Celebration of the People

Psalm 118:1-4; 19-29                        Celebration of the People

3/20/16            D. Marion Clark                      Palm Sunday

Introduction

The pilgrims have ascended the crest of Mt. Zion and now are streaming into the gates of Jerusalem, where they will observe the feast of the Passover. Among them are Jesus and his disciples. The pilgrims, Jesus, his disciples, and the people along the road and at the gate shout to one another the words of Psalm 118. Let’s take time to look at this psalm shouted out on the first Palm Sunday and find out why it became a favorite of God’s covenant people then, and the rich meaning it has for us today. We will look at the portion that speaks for the people this morning, and the rest of the psalm for Maundy Thursday that speaks for the Messiah.

Text

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever!

²     Let Israel say,

“His steadfast love endures forever.”

³     Let the house of Aaron say,

“His steadfast love endures forever.”

⁴     Let those who fear the Lord say,

“His steadfast love endures forever.”

This term, “steadfast love,” is significant. The Hebrew word is hesed. Depending upon your Bible translation, you will have read mercy (KJ), lovingkindness (NAS), or love (NIV). The ESV and RV use “steadfast love” in an effort to capture the nuance of love that is based on God’s covenant relations to his people. God is love, yes. God loves the world. Jesus tells us that God the Father shows mercy even to the wicked. But then there is the covenant love. It is love marked by faithfulness, love founded on a binding relationship, love secured by God whose word will not fail.

Deuteronomy 7:6-9 presents the concept and basis of hesed:

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.

Because God has chosen to love Israel, he makes a covenant with them that is marked with steadfast love – love that can be counted on, love that is faithful through the generations, indeed, love that endures forever. It is love that is merciful, that is lovingkindness. It is love that carries the hopes of the people over the centuries.

Again and again, we read of the people thanking God for his steadfast love. For the day that King David brings the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem, he composes a psalm of thanksgiving that proclaims: “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” (1 Chronicles 16:34). David’s son Solomon builds the temple for the Lord. After the priests dedicate the temple and come out, the musicians and singers give praise to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever” (2 Chronicles 5:13). And so the praise would continue in the temple. Centuries go by. The temple is destroyed and the people sent into exile. They return and begin to rebuild the temple. We are told what happens in Ezra 3:11: “And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, ‘For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.’”

With such praise the people of Israel welcomed the pilgrims each year as they arrived for the feasts. Picture now the scene as these pilgrims approached the gates of Jerusalem.

The pilgrims: Open to me the gates of righteousness,

that I may enter through them

and give thanks to the Lord.

The gatekeepers: This is the gate of the Lord;

the righteous shall enter through it.

The gates of Jerusalem are the gates of righteousness, for Jerusalem is the city of the Lord. It is the holy city where the temple of God stands. And the temple of God is the abode of the presence of the holy God. It is for such purpose that the pilgrims have traveled – to celebrate the saving works of the Lord in the history of Israel and to worship God with his people in his temple.

And now they have arrived!

I was glad when they said to me,
    “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
² Our feet have been standing
    within your gates, O Jerusalem!

³ Jerusalem—built as a city
    that is bound firmly together,
⁴ to which the tribes go up,
    the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
    to give thanks to the name of the Lord. (Psalm 122:1-4)

Can you picture the celebration, the joy of the pilgrims entering and the joy of the city in welcoming them? This is not a somber occasion. Even though they are entering holy ground, they are aware that they may enter because of the salvation of the Lord. He has saved them throughout their history, and he has saved them – each of the pilgrims – through their journey so that they are now entering the city.

²¹    I thank you that you have answered me

and have become my salvation.

The next verse, however, seems odd.

²²    The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

What is this stone? What has it become the cornerstone of? Some commentators think the psalm is written by David, who is referring to himself. He was the least of his brothers of an insignificant family, and here he is entering Jerusalem as king of Israel. Maybe. Others think that the psalm is referring to Israel. The great empires of that time rejected Israel as an insignificant nation for their empire building, and yet Israel has proved to be the precious stone of God’s kingdom. Perhaps. We will explore this more later.

²³    This is the Lord’s doing;

it is marvelous in our eyes.

²⁴    This is the day that the Lord has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it.

This salvation is the Lord’s doing! It is he who has made the rejected stone the cornerstone. It is he who has become the pilgrims’ salvation. The day of salvation is the day that the Lord has made. And so rejoice! Rejoice and be glad in this day!

²⁵    Save us, we pray, O Lord!

O Lord, we pray, give us success!

How is it that the people speak of being saved and immediately ask to be saved? Did trouble suddenly appear? No, they are still in the midst of giving praise to God as their ever saving deliverer. Israel’s relationship with God is defined by his being their Savior. The words spoken to Israel as God delivers the Ten Commandments are these: ^“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). And so the Lord God, Yahweh, is the God of our salvation, the rock of my salvation, our refuge, our fortress, our hiding place, our strength, our shield, our strong arm; he is our savior, our deliverer. That is how Israel understands their God. He is Creator, yes; he is the Holy One, yes. All the more wondrous, then, that he has taken this rejected stone and made her his cornerstone for his kingdom.

And so, “Save us” (Hebrew hosanna) is but a means of acknowledging the ongoing relationship of Israel to their God. They remain ever dependent upon him for salvation and for success. It is like fans shouting to their team, “Win for us the victory!” – the fans’ way of saying, “We believe in you!” Hosanna!

The psalm of thanksgiving and of welcome continues.

²⁶    Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

We bless you from the house of the Lord.

The procession is moving along. The pilgrims have entered the city and are proceeding to the temple courts. And so those already present call out, Blessed is the pilgrim who comes. We who are already in the temple courts pronounce blessing.

²⁷    The Lord is God,

and he has made his light to shine upon us.

       Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,

up to the horns of the altar!

Now they are taking the sacrifice to the altar as part of the festival. We actually don’t know which feast is being celebrated, though the psalm is likely used for all the feasts. Whichever one it is, the time of celebration has begun, a celebration of the people of God who rejoice in God as their Deliverer.

And so it fittingly ends with thanksgiving to God.

²⁸    You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;

you are my God; I will extol you.

²⁹    Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever!

Note the two references to God. “You are my Elohim.” This is the generic term for God. God is my God. I belong to him. I give allegiance to him. I give my God thanks. My God is Yahweh, the name that God gives to himself and by which he is known as our covenant God.

Gives thanks for he is good to us. Yes, God is good, but we rejoice because he is good to us. His love is his covenant love for us that remains steadfast forever.

Lessons

Let’s now bring this psalm into our sanctuary on this Palm Sunday. It is our psalm now. There is little to change. We too can sing out,

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever!

Whenever I read the psalms giving such enthusiastic praise to God, I am always struck by how more we have cause to give praise. Again, when the Hebrew people are praising God for being good and for possessing love, they are applying it personally. These are not abstract character traits. God is good to us; God shows a steadfast love to us.

What leads them to such praise? Well, they look back to the great exodus from Egypt. There is the great moment of deliverance. It is out of slavery in Egypt that the Lord (Yahweh) saved them and made them his covenant nation. God had promised Abraham to make descendants more numerous than the grains of sand or stars in the heavens. And after deliverance from Egypt, God proved to be their deliverer time and again – through the forty years wandering in the wilderness, and then upon entry into the Promised Land, he gave them power to defeat the nations already settled there, and then throughout their history, he has delivered and protected them from hostile nations and empires. And so, Hosanna! Hosanna to such a Savior who shows such goodness and steadfast love.

It is marvelous to see the saving power of God at work in the history of the nation of Israel, not only from the biblical times but even up to now. All the efforts to defeat and to extinguish the Jewish people have failed.

But the even greater story is that God’s promise to Abraham is now being fulfilled as originally intended. Listen to God’s promise.

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-3)

All the families of the earth shall be blessed. The goodness and the steadfast love of the Lord is for all the families, all the nations and people groups of the world. And the children of Abraham are all those who are children by faith.

What do we, who are Abraham’s children by faith, have to celebrate? We have been delivered from slavery to sin! We have been saved from the clutches of the Evil One, who desires our damnation. We have been delivered from the power of death itself, so that everlasting life awaits us.

Consider too our Deliverer. He is the Word who was with God and was God. He is the Son of God who became flesh. This is no Moses, a mere man; this is the God-man, fully divine, fully human. This is the one who said of himself, “Before Abraham was, I am.” That is what the name, Yahweh, means.

Consider his miracles – healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, cleansing lepers, driving out demons, even raising the dead to life. He commanded storms to cease, walked on water, and multiplied fish and bread.

Consider the means of our deliverance. Our Deliverer suffered, was rejected, was scourged, was crucified. He fought our battle on the cross. He released us from sin by carrying our sin upon his shoulders and then receiving divine punishment for those sins. He delivered us from death by delivering his body to death.

Consider the outcome. Our Deliverer rose from the dead. He ascended on high into the heavenly temple, and he even now intercedes for us as our High Priest. And he shall return in full glory to consummate his kingdom.

Surely, our Lord Jesus Christ is the stone that the builders of Israel – her very priests and religious leaders – rejected. Surely he is become the cornerstone upon which the kingdom of God is being built. Jesus believed he was. After his entry into Jerusalem, he told a parable about his rejection and then quoted this very verse. The disciples believed he was. Peter, standing before the same religious leaders who had condemned his Lord, boldly pronounced, “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone” (Acts 4:11).

It is with us that Psalm 118 is truly understood. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” speaks of the Messiah who enters in the name of the Lord. It is the rejected Messiah who is the cornerstone. To him we cry out, “Hosanna! Save us.” For that is what he entered Jerusalem’s gates to do. To save his people from their sins. And all who receive him as such are his people. We are the objects of his goodness. We are the recipients of his steadfast love.

How do we know that we are called by God? Because Christ is not a stumbling block to us, but instead the power and wisdom of our salvation.

“Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24).

What is Jesus Christ for you – a stone to be rejected or the cornerstone upon which to be saved? Be careful of rejecting such a stone. When Jesus spoke of himself as the rejected stone who became the cornerstone, he added a warning: “And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him” (Matthew 21:44). Rejecting the stone is not merely a matter of missing out on the kingdom of God. It entails judgment – your judgment.

But why reject Jesus? Why not welcome him as the one who has come to you in the name of the Lord? He came to save. He came to shine his light upon us. He came that we might be saved and to celebrate our salvation.

We noted earlier that the people of Israel looked upon the one God of the world as their own God. They worshiped him with reverence in his holiness and majesty, but they also worshiped him with joy because he was not simply good, he was good to them. He was love, yes, but more to the point, he showed steadfast love to them. He showed goodness and love by his acts of deliverance, whether it be the mighty deliverance of the exodus or the personal, individual acts of delivering individuals in their personal trials.

So it is with us. God is worthy to be worshiped for the fact that he is God alone and the Creator of all that exists. But for us, he is also our Savior, our Deliverer. There is the great act of salvation on the cross, which alone is worthy of all praise and thanksgiving. And there are also the riches found in Christ that are poured out on us – that we are adopted as God’s children, that our salvation is made secure by the Holy Spirit, that we are being sanctified, that we are being prepared for glory. There is the daily deliverance from the troubles of this life and of this world. Our Savior God is faithful to us – providing for us, guiding us, protecting us, giving us delights.

This is our God. This is what we receive from, because of, through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Should we not all the more then proclaim, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”? Surely we have greater cause to shout out, “Hosanna!” to that one who has come to us.