Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: Psalm 118

Psalm 118:1-14 calls God’s people to bring God thanks and praise because of His goodness and His eternal love for us. It extols God’s presence with us and His power to save and deliver us from danger. It reminds us that God is our refuge and strength, and that it is far, far better to find our refuge in God than to put our hope in people.

In verses 15-21, it is as though the Psalmist is praising God prophetically out of a situation of deep distress and danger. Even in the thick of battle, with death and danger all around, he calls on the gatekeepers of Jerusalem to open the gates of the city so that He can enter to celebrate God’s victory, and to bring his offering of thanks. It’s as though he can already hear the shouts of joy and victory even in the thick of battle, as he raises the defiant declaration: “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done.” (v.17)

It is from v.22, however, that the Psalm takes on its greatest significance for us Christians, because it was fulfilled so directly and dramatically when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey. The disciples and the crowds of Jesus’ followers and fans only realised later that they had inadvertently fulfilled this Psalm. In hindsight it is also easy for us to see how verses 22-27 played themselves out in the events that we call either “Palm Sunday” or “The Triumphal Entry”. That is especially true when we know that the cry of the crowds on that day, “Hosanna!” actually means “Lord, save us” in Hebrew.

Our King Jesus is the True Deliverer and the Saviour King to whom this Psalm points prophetically. He is so, so worthy of our thanks and praise!

An even greater reason to bring praise and thanks to our King is the mysterious passage that ought always to stand in the shadows of our mind when we read of “Palm Sunday”. Revelation 7:9-17 presents the scene in heaven where Jesus, the slain and risen Lamb of God receives praise from a multitude of martyrs as they hold palm branches in their hands and cry out

‘Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.’ (v.10)

King Jesus is our Refuge our Strength who delivers us from earthly danger. He is also our Eternal Saviour who overcomes even our physical death and grants us an eternity of perfect love, perfect peace, and perfect joy, in the perfect presence of the Eternally Perfect Father God.

All Hail King Jesus! All hail the Saviour of the world! I bring You thanks and praise today for all Your goodness to me, for all Your protection, for all Your deliverance, not only in this life, but forever too. Amen.