Psalms 118:25-26

118:25 Please Lord, deliver!

Please Lord, grant us success! ¹ 

118:26 May the one who comes in the name of the Lord ²  be blessed!

We will pronounce blessings on you ³  in the Lord’s temple. ⁴ 

Matthew 21:9

21:9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those following kept shouting, ⁵  “Hosanna ⁶  to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! ⁷  Hosanna in the highest!”

Matthew 21:15

21:15 But when the chief priests and the experts in the law ⁸  saw the wonderful things he did and heard the children crying out in the temple courts, ⁹  “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant

[118:25]  ¹ sn A petition for deliverance and success seems odd in a psalm thanking God for deliverance, but it is not unique (see Ps 9:19-20). The people ask God to continue to intervene for them as he has for the psalmist.

[118:26]  ² sn The people refer here to the psalmist, who enters the Lord’s temple to thank him publicly (see vv. 19-21), as the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

[118:26]  ³ tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine plural, but the final mem (ם) is probably dittographic (note the mem [מ] at the beginning of the following form) or enclitic, in which case the suffix may be taken as second masculine singular, referring to the psalmist.

[118:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “from the house of the Lord.”

[21:9]  ⁵ tn Grk “were shouting, saying.” The participle λέγοντας (legontas) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[21:9]  ⁶ tn The expression ῾Ωσαννά (Jwsanna, literally in Hebrew, “O Lord, save”) in the quotation from Ps 118:25-26 was probably by this time a familiar liturgical expression of praise, on the order of “Hail to the king,” although both the underlying Aramaic and Hebrew expressions meant “O Lord, save us.” In words familiar to every Jew, the author is indicating that at this point every messianic expectation is now at the point of realization. It is clear from the words of the psalm shouted by the crowd that Jesus is being proclaimed as messianic king. See E. Lohse, TDNT 9:682-84.

[21:9]  ⁷ sn A quotation from Ps 118:25-26.

[21:15]  ⁸ tn Or “and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[21:15]  ⁹ tn Grk “crying out in the temple [courts] and saying.” The participle λέγοντας (legontas) is somewhat redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.