Tehillim 118 | To Give Thanks and Praise

This psalm concludes the "Hallel" section. In a shiur from the Yemei Iyun Be’Tanakh, Rosh Yeshiva Harav Mosheh Lichtenstein points out that this psalm not only brings the section to a close, but also adds a new and significant dimension — thanksgiving. The first part of Hallel begins with “Halleluya! Sing praise, servants of the Lord” (113:1) and ends with “Praise the Lord, all nations” (117:1), whereas the second part — our psalm — opens with “Thanks the Lord for He is good, His loving-kindness is forever” (118:1), and closes with that same verse: “Thanks the Lord for He is good, His loving-kindness is forever”  (118:29). The connection between praise (hallel) and thanksgiving (hoda'ah) rolls easily off the tongue and seems natural to us, but in truth, they reflect two fundamentally different movements of the soul.

Praise (hallel and tehila) and blessing all fall under the category of glorification (shevach). The focus of glorification is God Himself, and does not not be personal: one who offers glorification is awestruck by God's greatness and spreads word of it. Thanksgiving, by contrast, is a personal movement where we thank God for the goodness He has done for us. We give thanks not only for the content of the good itself, but also for the very fact that God acknowledged us and showed us kindness. Some events may call for both praise and thanksgiving, but the two are not always joined.

By way of analogy, a person might be impressed by an immense, magnificent building and marvel at the engineering that made it possible. He does not feel thankful, because it has no personal meaning for him. Yet if he is wandering in the desert and a passerby hands him a cup of water, he may not be struck by the “skill” it took to hand over a cup of water, but the act is deeply meaningful to him, and worthy of thanks.

The first half of Hallel is praise. That is why he can speak of things that have not yet happened, and praise God confidently on the basis of potential alone (as in Psalm 115). That is also why it can summon the nations to praise God even when they have no personal stake in His goodness (as in Psalm 117). But our psalm turns to thanksgiving and personal experience: “In my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free” (118:5). Over the course of the shiur, Harav Mosheh expands on many places throughout the prayer service and Sefer Tehillim where this duality appears — you can listen to it in full at the attached link.

Near the end of the psalm, we pause from giving thanks and call out: “Lord, please save us; Lord, please grant us success!” (118:25). With this, we emphasize the need to guard against complacency. We always need more of God’s salvation, and even as we thank Him for past deliverance, our eyes are already looking ahead. Just as we remember times of distress in our moments of joy (as in Psalms 115 and 116), so too do we bear in mind that those times of distress may return.