Psalms 118:21

Psa 118:21 I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

Ver. 21. I will praise thee, for thou hast heard me] Luther rendereth it, because thou hast humbled and afflicted me; but with thou art become my salvation.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_118:21-24

I will praise Thee for Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

A blessed consciousness, a marvellous providence, a joyous day

I. A blessed consciousness (verse 21).

1. A grateful assurance of answered prayer. Thou hast heard me. To know that God has heard me is, of all knowledge, the most, transporting.

2. A grateful assurance of personal salvation. Art become my salvation. Not shall become, or will become, but art become. Salvation is a present blessing. This is life eternal, etc. The consciousness that I am saved is indeed a blessed consciousness.

II. A marvellous providence (verse 22, 23). What man rejects, God accepts.

1. Man rejects insignificant, means with which to accomplish his chief ends. When man has a great plan to carry out, he looks out for the most gifted, the most mighty and skilful agents. Not so with the Almighty. By whom did He deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage? By Moses, a poor Hebrew exile.

2. Man despises the very agents whom God employs. This was pre-eminently the case with Christ. He was despised and rejected of men. Yet He was employed in a work of transcendent greatness.

III. A joyous day (verse 24). Man has to create his own Sabbaths, and when they come to him, he feels the Lord hath made them, and he will rejoice and be glad in it. (Homilist.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 118:21-22. I will praise thee, for thou hast heard me — That is, “And now, being entered into the courts of thy tabernacle, O my gracious God, I pay thee my most humble thanks, for having so favourably heard the prayers which I put up to thee in my grievous afflictions in Saul’s reign, and for having now fully advanced me to the royal dignity.” The stone which the builders rejected, &c. — That is, “I, (for they are the words of David,) whom the great men and rulers of the people rejected, (1Sa 26:19,) as the builders of a house do a stone, which they judge unfit to be employed in it: am now become king over Judah and Israel, and a type of that glorious king, who shall hereafter be in like manner rejected,

(Luk 19:14; Luk 20:17,) and then exalted by God, to be Lord of all the world, and the foundation of all men’s hopes and happiness.” The reader will observe, the commonwealth of Israel, and the church of God, are here, and elsewhere in the Scriptures, compared to a building, wherein, as the people were the stones, so the princes and rulers were the builders. And as these master-builders, here first referred to, rejected David, as an obscure and rebellious person, that ought not only to be refused as a governor in their state, but crushed and destroyed; so their successors rejected Jesus of Nazareth, as too poor and mean to be acknowledged for their expected Messiah; as an enemy to Moses, a friend to sinners, and a blasphemer against God, and therefore deserving death and everlasting destruction. The head stone of the corner, means that which joins the walls, and knits the building together; as David had now joined together the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah under his sole government, and as Christ joined together both Jews and Gentiles, as is beautifully set forth Eph 2:14-22. So that we have here an illustrious prophecy of the humiliation and exaltation of our Lord Jesus, of his sufferings, and the glory that should follow. And although David, in this noted prophecy, first alluded to himself, and his own condition, yet it is not to be doubted but that, having the prophetical Spirit, he foresaw the coming of Christ, and the ill usage he should meet with from the Jews, of which he speaks very particularly Psalms 22. and elsewhere; and that, having his thoughts much taken up with Christ, and the events of his kingdom, he had him principally in his eye, in these and the following words. And therefore this place is justly expounded of Christ in the New Testament, as Mar 12:10; Act 4:11; Rom 9:32; Eph 2:20; 1Pe 2:6, compared with Isa 28:16. And to him, indeed, the words agree much more properly and fully than to David.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. (Psa 118:21) I will thank thee, for thou host answered me, and hast become my salvation. This verse assigns the reason for their entrance. Answered, in the specific sense of answering or granting prayer. See above, on Psa 118:5. The last clause is from Psa 118:14.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 21. I will praise thee] He is now got within the gates, and breaks out into thanksgivings for the mercies he had received. He is become my salvation-he himself hath saved me from all mine enemies.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. I will give thanks unto thee, for thou hast answered me (R.V.).

and art become my salvation] Another allusion to Exo_15:2.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is the day which the Lord hath made,.... Famous and remarkable for the above events. Meaning either the day of Christ's entrance into Jerusalem, in order to be delivered up to the Jews, and suffer and die in the place of his people; to which the following words agree: or the day of his resurrection (g) from the dead; when God gave him glory, and was matter of joy to those for whose justification he rose; or the Lord's day, kept in commemoration of it: or rather the whole Gospel dispensation, made a bright day by the sun of righteousness; and which is the now present day of salvation;

we will rejoice and be glad in it; because of the blessings of grace, peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation, which came through the humiliation and exaltation of Christ, and are published in the everlasting Gospel. The Targum is,

"this day the Lord hath made, said the builders; let us rejoice and be glad in it, said the sons of Jesse.''

(g) So Suidas in voce which he observes fell on March 25.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I will praise thee - Within thy courts.

For thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation - See Psa 118:14.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 21. Having entered, the champion exclaims, I will praise thee, not "I will praise the Lord, "for now he vividly realizes the divine presence, and addresses himself directly to Jehovah, whom his faith sensibly discerns. How well it is in all our songs of praise to let the heart have direct and distinct communion with God himself! The Psalmist's song was personal praise too: "I will praise thee"; resolute praise, for he firmly resolved to offer it; spontaneous praise, for he voluntarily and cheerfully rendered it, and continuous praise, for he did not intend soon to have done with it. It was a life long vow to which there would never come a close, "I will praise thee."

For thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. He praises God by mentioning his favours, weaving his song out of the divine goodness which he had experienced. In these words he gives the reason for his praise, his answered prayer, and the deliverance which he had received in consequence. How fondly he dwells upon the personal interposition of God! "Thou hast heard me." How heartily he ascribes the whole of his victory over his enemies to God; nay, he sees God himself to be the whole of it: "Thou art become my salvation." It is well to go directly to God himself, and not to stay even in his mercy, or in the acts of his grace. Answered prayers bring God very near to us; realised salvation enables us to realise the immediate presence of God. Considering the extreme distress through which the worshipper had passed, it is not at all wonderful that he should feel his heart full of gratitude at the great salvation which God had wrought for him, and should at his first entrance into the temple lift up his voice in thankful praise for personal favours so great, so needful, so perfect.

Ver. 21. I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me. There is a point which we would especially notice, and that is, praise for hearing prayer. In this point, almost above all others, God is frequently robbed of his praise. Men pray; they receive an answer to their prayers; and then forget to praise. This happens especially in small things; we should ever remember that whatever is worth praying for, is worth praising for also. The fact is, we do not recognize God in these small things as much as we should; if we do praise, it is for the receipt of the blessing, with which we are pleased, leaving out of account the One from whom the blessing has come. This is not acceptable to God; we must see him in the blessing, if we would really praise. The Psalmist says, "I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me"; he praised not only because he had received, but also because he had been heard because the living God, as a hearing God, was manifested in his mercies. And when we know that God has heard us, let us not delay our praise; if we put off our thanksgiving until perhaps only the evening, we may forget to praise at all; and if we do praise, it will in all probability be with only half the warmth which would animate our song at first. God loves a quick return for his blessings; one sentence of heartfelt thanksgiving is worth all the formalism of a more laboured service. There is a freshness about immediate praise which is like the bloom upon the fruit; its being spontaneous adds ineffably to its price.

Trace, then, dear reader, a connection between your God and your blessing. Recognize his hearing ear as well as his bounteous hand, and be yours the Psalmist's words, I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me. Philip Bennet Power.

Psalms 118:22*

This passage (Ps 118:22-27) will appear to be a mixture of the expressions of the people and of the hero himself.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I will praise thee; for thou hast heard me. The chant of the procession as it enters a prolongation of the strain begun in ver. 19. And art become my salvation (comp. ver. 14).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.