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I absolutely love apologetics. I know some of you do as well. I love the many ways that we can study

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as Christians and defend our faith from attack from those who would hate us for what we believe,

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but also for those who simply don't yet believe what we know to be true. And apologetics helps

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us do that. I remember many, many years ago when the Lord was beginning to draw me to Himself

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with a plan to save me in His perfect timing, how at that moment as an unbeliever, as I was seeking

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the Lord, as He was drawing my heart, I was so focused on the historical and the intellectual

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side of my faith. I had promised myself that I was never going to be one of those empty headed

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religionists who just believed everything that they heard or everything that they said without

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doing proper research. So I set out to find out if the Christian faith was rational and defendable.

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And one of the things that convinced me that it was, was the coherence of the Bible from beginning

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to end. It was one of the things that really convinced me. The more I studied, the more I began

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to see all of these connections from the Old Testament to the New, all of these connections

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between the way God had worked through Israel in the past and how so many of those things God had

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done was now pointing forward to Christ in the New Testament. So it was the consistency and the unity

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of the Scriptures that led me to the conclusion that yes, this is a supernatural book authored by

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God Himself. And it's only gotten more miraculous over time. If you've been a believer for a long

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time, you can probably say the same thing. The more you read it and study it and go deeper, the more

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miraculous it becomes. So today's passage is just one of the examples that I would point to

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of the type of coherence that convinced me now 40 years ago. I know 40 years ago that God is real

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and the Scriptures are true. And if you look at the text for today, you're going to find you're

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going to stand amazed at just how many connections are found there that translate into the New

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Testament. So where we're going to start this morning is to back up just a bit and take our

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minds back to this amazing event in the New Testament we call the Lord's Supper or the

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Last Supper, that night that Jesus enjoyed fellowship and a meal with His closest friends,

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His disciples, but also the night that He was betrayed and arrested. Now we know that Jesus

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came to Jerusalem that week for one purpose, to observe the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened

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Bread. Although the Gospel writers don't give us every detail of what took place in that gathering

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up in that upper room, we do see a whole number of elements in the text that point to a first-century

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Jewish Seder. For example, the posture of reclining at the table. That was very traditional for a

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Passover celebration. The obvious presence of bread and wine. And most importantly for tonight,

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for tonight, for this morning, we have the singing of songs, which is very traditional for a Passover

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Seder. In fact, I sort of teased this last week. The Egyptian Hallel Psalms are traditional Passover

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songs that are sung by Jews even today. And this dates back all the way to the first century at

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the time of Christ. Six in all, from Psalm 113 to Psalm 118. The first two would be sung before the

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Passover meal and the last four sung after the meal. Now the normal course of events that a

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Passover Seder would also include the retelling of the Exodus story and the symbolism of the meal,

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because everything that's eaten at the Seder reflects some aspect of the Exodus story. But

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on that particular night, in the year AD 33, the best way I can describe it, sports analogy coming,

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Jesus called an audible, because we don't have any evidence in the gospels that they began to

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have this discussion about the Exodus. Instead, Jesus began to talk about a different type of

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symbolism, pointing to the bread and the wine as symbols of his imminent death that was soon to

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come, his sacrificial death. So imagine this now with the Exodus, you have a story of God delivering

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his people and giving them a new beginning as Israel, freed from slavery in Egypt. But now Jesus

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was describing a different type of deliverance from God, a new Exodus, if you will, the freeing

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of God's people from slavery to sin and from the ransom, the cost that sin demands. Now, in light of

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that, hearing this sort of audible that Jesus pulled on them, a different type of symbolism,

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a different type of Exodus, you can imagine how those 12 disciples were a little bit struggling

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about this new teaching, right? Because remember what Jesus said, this is my body,

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as he pointed to the broken bread. And then he said, this is my blood of the covenant,

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as he pointed to the wine in the cup. So how puzzled would these 12 men have been trying to

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grasp what Jesus was trying to communicate? And I sort of, I don't know if you've ever tried to

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picture it, but I picture Jesus giving this teaching and they all sit in there with their

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sort of their mouths open, like, what are we to make of this? And that's probably the way we would

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have been as well. But something to take note of, not one person, according to the text of those 12,

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objected to what Jesus was saying. These were 12 good Jewish men who knew exactly what the Torah

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said about eating flesh and drinking blood. It was a violation of God's law, but they didn't object,

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which means they must have understood it symbolically, just as the Passover meal itself

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was always understood to be symbolic and not literal. But then with the entire evening and

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that hard teaching ringing in their ears, Matthew and Mark tell us that the entire group finished

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the celebration that night by what? By singing a hymn, by singing songs, probably Psalms. And then

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they headed out to the Mount of Olives where we know Jesus would spend time in the Garden of

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Gethsemane before he was arrested. So let's come back to these, the Hallel Psalms. The most famous

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of all of them, the most beloved is the final Psalm, the one that closes out the celebration,

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Psalm 118. And that is our text for this morning. Now think with me, and I know I teased this last

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week, but I want to re-tease it for you. If Jesus and his disciples carried out the traditional order

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of the Seder that night, what we're about to read and study would have been the last song

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that Jesus sang while he lived on the earth. Think about that. Grab your Bibles. We're going to Psalm

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118. Could these words be the last song that Jesus sang? Fascinating to think about, to be a

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fly on the wall of that upper room, right? And to really hear all that was going on. Now we don't

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know for sure who wrote Psalm 118 or when, although scholars have suggested a number of

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possibilities over the centuries. There is a possible reason to believe that King David wrote

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it. And that reason comes out of the book of Ezra, chapter three, which if you know anything

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about Ezra, it is a post-exilic book. It was written after that point where the Jews came out

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of exile in Babylon and were reestablished in the land in order to reestablish their lives and their

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worship. And Ezra tells us that at least a portion of Psalm 118 was the chosen song of praise that

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was sung on the day that they celebrated the building of the foundation of the second temple.

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Remember, first temple was destroyed by Babylon, right? So they got back to the land and they

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built a new foundation and they stopped and they celebrated. And according to Ezra, it was Psalm

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118 that they sang in that day. And so I'll give you the actual text from Ezra three. He says,

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now when the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priest stood in their

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apparel with trumpets. So big fanfare, right? And the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals,

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drummers, amen, right? With cymbals to praise the Lord according to the directions of King David of

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Israel. They sang, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, saying, and this is a quote from Psalm

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118, he is good for his loving kindness is upon Israel forever. And all the people shouted with

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a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

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So some scholars believe this passage links David directly to Psalm 118 as the author. Others

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believe that this remark is simply reflective of how Israel as a whole, ancient Israel, just believe

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that all the Psalms were somehow connected back to King David. So regardless, the author really

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isn't that important here. It could be David, it may not be. Either way, here's what we do know.

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As in the example of Ezra, and again, this is the sixth century BC, this Psalm appears to have been

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written as a song of deliverance. That's important, just like the Exodus, right? Where God delivers

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his people. This is a song of deliverance and victory, and it was often sung on national days

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of rejoicing in Israel. In addition to that, most Old Testament scholars will tell you that it is

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written in the form of what we call a procession of worship, where we're going to hear the psalmist

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talking about basically heading towards the temple gates, heading towards the temple mount, leading

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a small group of righteous saints where he plans to arrive at the temple and then meet with and

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lead the entire congregation of Israel in praise. So there's a lot going on in this particular Psalm.

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Now we're going to look at the structure real fast before we get to it. And again, if you've been

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with us in this series, I do not think this is not an eye test at the DMV. Okay, I just, and I've

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given you only four simple divisions for this particular Psalm just to keep it simple, but those

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two major sections in the middle represent, first of all, this processional that is heading towards

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the temple. That's in verses five through 18, right? Where the psalmist provides the basis for why

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this is important, why Yahweh is worthy of our praise. That's what we're going to find out in

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those verses. And then from 19 to 27, we will see the psalmist arrive at the temple gates.

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We'll see the congregation of Israel join him in worship, but most notably what we'll see is a whole

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bunch of very direct prophetic statements about the coming Messiah. So we're going to close today

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talking about Jesus. We're going to be in the New Testament talking about Jesus even as we look at

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the Psalms. So here's how we're going to work through this. I'm not going to read, we're not

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going to read the whole Psalm together. It's just too much. We're going to break it down by sections

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and I'll try to walk you through it so that you can see the flow of what the psalmist is doing.

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And I want to start by reading together the first four verses and the last two verses,

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the first four and the last two. What this is, is what theologians call an inclusio.

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Bible majors, anybody? An inclusio, or if you prefer a simple term, bracketing,

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a literary tool we call bracketing. This is when you have common language or exact phrases

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sometimes which mirror each other, some at the beginning of the passage and some at the end.

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So it's bracketed. Does that make sense? And many scholars, both Jewish and Christian,

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have pointed out that these two sections at the beginning and end of this Psalm reflect a liturgical

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form that was very common in ancient Israelite worship. And in fact, you're ready for a

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shocker? It's a liturgical form that we use today at Oak Hill. Can we do that? We can.

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So verses one through four are what we call a call to worship. Have you guys heard that

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phraseology here at Oak Hill? A call to worship. That is where the psalmist invites the congregation

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to come into the Lord's presence with thanksgiving and praise. Here at Oak Hill, we have an elder

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come up and do that every single Sunday. And this exhortation that he gives at the procession

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heads towards the Temple Mount and towards the gates of the sanctuary. Here's what he says. Verse

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one, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Did we not sing that already this morning?

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We did. For his loving kindness or his steadfast love is everlasting, or most of us prefer endures

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forever, which I think is a beautiful phrase. Verse two, oh, let Israel say his loving kindness is

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everlasting. Let the house of Aaron say his loving kindness is everlasting. Oh, let those who fear

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the Lord say his loving kindness is everlasting. Now, if you're with us last Sunday, we looked at

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Psalm 115 and that same group of the same three groups that were mentioned in Psalm 115 are

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mentioned here because they're all part of this Hallel Psalm collection. The same group of

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worshipers. So first, Israel, Israel, which is all the believing descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and

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Jacob, let them say his loving kindness endures forever. Then the house of Aaron, which is, of

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course, a reference to the priesthood. Let all of the priests say his loving kindness endures

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forever. And finally, this is the big one to those who fear the Lord, which broadens out the

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audience to the very ends of the earth and includes you and me. Right? As God fearers, both Jew and

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Gentile, all humanity is encouraged to join together with one heart and with one voice to praise the

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creator. So we can say it together, right? His loving kindness endures forever. So the

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Psalm opens with this call to worship to all of humanity. And then if you drop down your eyes

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down to verse 28, the Psalmist closes with what we call a benediction. A benediction against

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something we do every Sunday morning here at Oak Hill. Verse 28, you are my God, he says, and

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notice how personal that is, not just our God, but my God. You are my God and I give thanks to you.

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You are my God. I extol you. And then he comes back to exhorting the whole congregation as he closes

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and he repeats verse one. This is the bracketing or the inclusio. Give thanks to the Lord for he is

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good for his loving kindness is everlasting. Here's the point of going through this. You guys,

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this is the very heart of worship right here that God is showing us something that we need to pay

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close attention to because every Sunday when we come together as a family, we gather in the name

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of the Lord and we come into his presence as one people. And if we acknowledge that worship is

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always about him and it's not about us, then our desire has to be, well, how do we then come into

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his presence with worship in a way that pleases him? Not how it pleases me, not am I going to like

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the songs or, you know, it's not about us. It's about him. So what does he want us to do? And I

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think what we see here in this Psalm is exactly what we strive to do here at Oak Hill. First,

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we have a worship leader who stirs the congregation to emphatic praise. That's what Grant is trying

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to do every Sunday to stir us up to praise the Lord, exhorting us to come with a heart of

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thanksgiving that we might understand in the deepest possible way what God has done for us

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in spite of what we actually deserve, right? Because of his grace. And then second, recognizing

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how his goodness and his love and his kindness means everything his what? What's the Hebrew word?

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Chesed, say it with me, Chesed, right? His loyal, steadfast, unchanging commitment to his people.

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Immovable commitment. We declare that when we come into the sanctuary to praise his name,

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his unique love for us that will last forever. And the amazing thing about God's love,

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it was there for you even before the foundations of the world relate, and it will extend all the

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way into eternity future. God has loved you if he's called you into his family. And in between that,

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in the meantime, as we live on the earth, the scripture says nothing can separate us from that

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love. Do you understand how wonderful that is? That that love was established in the eternity past,

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it goes to eternity future, and right now nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in

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Christ Jesus. Amen? So friends, listen, God is telling you here in Psalm 118 what he desires

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from us as we make our way into the sanctuary. And if we refer to ourselves as a true worshiping

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community, which we do, then these things should be present in our hearts, in each one of our hearts

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as we hit that door on Sundays. So hopefully that reframes worship for us, because that's a big part

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of Psalm 118. So with the call to worship established, what we see in the next section

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is the psalmist is now going to go back and explain to us what he wants us to do.

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He's now going to go back and explain why. Why does God deserve all this praise and worship?

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And here's the reason he's going to tell us the Lord has delivered him out of great trouble.

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So we're going to look beginning at verse five. Now I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time

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here because some of these themes we've talked about multiple times in this preaching series.

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Basically, here's how I'd summarize it. And this is a good word for all of us.

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God hears our prayers. God answers our cries. God comes to our aid and we can trust God to save.

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He's mighty to save, right? The late Derek Hidner, who was a highly respected Old Testament scholar

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and an expert in the Psalms, describes that first section that we just read as timeless love.

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And then he describes what we're about to read as timely help. And I love the way those fit together.

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The two concepts. It's because of the eternal love of God that leads him to break into time and space

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to help those whom he loves. So think about that in terms of these two sections. Look at verse five.

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The psalmist says, from my distress. We never feel distressed, do we? From my distress, I called upon

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the Lord. The Lord answered me and set me in a large place. Now I know that last phrase sounds

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a little bit weird. The Hebrew word there literally means a broad or roomy place. In modern day English,

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we would say a wide expanse. If you have the ESV, it's translated as the Lord answered me and set me

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free. But I think that's an actual overstatement. I think the right meaning here is that in our

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distress, when we cry out to God, he will grant us a broad sense of relief from the narrowing pressure

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that we're under. Have you ever been, when you're in distress, you feel this narrowing, this sort of

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claustrophobic narrowing of stress in your life. And what the psalmist is saying is that God's

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going to give us room, a wide expanse to relieve that pressure. And then he goes on to declare what

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I think. I mean, if I were you, I'd underline this or highlight it. One of the most comforting

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statements in all of scripture, verse six, the psalmist says the Lord is for me. He's for me, the

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omnipotent God of the universe. He's not just passively with us. He's actually on my side.

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Think about that. I started thinking about like, if I was going to grab a couple of guys and go play

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a game of pickup basketball and I got LeBron, I feel pretty good about my chances, right?

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Because we have an ally like that on your side, that kind of teammate in the midst of trouble or

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in the midst of a competition, how do you go wrong? You've got God on your side as his child.

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Continuing in verse six, if God is for me, then he says, what can man do to me? If we know and

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trust that God is sovereign over all things and we affirm that right, then we can be sure that

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whatever man might do to us, that God has allowed that to happen. The omnipotent, all knowing God

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of the universe has allowed that to happen. And if he's allowed it to happen, we know of his

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goodness who we can say in some way that I may not be able to discover right away, it's for my

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benefit because he's on my side. He is for me. That is so comforting to me, right? Because look,

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we're all going through stuff right now, but we can know that God is for me. He's on my team.

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So whatever happens, it's approved by him and it will ultimately benefit me.

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But that's an article of faith, isn't it? We have to trust that. Verse seven, the Lord is for me

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among those who help me. Therefore, I will look with satisfaction on those who hate me.

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And a better translation there is I will look in triumph over those who hate me or oppose me.

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And then comes this obvious truth, which we recognize every single day of this, of our lives

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in this crazy world. And boy, last night as I was working on this and watching the news, this,

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this really jumped out. Verses eight and nine, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to

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trust in man. Amen. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust even in princes, he says,

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even in the most impressive, powerful man on the earth. It's still far more

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better to take refuge in the Lord because listen, we're believers. We read the Bible. We know,

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we know about the nature of man, don't we? We know exactly what's in the heart of natural man.

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We know what he's bent towards and it's not towards us. It's towards himself.

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So why would we take refuge in someone like that? When we have this God, this omnipotent God who was

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always good and who was filled with steadfast love.

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Don't trust in man, trust in God alone. Amen. Then in verses 10 through 18, we get a bit more detail

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about the distress that the Psalmist is in. In verse 10, it says, all nations surrounded me.

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In the name of the Lord, I will surely cut them off or destroy them.

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They surrounded me. Yes, they surrounded me in the name of the Lord. I will surely cut them off.

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And by the way, the language here is also another reason why some people think David is a

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man. Because when you see in verse seven that he's got enemies that hate him. And then in verse 10,

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he says, nations surround me. That sounds like a king writing, doesn't it? So it's possible.

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Verse 12 was very descriptive. They surrounded me like bees. Have you ever hit a hive of bees?

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And they surround you and you've got to run for your life. That's how he feels right now.

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They're surrounding me like bees. They were extending me like bees. They were extending me

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like bees. They were extinguished as a fire of thorns in the name of the Lord. I will surely cut

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them off. That's the third time we've heard that phrase, right? You pushed me violently so that I

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was falling, but the Lord helped me. So the distress the Psalmist is going through feels

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overwhelming. He's under great pressure. Enemy nations, armies are swarming around him. It's

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as if he feels like he's trapped in a raging brush fire, right? He feels like he's being violently

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pushed off a cliff. He's in real, a real state here, but because of his good, the goodness and

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the steadfast love of the Lord, God comes to his rescue. God gives him this wide expanse of relief

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from all that pressure. And ultimately we see that the Lord is promising. I will not allow your

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enemies to triumph over you. You will destroy them. Then we read in verse 14, a precious quote from

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Israel's history. The Lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation. Now that is

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a song of deliverance that was sung by Moses. It's in Exodus 15 after God empowered him to lead

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Israel out of Egypt and across the Red Sea safely. So he's quoting Moses here. And the truth is,

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guys, you should know this throughout the Bible, the Exodus is always looked back at by Jews,

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by Israelites as the supreme example of how God saves his people. Over and over again,

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you read about this, this pointing back to the Exodus. And so for the Psalmist here to quote Moses,

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this is a very precious thing of this, that's rooted in Israel's history. And when you've relied

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on God to save you, as Moses did, whether that's physical or spiritual, he becomes your salvation

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and your strength and your song. And you know when that realization hits you the most,

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that that's who God is, is when you're in the midst of trouble, when you're in the midst of a storm,

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or you're being chased up to the edge of a sea by an Egyptian army. That's bad too.

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Right? But we all have our storms of life that we go through and we have to remember, take a lesson

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from the Psalmist. It's during the storms of life that the enemy is going to try to influence you

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to doubt God's goodness. Because if God really loved you, you wouldn't be going through this.

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That's the whispering you're going to get in your ear. So that's the time that we invest the most

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energy and the most focus in prayer. And we focus on remembering what the scriptures say about who

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God is. And we take our fears and our feelings and our emotions, which I know that's a big order to

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take all those things, and we submit them to the written word. And we say, you know what? I'm feeling

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all these things, but I know what the Bible says about God's character. I know who he is. And then

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we remind ourselves, I belong to the Lord and his steadfast love endures forever and he is for me.

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Okay? And right now some of you guys are going through stuff. So I want you to think carefully

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about this. We submit our feelings. We submit the things that we see with our physical eyes to what

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scripture says about God's love for you. And we say, God is for me. So even if I have to suffer attacks

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in this moment, even if all the forces of the world surround me like bees, I will not fear

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because if God is for me, who can stand against me? These are keys, guys, to walking the Christian

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life and faith. And they're right here in the Old Testament. Remember this too, your greatest need

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in the midst of the trial is not just to get through it. We sometimes think that, right? God

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just delivered me from out of this so that I can get back to a comfortable place. But sometimes God

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is going to leave you there for his purposes. So the goal is not just to get through it. The goal

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is to deepen our faith and our trust in God as he brings us through it. Make sense? And at the end

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of the day, listen, even if wicked men do the absolute worst that they can do to you, they

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physically kill you, they still cannot touch your salvation. I know that that's a heavy thought,

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right? Even if they do their worst and it's happened, happened in the Bible, happened,

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it's happened in church history, they cannot take away your salvation. They cannot prevent you from

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abiding with Christ for all eternity in absolute and utter joy. So why would we fear? And by the

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way, it's for that reason that Psalm 118 has been historically documented as one of the final texts

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of scripture cited by multiple martyrs in church history. In fact, there's a great story. Some of

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you guys have studied church history. You know about the Huguenots in France, three Huguenot

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pastors in the 1700s who were hanged by the Catholic French government for the crime of what?

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Preaching reform doctrine. Louis Reng, Jacques Roger and Francois Rochette shouted portions of

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Psalm 118 as they walked to the gallows. It's well documented. They sang Psalm 118 as they went to

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their deaths. And here's the quote according to witnesses, today is the happy day which the Lord

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has made. I will rejoice and be glad. Can you imagine saying that walking up to the gallows?

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I will give thanks to the Lord for he is my strength in my song.

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This is a great song. Verse 15, the sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the

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tense of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. That's a hard word. The

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right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. Once again, we see

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repetition in the Psalms, right? We've talked about this. When you see repetition, it means this

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is very important to the Lord. Three times the right hand of God, which is known as the hand of

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skill and strength. And then the Hebrew word repeated twice for valiantly carries the connotation

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of military power. That's the power that God has for you. And never forget that oftentimes in

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scripture, God is described as a warrior on behalf of his people. Now, verses 17 and 18 are crucial.

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And I think it's best to read verse 18 first. You'll see why. Look at verse 18. The Lord has

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disciplined me severely, the psalmist says, but he's not given me over to death.

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So the psalmist attributes this moment of distress to the Lord's fatherly discipline.

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That's hard for us, isn't it? He seems to recognize that God has some training for him,

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some testing, some corrective purpose to allow these present circumstances. And guys, this is

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why we always have to process through difficulty and trials in the same fashion. The question we

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have to ask is, okay, Lord, this is hard. We can be honest with him. This is hard. What can I learn

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about you? What can I learn about myself in the midst of this? What can I learn about who you are

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God? And what can I learn about my own heart as I process through this trial? But the psalmist also

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knows that he lives and breathes under the favor of God. So he knows this crisis will ultimately be

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for his good. It will not destroy him. That's what he says in verse 17. I will not die, but live.

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And then what? I will tell of the works of the Lord. And that friends is the correct response.

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We've got to get the response right to once he delivers you, the response matters when the Lord

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is your salvation, your strength and your song. It is your obligation as a worshiper to declare the

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greatness of his works. To speak of the power of his right hand, to sustain you in the midst of the

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storm. And by the way, historical side note, this verse, verse 17 was engraved on a plaque that hung

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on the wall of Martin Luther study in Vittenberg because it was so powerful to him. It said, I will

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not die, but live and tell of the works of the Lord. And you can understand why that was important

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to Luther, right? Because every day after he hung the 95 theses, his life was in danger. The, the

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immense power of Rome wanted him dead, but he knew there was a greater power protecting him. He knew

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that and he knew he was listening now perfectly safe under the sovereign hand of God until the

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very day that God determined that's the last work you have to do. Martin, do you, do you believe

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that about God? I look, as I get into my sixties, I'm like, I don't know how much longer I can do

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this, but God does. And he is going to get me to that exact date. And I trust that and Luther

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trusted that here's what he said about Psalm 118. I'll give you a great quote. He said, this is my

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Psalm. I'm not sure you're, are we allowed to do that? This is my chapter of the Bible. No, he says,

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this is my Psalm, my chosen Psalm. I love them all. I love all of Holy scripture, which is my

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comfort in my life, but this Psalm is nearest to my heart. And therefore I call it my own when

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emperors and Kings, the wise and the learned and even saints could not aid me. This Psalm proved a

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friend and helped me out of many pressing dangers. It is my friend dear to me than all the honors and

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powers of the earth. Man, when I was reading that last night, I was like testing my own heart.

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Could I say that about, about any chapter in the scriptures? Could you say that? That it's your

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closest friend. Powerful stuff. Okay. Now we're coming to the grand culmination of this amazing

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Psalm, verses 19 to 27. You see that third section there. As we come to verse 19 now,

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the procession of worshipers has arrived at the gates of the temple, the gates of righteousness,

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the Psalmist calls them. And now it's time to enter into the sanctuary to give thanks to the Lord.

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But there's more going on here than meets the eye. This friends is where we, we get to the bulk of

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the prophetic imagery that's going to point us forward to the Messiah. So we'll be talking quite

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a bit about Jesus as we go forward from here. First, let's go back now. Having studied all that,

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let's go back to that night of the last supper and think again about the upper room. If Jesus

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and his disciples had sung the words of Psalm 118 after the meal, before going out to the Mount of

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Olives, I want you to try, I know this is hard, but try to imagine what was Jesus thinking and

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feeling as he sung these words, which point to him. Words that point to him. He's singing with

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his closest friends who, by the way, he knows you're about to abandon him, but he's singing

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these words. What is he thinking and feeling as the temple guard was approaching him to arrest him,

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knowing that he was going to stand trial before his enemies, knowing the intensity, the suffering

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that he was going to have to face. What was he, what was he thinking when he, when he sang these

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words from my distress, I called upon the Lord, the Lord is for me. I will not fear. What can man do

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to me? I will look in triumph over those who hate me. What was he thinking? Is he saying the nations

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surround me. They surround me like bees. They push me with violence toward falling. Did he have in

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mind as he was singing those words, the soldiers who would slap him and spit on him and the chief

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priests who would encircle the cross and mock his suffering as he hung there in agony. But then did

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he draw strength and encouragement from these truths as he sang the Lord helped me. The Lord is

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my strength and my song. And in his name, I will surely cut off my enemies. Imagine all this going

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through Jesus's head and heart as he's singing these words. And then imagine him singing that night.

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The Lord has disciplined me severely. The Lord has disciplined me severely knowing that even,

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even though he's lived a sinless life, he knows what will be written about him later in Hebrews

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two, where it says his obedience to the will of the father was perfected through what through

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suffering. His obedience was perfected through suffering, perfected over those hours of distress

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hanging on the cross as he paid the ransom for our sins. He sang those words, but then he could also

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sing with utter confidence that death would not have a hold on him. The Lord has not given me over

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to death. I will not die, but live and then tell of his mighty works. Jesus knew that he wouldn't be

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left to linger in death. He knew that the exalted right hand of the Lord would work valiantly to

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raise him from the dead. All of these, all of these verses, verses five through 18 have incredible,

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I call them prophetic breadcrumbs that get dropped on the ground. Now you wouldn't necessarily pick

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those things out by themselves, but once we get to verse 19, it gets extremely obvious that that is

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exactly the direction of this song. We come to verse 19, it gets very clear. Again, we've got to

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imagine Jesus singing these words. We're going to read verses 19 to 27. I'm going to ask you guys

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to stretch your legs and stand because this is worthy of standing and honoring God's word.

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Verses 19 to 27.

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Open to me the gates of righteousness. I shall enter through them. I shall give thanks to the

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Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous will enter through it. I shall give thanks to you

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for you have answered me and you have become my salvation. Verse 22, the stone which the builders

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rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.

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This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Oh Lord, do say we

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beseech you. Oh Lord, we beseech you. Do send prosperity. Blessed is the one who comes in the

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name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God and he has

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given us light. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. Amen. Go ahead

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and have a seat. So what's happening here? As the psalmist approaches the gates of the temple in

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Jerusalem, as he enters through them, we as New Testament believers see a much greater fulfillment

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than what's going on in that particular moment. See, when you turn to the book of Hebrews,

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in Hebrews 9, it says Jesus our high priest, listen now, entered through a greater and more

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perfect tabernacle, not made by human hands and not of this creation, but the true tabernacle,

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where? In heaven, to appear in the presence of the Father for us. Hebrews 9. And the reason Jesus

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was qualified to enter into not the temple gates in Jerusalem, but the heavenly gates

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was because of his sinless life, because of his perfect obedience to the Father's will. Now here's

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where it gets fun for us, because he is our first fruits of the resurrection, we get to follow him

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through those gates. Amen, right? Because we're clothed with his righteousness. He is our first

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fruits, our pioneer, our forerunner, we are clothed in his righteousness, we get to go into those

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heavenly gates. I'll let you meditate on that. It's amazing. This is the gate of the Lord, it says in

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verse 20. The righteous enter into it, that is us, not because of us, but because of Christ,

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because of his sacrificial death, the imputed righteousness that we have from him. We are

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the first fruits of the resurrection. We enter into those gates as Jesus brings many sons and

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daughters with him to glory. That's what's happening here. So there's the earthly thing

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that's happening at the temple in Jerusalem, but there's a much greater fulfillment happening

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here. Then we get to verse 22. Notice how the pronouns change up until this point. The psalmist

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has been using first person singular, talking about I and my, but now we get to us and we. And

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the worship leader, he's gotten to the temple gates and now he is, he is bringing the whole

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congregation of Israel in to sing the rest of this particular psalm. And what they proclaim is

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astonishing. Look, it says there is a stone, they say, there's a stone and it's a rejected stone,

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but God has now taken that rejected stone and put it in the most important place in the entire

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structure. It's the cornerstone upon which everything else is built, but it's a rejected

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stone. Now in that moment, this baffles scholars. What did the psalmist have in mind as he wrote

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that? What was he talking about? And there's a couple of suggestions made, one that he's talking

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about Israel as a rejected nation, according to the world. The other possibilities he's referring

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to David himself, who was being rejected as King for a whole number of reasons. But my opinion is

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this is a purely prophetic statement that the psalmist makes being carried along by the Holy

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Spirit, purely prophetic, speaking of the Messiah, who would someday come to his own people as a

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suffering servant and be rejected. That's what's going on here, I think. And historically we on

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the cross know exactly what came out of it. Cause guess what? Jesus applied this particular text

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to himself in Matthew 21. So we don't even have to guess. The setting is real interesting. He's

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challenging the chief priests and the scribes by teaching these parables. And as he teaches the

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parables, they're starting to scratch their heads and go, Oh, I think he's talking about us.

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Which is quite hilarious knowing the full story, but they're like, wait, they're whispering,

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are you talking about us? Yeah, it's you. You're the builders who have rejected the cornerstone.

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Numb skulls. And he looks at them and he says, have you not read the scriptures?

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Could you imagine being, you're the expert in the law in Jerusalem. And this guy from Nazareth goes,

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haven't you read the Bible? He says, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief

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cornerstone. He says, therefore the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who

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will produce its fruit. Later, Peter and John, when they're standing in front of the Sanhedrin,

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literally look at the Sanhedrin and say, you're the builders. You're the one who rejected Jesus.

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You rejected your own Messiah with great boldness and courage. It's very clear. And indeed the

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religious establishment of Israel, the ones, the ones who have all people should have seen the truth

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and recognize the Messiah. They not only rejected the stone, they actually conspired to have him

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crucified. They partnered with Rome, with Gentiles to kill their Messiah. But here's something God

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takes absolute delight in turning the pride of man upside down. Did you know that? He takes absolute

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delight in confounding people who think they're wise and shaming people who think they're strong.

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And he says, I'm going to raise up the rejected stone and I'm going to highly exalt him. In fact,

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so exalted that at his name, every knee will bow. This is our God. And note, he says, this is the

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Lord's doing, right? He's orchestrated this whole thing. Every step, every aspect of salvation comes

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from God. And he says, it's marvelous in our eyes. Now, for those who reject the stone, it's not so

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marvelous, right? But for those who are called according to his purpose, God's elect, it's the

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most joyful thing we can imagine. It's marvelous in our eyes. And so he says, this is the day that the

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Lord has made. Now I know we like to apply that to every day and we can do that, but specifically

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he's saying, this is the day of salvation, the coming of Christ and the exalting of the rejected

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stone. This is the day of salvation. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. So again, imagine Jesus singing

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Psalm 118 at the end of the last supper. He's singing about himself, the rejected stone,

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knowing that within hours he's going to be abandoned by his friends. He's going to be

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condemned by both Jerusalem and Rome. And he's going to hear the crowd shout, you know what,

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we want Barabbas. Crucify that guy. And I just wonder, and it makes me emotional.

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When Jesus was singing those words on that night, did he have tears in his eyes? Knowing the rejection

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that was coming. He's fully human, right? I mean, he's fully God, but he's also fully human.

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Did he have tears in his eyes when he was singing about himself as the rejected stone?

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Finally, we come to the most haunting part of the Psalm, verses 25 and 26.

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These are the very same words shouted by the crowds as they waved those palm branches.

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Right? Prophetic words that the crowds were directing at Jesus as he came into Jerusalem

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on a donkey just days before the last supper.

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Ana Yehovah, Hashi Ana. O Lord, do say we beseech you. From that Hebrew phrase,

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Hoshi Ana, that we get our word, Hosanna. Save us, Lord. Matthew tells us that the crowds were

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going ahead of them, ahead of him, and they were following him, and they were shouting those words,

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Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. They were shouting

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that at him. The crowds were singing and shouting Psalm 118 to Jesus on that day, because they

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believed they were welcoming the great deliverer through the gates of righteousness right there in

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the city of God. That Messiah was coming to bring salvation, and yet within days they would reject

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him. Why? Because the crowd had certain desires that didn't line up with Jesus's mission. They

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didn't want a personal sacrificial savior. They wanted a political savior. They wanted one who

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would not bring them spiritual prosperity. They wanted material prosperity. They wanted stuff.

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Give me stuff. And so Jesus, this humble rabbi who willingly surrendered to the authorities,

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the people looked at him and said, nope, he does not line up with our material desires. That is

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not our guy. And they said, give us Barabbas. Jesus sang about all these things that night.

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Now the biggest surprise to me is I was studying the Psalm, and when I was reading the Psalm,

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and when I took this on, I knew when 118 was coming, I knew it was going to be big and heavy.

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Verse 27 surprised me, the last verse, because I think I often stopped at 26 because it's so amazing.

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27 is actually the high point, believe it or not. Look at verse 27. There's so much more to this.

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It says, the Lord is God, and he has given us, he's given us what? Light. In fact, he's given us the

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very light of the world. But then keep reading and you see this amazing statement. And it looks like

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at first glance, like it doesn't fit. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the

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altar. Look at this picture. That is the bronze altar that sat in the court of the priests in the

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temple. See the four horns on the four corners? That's what's being described here. Depending on

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the festival, that is the place where the slain animal would be burned or, or bound alive,

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prepared for sacrifice. Now picture Jesus giving himself up to be bound to the altar, but in his

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case, nailed to a cross. And on the very same day that the Passover lambs were being slain.

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And once more, imagine him singing about the festival sacrifice. He knows it's him.

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That's me. With his disciples there on the last supper, he knows it's written about him,

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knowing that soon his body was going to be horribly broken and knowing that soon his blood would be

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brutally shed for you and for me. So this Psalm takes us all the way to the cross where Jesus is

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bound to the altar of sacrifice. So what do we do? How do we respond to this? Well, as those of us

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who follow Jesus, not just as savior, but Lord as well, we have a calling to surrender ourselves

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spiritually, to bind ourselves to the altar so that we might die to ourselves and die with him.

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That's what Jesus has called us to, to crucify the flesh, to die with him, to crucify that old man

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so that we're no longer slaves to sin. And just as he was raised to life, we who belong to him are to

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become increasing and measure what? Living and holy sacrifices acceptable to him. That's how we

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respond. We die with him and we live for him. And this is why I love the connections in the scriptures

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from the Old Testament to the New. I didn't even know if I can even count them in this Psalm. All

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the connections from old to new. A thousand years before Jesus was born, the psalmist could write

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and sing of these beautiful mysteries and then have them come to pass in the first century.

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How wonderful, right? How marvelous is your savior's love for you?