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1 Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good; his mercy endures forever.
2 Let Israel now proclaim, "His mercy endures forever."
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14 Yahweh is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.
15 There is a sound of exultation and victory in the tents of the righteous:
16 "The right hand of Yahweh has triumphed! the right hand of Yahweh is exalted! the right hand of Yahweh has triumphed!"
17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of Yahweh.
18 Yahweh has punished me sorely, but he did not hand me over to death.
19 Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter them; I will offer thanks to Yahweh.
20 "This is the gate of Yahweh; he who is righteous may enter."
21 I will give thanks to you, for you answered me and have become my salvation.
22 The same stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This is Yahweh doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 On this day Yahweh has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
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This is the Psalm selection for Easter Day, which is sung every Easter Sunday in Years A, B, and C. This posting is for it being sung during a Year C service. It will follow either the mandatory Acts 10 selection as the “First Lesson,” or a Year C possibility of Isaiah 65. Luke wrote in Acts, of Peter telling Cornelius, “God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses.” Isaiah wrote, “No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.” If the Acts reading is the “First Lesson,” then the “New Testament” selection will come from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, where he wrote, “in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” All will precede a Gospel reading that tells of the women rising early and going to the tomb on the first day of the week. Every Year John’s version can be read, where he wrote: “Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.” However, only in Year C can Luke’s version be the option. Luke wrote this: “Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”
In 2021 I wrote about this Easter Psalm and posted a commentary, which can be read by clicking on this link. At that time, I did not correct the text as I have done above, showing the eleven times (in these thirteen verses) that “Yahweh” (the proper name that is necessary to learn) was translated as “the Lord.” I welcome all to read that commentary, as it addresses each verse adequately. At this time, I will only add a few comments that bear repeating.
Easter Day (or Easter Sunday) is not a remembrance of how great Yahweh is, so He miraculously raised His Son Jesus from death. Easter is not about Jesus being dead and then coming back to life. Jesus was the seed placed on the earth to die – meaning the outer shell of his flesh fell away from his soul – so that a most holy soul could be raised in new fruit of that most divine vine. Thus, the tomb reflects every Tom, Dick and Harriet that walks on two feet and thinks it is a god by doing so, because no matter how smart one thinks one is … one is going to die.
The tomb reflects the mortality of a soul animating a body of flesh, which without a soul is nothing but dead matter. There is no life in matter. There is only life in the breath of a soul. It is as dead as rock, with the only life in a rock being when workers cut the stone away, making a tomb. When the workers leave, the rock remains … dead to life. There is no eternal life without that soul joining with Yahweh’s Spirit. Therefore, Easter is symbolic of those who seek eternal life to find the divine soul of Jesus raised within his or her sentenced to die soul, held captive in a dead body of flesh – one’s tomb.
When that realization has dawned upon one’s brain, then one can see why these verses from David’s Psalm 118 are sang each Easter Day. There can be no resurrection of Jesus within anyone (not even Jesus could resurrect himself), if it were not for Yahweh (a proper name, whereby knowing that name says one’s soul is at least engaged to be married to Him). David knew that, because his soul was married to Yahweh when Yahweh poured out His Spirit upon David’s soul, soon after Samuel poured some oil on his head. The Spirit of Yahweh Baptized David’s soul with eternal life. So, while David would sin and die, his soul would be risen, because David was a wife of Yahweh, his servant on earth. Therefore, David knew to “give thanks to Yahweh,” because the mortality of death had been removed from his soul. Yahweh’s “mercy endures forever” in the eternity of a soul married to Him.
A soul cannot marry Jesus and give Yahweh the shaft. Jesus is the plan of Yahweh – has been since the beginning – to be the soul of His Son raised within all the wives He takes in marriage. David was a wife of Yahweh and served him as His Son resurrected on the earth. All the amazing things David did, he did because he was Jesus reborn, before the name Jesus (a Greek name) became vogue. The name (rooted in “Yeshua” or “Joshua”) means “Yah[weh] Will Save.” Save means a soul becomes transformed from mortality, through the Baptism that brings on immortality for a soul. To become Jesus resurrected, one’s soul must first marry Yahweh (not some generic “Lord” your brain refuses to name).
When David sang three times in verse sixteen about the “right hand,” it needs to be recalled how Jesus sits at the “right hand” of Yahweh. When Jesus is resurrected within one’s soul (after a divine union of a soul to Yahweh’s Spirit), then one’s soul-flesh becomes the “right hand” of Yahweh, as Jesus reborn. When oneself is not in divine union with Yahweh (therefore not Jesus reborn), then one is the “left hand,” which means your flesh leads your soul to the ways of the world. The world is made of dead matter; so, the path of the “left hand” is mortal death (if lucky, then reincarnation). The path of the “right hand” is eternal life.
In verses nineteen and twenty, David sang of the “gates of righteousness” and the “gate of Yahweh.” The “gates of righteousness” are 1.) a soul marrying Yahweh’s Spirit, becoming Baptized so the path of the “left hand” has gone away; and, 2) a soul married to Yahweh gives resurrected birth to His Son (Adam, now called Jesus), which keeps the cleansed soul clean, via acts of “righteousness.” This means the “gate of Yahweh” is Jesus, who told us (in John’s Gospel), “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved.”
David sang loudly in this song of “salvation.” He said, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of Yahweh,” which means a soul has been saved. To be saved means Yahweh has saved, which is the name “Jesus.” It is of this salvation that David sang, “The same stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” In my 2021 commentary, I spoke of the rejected “cornerstone” being the round stone that seals a tomb, but can be rolled away. This means the “builders” are those souls who built a life towards an expected death, with entombment. A squared edge block of rock cannot be removed, once one’s death tomb has been sealed. Therefore, Jesus shows a soul how salvation comes after death, when the seal on one’s death tomb is removed, so a soul can ascend to Yahweh and the Spiritual realm.
This round stone that rolls away after death must become the cornerstone of the life one builds. Instead of building a life in service to self; one must build a life in service to Yahweh. That makes one submit to His Will and agree to all the terms of divine marriage (the Covenant), so one can then receive the resurrected soul of Jesus in one’s own soul (breath of life in dead matter. When that happens, it then reflects upon one’s personal Easter Day. That day occurs well before one’s physical death; but when that physical death comes, having built in a rounded stone as one’s cornerstone, the seal of death is rolled away, so a soul can be raised from death.
Of this, David sang, “This is Yahweh doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” We cannot do this without Yahweh. There is no soul salvation without Yahweh. Therefore, He is due thanks for allowing one who had been built of sin, to then be rebuilt in the image of His Son. No one can pretend to be Jesus reborn. Yahweh does this; Yahweh alone.
When David ended this song by singing, “On this day Yahweh has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” “this day” is a soul’s personal Easter Day. It is when Jesus’ soul has been resurrected within one’s bound-for-death soul. The gladness that comes from that new and everlasting personal experience cannot be faked. It is not something that is contagious. No one else can know the overwhelming swell of presence that is Yahweh’s Spirit within and surrounding one's being. No soul can ever forget the special feeling of giving birth to Yahweh's Son. No words can express one’s personal gain. All words spoken, so others can come to know this same presence, is the truth. That presence of gladness leads one to willingly, lovingly and gladly preach the true meaning of Scripture, so that all eyes will see the marvel of the truth themselves.
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