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Psalm 118 (LXX 117) - Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good

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This narration is from a previous version of the study. The text on this page is current.

Psalm 118 is one of the Church’s great Paschal Psalms. It begins with thanksgiving for enduring mercy and moves through affliction, trust, divine help, the gates of righteousness, the rejected stone made head of the corner, and the cry, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.” The New Testament places the image of the rejected stone on Christ’s lips and the blessing of the Coming One in the crowd’s welcome. The Church also receives the Psalm’s day, light, and altar imagery in relation to His Passion and Resurrection.

Psalm 118 (LXX 117) - Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good

Psalm Metadata

FieldNotes
NKJV / Masoretic numberingPsalm 118
Septuagint / Coptic numberingPsalm 117
Accepted authorNo individual author is named; Alleluia is the superscription.
Period in author’s lifeNo single personal life-setting is fixed; the Psalm is festal, royal, and liturgical, probably used in temple processions and covenant celebration.
Christ prophecy statusThe New Testament applies the rejected stone to Christ and uses the blessing of the Coming One at His entry into Jerusalem. The day, light and altar imagery also receive Christian Paschal and sacrificial interpretation.
Coptic lectionary/service useScripture from this study has an established place in the Coptic Orthodox lectionary through documented Church readings.
Numbering issueThis note embeds Brenton LXX Psalm 117, the long festal Psalm immediately before the very long Psalm 118 in Septuagint numbering.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Psalm 118 closes the Hallel, a group of praise Psalms associated with Jewish festivals. It has the atmosphere of public thanksgiving after danger and the ordered movement of temple worship, though no single occasion can be fixed with certainty. The singer is surrounded, chastened, and preserved. He asks to enter the gates of righteousness, and the festal scene reaches the altar.

Christ applies the stone text to Himself, and the crowd’s Palm Sunday cry comes from this Psalm. The Church hears “This is the day which the Lord has made” as a Paschal proclamation, not mere optimism.

Special Literary Note: Between the Shortest and the Longest

Psalm 118 stands between Psalm 117, commonly recognized as the shortest chapter in the Bible, and Psalm 119, the longest chapter by standard modern chapter divisions. Popular claims that Psalm 118 is the central chapter of the Bible depend on canon, translation, and counting method, particularly when comparing Protestant and Orthodox canons. They are not a basis for theology.

The sequence offers a meditation rather than a proof: between a brief universal call to praise and a long meditation on God’s word stands a song of mercy, deliverance, and thanksgiving.

Geographical Significance ⛰️

The Psalm is temple-shaped. Gates, house of the Lord, and altar matter. This is not abstract spirituality. Deliverance culminates in entry, approach, and worship. The movement is from affliction outside to praise inside.

🕯️ Light from the Word

Psalm 117:1-9, enduring mercy and trust over human help

117:1 Alleluia. Give thanks to the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever. 117:2 Let now the house of Israel say, that he is good: for his mercy endures for ever. 117:3 Let now the house of Aaron say, that he is good: for his mercy endures for ever. 117:4 Let now all that fear the Lord say, that he is good: for his mercy endures for ever. 117:5 I called on the Lord out of affliction: and he hearkened to me, so as to bring me into a wide place. 117:6 The Lord is my helper; and I will not fear what man shall do to me. 117:7 The Lord is my helper; and I shall see my desire upon mine enemies. 117:8 It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in man. 117:9 It is better to hope in the Lord, than to hope in princes.

The Psalm opens as a shared call. Israel, the priestly house of Aaron, and all who fear the Lord are invited to confess the same mercy before one voice speaks of affliction. The many voices give the frightened worshipper a refrain to lean on.

The Lord’s answer to the cry is a wide place: room to breathe where distress had hemmed the singer in. It does not promise that no further pressure will come. Augustine hears in this spaciousness the freedom given by grace: “The narrow straits of our tribulation are limited: but the large way whereby we pass along hath no end”1.

Augustine also pauses on the Psalm’s opening brevity: “The praise of God could not be expressed in fewer words than these, ‘For He is good.’”2 God’s goodness, rather than the strength of our feelings, is the ground of thanksgiving.

Trusting God above human beings and princes does not require refusing a friend’s counsel, medical care, or truthful advocacy. Augustine recognizes that sincere help given by others can itself be God’s gift.3

St Athanasius reminds us that the Psalms give us words for both trouble and thanksgiving. St Gregory of Nyssa sees their singing as a way of forming a virtuous life. We can take this refrain into our own prayers, even when thanksgiving is difficult.

Psalm 117:10-18, surrounded, chastened, and not given over to death

117:10 All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord I repulsed them. 117:11 They completely compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord I repulsed them. 117:12 They compassed me about as bees do a honeycomb, and they burst into flame as fire among thorns: but in the name of the Lord I repulsed them. 117:13 I was thrust, and sorely shaken, that I might fall: but the Lord helped me. 117:14 The Lord is my strength and my song, and is become my salvation. 117:15 The voice of exultation and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord has wrought mightily. 117:16 The right hand of the Lord has exalted me: the right hand of the Lord has wrought powerfully. 117:17 I shall not die, but live, and recount the works of the Lord. 117:18 The Lord has chastened me sore: but he has not given me up to death.

Three times the speaker is surrounded; three times he answers in the Lord’s name. Bees and burning thorns make the danger vivid, but the repeated answer keeps it from having the last word. The worshipper declares, “I shall not die, but live” as thanksgiving for rescue from death, so that he can recount what the Lord has done.

Theodoret understands the singer’s chastening as fatherly correction, not abandonment.4 This verse does not authorize us to call someone’s illness, bereavement, or abuse punishment for a particular sin. Grief may be lamented, sickness treated, and those in danger protected. When conscience calls us to repent, we can turn to God without imagining that His mercy has ended.

Augustine reads the struggle in relation to Christ and His Church, pressed but not abandoned. The Paschal reading needs care: Christ is sinless and needed no correction for sin. He truly died and rose again. Christians still face death, but in the risen Christ death is not the end of their hope. His help gives us courage to bring our lives to Him, even amid grief.

Psalm 117:19-24, gates of righteousness and the rejected stone

117:19 Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and give praise to the Lord. 117:20 This is the gate of the Lord: the righteous shall enter by it. 117:21 I will give thanks to thee; because thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. 117:22 The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. 117:23 This has been done of the Lord; and it is wonderful in our eyes. 117:24 This is the day which the Lord has made: let us exult and rejoice in it.

The worshipper asks for the gates of righteousness to be opened so that he may give thanks. The one who called in distress now approaches the Lord who heard him. The name of the gates also reminds us that worship and a righteous way of life belong together.

In Matthew 21:33–42, Jesus cites the rejected stone after telling a parable in which tenants kill the owner’s son. Acts 4:10–11 applies the image to the crucified and risen Jesus. What the builders cast away, God makes the head of the corner.

Augustine connects the cornerstone to Ephesians 2: Christ makes “of twain one new man” and reconciles Jew and Gentile in one body.5 The corner joins those once separated by enmity into one house. His unique rejection is not simply a symbol for every disappointment of ours. Yet because Christ holds His household together, we can resist making approval or status the condition of belonging and make room for someone who has been overlooked.

The Church hears “This is the day which the Lord has made” as the day of Christ’s Resurrection, not merely a promise that any particular day will go well. Augustine calls it the day “wherein He hath given me Salvation”6. Theodoret explicitly connects the day with the Resurrection and recalls God’s creation of light on the first day.7 The rejected stone is alive.

Psalm 117:25-29, blessed is He that comes and celebrate the feast

117:25 O Lord, save now: O Lord, send now prosperity. 117:26 Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. 117:27 God is the Lord, and he has shined upon us: celebrate the feast with thick branches, binding the victims even to the horns of the altar. 117:28 Thou art my God, and I will give thee thanks: thou art my God, and I will exalt thee. I will give thanks to thee, for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. 117:29 Give thanks to the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.

“Save now” is a plea for God’s saving help, expressed in the cry Hosanna. The request for prosperity asks God to prosper the worshippers’ way; it is not a guarantee of wealth or a life without trouble. “Blessed is he that comes” becomes the crowd’s cry to Christ entering Jerusalem (Matthew 21:8–9).

“Celebrate the feast” is joined to the binding at the altar. In Brenton’s wording, the feast has thick branches and sacrificial victims. The victims are animals for offering; the horns are projections at the altar’s corners. The festal approach reaches the place of sacrifice.

For Christians, this scene invites us to hold Palm Sunday and the Passion together, and to approach the Eucharist with thanksgiving for Christ’s self-offering. Glory moves toward sacrifice. The Psalm ends where it began, with the goodness and enduring mercy of the Lord.

The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖

The Coptic Orthodox Feast of Resurrection Liturgy readings published for April 16, 2023, place selections printed as Psalm 118:24, 118:25, and 118:27 before John 20:1–18. The last selection gives only the opening of verse 27, about God’s light.8

John tells of Mary Magdalene weeping at the tomb and hearing the risen Lord call her by name. Beside that encounter, the Psalm’s joy does not cancel the plea for salvation: the Church rejoices in Christ while still asking for His help.

Iconography Connection 🖼️

Icons of the Entry into Jerusalem, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection can accompany a meditation on this Psalm. The Palm Sunday icon invites us to contemplate the Coming One; the Cross and Resurrection keep that welcome joined to His self-giving and victory over death.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Remember one mercy. Name a particular gift in prayer. If thanksgiving is difficult, borrow the Psalm’s refrain and let the Church’s words carry you.
  2. Receive help as a gift. Ask for the help you need, and thank God for those who offer it without making any person your final hope.
  3. Bring pain to God truthfully. Lament what hurts and, where repentance is needed, return to Christ without despair. Seek care or protection when needed.
  4. Build on the rejected stone. In parish life, make room for someone overlooked rather than treating approval or status as the condition of belonging.
  5. Carry Hosanna to the altar. At the Liturgy, bring both thanksgiving and your need for salvation to Christ, whose self-giving joins Palm Sunday to Pascha.

Footnotes

  1. St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm CXVIII, §2, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8. ↩

  2. St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm CXVIII, §1, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8. ↩

  3. St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm CXVIII, §4, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8. ↩

  4. Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms, Psalm 118, §7, p. 240. ↩

  5. St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm CXVIII, §16, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8. ↩

  6. St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm CXVIII, §18, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8. ↩

  7. Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms, Psalm 118, §10, p. 242. ↩

  8. Feast of Resurrection, Liturgy, April 16, 2023, CopticChurch.net. ↩

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