Psalm 118

Introduction

This guide is often read on Palm Sunday and it is especially interesting when read in light of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. All the gospels include a quotation of part of Psalm 118:26. As an example,

Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

(Mt 21:9, Ps 118:26 emphasized)

For this to make it into all of the gospels (see also Mk 11:9, Lk 19:38, and Jn 12:13), it must be pretty important. [a]

We shouldn't just look at just 118:26, though. There is an interpretive theory for NT quotations of the OT, known as metalepsis,  that insists, and I think correctly, that the NT writer has the larger context in mind when he quotes the biblical…