1 Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, For His lovingkindness endures for ever. 2 O let Israel say, That His lovingkindness endures for ever. 3 O let the house of Aaron say, That His lovingkindness endures for ever. 4 O let those who fear Jah say, That His lovingkindness endures for ever.
5 Out of the strait place I called on Jah, Jah answered me [by bringing me out] into an open place. 6 Jehovah is for me, I will not fear, What can man do to me? 7 Jehovah is for me, as my helper, And I shall gaze on my haters.
8 Better is it to take refuge in Jehovah Than to trust in man. 9 Better is it to take refuge in Jehovah Than to trust in princes.
10 All nations beset me round about; In the name of Jehovah will I cut them down. 11 They have beset me round about, yea, round about beset me; In the name of Jehovah will I cut them down. 12 They beset me round about like bees, They were extinguished like a thorn fire; In the name of Jehovah will I cut them down. 13 Thou didst thrust sore at me that I might fall, But Jehovah helped me. 14 Jah is my strength and song, And He is become my salvation. 15 The sound of shrill shouts of joy and salvation is [heard] in the tents of the righteous; The right hand of Jehovah does prowess. 16 The right hand of Jehovah is exalted, The right hand of Jehovah does prowess.
17 I shall not die, but live, And I tell forth the works of Jah. 18 Jah has chastened me sore, But to death He has not given me up. 19 Open ye to me the gates of righteousness, I will go in by them, I will thank Jah.
20 This is the gate of Jehovah: The righteous may go in by it.
21 I will thank Thee, for Thou hast answered me, And art become my salvation.
22 The stone [which] the builders rejected Is become the head [stone] of the corner. 23 From Jehovah did this come to pass, It is wonderful in our eyes. 24 This is the day [which] Jehovah has made, Let us leap for joy and be glad in it.
25 O, I beseech Thee, Jehovah, save, I beseech; O, I beseech Thee, Jehovah, give prosperity.
26 Blessed be he that comes in the name of Jehovah, We bless you from the house of Jehovah. 27 Jehovah is God, and He has given us light; Order the bough-bearing procession,-- To the horns of the altar!
28 My God art Thou, and I will thank Thee, My God, I will exalt Thee.
29 Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, For His lovingkindness endures for ever.
This is unmistakably a psalm for use in the Temple worship, and probably meant to be sung antiphonally, on some day of national rejoicing (ver. 24). A general concurrence of opinion points to the period of the Restoration from Babylon as its date, as in the case of many psalms in this Book V., but different events connected with that restoration have been selected. The psalm implies the completion of the Temple, and therefore shuts out any point prior to that. Delitzsch fixes on the dedication of the Temple as the occasion; but the view is still more probable which supposes that it was sung on the great celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, recorded in Neh. viii. 14-18. In later times ver. 25 was the festal cry raised while the altar of burnt-offering was solemnly compassed, once on each of the first six days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and seven times on the seventh. This seventh day was called the "Great Hosanna; and not only the prayers at the Feast of Tabernacles, but even the branches of osiers (including the myrtles), which are bound to the palm branch (_Lulab_), were called Hosannas" (Delitzsch). The allusions in the psalm fit the circumstances of the time in question. Stier, Perowne, and Baethgen concur in preferring this date: the last-named critic, who is very slow to recognise indications of specific dates, speaks with unwonted decisiveness, when he writes, "I believe that I can say with certainty, Psalm cxviii. was sung for the first time at the Feast of Tabernacles in the year 444 B.C." Cheyne follows his usual guides in pointing to the purification and reconstruction of the Temple by Judas Maccabæus as "fully adequate to explain alike the tone and the expressions." He is "the terrible hero," to whose character the refrain, "In the name of Jehovah I will cut them down," corresponds. But the allusions in the psalm are quite as appropriate to any other times of national jubilation and yet of danger, such as that of the Restoration, and Judas the Maccabee had no monopoly of the warrior trust which flames in that refrain.