Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Stone the Builders Rejected
Psalms 118:1-29
1 Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. · WEB
The last psalm sung at Passover, and its rejected stone and its blessing on the one who comes are both quoted at the entry into Jerusalem.
Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever Psalms 118:1.
The closing psalm of the Passover group, sung after the meal — which means these are among the last words Jesus sang before Gethsemane.
The opening line is answered antiphonally by three groups, exactly as in the hundred and fifteenth psalm: Israel, the house of Aaron, and those who fear Yahweh Psalms 118:2–4.
Out of my distress, I called on Yah. Yah answered me with freedom Psalms 118:5.
The word is a large place — the answer to constriction is space.
Yahweh is on my side. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Psalms 118:6. The letter to the Hebrews quotes it to people facing loss of property Hebrews 13:6.
It is better to take refuge in Yahweh, than to put confidence in man. It is better to take refuge in Yahweh, than to put confidence in princes Psalms 118:8–9.
They surrounded me like bees. They are quenched like the burning thorns Psalms 118:12.
Bees swarm and sting and cannot be fought; burning thorns flare loudly and are out in seconds. The two images are put together to say that the panic and the actual threat were different sizes.
I will not die, but live, and declare Yah's works. Yah has punished me severely, but he has not given me over to death Psalms 118:17–18.
The discipline is admitted in the same breath as the deliverance, and neither cancels the other.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is Yahweh's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes Psalms 118:22–23.
Jesus quotes this at the end of the parable of the tenants, to the chief priests, and asks whether they have never read it Matthew 21:42. Peter quotes it to the same council Acts 4:11, and again in his letter 1 Peter 2:7. The builders are the people whose job was to know which stones were good.
This is the day that Yahweh has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it! Psalms 118:24.
Save us now, we beg you, Yahweh! Psalms 118:25. The Hebrew is hosanna.
Blessed is he who comes in Yahweh's name! Psalms 118:26.
These two verses are what the crowd shouted as Jesus rode into Jerusalem Matthew 21:9 — a plea for rescue and a blessing on an arrival, taken from the psalm they had sung at every Passover of their lives.
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