Psalm 118: It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in Man.

A human being wrote the psalm, but he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, who gave the writer words of prophecy about Christ Jesus, the central subject of the psalm. Through Jesus we belong to Israel, we are among the Gentiles who fear the Lord and say: His love endures for ever.

Christ put His trust in God His Father. He did not put His hope in people or princes. Indeed the leaders of His people organised His death. But that death was His glory, hence the verses: 23-24: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes.

For us, Jesus was made sin. A truth symbolised by the darkness that came over the land on Good Friday; and revealed by His cry of suffering – My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? God the Father chastened Him severely, and as God made man He died, for the wages of sin is death.

But death was not allowed to hold Him. Instead the Father took the lead in raising Him, [NB the whole Trinity acted together in His resurrection] opening for Him the gates of righteousness. Resurrected, He ascended to His Father’s side. His Father answered becoming His salvation.

The psalm writer looks back on difficult days, but through the Holy Spirit looks forward to Jesus. The psalmist and Jesus suffered times of anguish; each experienced times when troubles felt like a swarm of bees threatening them, making them hard-pressed; but the psalmist kept trusting, because Jesus kept trusting, reminding himself that the Lord is with me; He is my helper. As for the psalmist, so for Jesus.

And that leads us to verses 8-9: the central verses of the Protestant Bible. This is no accident. The Holy Spirit was the deep author of the Bible. He knew it would be counted out in books, chapters and verses. He numbered these verses, for they summarise the entire choice and meaning of faith:

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in Man.

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

As words inspired by the Holy Spirit, the psalm prophetic of Jesus is also a psalm written from the future, a psalm that invites us to look back to Jesus, reminding us of what Jesus has done for us, because He is the blessed one of God.

So we see His rising from the grave and entry into heaven before we see His rejection by God’s people; and we see him as the stone the builders rejected before we see His Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem, when the voices of heaven and earth jointly proclaim: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless You.

Palm Sunday was initiated the end of Jesus in the eyes of His enemies. Later that week they will crucify Him. But by God’s intention their turning away from His Word is the end of the beginning of sin & death begun by our turning away from the word of God to the word of the serpent. Jesus’ death undoes the old brokenness of how things are. By His light, death is but a shadow for His people. Through Him we know that God is good and His love endures forever, in this life and in the life promised us in the new creation. Amen.