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Psalm 118 Bible study: The stone the builders rejected
"The LORD is my strength and song" (118:14) is the song at the sea word for word (Exodus 15:2). The psalm's cornerstone is rosh pinnah in Hebrew, the words for head and corner; Jesus gave the verse after the vineyard parable (Matthew 21:42), and Peter said of Jesus, "He is" (Acts 4:11). And the crowds that met Jesus shouted 118:26's first line (Matthew 21:9).
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“The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“Psalm 118 says, "The LORD is my strength and song. He has become my salvation," the same words that open Exodus 15:2.”
Is that in Psalm 118, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
It begins and ends the same way
The psalm has no title. It opens, "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever" (118:1), and it closes with the same words: "Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever" (118:29). In Hebrew the two verses are word for word the same; the WEB adds Oh at the end. Psalm 107 and Psalm 136 begin with these words too (Psalm 107:1, 136:1), and Psalm 100's notes show that his loving kindness endures forever is two Hebrew words, le'olam chasdo (Psalm 100:5). Then the psalm calls three groups, one after another, to say it: "Let Israel now say that his loving kindness endures forever" (118:2), "Let the house of Aaron now say" (118:3), and "Now let those who fear the LORD say" (118:4). Psalm 115 calls the same three to trust: "Israel, trust in the LORD!" (Psalm 115:9), "House of Aaron, trust in the LORD!" (Psalm 115:10), "You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD!" (Psalm 115:11). The psalm doesn't say more about who the three groups are, and these notes don't either.
Where it leads to Jesus
Did you never read?
Psalms 118:22leads toMatthew 21:42
The psalm says, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" (Psalm 118:22), and "This is the LORD’s doing. It is marvelous in our eyes" (Psalm 118:23). In the temple (Matthew 21:23), Jesus told a parable of a vineyard whose farmers beat and killed the servants sent for its fruit, and at last killed the owner's son (Matthew 21:33-39). Then he said, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes’?" (Matthew 21:42). "Did you never read in the Scriptures" points his hearers to the psalm's words, and he gives them right after the parable. Mark and Luke tell the same saying (Mark 12:10-11, Luke 20:17). The WEB words the psalm and Matthew a little differently: has become the cornerstone and was made the head of the corner, the LORD’s doing and from the Lord.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Psalm 118
That was a taste
The rest of Psalm 118 is waiting in Favor
- From a tight place to a wide one
- The song at the sea, sung again
- A gate, a stone, a day
- "What can man do to me?"
- "Until you say"
- Stones in 1 Peter
- 10 questions as you read
- 14 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Psalm 118 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
פִּנָּהpinnahsay pin-NAH
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "corner". Strong's: "an angle; by implication, a pinnacle; figuratively, a chieftain". "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" (118:22): in Hebrew the cornerstone is two words, rosh pinnah, the words for head and corner. The WEB's New Testament gives the psalm's words as "the head of the corner" in Matthew 21:42 and Acts 4:11, and as "the chief cornerstone" in 1 Peter 2:7. The Psalms have pinnah only here. Isaiah has it in "a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation" (Isaiah 28:16), and Job in "who laid its cornerstone" (Job 38:6).
For your group
Psalm 118 Bible study questions
- 1"Out of my distress, I called on the LORD. The LORD answered me with freedom" (118:5). When has God brought you out of a tight place into a wide one?
- 2"It is better to take refuge in the LORD, than to put confidence in man" (118:8). Where are you most tempted to put your confidence in people instead?
- 3Peter said of Jesus, "He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’" (Acts 4:11). What does it mean for you that the one people rejected is the one God made the cornerstone?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Psalm 118 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home