Save
us now, we beg you, Yahweh! Yahweh, we beg you, send prosperity now. Blessed is he who comes in Yahweh’s name! We have blessed you out of Yahweh’s house.
Psalm 118:25-26
Psalm 118 [10.] All the nations surrounded me,
but in Yahweh’s name, I cut them off.
They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me.
In Yahweh’s name I indeed cut them off.
They surrounded me like bees.
They are quenched like the burning thorns.
In Yahweh’s name I cut them off.
You pushed me back hard, to make me fall,
but Yahweh helped me.
Yah is my strength and song.
He has become my salvation.
The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous.
“The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly.
The right hand of Yahweh is exalted!
The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly!”
I will not die, but live,
and declare Yah’s works.
Yah has punished me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
Open to me the gates of righteousness.
I will enter into them.
I will give thanks to Yah.
Psalm 118 [20.] This is the gate of Yahweh;
the righteous will enter into it.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me,
and have become my salvation.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.
This is Yahweh’s doing.
It is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that Yahweh has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it!
Save us now, we beg you, Yahweh!
Yahweh, we beg you, send prosperity now.
Blessed is he who comes in Yahweh’s name!
We have blessed you out of Yahweh’s house.
Yahweh is God, and he has given us light.
Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you.
You are my God, I will exalt you.
Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good,
for his loving kindness endures forever.
Psalm 119 [1.] Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to Yahweh’s law.
Blessed are those who keep his statutes,
who seek him with their whole heart.
Yes, they do nothing wrong.
They walk in his ways.
You have commanded your precepts,
that we should fully obey them.
Oh that my ways were steadfast
to obey your statutes!
Then I wouldn’t be disappointed,
when I consider all of your commandments.
I will give thanks to you with uprightness of heart,
when I learn your righteous judgments.
I will observe your statutes.
Don’t utterly forsake me.
Meaning:
Psalm 118 is the last of the “Hallel” psalms (Psalms 113-118), the songs of praise that Israel sang at the great feasts, especially Passover. It reads like a festival procession. A leader who has been surrounded by enemies and rescued by God comes to the temple to give thanks; he asks for the gates of righteousness to be opened; the worshippers rejoice in “the day that Yahweh has made”. These two verses are the climax: the people cry out to God for salvation, and the priests welcome the one who comes in Yahweh’s name. Centuries later the crowds used these very words to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem (Mark 11:7-10).
- “Save us now, we beg you, Yahweh!”
In Hebrew this cry is “hoshi‘ah na”, which came into Greek and English as “Hosanna”. The PIB footnote at Mark 11:9 explains that it means “save us” or “help us, we pray”. It is an urgent prayer, repeated with the plea “we beg you”. By the time of Jesus, the word had also become a shout of praise and welcome, used at the feasts as worshippers waved branches. When the crowds cried “Hosanna!” before Jesus, they were both praising him and, without fully knowing it, asking him to do the very thing he came to do: save.
- “Yahweh, we beg you, send prosperity now”
The second line asks God to give success to the king and his people. In the psalm the victory had come not through human strength but from God: “It is better to take refuge in Yahweh, than to put confidence in princes” (Psalm 118:8-9). The prayer for prosperity is a prayer for God’s blessing on the whole enterprise of his people, the peace and wellbeing that only he can give.
- “Blessed is he who comes in Yahweh’s name!”
In the original setting the priests at the temple gates greeted the king or the pilgrims arriving for the feast. To come “in Yahweh’s name” is to come with his authority, as his representative. Over time Israel came to hear in these words a reference to the coming Messiah, the one God would send.
That is how the crowds used them on the day Jesus rode into the city: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming in the name of the Lord!” (Mark 11:9-10). Children took up the same cry in the temple (Matthew 21:15-16). The same psalm also says, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner” (Psalm 118:22), and Jesus applied that verse to himself (Mark 12:10-11). The one welcomed by the crowd would be rejected by the leaders, and God would make him the cornerstone.
- “We have blessed you out of Yahweh’s house”
The priests answered the arriving worshipper with a blessing from the temple, much like the blessing God gave Aaron to speak over Israel (Numbers 6:24-26). There is a painful irony here. When Jesus came to the temple, the priests did not bless him. Instead the chief priests and scribes “sought how they might destroy him” (Mark 11:18).
Jesus and his disciples almost certainly sang this psalm themselves at the end of the Passover meal on the night he was betrayed, for Mark records that “when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (Mark 14:22-26).
The Significance of Psalm 118:25-26
- Praise and prayer together
“Hosanna” is both a cry for help and a shout of praise. Believers can bring their need to God and praise him in the same breath, because he is the God who saves.
- Welcoming the one God sends
Jesus is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. To bless him and receive him is to receive the salvation God offers.
- His loving kindness endures
The psalm begins and ends with the same call: “Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever” (Psalm 118:1). Salvation flows from God’s faithful love.
Cross-References:
Mark 11:9: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" The crowd’s welcome to Jesus.
Psalm 118:22: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner." The rejected stone of the same psalm.
Zechariah 9:9: "Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey." The King who comes bringing salvation.
Psalm 118:1: "Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever." The theme of the whole psalm.
Conclusion: Psalm 118:25-26 records the climax of a festival procession: the people cry to Yahweh to save them and give them success, and the priests bless the one who comes in Yahweh’s name. “Save us now” became the cry “Hosanna”, and when Jesus rode into Jerusalem the crowds hailed him with these very words. He is the one who truly comes in the name of the Lord, the rejected stone who became the cornerstone, and the answer to Israel’s prayer for salvation.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible