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Commentary on Psalms 118 verses 1–18
It appears here, as often as elsewhere, that David had his heart full of the goodness of God. He loved to think of it, loved to speak of it, and was very solicitous that God might have the praise of it and others the comfort of it. The more our hearts are impressed with a sense of God's goodness the more they will be enlarged in all manner of obedience. In these verses,
I. He celebrates God's mercy in general, and calls upon others to acknowledge it, from their own experience of it (Psa 118:1): O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is not only good in himself, but good to you, and his mercy endures for ever, not only in the everlasting fountain, God himself, but in the never-failing streams of that mercy, which shall run parallel with the longest line of eternity, and in the chosen vessels of mercy, who will be everlasting monuments of it. Israel, and the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, were called upon to trust in God (Psa 115:9-11); here they are called upon to confess that his mercy endures for ever, and so to encourage themselves to trust in him, Psa 118:2-4. Priests and people, Jews and proselytes, must all own God's goodness, and all join in the same thankful song; if they can say no more, let them say this for him, that his mercy endures for ever, that they have had experience of it all their days, and confide in it for good things that shall last for ever. The praises and thanksgivings of all that truly fear the Lord shall be as pleasing to him as those of the house of Israel or the house of Aaron.
II. He preserves an account of God's gracious dealings with him in particular, which he communicates to others, that they might thence fetch both songs of praise and supports of faith, and both ways God would have the glory. David had, in his time, waded through a great deal of difficulty, which gave him great experience of God's goodness. Let us therefore observe here,
1.The great distress and danger that he had been in, which he reflects upon for the magnifying of God's goodness to him in his present advancement. There are many who, when they are lifted up, care not for hearing or speaking of their former depressions; but David takes all occasions to remember his own low estate. He was in distress (Psa 118:5), greatly straitened and at a loss; there were many that hated him (Psa 118:7), and this could not but be a great grief to one of an ingenuous spirit, that strove to gain the good affections of all. All nations compassed me about, Psa 118:10. All the nations adjacent to Israel set themselves to give disturbance to David, when he had newly come to the throne, Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Ammonites, etc. We read of his enemies round about; they were confederate against him, and thought to cut off all succours from him. This endeavour of his enemies to surround him is repeated (Psa 118:11): They compassed me about, yea, they compassed me about, which intimates that they were virulent and violent, and, for a time, prevalent, in their attempts against him, and when put into disorder they rallied again and pushed on their design. They compassed me about like bees, so numerous were they, so noisy, so vexatious; they came flying upon him, came upon him in swarms, set upon him with their malignant stings; but it was to their own destruction, as the bee, they say, loses her life with her sting, Animamque in vulnere ponit - She lays down her life in the wound. Lord, how are those increased that trouble me! Two ways David was brought into trouble: - (1.) By the injuries that men did him (Psa 118:13): Thou (O enemy!) hast thrust sore at me, with many a desperate push, that I might fall into sin and into ruin. Thrusting thou hast thrust at me (so the word is), so that I was ready to fall. Satan is the great enemy that thrusts sorely at us by his temptations, to cast us down from our excellency, that we may fall from our God and from our comfort in him; and, if Go had not upheld us by his grace, his thrusts would have been fatal to us. (2.) By the afflictions which God laid upon him (Psa 118:18): The Lord has chastened me sore. Men thrust at him for his destruction; God chastened him for his instruction. They thrust at him with the malice of enemies; God chastened him with the love and tenderness of a Father. Perhaps he refers to the same trouble which God, the author of it, designed for his profit, that by it he might partake of his holiness (Heb 12:10, Heb 12:11); howbeit, men, who were the instruments of it, meant not so, neither did their heart think so, but it was in their heart to cut off and destroy, Isa 10:7. What men intend for the greatest mischief God intends for the greatest good, and it is easy to say whose counsel shall stand. God will sanctify the trouble to his people, as it is his chastening, and secure the good he designs; and he will guard them against the trouble, as it is the enemies' thrusting, and secure them from the evil they design, and then we need not fear.
This account which David gives of his troubles is very applicable to our Lord Jesus. Many there were that hated him, hated him without a cause. They compassed him about; Jews and Romans surrounded him. They thrust sorely at him; the devil did so when he tempted him; his persecutors did so when they reviled him; nay, the Lord himself chastened him sorely, bruised him, and put him to grief, that by his stripes we might be healed.
2.The favour God vouchsafed to him in his distress. (1.) God heart his prayer (Psa 118:5): "He answered me with enlargements; he did more for me than I was able to ask; he enlarged my heart in prayer and yet gave more largely than I desired." He answered me, and set me in a large place (so we read it), where I had room to bestir myself, room to enjoy myself, and room to thrive; and the large place was the more comfortable because he was brought to it out of distress, Psa 4:1. (2.) God baffled the designs of his enemies against him: They are quenched as the fire of thorns (Psa 118:12), which burns furiously for a while, makes a great noise and a great blaze, but is presently out, and cannot do the mischief that it threatened. Such was the fury of David's enemies; such is the laughter of the fool, like the crackling of thorns under a pot (Ecc 7:6), and such is the anger of the fool, which therefore is not to be feared, any more than his laughter is to be envied, but both to be pitied. They thrust sorely at him, but the Lord helped him (Psa 118:13), helped him to keep his feet and maintain his ground. Our spiritual enemies would, long before this, have been our ruin if God had not been our helper. (3.) God preserved his life when there was but a step between him and death (Psa 118:18): "He has chastened me, but he has not given me over unto death, for he has not given me over to the will of my enemies." To this St. Paul seems to refer in Co2 6:9. As dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed. We ought not therefore, when we are chastened sorely, immediately to despair of life, for God sometimes, in appearance, turns men to destruction, and yet says, Return; says unto them, Live.
This also is applicable to Jesus Christ. God answered him, and set him in a large place. He quenched the fire of his enemies; rage, which did but consume themselves; for through death he destroyed him that had the power of death. He helped him through his undertaking; and thus far he did not give him over unto death that he did not leave him in the grave, nor suffer him to see corruption. Death had no dominion over him.
3.The improvement he made of this favour. (1.) It encouraged him to trust in God; from his own experience he can say, It is better, more wise, more comfortable, and more safe, there is more reason for it, and it will speed better, to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man, yea, though it be in princes, Psa 118:8, Psa 118:9. He that devotes himself to God's guidance and government, with an entire dependence upon God's wisdom, power, and goodness, has a better security to make him easy than if all the kings and potentates of the earth should undertake to protect him. (2.) It enabled him to triumph in that trust. [1.] He triumphs in God, and in his relation to him and interest in him (Psa 118:6): "The Lord is on my side. He is a righteous God, and therefore espouses my righteous cause and will plead it." If we are on God's side, he is on ours; if we be for him and with him, he will be for us and with us (Psa 118:7): "The Lord takes my part, and stands up for me, with those that help me. He is to me among my helpers, and so one of them that he is all in all both to them and me, and without him I could not help myself nor could any friend I have in the world help me." Thus (Psa 118:14), "The Lord is my strength and my song; that is, I make him so (without him I am weak and sad, but on him I stay myself as my strength, both for doing and suffering, and in him I solace myself as my song, by which I both express my joy and ease my grief), and, making him so, I find him so: he strengthens my heart with his graces and gladdens my heart with his comforts." If God be our strength, he must be our song; if he work all our works in us, he must have all praise and glory from us. God is sometimes the strength of his people when he is not their song; they have spiritual supports when they want spiritual delights. But, if he be both to us, we have abundant reason to triumph in him; for, he be our strength and our song, he has become not only our Saviour, but our salvation; for his being our strength is our protection to the salvation, and his being our song is an earnest and foretaste of the salvation. [2.] He triumphs over his enemies. Now shall his head be lifted up above them; for, First, He is sure they cannot hurt him: "God is for me, and then I will not fear what man can do against me," Psa 118:6. He can set them all at defiance, and is not disturbed at any of their attempts. "They can do nothing to me but what God permits them to do; they can do no real damage, for they cannot separate between me and God; they cannot do any thing but what God can make to work for my good. The enemy is a man, a depending creature, whose power is limited, and subordinate to a higher power, and therefore I will not fear him." Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die? Isa 51:12. The apostle quotes this, with application to all Christians, Heb 13:6. They may boldly say, as boldly as David himself, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me; let him do his worst. Secondly, He is sure that he shall be too hard for them at last: "I shall see my desire upon those that hate me (Psa 118:7); I shall see them defeated in their designs against me; nay, In the name of the Lord I will destroy them (Psa 118:10-12); I trust in the name of the Lord that I shall destroy them, and in his name I will go forth against them, depending on his strength, by warrant from him, and with an eye to his glory, not confiding in myself nor taking vengeance for myself." Thus he went forth against Goliath, in the name of the God of Israel, Sa1 17:45. David says this as a type of Christ, who triumphed over the powers of darkness, destroyed them, and made a show of them openly. [3.] He triumphs in an assurance of the continuance of his comfort, his victory, and his life. First, Of his comfort (Psa 118:15): The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous, and in mine particularly, in my family. The dwellings of the righteous in this world are but tabernacles, mean and movable; here we have no city, no continuing city. But these tabernacles are more comfortable to them than the palaces of the wicked are to them; for in the house where religion rules, 1. There is salvation; safety from evil, earnests of eternal salvation, which has come to this house, Luk 19:9. 2. Where there is salvation there is cause for rejoicing, for continual joy in God. Holy joy is called the joy of salvation, for in that there is abundant matter for joy. 3. Where there is rejoicing there ought to be the voice of rejoicing, that is, praise and thanksgiving. Let God be served with joyfulness and gladness of heart, and let the voice of that rejoicing be heard daily in our families, to the glory of God and encouragement of others. Secondly, Of his victory: The right hand of the Lord does valiantly (Psa 118:15) and is exalted; for (as some read it) it has exalted me. The right hand of God's power is engaged for his people, and it acts vigorously for them and therefore victoriously. For what difficulty can stand before the divine valour? We are weak, and act but cowardly for ourselves; but God is mighty, and acts valiantly for us, with jealousy and resolution, Isa 63:5, Isa 63:6. There is spirit, as well as strength, in all God's operations for his people. And, when God's right hand does valiantly for our salvation, it ought to be exalted in our praises. Thirdly, Of his life (Psa 118:17): "I shall not die by the hands of my enemies that seek my life, but live and declare the works of the Lord; I shall live a monument of God's mercy and power; his works shall be declared in me, and I will make it the business of my life to praise and magnify God, looking upon that as the end of my preservation." Note, It is not worth while to live for any other purpose than to declare the works of God, for his honour and the encouragement of others to serve him and trust in him. Such as these were the triumphs of the Son of David in the assurance he had of the success of his undertaking and that the good pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand.
Therefore, if one examines these matters and because of this despises whatever is held in honor among people and longs only for the divine life, knowing that “all flesh is grass and all the glory of people is as the flower of grass,” is he likely to think of grass, which exists today and is gone tomorrow, as something worth striving for? The one who has examined well the divine things knows that not only human affairs have no stability but also that the whole world itself has not remained forever unchanged. Therefore, he despises this life as alien and impermanent, since “heaven and earth will pass away,” according to the word of the Savior, and all things of necessity undergo a transformation. Therefore, as long as he is “in the tent, burdened” by the present life, as the apostle says to illustrate its impermanence, he laments the lengthening of his stay, as the psalmist says in his divine songs. For they truly live in darkness who spend their life in these quarters. Because of this, the prophet groans over the extension of his sojourn here and says: “Alas, my stay is lengthened.” But he attributes the cause of his dejection to darkness, for in Hebrew darkness is equivalent to qedar, as we learn from the scholars. Is it not true that people overcome by some night blindness are thus dim-sighted in recognizing delusions, not knowing that whatever is considered honorable in this life, or even whatever is assumed to be the opposite, is understood thus only on the assumption of the foolish? Of themselves they are never anything at all.
"Let Israel now confess that He is good, and that His mercy endures for ever" [Psalm 118:2]. "Let the house of Aaron now confess that His mercy endures for ever" [Psalm 118:3]. "Yea, let all now that fear the Lord confess that His mercy endures for ever" [Psalm 118:4]. You remember, I suppose, most beloved, what is the house of Israel, what is the house of Aaron, and that both are those that fear the Lord. For they are "the little and the great," who have already in another Psalm been happily introduced into your hearts: in the number of whom all of us should rejoice that we are joined together, in His grace who is good, and whose mercy endures for ever; since they were listened to who said, "May the Lord increase you more and more, you and your children;" that the host of the Gentiles might be added to the Israelites who believed in Christ, of the number of whom are the Apostles our fathers, for the exaltation of the perfect and the obedience of the little children; that all of us when made one in Christ, made one flock under one Shepherd, and the body of that Head, like one man, may say, "I called upon the Lord in trouble, and the Lord heard me at large" [Psalm 118:5]. The narrow straits of our tribulation are limited: but the large way whereby we pass along has no end. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" [Romans 8:33]
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SUMMARY
Psalms 118:5 offers a profound and deeply personal testimony of divine intervention, recounting the psalmist's desperate cry to the LORD from a state of acute constriction and the subsequent, miraculous deliverance that transformed their confined circumstances into a spacious realm of freedom and security. This verse encapsulates the core message of the psalm: God's unfailing mercy and immediate responsiveness to those who trust in Him, powerfully demonstrating His sovereign power to rescue, restore, and expand the horizons of His people.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 118:5 masterfully employs Contrast as its central literary device, juxtaposing the "distress" (a narrow, confined space) with the "large place" (an open, expansive realm). This stark opposition dramatically illustrates the profound and transformative deliverance brought about by divine intervention. The "large place" also functions as potent Symbolism, representing not merely a physical location but a comprehensive state of spiritual, emotional, and existential freedom, security, and well-being. Furthermore, the verse is a powerful example of Personal Testimony, where the psalmist recounts a specific, life-altering experience with God, making the abstract truth of God's faithfulness concrete, relatable, and deeply encouraging to the reader.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 118:5 profoundly affirms the biblical truth of God's active and compassionate involvement in the lives of His people, particularly in moments of vulnerability and acute need. It underscores the profound efficacy of prayer as a direct and immediate conduit to divine power and compassion, demonstrating unequivocally that God is not a passive observer but an intimately engaged deliverer. The dramatic transition from "distress" to a "large place" highlights God's boundless capacity for holistic salvation, encompassing not just rescue from immediate peril but also the provision of true peace, security, and expansive freedom. This verse serves as a powerful and enduring reminder that God's faithfulness is unwavering, and His response to genuine, heartfelt need is always one of liberating grace and transformative power.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 118:5 offers immense encouragement and a timeless blueprint for believers navigating the complexities and challenges of contemporary life. It serves as a powerful invitation to turn to God as our first and ultimate recourse when faced with overwhelming circumstances, whether they manifest as financial hardship, relational brokenness, physical illness, professional pressures, or spiritual oppression. The psalmist's heartfelt testimony reminds us that our cries are never unheard; God is intimately attentive and profoundly responsive to the genuine needs of His children. Furthermore, the promise of being set in a "large place" speaks to God's deep desire to bring us into a state of peace, freedom, and flourishing, even if external circumstances do not immediately dissipate. This "large place" can manifest as an unshakeable inner peace amidst chaos, spiritual liberation from the bondage of sin or fear, or a renewed sense of purpose and hope that transcends our present limitations. It powerfully encourages us to trust in God's transformative power, knowing that He can expand our horizons, alleviate our burdens, and provide spaciousness for our souls, regardless of the narrowness of our current trials.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "distress" mean in this context?
Answer: In Psalms 118:5, "distress" (Hebrew: mêṣar', H4712) refers to a state of severe constriction, narrowness, or being hemmed in. It metaphorically describes overwhelming adversity, oppression, or a situation where one feels trapped with no apparent way out. It encompasses physical, emotional, and spiritual pressures that create a profound sense of confinement, limitation, and desperation, as if one is caught in a "tight spot."
How does God "set me in a large place"?
Answer: God "setting one in a large place" (Hebrew: merchâb', H4800) signifies a profound act of divine liberation and comprehensive restoration. It is the direct opposite of distress, representing a state of expansive freedom, security, relief, and opportunity. This divine intervention can manifest in various ways: a miraculous physical rescue from danger, deep emotional healing from trauma, spiritual liberation from the bondage of sin or despair, or a renewed sense of peace and hope that transcends difficult external circumstances. It implies God's generous provision of ample room for one to thrive, flourish, and experience true well-being, demonstrating His desire for His people to live in abundance and unhindered, as beautifully illustrated in Psalm 4:1.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 118:5 finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. He is the one who, in His deepest agony and "distress" in the Garden of Gethsemane, "called upon the LORD" with fervent prayer (see Matthew 26:39). His agonizing cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (as recorded in Matthew 27:46), represents the ultimate human experience of being hemmed in by the crushing weight of sin and the power of death, bearing the full burden of humanity's "distress." Yet, God the Father "answered" Him, not by removing the cross, but by raising Him triumphantly from the dead, thereby setting Him in the ultimate "large place"—the boundless spaciousness of resurrection victory and glorious exaltation at the Father's right hand (as powerfully described in Ephesians 1:20-21). Through Christ's decisive triumph over sin, death, and the grave, believers are now graciously invited into this eternal "large place" of spiritual freedom, adoption as children of God, and an inheritance of eternal life, no longer confined by the "distress" of sin's dominion or the paralyzing fear of death (see Romans 8:2). Jesus Christ Himself is our true "large place," offering boundless grace, unshakeable hope, and an expansive life that transcends all earthly distress.