An exhortation to praise God for his mercy. The Psalmist by his experience sheweth how good it is to trust in God. Under the type of the Psalmist, the coming of Christ in his kingdom is expressed.
DR. DELANEY is of opinion, that this psalm was composed by David, after his victory over the Philistines, recorded 2 Samuel 23:1. 1 Chronicles 11 and sung in the tabernacle as an epinicion or hymn of thanksgiving to God for this victory. It begins, O give thanks unto the Lord, &c. and then goes on in such a flow of gratitude to God, such expressions of trust and confidence in him, and glory to him, and adds to all this such descriptions of his enemies, in such a variety of lights and images, as are the peculiar distinction of David's genius. Life of David, book 2: chap. 9. The psalm seems to be written in the form of a dialogue, in which there are several interlocutors. All the first part was sung by David. At Psalms 118:19 he calls upon the Israelites to open the gates, that he might praise God in the sanctuary; and in Psalms 118:20 the Israelites reply. David then seems to take up the strain at the 21st and 22nd verses: the people at the 23rd and 24th; David again the 25th, the priests at the 26th and 27th, and David at the 28th and 29th. This was the last of the psalms which the Jews reckoned into their great הלל hallel, or which they sung after their passover, and was therefore probably the conclusion of that hymn which the blessed man Christ Jesus, with his disciples, sung after his last passover. It is plainly most suitable to the occasion; and the learned Jews, both ancient and modern, confess it to speak of the Messiah; to whom the writers of the New Testament have applied it. See Matthew 21:42.Acts 4:11.