Psalm 118 explained: Thanks for Rescue from Danger

A call to give thanks (vv. 1-4)

A leader calls out and three groups answer with the same line about God's lasting love: the whole nation, the priests (Aaron's family), and all who honor the LORD, possibly including outsiders who joined Israel's worship. This psalm closes a group of songs (Psalms 113 to 118) that Jewish families still sing at Passover and other festivals.

Out of a tight spot (vv. 5-9)

In Hebrew, trouble is pictured as being squeezed into a narrow place, so being set in a wide open space means having room to breathe again. The speaker concludes that God is safer to rely on than people, even powerful rulers.

Surrounded by enemies (vv. 10-14)

The speaker, perhaps a king leading the people though scholars are unsure, describes enemies swarming like bees but dying out like a fire of dry thorns that flares up and is quickly gone. The talk of cutting down whole nations is blunt battle language, and verse 14 echoes a line from Moses' song after the escape from Egypt.

Victory and the temple gates (vv. 15-21)

God's 'right hand' means his power at work, and the speaker reads his severe suffering as God's discipline rather than as abandonment to death. He then asks to be let through the temple gates, probably part of a real procession, to give thanks in person.

The rejected stone (vv. 22-24)

A stone the builders threw away ends up as the most important stone in the building, likely a picture of the king or the nation, written off by others but chosen by God. The Gospels show Jesus applying this line to himself, and Christians read it as pointing to his rejection and his being raised from death.

Festival blessing (vv. 25-29)

The cry to save in verse 25 is the Hebrew 'Hosanna', and verse 26 is a blessing spoken from the temple over those arriving to worship. The Hebrew of verse 27 is unclear: it may mean waving branches in procession or tying a sacrifice near the altar's raised corners, and the psalm ends where it began.

Key verse: Psalm 118:1

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether this psalm was originally about a king or the nation of Israel and only later applied to Jesus, or whether it was written as a direct prophecy about him.

Something to think about

Looking back on a hard stretch in your life, what, if anything, made it feel like you were moved from a narrow place into a wider one?