Psalm 118- Hallel
1 Give thanks to Yahweh because He is good, because His mercy endures forever. 2 Israel should say, “His mercy endures forever.” 3 The descendants of Aaron should say, “His mercy endures forever.” 4 Those who fear Yahweh should say, “His mercy endures forever.”
After the adoption of the children, David represents the them as entering the sanctuary and uniting in solemn praise, with expectation of continued blessing. They gather around Jesus’ throne in heaven. “This is the last of those Psalms which form the great hallel, which the Jews sung at the end of the passover.” (Adam Clarke) “As the salvation of the elect is one, and the love of God to them one, so should their song be one, as here for several times it is said, ‘His mercy endureth forever.’” (David Dickson)—But then the millennium ends and the unjust are resurrected.
5 During times of trouble I called on Yah. Yah answered me and set me free from all of them. 6 Yahweh is on my side. I am not afraid. What can mortals do to me? 7 Yahweh is on my side as my helper. I will see the defeat of those who hate me. 8 It is better to depend on Yahweh than to trust mortals. 9 It is better to depend on Yahweh than to trust influential people. 10 All the nations surrounded me, but armed with the name of Yahweh, I defeated them. 11 They surrounded me. Yes, they surrounded me, but armed with the name of Yahweh, I defeated them. 12 They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thornbushes. So armed with the name of Yahweh, I defeated them. 13 They pushed hard to make me fall, but Yahweh helped me. 14 Yah is my strength and my song. He is become my Savior. 15 The sound of joyful singing and victory is heard in the tents of righteous people. The right hand of Yahweh displays strength. 16 The right hand of Yahweh is held high. The right hand of Yahweh displays strength. 17 I will not die, but I will live and tell what Yah has done. 18 Yah disciplined me severely, but he did not allow me to be killed. 19 Open the gates of righteousness for me. I will go through them and give thanks to Yah. 20 This is the gate of Yahweh through which righteous people will enter. 21 I give thanks to you, because you have answered me. You are my Savior.
“‘During times of trouble I called on Yah.’ (5) So then, ‘Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ [Joel 2:32]” (Romans 10:13) ““’Yahweh is on my side. I am not afraid. What can mortals do to me? Yahweh is on my side as my helper.’ (6) “Literally, And I shall look among them that hate me [at the resurrection of the unjust]. As God is on my side, I fear not to look the whole of them in the face. ‘I will see the defeat of those who hate me.’(7)” (Adam Clarke) “’It is better to depend on Yahweh than to trust mortals.’ (8) During this period, the last great battle will not be man against man or tank against tank. It will be Jesus against those who persist in unbeleif. “Let not my friend present himself unto me as a good man, and bid me repose my hope in himself; for still must I trust in the Lord alone.” (St. Augustine) “’It is better to depend on Yahweh than to trust influential people.’ (9) They who constantly attend upon God, and depend upon Him, have a much sweeter life, than those that wait upon princes with great observance and expectation. ” (Thomas Manton)— even in the life to come.
“All the nations surrounded me, but armed with the name of Yahweh, I defeated them.’ etc. prohetically at the battle of Armageddon, which in my theology comes after millennium. Our soul weapon will be the name of Jesus. “‘Yah is my strength and my song. He is become my Savior.” (10-13) “What was sung just after the passage of the Red Sea, is here sung by the prophet, and shall be sung to the end of the world by the saints of the Most High.” (William S. Plumer) Even in the afterlife, the Refrain is continued, “Yah is my strength and my song. He is become my Savior.’ (14) Not that he hath become anything which he was not before, but because His people, when they believed on Him, became what they were not before, and then He began to be salvation unto them when turned towards Him, which He was not to them when turned away from Himself.” (St. Augustine) “’The sound of joyful singing and victory is heard in the tents of righteous people. The right hand of Yahweh displays strength. The right hand of Yahweh is held high. The right hand of Yahweh displays strength. I will not die, but I will live and tell what Yah has done;’ (15-17) one branch whereof is the total [and eternal] destruction of mine enemies.” (Matthew Poole) “‘Yah disciplined me severely,’— at the recent Judgment seat of Christ, at the beginning of the millennium— ‘but he did not allow me to be killed.’” (18) Nor will He allow it now.
“‘Open the gates of righteousness for me. I will go through them and give thanks to Yah. This is the gate of Yahweh through which righteous people will enter.’ (19-20) The words are addressed to the porters, or Levites, that kept the doors of the tabernacle, to open them. The Targum is, ‘open to me the gates of the city of righteousness;’ Jerusalem, so called Isaiah 1:26; the gates of which were opened to David, when he took it from the Jebusites. An emblem of the church or city of God, the gates of which are opened to the righteous to enter into now; and of the New Jerusalem, and of the heavenly glory, into which the saints will have an abundant entrance hereafter; see Isaiah 26:1-2 ‘On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city. Its walls and fortifications provide safety. Open the gates, and let the righteous nation come in, the [Gentile] nation that remains faithful.’” (John Gill) "I give thanks to you, because you have answered me." (21a)
“Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:7-10) Contrast- "‘And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them…. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.’ (cp Rev. 14:10–11)] And we learned earlier with reference to those verses, the phrase ‘forever and ever’ in the Bible is not an indefinite eternity; it rather denotes that the action continues until it completes God‘s purpose.“ (Ranko Stefanovic) “That this is not a literal lake of fire is clear from the fact that Satan has no bodily form, and could thus not be cast into fire. It contrasts, by its connection with brimstone, with the pure fire of God’s holiness (cp. Rev. 9:17 with Rev. 11:5). It indicates something dreadful and miserable and beyond comprehension. It is the ‘eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels’ (Matt. 25:41). That their punishment is severe there can be no doubt, but its true form we can never fully appreciate. As mentioned Death and Hades are also thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14). It can thus denote a place of permanent end.” (Peter Pett)
22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 Yahweh is responsible for this, and it is amazing for us to see. 24 This is the day Yahweh has made. Let’s rejoice and be glad today! 25 We beg you, O Yahweh, save us! We beg you, O Yahweh, give us success! 26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh. We bless you from Yahweh’s house. 27 Yahweh is El, and he has given us light. March in a festival procession with branches to the horns of the altar. 28 You are my El, and I give thanks to you. My Elohim, I honor you highly. 29 Give thanks to Yahweh because he is good, because his mercy endures forever.
"You are my Savior." (21b) Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Yahweh is responsible for this, and it is amazing for us to see?’( Ps 118:22-23) (Matt 21:42) “The Jews, who then had the building of the church, rejected that stone, and said of it, ‘This man, who observeth not the Sabbath, is not of God’ and, ‘We have no king but Caesar,’ and, ‘that seducer said, I will rise after three days’; and many similar things beside. But this stone, so rejected by the builders as unfit for raising the spiritual edifice, is become the head of the corner; has been made by God, the principal architect, the bond to connect the two walls and keep them together; that is to say, has been made the head of the whole church, composed of Jews and Gentiles; and such a head, that whoever is not under him cannot be saved; and whoever is built under him, the living stone, will certainly be saved. Now all this is the Lord's doing, done by his election and design, without any intervention on the part of man, and therefore, it is wonderful in our eyes. For who is there that must not look upon it as a wonderful thing, to find a man crucified, dead and buried, rising, after three days, from the dead, immortal, with unbounded power, and declared Prince of men and angels, and a way opened through him for mortal man, to the kingdom of heaven, to the society of the angels, to a happy immortality?” (Robert Bellarmine)
In Ezra 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 the 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 forever 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.” (C. H. Spurgeon)
“This is the day Yahweh has made’— the Day of His final victory. ‘Let’s rejoice and be glad today!’ (24) People may build on this Foundation [of Jesus our Lord with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw. The day will make what each one does clearly visible because fire will reveal it. That fire will determine what kind of work each person has done. If what a person has built survives, he will receive a reward. If his work is burned up, he will suffer the loss. However, he will be saved, though it will be like going through a fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)
“'We beg you, O Yahweh, save us!' etc. When they came near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Yeshua sent two disciples ahead of him. He said to them, 'Go into the village ahead of you. You will find a donkey tied there and a colt with it. Untie them, and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them. That person will send them at once.' This happened so that what the prophet had said came true: Tell the people of Zion, ‘Your king is coming to you. He’s gentle, riding on a donkey, on a colt, a young pack animal.’ (Zech 9:9) The disciples did as Yeshua had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put their coats on them for Yeshua to sit on. Most of the people spread their coats on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowd that went ahead of him and that followed him was shouting, ‘Hosanna [Save us] to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’ [Ps 118:25-26] When Yeshua came into Jerusalem, the whole city was in an uproar. People were asking, ‘Who is this?’ The crowd answered, ‘This is the prophet Yeshua from Nazareth in Galilee.’” (Matthew 21:1-11)—
“‘You are my El, and I give thanks to you. My Elohim, I honor you highly.’ etc. (28) John said, 'I’m a voice crying out in the desert: make the way for the Lord straight,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:23): "A voice called: ‘Call out!’ I asked, ‘What should I call out?’ ‘Call out: All people are like grass, and all their beauty is like a flower in the field. Grass dries up, and flowers wither when Yahweh’s breath blows on them. Yes, people are like grass. Grass dries up, and flowers wither, but the word of our Elohim will last forever.’ Go up a high mountain, Zion. Tell the good news! Call out with a loud voice, Jerusalem. Tell the good news! Raise your voice without fear.
Tell the cities of Judah: ‘Here us your Elohim!’” (Isaiah 40:1-9)