O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.
Psalms 118:1-29.-Exhortation to Israel, the house of Aaron, and them that fear Yahweh, to praise Him (Psalms 118:1-4), because He has heard His people's cry in trouble, and delivered them; the Psalmist, as their representative, expresses confidence that, as God already helped His servant, so He will enable him to destroy the nations encompassing him (Psalms 118:5-14); the Lord's right hand doeth valiantly, so that the righteous can, with the voice of joy, say confidently, I shall not die, but live; for though chastened sorely, I have not been given over to death (Psalms 118:15-18); open the gates of righteousness for the righteous to enter; praise for salvation; the once-rejected stone becomes the head of the corner; rejoicing in the day of the Lord; prayer for prosperity; salutation of Him that cometh in the name of the Lord; sacrifices and praise to Yahweh, who hath showed light to His people (Psalms 118:19-29).
The Psalmist speaks as representative of the people just delivered by Yahweh from Babylon It was probably The Psalmist speaks as representative of the people just delivered by Yahweh from Babylon. It was probably sung at the feast of tabernacles, celebrated for seven days, after the restoration of the city-walls and gates, 445 BC (Nehemiah 3:1-32); not the feast in 536 BC (Ezra 3:4), the year before the foundation of the temple. The law was read each day in the street before the water-gate. The people with palm-branches made booths on their roofs and in their courts and those of the temple. There was "great gladness" (Nehemiah 8:1; Nehemiah 8:14-18). All this corresponds to our psalm (cf. Psalms 118:15; Psalms 118:19-20). These verses imply that "the gate of the Lord," the temple-gate, was already set up, not merely the foundation of the temple laid, as Hengstenberg thinks. Psalms 118:24 points to some great festal day. Also Psalms 118:25 was the usual cry at the feast of tabernacles (Buxtorf, 'Lexicon Chaldaic,'
992). The Hosanna of the palm-bearing multitude which greeted Jesus at His entry into Jerusalem corresponds. Also cf. Psalms 118:26 with Matthew 21:9. The stone rejected by the builders, now "become the head stone of the corner" (Psalms 118:22), is the foundation-stone of the temple laid by Zerubbabel. Compare Psalms 118:10-12, as to encompassing adversaries in building, with Ezra 4:1-6; Ezra 4:24. The stone laid by Zerubbabel kept its place in spite of mountain-like adversaries (Zechariah 4:6-7), by "the Lord's doing" (Psalms 118:23). The formula, Psalms 118:1, was used in dedicating the first temple, 2 Chronicles 5:13; 2 Chronicles 7:3; also at the second, Ezra 3:10-11, where the same division occurs as here-the priests, or "house of Aaron," they that feared the Lord (of whom the Levites were leaders), and the people (Psalms 118:1-4; Psalms 115:9-11). The formula, Psalms 118:1, was probably also used at the feast of tabernacles after the temple was built (Psalms 106:1; Psalms 107:1; Psalms 136:1; Psalms 136:26).
O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth forever - a formula first used by David at the setting up of the ark in Zion (1 Chronicles 16:8; 1 Chronicles 16:34).