Psalm 118:19-29
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord's doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
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!
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for March 24, comes from Psalm 118, verses 19 through 29. Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them, and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us we pray, Oh Lord, oh Lord, we pray, give us success. Bless. It is he who comes in the name of the Lord, we bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God and He has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the facile festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you, you are my God, I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
Here ends the reading. This Psalm is a Psalm of thanksgiving. Generally, Luther loved this psalm in the introduction to Psalm 118. From Luthers. Reading the Psalms, he writes, The 1/18 Psalm is a Psalm of thanks and my dearest most beloved conflict in meany which is the Latin title for the Psalm. It gives thanks and also prophesies of the Christian and of the Christ, the rejected cornerstone. The Psalm is a general statement of thanksgiving for all the kindnesses God daily and unceasingly showers and all men, both good and evil. The psalm praises God, especially for the greatest benefit, his He bestowed on the world, namely, for Christ and His Kingdom of grace, first promised, and now revealed. What a joy to have for this poem, Sunday reading as we talk about entering into the city of Jerusalem. And that's where it starts, open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them, and give thanks to the Lord. You know, as we see Jesus entering into Jerusalem, that's kind of what they say, Right? He's we're opening the gates of righteousness, to give thanks to the Lord Jesus is coming in for the Passover sacrifice, except he's not going to participate in offering a sacrifice, he is going to be the sacrifice. Well, he offers himself as a sacrifice, as the Passover Lamb, who finally takes away the sin of the world forever. And he enters in through this gate to give thanks. It continues, this is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter through it. Now, of course, no one is truly righteous, except for Christ alone. So it only he could be the one who would actually enter through the gate of righteousness. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. This is a cry of the Christian and of the ancient Jew to say, God has become our salvation, we thank him. And of course, in Christ, it is the righteous one who enters through the gate, who offers Himself as a sacrifice that becomes our salvation. And then we get this classic passage, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. We see the builders as the authorities and the chief priests, the scribes and the elders of Jerusalem who rejected Jesus, who then becomes the cornerstone for the foundation of a new church of a new building Christ's Church, the new Israel built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ as the cornerstone 23 This is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. Now, I'm sure it wasn't marvelous for the disciples to look upon the death of Christ on the cross, or to see him buried in the tomb but for us, after his resurrection, celebrating the story, as we do every year, looking at the Christ as he enters into Jerusalem knowing he is about to be crowned with thorns and put on the throne of a cross in his glory. It is is marvelous in our eyes. And we can see that it's truly God's doing to make what would seem so terrible, the joy and salvation for all of humanity. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. How Good Friday is coming up. And it's hard sometimes I think, to think of joy, as we consider the death of Jesus Christ. And sometimes, that Good Friday service is seen almost like a funeral for Jesus. Like we're all supposed to get together and mourn and be sad. And that's actually the opposite of it. We call it Good Friday. Because even though Jesus Christ death was so terrible, it is also his glory and our joy. It continues, save us we pray, Oh, Lord, oh Lord, we pray, give us success. How can you add to that? Bless it as he who comes in the name of the Lord. This is the thing that they said, as Jesus entered into Jerusalem, the crowds Hosanna in the highest, bless it as he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna to the Son of David, we bless you from the house of the Lord, it continues. 27 The Lord is God. And he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. So it says The Lord has made us he shines his light. And in response, God's people take the festival Festival, the festival sacrifice and they bring it to the altar, they tie it up, bring it up the horns were actually the the corners of the altar with had literal horns. And so he would kill it, sacrifice it. And that's what it is. And the psalm ends you are my God and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good for his steadfast love endures forever. Now this reading begins with verse 19. Psalm 118 begins with repeating, give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. And they say let Israel say his steadfast love endures forever. Let the house of Aaron say his steadfast love endures forever. Let all who fear the Lord say his steadfast love endures forever. And then it finally ends the Psalm the same way. It says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord for His good for his steadfast love endures forever. What a way to end the psalm. That's where we're going to stop today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai