Psalms 118
What Happens in This Chapter
This is a song of thanks that opens and closes with the same line: the LORD is good, and his faithful love lasts forever. The speaker tells how he called out while in trouble, was answered and rescued, was surrounded by enemy nations, and was punished hard but not handed over to death. He then asks for the gates to be opened so he can go in and give thanks, and the song shifts to a group speaking: the rejected stone has become the cornerstone, this is the day the LORD has made, and blessings are given from the house of the LORD.
Give thanks to the LORD, because he is good. His faithful love lasts forever.
1O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.
LORD in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written YHWH. Jewish readers did not say the name aloud, substituting a word meaning "my Lord," and English translations follow that custom. "Faithful love" translates Hebrew *hesed*, the loyalty owed within a binding relationship, steady commitment rather than warm feeling. Verses 1–4 are call-and-response: a leader calls, and the crowd answers with the same line each time.
2Let Israel say it now: "His faithful love lasts forever."
2Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
3Let the house of Aaron say it now: "His faithful love lasts forever."
3Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
The house of Aaron means the priests. Aaron was Moses' brother, and the right to serve at the altar passed down through his male descendants only, so "house of Aaron" is a way of naming the whole hereditary priesthood at once.
4Let all who honor and fear the LORD say it now: "His faithful love lasts forever."
4Let them now that fear the LORD say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
"Those who fear the LORD" is a standing phrase for people who worship him with reverence and awe, not people who are frightened of him. In later usage it could also cover foreigners who attached themselves to Israel's worship without being Israelites, which may be why they are listed as a third group after Israel and the priests.
5When I was in deep trouble, I called out to the LORD. He answered me and set me in a wide open place.
5I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.
Hebrew pictures trouble as a tight, cramped space and rescue as being let out into open country. The two halves of the verse are that single image: squeezed, then given room.
6The LORD is on my side, so I will not be afraid. What can a human being do to me?
6The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?
7The LORD is on my side; he is my helper. So I will look in victory at those who hate me.
7The LORD taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.
"Look in victory at" translates an idiom meaning to see one's enemies defeated, to still be standing and watching when they are not.
8It is better to take shelter in the LORD than to put your confidence in people.
8It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
9It is better to take shelter in the LORD than to put your confidence in princes.
9It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
"Princes" here means rulers and nobles generally, the powerful men whose backing a person might seek, not specifically the sons of a king.
10All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them down.
10All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.
To act "in the name of the LORD" is to act by his authority and with his backing, the way an envoy speaks in the name of the king who sent him.
11They surrounded me; yes, they surrounded me on every side. But in the name of the LORD I cut them down.
11They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
12They swarmed around me like bees, but they burned out as fast as a fire in dry thorns. In the name of the LORD I cut them down.
12They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
Dried thorn brush was the cheapest, commonest fuel. It catches instantly, blazes up, and is ash within moments, the point of the comparison is speed, not heat.
13You shoved me hard to make me fall, but the LORD helped me.
13Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD helped me.
The psalm turns without warning to address someone as "you", the attacker, or in some readings death itself. Some ancient versions read the line as "I was pushed hard," without naming who pushed. The Hebrew as it stands is a direct accusation.
14The LORD is my strength and my song. He has become the one who saves me.
14The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.
This line quotes, word for word, the victory song sung after the escape from Egypt in Exodus 15:2. A listener would have recognized it the way one recognizes a line from a national anthem.
15Shouts of joy and victory ring out in the tents of those who live right: "The right hand of the LORD does mighty things!
15The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.
"Tents" is the old word for people's dwellings, kept in poetry long after Israel lived in houses; it means households, not literal camping. The "right hand" stands for strength and skill, because the sword hand was normally the right one.
16The right hand of the LORD is lifted high! The right hand of the LORD does mighty things!"
16The right hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.
17I will not die. I will live, and I will tell what the LORD has done.
17I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
18The LORD punished me hard to correct me, but he did not hand me over to death.
18The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.
The verb covers a parent's or teacher's discipline as much as a judge's punishment, correction meant to instruct, however severe.
19Open for me the gates where those who live right go in. I will walk through them and give thanks to the LORD.
19Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD:
The gates of the temple courts. Verses 19–20 preserve a ritual exchange at the entrance: a worshiper asks to be let in, and the answer from inside states the condition for entry. "Righteousness" here describes those fit to pass through, not the gates themselves.
20This is the gate that belongs to the LORD; those who live right will go in through it.
20This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.
21I will give you thanks, because you answered me and became the one who saved me.
21I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.
22The stone the builders threw away has become the cornerstone.
22The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
The Hebrew says "head of the corner", the stone set where two walls meet, which fixes the line and level of everything built afterward. Builders sorting through quarried stone would discard a block that looked wrong; the saying turns on the discarded block proving to be the crucial one. It reads like a proverb the psalm is quoting.
23The LORD did this, and it is wonderful to see.
23This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.
24This is the day the LORD has made. We will celebrate and be glad in it.
24This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
25Please, LORD, save us now. Please, LORD, make us succeed now.
25Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
The Hebrew words here are *hoshi'ah-na*, "save, please", the cry that came into English as "Hosanna." It was a plea for help before it became a shout of praise.
26Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.
26Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
A blessing spoken by the priests from inside the temple over pilgrims arriving at the gates. "The house of the LORD" means the temple building itself.
27The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine on us. Tie the festival sacrifice with ropes to the horns of the altar.
27God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
"Made his light shine on us" is court language for a superior turning a favorable face toward someone; it echoes the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:25. The altar had a raised projection at each of its four corners, called horns, which were smeared with blood in some rituals and grabbed by fugitives claiming sanctuary. The second half of the verse is genuinely obscure in Hebrew: the words can mean binding the festival animal with cords to those horns, or binding the festival procession with leafy branches, and translators have long divided over which.
28You are my God, and I will give you thanks. You are my God; I will lift you high.
28Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.
29Give thanks to the LORD, because he is good. His faithful love lasts forever.
29O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
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