Psalm 118:23

Psalm 118:23, in plain English

The community is standing together, amazed, recognizing that this reversal can only be God's doing. Nobody could have engineered this outcome — it's unmistakably God's work.

Why it's here

The psalmist shifts from 'I' to 'we' and 'our' here — he's bringing the whole congregation into the moment. They're all witnesses together to something that defies normal explanation. When God acts, people notice, and people talk about it.

Who's speaking

The psalmist and the gathered community, confirming together what God has done

Where it sits in the story

Throughout the Bible, God regularly does things that make His people stop and say, 'This is impossible except for God.' From the parting of the sea to the resurrection, God's action is always recognizable precisely because it breaks the pattern of what humans can accomplish alone.

The scholarly reading

This reversal of rejected-to-exalted status is God's direct work, and the result is so extraordinary that observers can only marvel at it.

Language and setting

The Hebrew particle זֹאת (zō't, 'this') points demonstratively backward to verse 22, suggesting the speakers are witnesses to an actual event—whether literal architectural restoration or metaphorical political rehabilitation. The verb נִפְלָאָה (niplā'āh, 'it is marvelous') shares the root פלא (pelā') with 'wonder' or 'impossibility,' implying something that transcends ordinary human capability and thus unmistakably bears the signature of divine action.

Voice

Either witnesses to or participants in the transformation being described—the collective 'our eyes' suggests liturgical recitation within assembled worshipers who authenticate the miracle through their corporate testimony.

Significance

The insistence that this is 'from the LORD' (מֵאֵת יְהוָה) centralizes divine agency within the narrative of reversal, which is crucial to biblical theodicy: not luck, not human cleverness, but Yahweh's deliberate intervention explains impossible transformations. This frames all subsequent reversals in Scripture—Israel's restoration, the resurrection of Christ—as divinely authored surprises.

21I will give You thanks, for You have answered me, and You have become my salvation.

22The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

23This is from the LORD, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

24This is the day that the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

25O LORD, save us, we pray. We beseech You, O LORD, cause us to prosper!

Read all of Psalm 118 — Open the gates of righteousness. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Jesus claimed this verse for Himself.