Blessed Is the One Who Comes in the Name of the Lord --- Lectionary Reflection for Palm Sunday (Psalm 118) -- Updated Edition

 

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹ O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his steadfast love endures forever!

² Let Israel say,
    “His steadfast love endures forever.”

¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness,
    that I may enter through them
    and give thanks to the Lord.

²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord;
    the righteous shall enter through it.

²¹ I thank you that you have answered me
    and have become my salvation.
²² The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the chief cornerstone.
²³ This is the Lord’s doing;
    it is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴ This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.
²⁵ Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
    O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!

²⁶ Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
    We bless you from the house of the Lord.
²⁷ The Lord is God,
    and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
    up to the horns of the altar.

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

²⁹ O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.

**************

                Preachers and worship planners have two choices when it comes to the Sunday before Easter. They can go with Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. Most of us choose to go with Palm Sunday since it's more festive and we hope that people will catch the message of the passion later in the week (Good Friday). When it comes to choosing scripture texts for Palm/Passion Sunday, the lectionary creators offer us just two choices—a reading from the Psalms and a reading from the Gospels. When it comes to the first reading, if you go with Passion Sunday, you can go with Isaiah 50:4-9a, one of the Suffering Servant songs. If you want to go with Palm Sunday, you are left with the reading from Psalm 118. For our purposes, I am updating/reposting the reflection on Psalm 118. You can find the reflection here on a the reading from Isaiah 50, I have chosen to focus on Psalm 118.

                The Psalm begins with words of thanksgiving, marking it as a psalm of thanksgiving. The reason why it is chosen for Palm Sunday is that it speaks of the gate through which the righteous enter (Ps. 118:19-20) and the invitation to “bind the festal procession with branches up to the altar” (Ps. 118:27). Many scholars envision this procession moving toward the temple, likely after the battle described in verses 10-14. These verses give thanks to God who saved the nation when surrounded by the nations. Since God provided victory over the nation’s enemies, the people, likely led by the king, go to the Temple to give thanks to God. The reason behind this psalm of thanksgiving may have been removed by the omission of verses 10-14, but this information helps us get a better sense of the context. However, that context is not the reason for its choice here. For our purposes, the Psalm helps us envision God’s work of salvation in and through the person of Jesus, the one who is blessed because he comes in the name of the LORD.

                The references to the “gates of righteousness” (vs. 19) and “gate of the LORD” (vs. 20) suggest that the procession begins at the entrance to the Temple. The voice here is likely a priest who is serving as gatekeeper. Only the righteous can enter through these gates. The priest gives thanks that God has answered and becomes the means of salvation, one would assume, of the people whom God has rescued from Israel’s enemies.

                Verse 22 is an enigma. What does the psalmist mean here by telling us that “the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone”? While its meaning here is unclear early Christians applied it to Jesus. Thus, Peter tells the people of Jerusalem that the stone they rejected has become the chief cornerstone (Acts 4:11). Thus, Jesus might not seem important to his opponents, but God had other ideas. So, we read in Ephesians: “So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone;  in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God” (Eph. 2:19-22). When we move to verse 23, we hear the Psalmist tell us that this stone that had been rejected by the builders had become the chief cornerstone and that this is the LORD’s doing. In fact, it’s “marvelous in our eyes.”

                Those who view this work of God are thankful for this sign of God’s faithfulness. In verse 24, the worship leader rejoices that “this is the day that the LORD has made.” Again, God is celebrated as the creator of the day. Back in the day, I learned a little song that drew from verse 24. We sang boldly “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” In singing this song we heard an invitation to rejoice and be glad as we experienced that particular day. It was intended to serve as a word of thanksgiving to God for the opportunity to live before God at that moment. In celebrating the day, the psalmist also asks that God would save the people by giving them success.

                The next word we hear comes in verse 25, which again beseeches God to save the people and make them prosper. The word for deliverance here is “Hosanna!” In the Gospel accounts of the triumphal entry, we hear the people shout Hosanna, hoping that Jesus will deliver the people from the Roman occupation. During this time when the Palestinian people suffer under Israeli occupation, could this text be heard differently on this year's observance of Palm Sunday? But, as this is a psalm that gives thanks for deliverance from enemies, the original context for this Psalm would have been a different enemy. The question then for us concerns the identity of what we need deliverance from. In the Gospel accounts the people not only shout hosanna signaling their desire that he deliver them, but they also draw upon verse 26, for they call out to him: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” (Mt. 21:6-9). As for the Psalmist, this word of blessing is given from the House of the LORD, that is the Temple. In the Psalm, the procession is heading to the Temple, where praise and thanksgiving will be given to God for delivering them from their enemies. 

                When we turn to verse 27, the Psalmist makes clear that Yahweh (the LORD) is God. It is Yahweh who gives light. We might hear in this declaration a statement of allegiance to Yahweh and an acknowledgment of God’s role as creator in giving light to the world.  This is the one, Yahweh, the giver of Light, who is blessed. So, the festal procession, the one engaged in by the people of Israel as described in the Psalm and the people who follow Jesus on Palm Sunday, bind the festal offering as they process to the altar. What is our offering? It is the festal palm branches we lay before Jesus as he processes toward the Temple.

                The Psalm closes where it began, by giving thanks to God because God is good and “his steadfast love endures forever.” Is this not the reason why we gather to give thanks? God’s faithfulness, God’s salvation, is rooted in God’s “steadfast love” that “endures forever.” So, because “this is the day the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Yes, this is the day in which God reveals God’s steadfast love that endures forever.

                With this Psalm and the accompanying reading from Matthew 21 or Mark 11:1-11, which describes Jesus’ triumphal entry, where the people lay branches on the road before him, and then shout Hosanna and declare that “Blessed is the one who comes in the name,” we can join in this festal procession that leads us through Holy Week to Good Friday (passion). From the cross, we continue from there to the true triumphal procession which is the resurrection. Again, the ultimate message here is that God is our savior and the salvation that comes from God is rooted in God’s steadfast love. That love endures forever. It is eternal. So, as we begin Holy Week, knowing that it will lead to the cross of Good Friday, we have the promise that God’s love endures, a promise confirmed in the resurrection.  

       Image Attribution: Wesley, Frank, 1923-2002. Palm Sunday, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59179 [retrieved March 26, 2023]. Original source: Estate of Frank Wesley, http://www.frankwesleyart.com/main_page.htm.