psa_118:25-26)
This passage received its fulfilment only in Him who came in the supremest sense in the name of the Lord (Mat_21:9). Here, however, it admits of a human and general interpretation.
I. The blessing supplicated.
1. This supplication is the expression of a want. “Save.” “Send prosperity.” “Save,” implying moral evil and degradation; “Prosperity,” loss and misery.
2. This supplication was earnest. “Beseech.” Our need is great, so must be our cry. Listless prayer implies unconsciousness of need.
3. This supplication was urgent. “Save now.” “Send now.” Need is always present. Blessings are ever wanted.
II. The conditions of blessing fulfilled.
1. Coming.
(1.) This is inexorable. “Come, now, let us reason;” “Seek ye the Lord,” &c.
(2.) Can only be fulfilled through Christ. “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”
(3.) Is equivalent to Christian faith. Faith is the soul’s approach to God through Christ.
2. Coming in the name of the Lord.
(1) Not in our name, or
(2) by our own merits, but
(3) in the name of the Lord. Self-distrust, resignation, confidence.
III. The blessing vouchsafed.
1. Salvation; from the guilt, power, pollution, and punishment of sin.
2. Prosperity. The great gift of God through His Son and Spirit. Regeneration, sanctification, indwelling peace, joy, power, heaven.
IV. The place of blessing. “The house of the Lord.”
1. All the means of grace are there concentrated.
2. The vast majority of Christians receive their highest blessings there.
PERSONAL RELIGION
(Psa_118:27-29)
I. Personal religion consists in the acknowledgment of a personal God. Religion must rest on a dogmatic and theological basis. Whatever definition we give to the term religion, this is primarily involved. If it consists in the bond which unites the soul to the Supreme Being, then we must know who that Supreme Being is. If it consists in duty, then with reference to whom are those duties performed. To resolve God into a “stream or tendency which makes for righteousness” does not avoid theology or dogma.
II. Personal religion consists in the acknowledgment of a personal God accessible to man. God is accessible, because He is “good.” If He is not good, He is unapproachable, and must be the object of man’s fear. God is permanently accessible, because His mercy endureth for ever. Religion must have an object who can be approached through all the vicissitudes of life.
III. Personal religion consists in the apprehension of a personal God. “My God.” “This is a truth unknown beyond the precincts of revelation. The Almighty and Eternal gives Himself in the fulness of His being to the soul that seeks Him. Heathenism, indeed, in its cultus of domestic and local duties, of its penates, of its θεοὶ ἐπιχωρίοι, bare witness to the deep yearning of the human heart for the individualising love of a higher power. To know the true God is to know that such a craving is satisfied.”—Liddon.
IV. Personal religion consists in the acknowledgment and enjoyment of a divine revelation “which hath showed us light.” If God is to be approached and apprehended, He must reveal Himself. If man is to receive his Maker’s blessing, be united to his Maker’s person, and fulfil his Maker’s will, he must be told who that Maker is and what He would have him do. God hath showed us light in the Bible and in the revelation of Him who said, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
V. Personal religion consists in personal sacrifices (Psa_118:27).
VI. Personal religion consists in devout worship, thanksgiving, and praise (Psa_118:28-29).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 This inquiry may be regarded:—
Psa 118:6
This inquiry may be regarded:—
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I. As a check on human presumption.
II. As a warning against impious distrust.
III. As a rebuke of moral timidity.
IV. As an argument against all false confidences.
Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 272.
References: Psa 118:8.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 67. Psa 118:10.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 254. Psa 118:12.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 97.
Psa 118:17
I. What did these words mean in the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ? Before His crucifixion the words were clearly a prophecy of the Resurrection. But after the Resurrection the words must have had a fuller and, if we may dare to say it, a more literal meaning; they became to Him more literally true. "Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more"—this was their meaning; this is indeed the crowning glory of the Easter victory: it is final.
II. We listen here again to the heart of the Church of Christ, to an utterance that comes from it again and again during the centuries of its eventful history. In three ways the Church of Christ has been from time to time brought down to all appearance to the very chambers of the dead, and from this deep depression she has risen again to newness of life. (1) There have been the distress and suffering produced by outward persecution; (2) the decay of vital convictions within her fold; (3) moral corruption. Yet whatever might be the load of passing distress and discouragement, there has reigned all along the profound conviction that the faith and life of Christendom would not die out, that the Church still might say, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord."
III. In these words we have the true language of the individual Christian soul whether in recovery from illness or face to face with death. The legend that the risen Lazarus was never seen to smile expresses the sense of mankind as to what becomes the man who has passed the threshold of the other world; and surely a new and peculiar seriousness is due from those who have had to pass it, and who have returned to life by what is little less than a resurrection. Like the risen Jesus, and in virtue of His resurrection power, such a life must "declare the works of the Lord."
H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 296 (see also Contemporary Pulpit, vol. i., p. 352; and Easter Sermons, vol. i., p. 134).
References: Psa 118:17.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 268. Psa 118:19.—J. Morgan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 99.
Psa 118:22-24
I. There can be no doubt that it is our Lord Jesus Christ whom David here designates as "the stone which the builders refused." And when it has been ascertained that it is Christ whom David describes by the figure of a stone, there can be little debate that His resurrection placed Him at the head of the corner, for He rose from the dead as a Conqueror, though He went down to the grave like one vanquished by enemies; and henceforward there shall be "committed unto Him all power both in heaven and in earth."
II. The feelings of the psalmist were those of amazement and delight. (1) Never ought the resurrection of the Redeemer to appear to us other than a fact as amazing as it is consolatory, for there is a respect in which the resurrection of Christ differs immeasurably from every other recorded case of the quickening of the dead. Others were raised by Christ, or by men acting in the name and with the authority of Christ; but Christ raised Himself. The stone, rejected as it had been, and thrown by the builders into the pit, stirred of itself in its gloomy receptacle, instinct miraculously with life, forced back whatever opposed its return, and sprang to its due place in the temple of God. Verily we must exclaim, with the psalmist, "This is the Lord’s doing." (2) But amazement or admiration is not the only feeling which the fact before us should excite. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (a) There was no day before; it was not day to an apostate and darkened creation till the Sun of righteousness rose on it in His strength; and His rising was virtually the rising from the dead. We, then, who can rejoice, because there has arisen a Mediator between us and God, must therefore rejoice in the exaltation of the rejected stone. It was in the rising to the head of the corner that this stone swept down the obstacles to the forgiveness of man, and opened to him the pathway to heaven and immortality. (b) The resurrection of our own bodies is intimately connected with the resurrection of Christ, connected as an effect with a cause, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The resurrection of the body is a cause for joy.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1696.
Reference: Psa 118:22-25.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1420.
Psa 118:24
This Psalm has been applied by our Church to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is looked upon as a triumphant hymn. All throughout are notes of thanksgiving; and all throughout are allusions to Christ, and to His victory, and the defeat of His enemies. It is full of the great tidings of a risen, conquering Lord; and these tidings are beyond all others of importance to man, the greatest, the gladdest, charged with most stupendous consequences.
I. If it belong to man to rejoice when some great captain has fought his country’s enemies, and beaten them, and led their chiefs captives, how much more surely ought the Christian to be glad and rejoice on each recurrence of Easter. For it is the anniversary of the Lord’s victory. He comes, leading the invader a prisoner, leading captivity captive. He comes to proclaim the victory.
II. The joy that a Christian feels today is a widespread joy; it is not only that the holy and innocent Jesus has shown Himself the Conqueror, but it is because the benefit of His victory reaches far and wide—reaches to all the race which He came to save. The enemy which Christ subdued is our enemy. The crown which He has won, the crown of life, is a crown that we too may hope to wear.
III. The resurrection of the dead is assured to us by what happened today. Sad and incessant are the inroads of Death, mighty in power, still a great severer of dear ties, a separator of chief friends; but his power is broken. Jesus has gone before us through the grave and gate of death; He speaks to us today from the other side of the flood: "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death."
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 3rd series, p. 92.
What are the joys of Easter? Why on this day above all days should we rejoice and be glad?
I. Our first and highest joy today is undoubtedly that Jesus is happy—happy that His work is done; happy that His people’s work is done in His.
II. The next joy is that those whom we have loved, and lost, and laid in their quiet graves will rise where He has risen. For as His grave hath opened, so hath theirs.
III. This is an Easter joy: your salvation is sure. Jesus and His atoning death have been accepted. "He is raised for your justification."
IV. If you are really a member in the mystical body of Christ, you were there when Christ rose; it is a risen life you are leading. You may look upon old things as a risen man may look upon his graveclothes. You are free—free from bondage; free to walk; free to run; free to soar in your holy liberty.
V. No one will pass his Easter rightly who does not get up in heart and life a little higher than he was before. The characteristic feature of the season is rising. There is no joy on earth like a life going up, ascending in the Christian scale. Consecrate this Easter by some one distinct upward step, some rise in the being of your immortality.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 11th series, p. 173.
We Christians, though born in our very infancy into the kingdom of God and chosen above all other men to be heirs of heaven and witnesses to the world, and though knowing and believing this truth entirely, yet have very great difficulty, and pass many years, in learning our privilege. This insensibility or want of apprehension rises in great measure from our exceeding frailness and sinfulness. Yet besides this, there are certainly other reasons too which make it difficult for us to apprehend our state and cause us to do so but gradually, and which are not our fault, but which arise out of our position and circumstances.
I. We are born into the fulness of Christian blessings long before we have reason. As, then, we acquire reason itself but gradually, so we acquire the knowledge of what we are but gradually also. We are like people waking from sleep, who cannot collect their thoughts at once or understand where they are. By little and little the truth breaks upon us. Such are we in the present world, sons of light, gradually waking to a knowledge of themselves.
II. Our duties to God and man are not only duties done to them, but they are means of enlightening our eyes and making our faith apprehensive. Every act of obedience has a tendency to strengthen our convictions about heaven.
III. While we feel keenly, as we ought, that we do not honour this blessed day with that lively and earnest joy which is its due, yet let us not be discouraged, let us not despond, at this. We do feel joy; we feel more joy than we know we do. We see more of the next world than we know we see. As children say to themselves, "This is the spring," or "This is the sea," trying to grasp the thought and not let it go; as travellers in a foreign land say, "This is that great city," or "This is that famous building," knowing it has a long history through centuries and vexed with themselves that they know so little about it, so let us say, "This is the day of days, the royal day, the Lord’s Day. This is the day on which Christ arose from the dead, the day which brought us salvation." It brings us in figure through the grave and gate of death to our season of refreshment in Abraham’s bosom.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vi., p. 94.
References: Psa 118:24.—J. Sherman, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. v., p. 26; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 255; A. Rees, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 328; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. iii., p. 275; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. iii., p. 123; H. P. Liddon, Easter Sermons, vol. i., p. 226, and Old Testament Outlines, p. 145. Psa 118:27.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 86.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 The Head of the Corner.
The Head of the Corner.
The speaker in the first psalm is again one of the remnant of Israel of the latter days, the representative of the nation as wrought in by the Spirit of God; and the psalm itself is throughout prophetic. It has five sections, which are not in general difficult of connection. Any difficulty which we may find will be rather in detail.
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1. The perpetual goodness of Jehovah, so constantly and naturally before us in this Deuteronomic book of the Psalms, is again the thesis here. All are exhorted to give Him thanks for this, with the division that we have had elsewhere into Israel, the national witness for Him, -the house of Aaron; the priestly family, and those that fear Jehovah, which would include, at least, those turned to Him from the Gentiles. The separation of the house of Aaron from the rest of the nation would seem still to indicate the sacrificial basis upon which all ever depends for them.
There follows the practical expression of His loving-kindness whose name is shown by the constant reiteration of it to be so endeared to them. They called upon Him in strait: in a large place He answered. Way and end are simply enough connected thus; and the simplicity is the sweetness of it. What power is there in the cry of a needy suppliant for Him! As a result the soul becomes bold in its confidence: with Jehovah for him, what is it possible for man -all men -to do? He is among those that help him, their strength and inspiration, and the overthrow of enemies is sure to come.
2. The opposition is now seen in its full extent, according to the prophetic picture of Israel in the last days. It is prefaced with the reiterated assurance of how much better it is to trust in Jehovah than in men of any kind, even the nobles (nedibhim), the men of liberality and frank chivalrous action. All nations had gathered against Israel, only to be cut off by a feeble people sheltered and energized by Jehovah’s Name. Like bees they gather, like a fire of thorns, which burns up fiercely and dies out, they are quenched and gone.
3. Jehovah is then again celebrated as their sanctuary and refuge, -not merely a safe and sure retreat, but where the holiness of His presence is felt and finds response. The psalmist apostrophizes here the vanquished enemy. "Thou hast thrust at me hard, to make me fall; but Jehovah helped me. Jehovah is my strength and psalm: and He is become my salvation." Thus singing and salvation are now uttering themselves in the tents of the righteous, and it is as at the Red Sea and more marvelously, Jehovah’s right hand that has accomplished all: Jehovah is the "man of war"; "Jehovah’s right hand doeth valiantly."
But there is more for them than external deliverance in all this, even as the sorrow that they had been passing through was the sign and consequence of a spiritual condition which had forced Jehovah into opposition to them. They had had to face death with the terror of God’s wrath in it, as we have seen. Yet He had not given them over to it. The exercise had been profitable for them; the chastening had done its work; and now they would not die, but live. The gates of righteousness could now be opened to them, and they would enter in and give thanks to Jehovah.
4. But even so, this is not all: we are, in fact, only approaching the real and fundamental truth of their condition. The gate of righteousness which they have challenged -the way into Jehovah’s presence -belongs to Himself. He alone it is who can affix the terms of admission, terms which must be set by the demands of His own nature. True: "the righteous shall enter it": that, in some sort, is easily apprehended; but it only raises the old question, "How shall man be just with God?" And have they -these delivered Israelites -now found the answer?
Beautiful it is to see then that in the very next sentence they are speaking of "salvation": "I will give thanks to Thee, for Thou hast answered me, and become my salvation." Righteousness with God is indeed the portion of the saved, and only of the saved: it is a gift, and not a work wrought out by us, nor (in the sense in which we are speaking of it) even wrought out in us. While there is, assuredly, a practical righteousness which is wrought out in us, and which is necessarily connected with our capacity to enjoy, and our moral fitness for, the presence of God, it is not any the more the "gate" into His presence. Here the righteousness we need is in Another. Christ is Himself the gate." The purging of sin and the positive value in which we stand are found in One alone who is the Head of blessing. for His people. And thus we can realize to the full the personal element in the language here: "I will give thanks to Thee, for Thou hast answered me, and hast become my salvation."
We naturally ask, however, is not this, perhaps, too evangelic an interpretation of what may be more simply taken? Israel has been in peril from external enemies, the nations that had been gathered against her, and the so absolutely similar words of the 14th verse unmistakably refer to this temporal deliverance. Is there anything more in the present one than the thought of entering into the presence of God now, to thank Him for this decisive overthrow of all their adversaries?
This is a question which cannot, I believe, be decided by the words themselves, but only by the connection. And here it is certain that they have been speaking of a "gate" which "belongeth to Jehovah," and which necessarily implies conditions as to entering into His presence. "This gate" -what can it be? If it be simply their own righteousness, -the righteousness of a people just now threatened with judgment for their sins, -it would seem as if much stress could be hardly laid upon it; and here we naturally look for some reference to how the long tale of sin had been put away. But more than this, the very next verse does undoubtedly refer to Christ, and in such a character as completely to justify the thought that the foundation of the soul in the presence of God is in fact before them: -"A stone which the builders refused is become the Head of the corner."
The Lord Himself and the apostles quote and apply this scripture. Isaiah (28: 16) gives us the direct prophecy: "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation; a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious corner-[stone], a sure foundation." It is thus a foundation-stone that is in question; and we can read "the head of the corner" in no other way than it is read in Ephesians (Eph 2:20), "Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone." The "chief corner-stone" and the "head of the corner" are the same thing.
We are, of course, in Ephesians in the midst of Christian realities, and must take care, in any transference of texts to Jewish themes, to make account of resulting differences: but in the case before us we may find the differences themselves to give instruction. The apostle Paul is speaking of the church of God, which in the Old Testament was a mystery yet hidden. It is this of which he adds: "in whom the whole building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord." Thus he is speaking of a temple -a Christian one -and of Christ as its foundation. The connection in the psalm enables us to see that here also it is the foundation of a temple that is spoken of. In the gospel of Matthew, where the Lord refers to this text, it is in the temple that He actually is. When He finally leaves it, He calls it no longer God’s but "your house," and pronounces sentence upon it as such: not one stone would be left upon another (Mat 23:38; Mat 24:2). Upon their foundations, who in self-righteousness and unbelief rejected Him, no dwelling-place of God could stand.
Israel had thus remained for many generations without that which was their distinctive glory. But they are again to possess it; and the psalm contemplates this blessed time. Christ, hitherto rejected, will then be the foundation upon which the dwelling of God among them will securely rest. When we look at the typical house, even in the wilderness, we are at no loss to understand that the sockets of the boards which were its framework spoke of Him; being made of the silver money of atonement (Exo 28:27). As its curtained gates also spake of Him; and the beautiful curtains which were the very tabernacle itself. "In Him" the whole structure stood; and ark and mercy-seat, the very place of the Throne, still spake of Him. In this psalm we have no longer the tabernacle, but the solid foundations of the permanent building; but as to its essential meaning there could be no change; and when He declared to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," He spake of the temple of His body (Joh 2:21). Essentially -in its true spiritual reality -He was the whole thing; and in the psalm here it is as the Risen One, refused of the builders, and His life taken from the earth, but alive again from the dead, with His glorious work accomplished, He is the foundation of Israel’s praise for evermore.
We are carried thus far beyond the fact of their merely temporal deliverance, great and marvelous as that must be, and realize the foundation upon which the worshipers stand, and the "gate" which "belongeth to Jehovah," through which they come into His presence. Not any righteousness of their own is here in question. The once refused and slain; now risen and glorified One is all their joy.
"This cometh of Jehovah" is now their cry, "and it is marvelous in our eyes." So indeed it will be; and the whole "day" will be seen to be of Jehovah’s making. He has brought it all about, the trial and the sorrow which were His only way of blessing for them; and the end now reached its glorious consummation. And now, all hindrance to their blessing being removed, their "Hosanna" ("save now") can be heard: "Save now, Jehovah, I beseech Thee; I beseech Thee, Jehovah, send now prosperity."
For the time of real and full return of heart to God is now reached, in which that will be accomplished of which the Lord spoke in the hour of His rejection as that which would bring Him to them once again. "Ye shall not see Me henceforth," He says, "until ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord." Here we have the decisive word: "Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord" (Jehovah); and this is the indication of their spiritual condition: He had had to say of them: "I have come in my Father’s name, and ye receive Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." (Joh 5:43.) For alas, it was against God Himself that they were in hostility: with the desperate implacability of a heart set upon its own lusts, they both saw and hated "Him and His Father." (Joh 15:24.)
Now that which He had declared they would do, they have done. At the standpoint of the psalm; Antichrist has come in his own name, and been received; but a remnant wrought upon by divine grace has been turned to God; and in these is found the revival of the national life. Theirs is the cry, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of Jehovah," and "out of the house of Jehovah" -the sign; as we have seen; of restored favor -they are saluted with blessing. The last part of the verse is evidently a responsive greeting from within, as the worshipers approach Jehovah’s dwelling.
5. The last section is accordingly the joy and homage of those in restored and eternal relationship to God. "Jehovah is the Mighty One": they have proved Him such; but more, -"He hath given us light." Hence they fill the courts of His house with sacrifices, even up to the horns of the altar itself. He is their Mighty One, -their God; and they exalt Him. The psalm closes with the refrain of the anthem, heard ever and anon throughout this book: "Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good: for His loving-kindness endureth for ever."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 This Ps. was evidently written for the Temple worship…
This Ps. was evidently written for the Temple worship on the occasion of some great festival (Psa_118:24), when it might be used as a processional hymn. It has been variously referred (a) to the time when Zerubbabel laid the foundation of the second Temple; (b) to the time of Nehemiah; (c) to the cleansing of the Temple by Judas Maccabæus. It is a noble song. Luther declared that he owed more to Psalms 118 than to all the princes and friends who supported him.
Psa_118:1-18, dealing with the subject of God's mercy, which has brought them out of trouble, are sung by the procession antiphonally in halfverses; 19 is the request of the procession before the gates, and 20 the Levite reply; 21-24 are sung antiphonally; 26 is the cry of the Levite choir within; while 29 is a closing liturgical chant for the whole congregation.
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3. House of Aaron] the elite of the nation.
5. In distress] lit. 'in a strait place.' The lord] RM 'Heb. Jah,' a contraction of Jehovah.
12. Are quenched] but Bæthgen, with a slight change of Hebrew, renders, 'they flared forth like a fire of thorns,' and this makes admirable sense. Omit for.
13-16. The thought changes to the scene of the encounter.
14. Quoted from Exo_15:2.
15. The right hand, etc.] This and the following v. are what the voice says.
19. Gates of righteousness] i.e. the gates of the Temple whence God's righteousness streams forth, or it may mean the gates into which righteous men enter: cp. Psa_118:20.
22. The stone] i.e. Israel primarily. The builders] the nations of the world. There is, however, a tradition that such a stone really existed in the building of the second Temple. The ultimate application to Jesus Christ is most fitting: cp. Mat_21:42; Act_4:11, etc.
24. The day] a day of triumph.
25. Save now] Heb. hoshiea na anna hence, 'Hosanna,' which became a hturgical formula: cp. Mat_21:9.
26. Cometh] better, 'entereth' (the courts of the Lord).
27. Which hath shewed] RV 'and He hath given.' Bind, etc.] The Hebrew is obscure. 'Bind the sacrificial victim with cords even till you come to the horns of the altar,' or, less likely, 'Bind the procession with festal garlands and approach the horns of the altar.' There is nothing about binding the sacrifice to the horns, etc.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v4 (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
fear
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 118-119
Psalm 118-119
Psalm 118
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Christ the Head of the Corner
1. His mercy endureth forever (Psa 118:1-7)
2. The past experience (Psa 118:8-12)
3. Jehovah My Salvation (Psa 118:13-19)
4. The rejected stone the head of the corner (Psa 118:20-29)
This Psalm is the last one which is used from ancient times by the Jews in celebrating the Passover in the home. The Psalms sung begin with Psa 113:1-9 and end with this Psalm, the one hundred-eighteenth. It is called the “Hallel,” the Praise. Our Lord sang together with His disciples this Hallel (Mat 26:30; Mar 14:26). The One hundred-eighteenth Psalm was therefore the last which they sang, before the Lord with His disciples that memorable night when He was betrayed, went to the Mount of Olives. And speaking to the chief priests and elders our Lord applied this Psalm to Himself. See Psa 118:22 and compare with Mat 21:42. Furthermore Psa 118:26 is also used by our Lord in Mat 23:39. So there is no question that the Spirit of God speaks of Him in this Psalm. It has been suggested that this Psalm was written and used in connection with the completion and consecration of the second temple. That it was used in other feast days, apart from Passover, seems evident; perhaps in connection with the feast of tabernacles. The Psalm begins with thanksgiving for His mercy manifested towards Israel in their deliverance. Nations had compassed them about, but in the Name of the Lord they were cut off. Therefore Israel sings “The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.” The voice of rejoicing and salvation is therefore in the tabernacles of the righteous (Psa 118:14-15). They are delivered from death. Note the “gates of righteousness” in Psa 118:19, through which they wish to enter in to praise the Lord. But immediately after we read, “This gate is the LORD’s, the righteous shall enter it.” It is Christ the Door, through which Israel also must enter, as every other sinner must use Him as the gate, the door of salvation. We read therefore at once “I will praise Thee for Thou hast heard me and art become my salvation.”
And then the verse concerning the stone which the builders rejected and which has become the head of the corner. His people rejected Him and He became for them the stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. They were nationally broken to pieces (Mat 21:44). Then He became the cornerstone of another house, the church, of which He is the chief cornerstone. In the day of His second coming He will be the smiting stone, striking down Gentile dominion (Dan 2:1-49) and grinding opposing nations to powder (Mat 21:44). And after that He will be the cornerstone for His people Israel, upon whom all rests. This is indeed marvellous in their eyes as it is also to us. The cry “Hosanna,” or “Save now” (Psa 118:25) and “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the LORD is the welcome of Israel to her returning King.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 A Psalm for Festival Services.
A Psalm for Festival Services.
This hymn, written altogether in the style of David, bears a liturgical character and was, in fact, used in the Jewish Church upon the occasion of the great festivals, as part of their great hallel, chanted during the time when the Temple-offerings were brought, as well as by the individual families in the intervals of the Passover-meal, although it may originally have been composed for use at the Feast of Tabernacles. Sections of the psalm were in such general use that the pilgrims going forth to meet Jesus at the time of His last entry into Jerusalem chanted them almost spontaneously, Mat 21:9; Mar 11:9; Luk 19:38.
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v. 1. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, namely, in imparting His kindness in rich blessings upon the faithful; because His mercy endureth forever. Cf Psa 106:1; Psa 107:1; Psa 136:1.
v. 2. Let Israel, the entire nation, as the chosen people of God, now say that His mercy endureth forever.
v. 3. Let the house of Aaron, not only the priests, but the entire Church, as a congregation of priests, now say that His mercy endureth forever.
v. 4. Let them now that fear the Lord, all believers of all times, say that His mercy endureth forever. The urgent invitation having gone forth to the whole Church to join in praising the Lord, the psalmist now states the reason for his admonition.
v. 5. I called upon the Lord in distress, when he was in straits, in such difficulties that he could turn neither to the right nor to the left; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place, where he had freedom of movement on every side, where he was no longer cramped and hindered on account of being beset by dangers and enemies.
v. 6. The Lord is on my side, Rom 8:31; I will not fear; what can man, mere men, puny creatures, do unto me?
v. 7. The Lord taketh my part with them that help me, as his assistance, Jehovah’s help outweighing that of all other helpers; therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me, the enemies being bound to submit before His almighty power. The psalmist now urges the proper trust in Jehovah, as the One who is exalted in power above all men.
v. 8. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man, man at his best being but a weak and helpless creature.
v. 9. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes, for their power, after all, is small, and their favor deceitful.
v. 10. All nations compassed me about, or, "though all the heathen should surround me," but in the name of the Lord, trusting in the almighty power of Jehovah, will I destroy them, cut them down, exterminate them.
v. 11. They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about, though they attempt their attacks on all sides; but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them, he who makes the Lord his ally always having the balance of power in his favor.
v. 12. They compassed me about like bees, or, "like wasps," who were particularly troublesome and vicious during harvest-time; they are quenched as the fire of thorns, which flares up with great force, but is as quickly extinguished; for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. Sure of the assistance of Jehovah, the congregation is at all times possessed of a feeling of triumph.
v. 13. Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall, the impersonal subject being used in the Hebrew, people have attempted in every possible way to wound and overcome the believer; but the Lord helped me. Therefore his song rings out with that of all the faithful.
v. 14. The Lord is my Strength, affording the believer might to overcome, and Song, the subject of hymns of praise at all times, and is become my Salvation, delivering him from all enemies.
v. 15. The voice of rejoicing and salvation, the happiness over the marvelous deliverance, as expressed in hymns of the congregation, is in the tabernacles of the righteous, in the homes of all believers, who have become partakers of the righteousness of the Messiah by the gift of God. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly, exalted in victory.
v. 16. The right hand of the Lord, emblem of almighty power, is exalted, in a rule over all enemies; the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly, in possession of victory.
v. 17. I shall not die, thus being deprived of the privilege of praising Jehovah, but live, being preserved by God’s mercy, and declare the works of the Lord, that being one of the glorious duties of all believers.
v. 18. The Lord hath chastened me sore, in the anxieties and distresses to which the psalmist had referred in v. 5; but He hath not given me over unto death. Although the psalmist speaks in the singular, he is speaking in the name of the congregation, setting forth their common experience.
v. 19. Open to me the gates of righteousness, this name being applied to the gates of the Temple, since they afforded an entrance to the place where God imparted His righteousness in His Word; I will go into them, together with all other members of the congregation, and I will praise the Lord, Jehovah of salvation;
v. 20. this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter, the sacrificial acts on the part of the congregation, and the sacramental acts on the part of God’s servants, uniting them with Him in the most intimate fellowship.
v. 21. I will praise Thee, in the full consciousness of this wonderful union with Jehovah; for Thou hast heard me and art become my Salvation.
v. 22. The stone which the builders refused, rejecting it with scorn as useless, is become the headstone of the corner, the corner-stone upholding the entire building of the Lord’s Temple. This is a direct prophecy, which, as Jesus says, was fulfilled in Himself, Mat 21:42; Mar 12:10-11; Act 4:11; 1Pe 2:7; Isa 28:16. The Jews rejected their Savior, refusing to acknowledge Him as the promised Messiah; but He, by the merciful counsel of the Lord, became the Corner-stone of the Christian Church, the Foundation upon which all believers rest their hope of salvation, Eph 2:20-22.
v. 23. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes, and its marvel grows with every new consideration of the manner in which our salvation was effected.
v. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made, the day, the period of grace and salvation extending down to the last day of the world, Isa 49:8; 2Co 6:2; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Cf Rev 19:7.
v. 25. Save now, the hosanna of the multitudes on Palm Sunday, I beseech Thee, O Lord! O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity, true spiritual happiness, Mat 21:9.
v. 26. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord, this cry of welcome as used by the chorus of Levites in the Temple-services and by the inhabitants of Jerusalem in greeting their brethren from a distance, being used in an unusually appropriate manner in the case of Christ upon His entrance into the city; we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord, wishing them the wonderful blessings which are dispensed at the Temple.
v. 27. God is the Lord, Jehovah is God, the only true God, which hath showed us light, with the spiritual enlightenment in His Word. Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar, the number of the offerings being so great upon festive occasions that the entire court was filled with the animals, so that some of them were led even to the space next to the altar of burnt offering, there to await their turn. This invitation is accepted by the worshiping multitude, in whose name the psalmist now answers.
v. 28. Thou art my God, and I will praise Thee, with joyful thanksgiving; Thou art my God, I will exalt Thee, giving Him the honor due His holy name.
v. 29. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever, this same merciful favor being the sustaining power in the believers of all the world to this day.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good
"Thank Yahweh because of the good things he does"
his covenant faithfulness endures forever
The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be translated with an adjective. AT: "he remains faithful to his covenant forever" (See: Abstract Nouns)
Let Israel say
The word "Israel" represents the people of Israel. AT: "Let the people of Israel say" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Yahweh
good
covenant faithfulness
endure
eternity
Israel
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–2 Ps 118 With an exultant testimony, the psalmist gives…
Ps 118 With an exultant testimony, the psalmist gives thanks for the Lord’s goodness and encourages others to trust in his faithful love (118:1-4, 29). This poem is the last of the Egyptian Hallel (Pss 113–118).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.