| Introduction Spurgeon says that Psalm 118 was Martin Luther's favorite psalm. "This is my psalm, my chosen psalm. I love them all; I love all holy Scripture, which is my consolation and my life. But this psalm is nearest my heart, and I have a peculiar right to call it mine. It has saved me from many a pressing danger, from which nor emperor, nor kings, nor sages, nor saints, could have saved me. It is my friend; dearer to me than all the honors and power of the earth." He put verse 17, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord," on a plaque on his study wall, where he could see it every day. Many Reformers had been killed. Luther was cheered by this verse, which assured him that he was perfectly safe until his work on earth was done. We don't know who wrote the psalm or when. But anyone whom God has saved can relate to the psalmist as he gives joyous thanks to God for His salvation. Psalm 113 is the first and Psalm 118 is the last of a group of psalms known as the Egyptian Hallel (Hallel means, "praise"). The Jews sang the first two of those psalms before the Passover meal and the last four after the meal. The Exodus (and Passover) pictured God's redemption of his people, not just physically from slavery, but spiritually from sin. Thus Psalm 118 is a song of thanksgiving to God for His salvation. Verse 14, "The Lord ismy strength and song, and He has become my salvation," is taken from the Song of Moses, sung after the Exodus (Ex. 15:2). As the last song after the Passover, this would have been the last song that Jesus sang with His disciples before going out to the Garden of Gethsemane. The gospel accounts of Palm Sunday and the Passion Week cite from Psalm 118 in reference to Jesus. When He entered Jerusalem, the crowds cried out the words of verses 25- 26 with regard to Jesus (Mt. 21:9; Mk. 11:9-10; Lk. 19:39; Jn. 12:13). ("Do save" in Hebrew is "hosanna"). Later that week, as he debated with the Jewish leaders, Jesus referred to himself as the stone which the builders rejected, which becomes the chief corner stone (Mt. 21:42). Psalm 118 is about proclaiming the excellencies of God's salvation: If you have experienced God's gracious salvation, thank him for it every day. I. Because Salvation Is Our Greatest Need, God's Lovingkindness Should Be Our Continual Song of Praise, 1-4. A. The opening and closing verses of the psalm are identical and state the theme. B. Then, the psalmist calls upon three groups to repeat the refrain, "For His mercy enduresforever." 1. Israelis a call to the nation as a whole to praise God for his enduring love. 2. The house of Aaron calls to the priests, who served at the temple, to praise God for his everlasting love. 3. You who fear the Lord zeroes in on those whose religion was not merely cultural (as Jews), nor ritualistic or routine (as the priests' religion may easily have become), but real and personal. a. In other words, all of us need to be stirred up to give thanks to the Lord, not only when He is good to us, but also because "He is good" and his lovingkindness (mercy) is everlasting. b. Even when we go through difficult trials (vv. 5, 10-13), the Lord is good, and his lovingkindness is everlasting. c. His very nature is good, and he is especially good to his covenant people who fear Him. C. Underlying these verses and the entire psalm is the experience of God's salvation (the word occurs in vv. 14, 15, 21; "save" is in v. 25). II. Because We Don't Naturally See That Salvation Is Our Greatest Need, the Lord Sometimes Puts Us in Desperate Situations So We Will Cry out to Him Alone to Save us, 5-13. A. God uses trials to show us our need for him, so that we will pray. 1. We pray most fervently when we go through severe trials, because it is then that we see how great our need really is. 2. When things are going relatively smoothly, we should pray, of course. 3. But I know that my prayers become much more focused and fervent when I'm in a difficult trial. B. In our trials, we must not doubt that God in Christ is for us. 1. When fierce trials hit, the enemy always tries to get us to doubt the goodness of God: "If He is good and if He loves you, why is He permitting this trial?" 2. But the Spirit here affirms that the Lord is on our side, 6-7. 3. The worst thing an enemy can do is take our lives away! C. Our trust must be in God alone to save us. 1. Not in man nor even in men of influence, 8-9. 2. Victory is in the Lord, 11, 12, 15, 16. 3. Our strength is in the Lord, 14. III. When We Experience God's Salvation, He Becomes Our Strength and Our Song, So That He Gets All the Glory, 14-21. A. Experiencing God's salvation fills us with joy, 14-15. 1. When you have relied on God to save you from your sin, he becomes your salvation, and also your strength and your song. 2. Note, also that the joyful song of salvation extends into the family of the righteous, 15. a. When a man and his family experience God's salvation, there is great joy in that home. b. Righteousness, which includes the fruit of the Spirit, is at the heart of a happy home life. B. When we experience God's salvation, he is glorified as we tell others and grow in godliness, 16-18. 1. The psalmist exalts the Lord and his strength (His "right hand"), and as a result of God's deliverance, the psalmist vows to tell others "of the works of the Lord" (v. 17). So should we! 2. Note also, that although on the surface the psalmist's troubles stem from fierce enemies trying to kill him, he attributes it ultimately to the Lord's discipline, 18. "The main thing in adversity is to know that we are laid low by the hand of God, and that this is the way which he takes to prove our allegiance, to arouse us from our torpidity [sluggishness], to crucify our old man, to purge us from our filthiness, to bring us into submission and subjection to God, and to excite us to meditate on the heavenly life." John Calvin C. Only the righteous may enter into true worship with the Lord and his people, 19-21. 1. When we trust Christ as Savior, God clothes us with Christ's righteousness, so that we may enter his holy presence. 2. But, also, we must search our hearts to make sure that we are not harboring any known sin. Ps. 15– Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart; he whodoes not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord; he whoswears to his own hurt and does not change; he whodoes not put out his money at usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these thingsshall never be moved. IV. God's Way of Salvation Confounds the World but Causes His People to Rejoice and Give Thanks to Him, 22-29. A. Jesus clearly applied this passage to himself. 1. He was the stone rejected by the builders (the Jewish leaders), but who became the chief corner stone (Mt. 21:42). 2. They rejected and crucified him, but God raised him up and highly exalted Him, "so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow" (Phil. 2:10). 3. God's way of salvation is a stumbling-block to the proud, but a source of great joy to God's elect (1 Cor. 1:18-31). B. Note also that the rejection and exaltation of Jesus "is the Lord's doing." God is the author and initiator of our salvation. Acts 2:23-24– Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. C. God must give us light or we do not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, 27. 2 Cor. 4:4-6 – But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to givethe light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. D.So, we should cry out to the Lord to save his people and to prosper his church, 25. James Boice (Psalms[Baker], 3:963-964) tells of how three Protestant martyrs in France relied on Psalm 118 as they faced execution. Louis Rang, a Huguenot pastor, was condemned to die in Grenoble in 1745. He was offered life if he would renounce his faith, but he rejected the offer. He was led to the scaffold singing a French versification of Psalm 118:24, which might be translated, "Here now is the happy day for which we have been waiting. Sing praise to God who gives us joy and pleasures unabating." A few weeks later, another Huguenot pastor, Jacque Roger, also strengthened himself with this verse. He was 70 years old and had escaped his enemies for nearly 40 years. He spent his last days in prison encouraging other Protestant pastors to remain true to the faith. As he was led to his execution, he also sang the same verse that Louis Rang had sung just weeks before. The last of the Huguenot martyrs in France was Francois Rochette, who died in 1762, 17 years after Rang and Roger. He too was offered freedom if he renounced his faith. He too refused. He also mounted the scaffold singing, "Here now is the happy day for which we have been waiting."
We may or may not face martyrdom for our faith, but we all face various trials. If you have experienced God's salvation through Jesus Christ, then you should be filled with joy and thanksgiving. You should be able to say (vv. 28-29), "You aremy God, and I will praise You; You aremy God, I will exalt You. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He isgood! For His mercy enduresforever."
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