1Acclaim the LORD, for He is good,
forever is His kindness.
2Let Israel now say:
forever is His kindness.
3Let the house of Aaron now say:
forever is His kindness.
4Let those who fear the LORD now say:
forever is His kindness.
5From the straits I called to Jah.
Jah answered me in a wide-open place.
6The LORD is for me, I shall not fear.
What can humankind do to me?
7 The LORD is for me among my helpers,
and I shall see the defeat of my foes.
8Better to shelter in the LORD
than to trust in humankind.
9Better to shelter in the LORD
than to trust in princes.
10All the nations surrounded me.
With the LORD’s name I cut them down.
11They swarmed round me, oh they surrounded me.
With the LORD’s name I cut them down.
12They swarmed round me like bees,
burned out like a fire among thorns.
With the LORD’s name I cut them down.
13You pushed me hard to knock me down,
but the LORD helped me.
14My strength and my might is Jah,
and He has become my rescue.
15A voice of glad song and rescue
The LORD’s right hand does valiantly.
16The LORD’s right hand is raised,
the LORD’s right hand does valiantly.
17I shall not die but live
and recount the deeds of Jah.
18Jah harshly chastised me
but to death did not deliver me.
19Open for me the gates of justice—
I would enter them, I would acclaim Jah.
20This is the gate of the LORD—
the just will enter it.
21I acclaim You for You have answered me,
and You have become my rescue.
22The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
23From the LORD did this come about—
it is wondrous in our eyes.
24This is the day the LORD has wrought.
Let us exult and rejoice in it.
25We beseech You, LORD, pray, rescue.
We beseech You, LORD, make us prosper.
26Blessed who comes in the name of the LORD.
We bless you from the house of the LORD.
27 The LORD is God and He shines upon us.
Bind the festive offering with ropes
all the way to the horns of the altar.
28You are my God, and I acclaim You,
my God, and I exalt You.
29Acclaim the LORD, for He is good,
forever is His kindness.
PSALM 118 NOTES
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1. Acclaim the LORD. The initial word, “acclaim” (or “give thanks to”) marks the generic identity of the poem as a thanksgiving psalm. Some of its segments seem disjunct with others, and there are medieval manuscripts that divide this text into as many as five different psalms.
2. Let Israel now say. As in Psalm 115, this repeated formula reflects a liturgical script involving three different groups—Israel, the house of Aaron, and those who fear the LORD—that are here formally called upon (perhaps by a chorus leader) to recite the refrain “forever is His kindness.”
5. From the straits I called to Jah. This particular formula is the language of a personal thanksgiving psalm that sounds rather different from the liturgical invocation of verses 1–4. “Jah” is, according to the consensus of biblical scholars, a shortened variant of Yahweh, though it could conceivably be a separate, perhaps archaic name for the deity assimilated with Yahweh by folk etymology.
7. the defeat. As elsewhere, this object of the verb is merely implied in the Hebrew.
8. Better to shelter in the LORD. This and the next line are cast in a formulation typical of biblical proverbs (“better x than y”).
10. All the nations surrounded me. Now the plight from which the speaker has been rescued is expressed in military terms. The “I” thus might be the king, although it is also possible that the image of battling armies is a metaphor for some other kind of distress.
I cut them down. The exact meaning of the Hebrew verb ʾamilam is uncertain. This translation follows a widely adopted guess that it is derived from the root mol, which in a different conjugation means “to circumcise.”
13. to knock me down. The literal sense is simply “to fall.”
15. A voice of glad song. It is also possible to construe the initial Hebrew word qol not as a noun but as an interjection meaning “Hark!”
the just. Throughout this section, tsadiq, “just,” and tsedeq, “justice,” could also mean, respectively, “victorious” and “victory.” The military context might argue for that meaning, but because in the theology of Psalms God vindicates the just and makes them triumph, the other meaning of the root makes at least as good sense. It is perhaps more likely that the Temple gates were thought of as the gates of justice than as the gates of victory, but one cannot be certain about this.
17. I shall not die but live / and recount the deeds of Jah. This line picks up in a positive affirmation the recurrent idea in Psalms that only the living can praise God, and that such praise is the true vocation of living men and women.
22. The stone that the builders rejected. This metaphor has a metonymic trigger: the speaker, having entered the Temple gates and now standing within the courts of the resplendent building, compares himself in his former abject state to a stone at first considered unfit by the builders but then made the chief cornerstone of a grand edifice.
25. We beseech You, LORD. These words of prayer for divine favor, expressed from a communal point of view, mark still another distinct segment of this psalm.
make us prosper. “Us” is merely implied in the Hebrew.
26. Blessed who comes in the name of the LORD. These words, too, sound as though they may have served a formal ceremonial purpose in the Temple ritual. A group—perhaps of levitical choristers—standing within the Temple, “the house of the LORD,” intones a blessing to the celebrants who are approaching the altar.
27. He shines upon us. This is probably an ellipsis for “shines His face upon us.”
Bind the festive offering with ropes. The offering is, of course, an animal that is about to be slaughtered on the altar.
the horns of the altar. Israelite and Canaanite altars were fashioned with carved horns—perhaps symbols of strength—at their four corners.
28. You are my God, and I acclaim You, / my God, and I exalt You. The Hebrew uses two different designations for God—first ʾel, then ʾelohim.
29. Acclaim the LORD. It is in keeping with the liturgical nature of this psalm as a hymn of celebration that it uses the identical line at the beginning and at the end as a refrain.