Psalm 117 is two verses long, the shortest psalm in the Psalter, and it works as a fanfare for Psalm 118. It summons the whole world: 1"Praise the LORD, all nations!" Then the longer psalm begins, and it is personal, specific, and full of trouble. Psalm 118 closes the Hallel sung at Passover. Matthew tells us that after the Last Supper Jesus and his disciples "sang a hymn" (Matthew 26:30), and this psalm was very likely among the last things Jesus sang before his arrest.
The psalm moves from distress to rescue. 5"Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free." Enemies surround the singer like bees, and when the singer is falling, 13"the LORD helped me." The song at the center, 14"The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation," repeats Exodus 15:2, the song sung at the Red Sea. The same God who saved Israel from Egypt saves this singer now.
The psalm then makes a plain comparison. 8"It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man." Trust in man and trust in princes both fail, and refuge in the LORD does not. Then it makes a reversal: 22"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." Builders do not discard stones by accident. This is an expert judgment, and it is overruled. Verse 23 says whose work that is: 23"This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."
The final movement is the one the Gospels quote most. 25"Save us, we pray, O LORD!" is the source of the word Hosanna. Right after it comes 26"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!" The crowds shouted these words when Jesus entered Jerusalem (Matthew 21:9), and Jesus later turned the rejected stone on the religious leaders (Matthew 21:42). Peter preached the same verse after the resurrection: "This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders" (Acts 4:11).
The Hosanna at the gate and the rejection on the cross come from the same psalm. Triumph and refusal belong to one movement, sung about the same coming king. Which half is easier to sit with, Christ welcomed with palm branches or Christ thrown out by the builders? A faith that wants only the Hosanna has not yet met the whole psalm.
The rejected stone also gives a way to read what looks discarded in our own lives. Every one of us has been passed over, set aside, or written off by someone whose opinion seemed final at the time. The builders had confident, expert reasons. What looks unusable or finished from one side of the wall may already be load-bearing where God stands. The plea of verse 25 is left standing. The psalm does not resolve it before moving on. A plain request for help is allowed to stay a request.
Prayer
Father, out of our distress we call on you, and we thank you for every time you have answered and set us free. Teach us to welcome the whole psalm, the Hosanna and the rejected stone together, trusting that what looks discarded from here may already bear weight where you are. Where we are pleading, save us, we pray. You are our strength and our song. In the name of Jesus, the stone the builders rejected, amen.