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 Psalm does not merely anticipate Christ from a distance. The New Testament repeatedly places it on His lips, in His entry, in His Passion, and in His triumph. It is a Psalm of liturgical procession, sacrificial approach, and Resurrection joy.
Psalm 118 (LXX 117) - Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good
Psalm Metadata
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| NKJV / Masoretic numbering | Psalm 118 |
| Septuagint / Coptic numbering | Psalm 117 |
| Accepted author | Alleluia. |
| Period in author’s life | No single personal life-setting is fixed; the Psalm is festal, royal, and liturgical, probably used in temple processions and covenant celebration. |
| Christ prophecy status | Directly Christological. The rejected stone, the festal procession, the blessed Coming One, and the “day which the Lord has made” are all fulfilled in Christ and deeply received in Holy Week and Paschal worship. |
| Coptic lectionary/service use | Scripture from this study has an established place in the Coptic Orthodox lectionary through documented Church readings. |
| Numbering issue | This 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 and was likely sung in major festal settings. It has the atmosphere of public thanksgiving after danger, but also the ordered movement of temple worship. The singer is surrounded, chastened, and preserved. He enters the gates of righteousness. The procession ends at the altar.
The New Testament makes Psalm 118 central. Christ applies the stone text to Himself. The crowd’s Palm Sunday cry comes from this Psalm. The Resurrection 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 in the Bible by standard modern chapter divisions. Popular Bible trivia often treats Psalm 118 as a central chapter of the Bible, but exact center claims depend on canon, translation, and counting method, especially when comparing Protestant and Orthodox biblical canons. This study does not rest theology on arithmetic claims.
Still, the placement offers a useful spiritual contemplation. Between the shortest universal call to praise and the longest meditation on the word of God stands a Paschal Psalm of mercy, trust, rejected stone, opened gates, and the coming King. The heart of the spiritual life is not mere length or brevity, but trust in the Lord, entry through Christ the gate, and thanksgiving at the altar.
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.
The Characters 👥
The Lord. The helper, savior, and giver of enduring mercy.
Israel, Aaron, and those who fear the Lord. The covenant community answering with thanksgiving.
The righteous worshipper. Surrounded, preserved, entering the gates of righteousness.
The rejected stone / the Coming One. In Christian reading, Christ Himself.
🕯️ 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 with antiphonal thanksgiving. Israel, Aaron, and all who fear the Lord are gathered into one confession, mercy endures forever. Affliction is real, but the Lord brings the sufferer into a wide place. Human help and princely power are finally unreliable.
Augustine sees the wide place as the freedom of grace after the narrowness of fear and bondage. He says, “The narrow straits of our tribulation are limited: but the large way whereby we pass along hath no end” (Exposition on Psalm CXVIII). Theodoret emphasizes the communal structure, thanksgiving is not solitary emotion but shared confession. The repeated mercy formula trains the heart into liturgical memory.
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.’” This prevents the refrain from becoming filler. The whole Psalm stands on divine goodness, not on the strength of the worshipper’s emotion.
St Athanasius says the Psalms give the Church words for the soul’s own prayer, and St Gregory of Nyssa teaches that psalmody trains the soul toward virtue and that the end of the life according to virtue is blessedness. Psalm 118 (LXX 117) is a great festal Psalm that teaches the soul to move from affliction into spacious thanksgiving by fixing its gaze on the Lord whose mercy endures forever.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “for his mercy endures for ever”; “It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in man.”
- Emphasize: thanksgiving, trust, and communal praise.
- Avoid: making mercy a cliché. It is the structure of the Psalm.
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.
This section is full of Paschal power. Nations surround, the righteous is thrust hard, chastening is severe, yet death does not prevail. “I shall not die, but live” is not shallow positivity, but deliverance through the edge of ruin.
Augustine reads this through Christ and the Church, surrounded and pressed, yet not abandoned. Theodoret notes that chastening is not rejection. The Lord wounds in order to heal, humbles in order to preserve.
This section resonates with both Cross and Resurrection. Christ is thrust toward death, yet not held by it. The Church, united to Him, learns to speak this Psalm through persecution, grief, and repentance.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “I shall not die, but live”; “The Lord has chastened me sore: but he has not given me up to death.”
- Emphasize: chastening without abandonment, life through affliction.
- Avoid: promising the absence of pain. The Psalm speaks from inside it.
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 Psalm moves into temple and mystery. The gates of righteousness open. Then suddenly the liturgical procession becomes messianic prophecy. The rejected stone becomes the head of the corner. What men cast away, God establishes.
Augustine lingers here because the verse belongs so plainly to Christ. The builders reject Him, yet He becomes the cornerstone joining Jew and Gentile into one house. He connects the corner stone to Ephesians 2, Christ making “of twain one new man” and reconciling both in one body. Theodoret sees the wonder as divine reversal, God’s wisdom overturning human judgment.
“This is the day which the Lord has made” is read by the Church as Resurrection day, the new creation day, the day that cannot be reduced to ordinary chronology. Augustine says this is the day “wherein He hath given me Salvation” (Exposition on Psalm CXVIII). The rejected stone is alive.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “The stone which the builders rejected”; “This is the day which the Lord has made.”
- Emphasize: divine reversal, Christ as cornerstone, Paschal joy.
- Avoid: reducing the “day” to generic encouragement.
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.
Here Palm Sunday, sacrifice, and Eucharistic festivity meet. “Save now” becomes Hosanna. “Blessed is he that comes” becomes the crowd’s cry to Christ entering Jerusalem. “Celebrate the feast” and the binding at the altar keep triumph from becoming sentiment. Glory moves toward sacrifice.
Theodoret sees the shining of God as manifestation and favor. Augustine reads the Coming One as Christ entering not only the city, but the mystery of His Passion. The Psalm’s final thanksgiving returns to mercy, because mercy is where the procession began and where it ends.
This is one of Scripture’s great liturgical convergences. Palm branches, altar, sacrifice, and thanksgiving are not separate themes. In Christ they become one Paschal movement.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord”; “celebrate the feast with thick branches.”
- Emphasize: Palm Sunday, sacrifice, and Paschal thanksgiving held together.
- Avoid: separating triumph from the Cross.
The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖
Scripture from this study has an established place in the Coptic Orthodox lectionary through documented Church readings.
Iconography Connection 🖼️
This Psalm lives beside icons of Palm Sunday, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and Christ the cornerstone. The visual movement is the same as the Psalm’s movement, entry, rejection, sacrifice, triumph, and thanksgiving.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
- Let mercy frame your life. The Psalm begins and ends there for a reason.
- Trust God more than human systems. Princes, strategies, and appearances do not save.
- Accept chastening without despair. God may wound pride without surrendering the soul to death.
- Build on the rejected stone. Let Christ be the cornerstone where you were tempted to trust approval or power.
- Keep Palm Sunday and Pascha together. True festal joy is cruciform before it is triumphant.
Teacher's Notes
- Timing: 10 minutes for mercy and trust, 15 minutes for affliction and life, 15 minutes for gates/stone/day, 15 minutes for Hosanna/Coming One/altar.
- Where to linger: Psalm 117:17-24 and 117:25-27.
- Key phrase to say slowly: “The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner.”
- Pastoral warning: do not sentimentalize Palm Sunday or abstract Pascha. This Psalm is joyful because it passes through sacrifice. If discussing popular claims about Psalm 118’s centrality in the Bible, keep the caveat clear and use it only as contemplation, not proof.
Glossary
- Hosanna / save now: A plea for salvation that becomes a liturgical acclamation.
- Rejected stone: In Christian reading, Christ refused by the builders yet made cornerstone.
- Gates of righteousness: Entrance into worship, thanksgiving, and covenant communion.
- Paschal: Relating to Passover fulfilled in Christ’s Passion and Resurrection.
Translation and Source Notes
Embedded Scripture is Brenton’s English Septuagint, Psalm 117. The note mentions popular center-of-the-Bible claims only with caution, because exact center counts vary by canon, edition, and counting method.
Sources
Primary sources: Brenton Septuagint, Psalm 117; Matthew 21; Mark 12; Luke 20; Acts 4; 1 Peter 2.
Patristic sources: St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm CXVIII in NPNF1, volume 8; Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms; St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus; St Gregory of Nyssa on psalmody, virtue, and blessedness.
Coptic Orthodox / liturgical sources: Scripture from this study has an established place in the Coptic Orthodox lectionary through documented Church readings.