The Bible Study Hour

Guest (Male): It was quoted by David as he brought the Ark to Jerusalem, and echoed in the prophecies of Ezra and Jeremiah. It was the theme of a people when, time and time and time again, they witnessed the goodness of their God as He delivered them from their enemies and fulfilled His promises.

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. Psalm 118 begins and ends with an identical theme: "His love endures forever." God had proven His love to a stubborn and rebellious people who were much in need of His tender mercies. Join Dr. Boice as he explores this processional Psalm that takes us from anguish to jubilation and reflects on the unfailing love of a great and mighty God.

Dr. James Boice: Psalm 117 is so short that there are any number of commentators who try to attach it to one of the others, either as an appendage to Psalm 116 that precedes it, or as a prelude and introduction to Psalm 118 to which we come now. It's neither, of course. It's a perfect little Psalm that stands on its own two feet, doing very well by itself. Since it has two verses, I should say it stands on its own two verses, doing very well by itself.

Whatever the case may be, it is a good introduction to Psalm 118 because the second verse of those two says, "Great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever." Then as soon as you get into Psalm 118, you find that that's the theme with which it begins and which it develops. Verse one says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever."

I pointed out when we were studying the last Psalm that it is related to, perhaps based upon, the favorite text of the post-exilic Jewish community. That is Exodus 34 verse six. That is the verse in which God is revealing Himself to Moses on the mount. Moses has asked to see His face. God's replied that nobody can see His face and live, but God will nevertheless give him a great revelation. So God places him in a cleft of the rock, covers him with His hand, passes by, and then he hears the voice of God, this still small voice speaking. It says, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin."

No wonder that became a favorite verse of the Jews and especially the post-exilic community. The Jews had sinned greatly. Their Babylonian captivity was an example of the judgment of God upon them, but nevertheless, He'd brought them back. There they were, back in their land again. They must have said, "The only reason we're here is because of the love of God and His great mercy, which endures forever."

There's a great tradition of the use of this verse in the Old Testament. It's used first of all by David on the occasion of his bringing the Ark up to Jerusalem. He seems to have written the Psalm on that occasion, and in the midst of it, there is a quotation of this verse. So you find him repeating these words exactly in 1 Chronicles 16:34: "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever."

You'll notice if you just glance over our Psalm that that last line appears several times. It's there in verse one. It's the theme of the Psalm. Then verses two, three, and four each call upon various groups within the nation to repeat the words: "His love endures forever." The Psalm then goes on to explain what that is all about. When you get to the very end, verse 29, you find it again: "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever."

There are reasons for thinking that this Psalm was probably a processional Psalm. I always am hesitant to suggest that sort of thing because often you don't have anything other than the Psalm itself to go on. As soon as you begin to think along those lines, you open the door to all kinds of speculation. But there is nevertheless really very good reason for thinking that that's the way this Psalm was used. For one thing, there's a lot of repetitive language. You see, when you have a Psalm saying, "Let Israel say, 'His love endures forever,' let the house of Aaron say, 'His love endures forever,' let those who fear the Lord say, 'His love endures forever,'" it just sounds very much like somebody gave the first line and the people responded.

In addition to that, there's a progression of ideas that goes from anguish and trouble at the beginning of the Psalm to jubilation toward the end. As a matter of fact, as you get to verse 27, you actually find the words of a festal procession. So it would seem that the whole Psalm was designed to lift people up as they finally actually come before the temple and the gates are opened to allow them to come in.

And yet, in addition to all that, there are other reasons for thinking that this Psalm was used in that way, too. Historical vignettes from the Old Testament: first of all, from Jeremiah. Jeremiah has a scene in which Psalm 118 verse one is actually quoted. This is a prophecy. Remember now, Jeremiah came toward the end of the period that was going to climax with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. He's been saying that the city is going to be overthrown, but nevertheless, even in the midst of it, there's the promise of restoration. That's what these verses are about.

He's quoting God: "This is what the Lord says. You say about this place, 'It is a desolate waste, without man or animals,' as it was to become. Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither men nor animals, there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness, the voice of the bride and the bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying"—and here he quotes the Psalm—"Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for He is good, and His love endures forever." Then the Lord says, "I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before." So when he wrote this down, Jeremiah must have been remembering, thinking about, and reflecting on processions just like that in the history of Israel.

Here's one more little historical insight. This is from the book of Ezra. The foundation stone of the new temple is being laid, and they have a celebration. So in the third chapter of Ezra, verses 10 and 11, you read: "When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord as prescribed by David, the king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving, they sang to the Lord, 'He is good. His love endures forever.' And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid." Again, that sounds very much like that's the way this Psalm was used.

Now, when you look at it, you see this progression that I was talking about earlier. It's a long Psalm. It has ten stanzas, plus an opening introductory verse, the theme verse that I've been talking about, and then also a wrap-up at the end with a couple of verses. It begins with a summons to Israel to praise God (verses 2 through 4). Next, it describes the anguish of one who was enslaved: "In my anguish, I cried to the Lord, and He answered by setting me free" (verse 5).

It talks about the danger this individual faced from nearby hostile nations. Perhaps this is the nation itself speaking: "All the nations surround me" (verse 10). "I was pushed back and about to fall" (verse 13). Then there's a remembrance of victories that were given to Israel by God: "Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous" (verse 15). There's a call for opening the temple gates for the righteous to enter: "Open for me the gates of righteousness" (verse 19). A grateful recognition that those who had been rejected have been heard and delivered from their foreign oppression: "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone" (verse 22). Then a final festal progression up to the very horns of God's altar in the temple courts: "With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar" (verse 27).

Now, when we trace that, you can begin to understand why this is the last and the culminating Psalm of the Egyptian Hallel. The Egyptian Hallel is this collection of Psalms that were sung on the great feast days by the Jews, particularly at the Passover, beginning with Psalm 113 and culminating with 118. The Psalm is written in places as if an individual is speaking, but it reflects very well the experience of the nation, from their days of slavery in Egypt and God brought them out with a strong hand, to the victories that they had over their enemies as they moved into the land, and then finally their worship at the temple. We read that and we understand why that Psalm must be so important to the Jews.

But let me say at the same time that it's not only the Jews who use this Psalm. This is a great Christian Psalm, too. The proof of it is found in the way verses from it have been picked up and used in the Gospel accounts of Palm Sunday and Passion Week in application to Jesus Christ. You ask at this point, "Is the Psalm messianic?" The answer is no, not in the strict sense. The Psalm is not strictly a prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ. It's about the Jews. Even that great verse, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," in the context of the Psalm, really refers to Israel. Israel had been rejected, scorned by the great powerful nations roundabout, but God had raised up this nation and was doing something special there, which, of course, culminated in the coming of Jesus Christ. Even that verse doesn't specifically prophesy Jesus Christ, but these verses are nevertheless rightly used in that way.

As these Psalms go, some are explicitly messianic. Some have verses in them that are used in application to Jesus Christ, not wrongly. Of that whole group of the explicitly and less implicitly messianic Psalms, this is the last one. We've seen some of them up to this point, but from now on, there are no more that are going to be used exactly that way.

There are two great passages here that were used of Jesus Christ, and that's what I'd like to focus on. We're going to come back to this next week and look at passages in the Psalm that have other messages in them that make a separate message all by themselves. But there are two great sections here that have to do with Jesus Christ. First of all, those that have to do with what we call Palm Sunday: verse 25, "O Lord, save us," and verse 26, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." All four evangelists use one or both of these verses in their accounts of the triumphal entry: Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:9 and 10, Luke 19:39, and John 12:13.

Now, some of it is explicit, very easy to see. The words "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" are found exactly that way in most of our English Bibles. Verse 25 is quoted differently. It says here, "O Lord, save us," and you don't find exactly those words in the Gospel. But as soon as you realize that that word "save us" in the part of the verse that I just read is actually the word "Hosanna" in the Hebrew, which means "save us now," so when the people said on Palm Sunday, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," what they were really doing is quoting this Psalm.

There's something else that fits into the picture. You have to remember, as I said a moment ago, that Psalm 118 is the last and most important Psalm in the Egyptian Hallel. The Egyptian Hallel was the collection of Psalms used by Jews at the time of the Passover. When Jesus went up to Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday, he was going up at Passover time. The lambs were all being taken up into the city. So if you put all of that together, what it means is that these were the words that were in the minds of the people at that time of year. So it was quite natural for them, as Jesus made his way up into the city, for them to quote these Psalms that they would be singing later on in the week and probably had sung already. Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Oh Lord, save us, save us now!

Well, you stop at that point and you ask the question, do they understand what they were singing? Here they're using the word "Hosanna." Oh Lord, save us. Here comes Jesus the Savior. Did they understand he was a Savior? No, I don't think so. Certainly not in the full sense, though there were some individuals like Mary of Bethany who understood that he was going to die and had been listening very carefully to his teaching. God was beginning to open her eyes and perhaps the eyes of some others, but even the disciples didn't understand what was going on. Nevertheless, that is what Jesus had come to do. So if you have the people singing, "Oh Lord, save us now," they're looking to God for salvation. In a way, perhaps they didn't even understand, that's exactly what God was doing. Jesus Christ was entering Jerusalem to be the Savior of the world.

Now, the second passage is the little section beginning with verse 22: "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," and verse 24, "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Now, a moment ago, I said those words refer to Israel primarily, and I think they do. In the context of the Psalm, they're referring to a nation that has been despised, has been, perhaps still is to some extent, but in which and through which God was working in a special way. Certainly, as we know as Christians, by sending the Messiah. Now, although that's true that the words refer primarily to Israel in the context of the Psalm, they are nevertheless rightly applied to Jesus. The reason we know that is because Jesus himself applied the words to himself.

They appear in a number of the things that he said, but particularly in a parable that he told in the 21st chapter of Matthew. Now, that chapter is the chapter in which Matthew gives the account of the triumphal entry. So early in that chapter, you have the words from this Psalm being shouted by the people: "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" That's sort of the theme of the day.

And then later on in the chapter, Jesus begins to teach the people, and he teaches with this parable. He says there was an owner of a vineyard who leased a field to tenant farmers. They were to care for it, and when harvest time came, they were to give him his share of the harvest or the profit. But they didn't do it. So he sent servants to collect what they owed him. They beat up the servants, stoned, killed some of them.

Finally, he sent his son. He thought, "Well, they didn't respect the servants, but certainly they'll respect my son." Instead, what they said was this: they said, "Well, we kill the son, then we'll get the inheritance." And so they killed the son. Now Jesus asked, "When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do with those tenants?" And the people that were listening, especially the leaders, got it right. They said, "Well, when he comes, he's going to bring those wretches to a wretched end, and then he'll rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share in the crop at harvest time." Jesus said, "Yes, that's right."

And then he applied the story to himself, and he did it by quoting from the 118th Psalm. "Have you never read in the scriptures, 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. The Lord has done this, and it's marvelous in our eyes'?" The end of the chapter, the end of the story, has these words: it says when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. Now, in that context, there's no difficulty at all in understanding what Jesus is teaching. He says that God is the owner of the vineyard, the leaders of Israel are the evil tenant farmers, the servants were the prophets, the son who was killed was Jesus Christ himself. If that's true, then he is the capstone. He's the capstone of the temple that was rejected and has now been made the very foundation of true religion.

Apparently, that story goes back to something that had happened at the building of Solomon's Temple. There, apparently, as the story goes—it's not in the Bible, but it's probably where this comes from—the builders early in the construction of the temple sent up from the quarry a stone that didn't fit in. So the builders got it; they didn't know what to do with it. They laid it aside. The building of the temple took time. It got covered over eventually by weeds. So finally, they came to a capstone, a cornerstone, or a keystone in an arch, and they didn't have it. They sent down to the quarry for it, and the word came back that stone had already been sent up. So they looked around for it, they found it, and that stone they'd rejected became the capstone or the keystone. Jesus says, "Well, that's exactly what's happened to me."

Now, that story and that verse also meant a great deal to Peter. It's worth reflecting on that a little bit, Peter of all people, probably because you recall in the 16th chapter of Matthew, when Peter was speaking for the disciples in his great confession of faith in Jesus Christ, "You are the Christ, the Son of God," Jesus commended him for it, but said nevertheless the Holy Spirit is the one that had made it clear to Peter. Then he renamed him; he said, "You're Peter." He was making a pun on his name, which means stone. He said, "You're Peter, a stone. Upon this rock, I'm going to build my church." People in the history of the church have assumed what that meant is that Jesus was going to build his church on Peter, and so you have this whole idea of Peter being the first pope and the church standing upon the succession of the popes and all of that.

But Peter didn't understand it that way. I'm sure Peter, in seizing upon this great text from Psalm 118, was doing his best to straighten things out. Because when you read Peter's writings or you hear Peter's testimony, what Peter is saying is, "I'm not the rock. After all, you know what I was like. I denied Jesus Christ at the time of his resurrection. I'm just a little pebble scattered around the path. If you're going to build on anything, build on him. He's the Rock of Ages."

He did that before the Sanhedrin, you may recall. He had been active along with John as God worked through them in the healing of a cripple. That created a great stir. They began to preach, and the leaders exercised their authority and went down and arrested Peter and John and held them in prison overnight. Next day, they brought them before the assembled court of the Sanhedrin. I'm sure they did everything they could in their power to intimidate them. Peter had an opportunity for his speech, and so he did it. Here's the way it's recorded in the fourth chapter of Acts: "Rulers and elders of the people, if we're being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and everyone else in Israel: it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you completely healed."

And then he quoted from the scripture: "He is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone." And he applied it: "Salvation is found in no one else, because there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we can be saved."

Very interesting what happens here. Luke, who writes this in Acts, quotes that text from the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament. He does that throughout because he's writing to a Greek-speaking audience, Greek readers, and he always quotes the Septuagint exactly. Now, here there's a variation. If you look at the Septuagint version of this text, what it says is this: "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone." That's the way it is in our Psalm. When Peter quoted it before the Sanhedrin, he added a word. Did you hear it? The text says, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone." Peter said, "The stone you builders rejected has become the capstone." Why did he do that? Why did Luke quote it wrongly at that point? Well, obviously, because that's the way Peter applied it. In other words, he's quoting exactly what Peter said. What Peter was doing was making it perfectly clear that it was those rulers right there to whom he was speaking who were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.

You know the leaders hated Jesus. They did everything they could to suppress his influence. Eventually, they killed him, and then when the apostles began to preach the same Gospel, they did everything they could to suppress them. A pastor of an earlier generation whose name is Frederick Evans wrote a sermon on this in which he talks about Jesus Christ being rejected by the experts. Always the experts that do the rejecting. They had their reputation to live up with; they were the religious experts. They didn't think very much of Jesus or those who were following him. They didn't approve of his origin—he came from Galilee, and they said, "Look into it and you'll find that out of Galilee comes no good thing." They didn't like his lack of formal education because he hadn't studied in their formal rabbinic schools. They said, "How did this man get such learning, having never studied?" They disapproved of his disregard of their religious rules, especially their rules regarding the Sabbath. They said, "Why are you doing what's unlawful on the Sabbath?" They didn't like his choice of friends. They said to the disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" And above all, they didn't like his teaching. Because what he taught is that they needed to be saved. They were not righteous men; they were not able to get to heaven on their own. Not only that, they weren't even very good men. They were actually thieves and robbers and whitewashed hypocrites. Jesus said all sorts of very hard things about them, but he said that he'd come to die for people just like that, that they might be saved. They absolutely hated him for his exposure of their sin. And so they rejected him.

Evans says He wasn't two years into His ministry when they decided He had to go. They were the builders and they were going to build in their own way, and they were going to do it without Him. Yes, they would build over His dead body. They'd put Him to death. If they could not stone Him according to Jewish law, they would see to it that He was nailed to a cross according to Roman law. And that's exactly what they did.

But God raised Him from the dead. You see, that's what the text is saying: "The stone you builders rejected has become the capstone." How in the world did that happen? The answer is, "The Lord has done this. It's marvelous in our eyes." Pay attention to that: the Lord has done this. There are lots of things about Christianity that the world doesn't like. The world doesn't like exposure of sin, the world doesn't like the miracles, doesn't like the deity of Jesus Christ, but most of all, what the world hates is the sovereignty of God. The fact that God does what God will do, and we can't dictate to God and we can't control God. So let me emphasize that: God accomplishes what God will do. Not only has He done it in the case of Jesus Christ, He does it in all of life, and He's going to do it with you whether you like Him or not. You can fight Him. You can fight Him right up to the end, but in the end, it's the will of God and not your will that's going to be accomplished.

What is God's will? God wants Jesus Christ, His Son, to be honored and glorified. And that Son, Jesus Christ, is both a Savior and a Judge. He's exalted as the Savior. He will also be exalted as the Judge. And it's far better to allow God to exalt Him in your life as your Savior, so you come to sing His praises and spend eternity with others doing that, than to exalt Him as Judge when He pronounces a just retribution over you for your sin.

Let me put it another way. If Jesus is the stone that has been made the foundation of God's building or temple, then the only wise thing is for you and me to build upon it. I mentioned that Peter loved this, and that little story I just told from his appearing before the Sanhedrin is only one place in the New Testament where he refers to these words. He does it again very forcefully in the second chapter of his first letter. Peter is writing to Christians at this point. What he's telling them is that God has done something marvelous with them. He's called them out of darkness into light. He's made them a new people, a precious people to God. And what he's encouraging them to do is build upon Jesus Christ.

And here's what he says: "You come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men, yes, but chosen by God and precious to Him. As you do, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual home to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." It's a great privilege, you see, and a great joy. I remind you that what he also points out in that very same passage is that it's possible also to stumble on that stone. That stone is there for a foundation; you can build upon it. But it's also possible to stumble over it and say, "That's an offense to me. I don't want to build my life on Jesus Christ." If that's the case, the Bible reminds you that it's by that stone, even Jesus Christ, that you will be crushed.

You see, this is the Lord's doing. May you be able to say, "Yes, and it's marvelous in my eyes."

Our Father, we're thankful for this Psalm and for its clear teaching. We're thankful for its application to the experience of Israel and also very much so for the way it's been applied to the life and ministry of Christ our Savior. Father, help us to learn from it that we might grow in our knowledge of this and other portions of scripture, becoming strong, having our minds open to Your truth, and then give us grace also to build strongly upon what we understand. For Jesus' sake, amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to this message from The Bible Study Hour, a listener-supported ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is a coalition of pastors, scholars, and churchmen who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith and who proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a Reformed awakening in today's church. To learn more about the Alliance, visit AllianceNet.org. And while you're there, visit our online store, Reformed Resources, where you can find messages and books from Dr. Boice and other outstanding teachers and theologians, or ask for a free Reformed Resources catalog by calling 1-800-488-1888.

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