Psalms 118 Footnotes

118:22 This familiar verse is the heart of the worshipers’ praise. In one view, the stone was Israel, represented by its king, and the builders were the world empires—Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon—who could move puppet states around at will. Judah, which they considered trivial, had again become the capstone of God’s building program. Alternatively, one thinks of David who was not considered a likely candidate for Israel’s anointed ruler (1Sm 16:1-12). Because the psalms were generalized for community use, the language could apply to a variety of situations in which a faithful worshiper had been passed over in the search for leadership. In the NT Jesus expounded on this passage (Mt 21:42; Mk 12:10; Lk 20:17): he, the true Israel, is the stone that the builders—the Judean religious authorities and the Roman occupiers—rejected. Now, in the light of his resurrection and ascension, he is the centerpiece of God’s new structure for his kingdom (Ac 4:11).

118:25 The prayer of the worshipers entering the sanctuary was that the Lord would bring them full and complete salvation or deliverance. Their words “LORD, save us,” in Hebrew, are hoshi‘ah na’, which came into the liturgy of the church through Greek as “Hosanna.”