A Plea for Salvation and Prosperity in Psalm 118:25

Save now, I pray, O Lord;
O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.

My Thoughts

Psalm 118:25 presents a heartfelt plea to the Lord for salvation and prosperity, echoing an ancient cry of faith highlighted during significant religious celebrations. Commentators like Charles Spurgeon and Albert Barnes interpret this as both an urgent request for divine intervention and a recognition of the need for collective prayer within the church community. This verse emphasizes that true prosperity encompasses spiritual growth, unity, and the presence of the Holy Spirit, rather than mere numbers or material success. It encourages believers to earnestly seek God’s favor, reflecting the sentiment expressed during Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, where the crowds shouted, “Hosanna.”…..Bill

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Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD.” Hosanna! God save our king! Let David reign! Or as we who live in these latter days interpret it,—Let the Son of David live forever, let his saving help go forth throughout all nations. This was the peculiar shout of the feast of tabernacles; and so long as we dwell here below in these tabernacles of clay, we cannot do better than use the same cry. Perpetually let us pray that our glorious King may work salvation in the midst of the earth. We plead also for ourselves that the Lord would save us, deliver us, and continue to sanctify us. This we ask with great earnestness, beseeching it of Jehovah. Prayer should always be an entreating and beseeching.

“O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.” Let the church be built up: through the salvation of sinners may the number of the saints be increased; through the preservation of saints may the church be strengthened, continued, beautified, perfected. Our Lord Jesus himself pleads for the salvation and the prosperity of his chosen; as our Intercessor before the throne, he asks that the heavenly Father would save and keep those who were of old committed to his charge, and cause them to be one through the indwelling Spirit. Salvation had been given, and therefore it is asked for. Strange though it may seem, he who cries for salvation is already in a measure saved. None can so truly cry, “Save, I beseech thee,” as those who have already participated in salvation; and the most prosperous church is that which most imploringly seeks prosperity. It may seem strange that, returning from victory, flushed with triumph, the hero should still ask for salvation, but so it is, and it could not be otherwise. When all our Saviour’s work and warfare were ended, his intercession became even more prominently a feature of his life; after he had conquered all his foes, he made intercession for the transgressors. What is true of him is true of his church also, for whenever she obtains the largest measure of spiritual blessing, she is then most inclined to plead for more. She never pants so eagerly for prosperity as when she sees the Lord’s doings in her midst, and marvels at them. Then, encouraged by the gracious visitation, she sets apart her solemn days of prayer, and cries with passionate desire, “Save now,” and “Send now prosperity.” She would fain take the tide at the flood, and make the most of the day of which the Lord has already made so much.

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Enduring Word

Save now, I pray, O LORD: The context of the open gates (Psalm 118:19) and the coming into the city, as well as the arrangement of this psalm, give the sense that these are words from different speakers or parts of a chorus. (Guzik)

i. Save: “With the Hebrews, salvation is a wide word, comprising all the favors of God that may lead to preservation.” (Hall, cited in Spurgeon)

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Albert Barnes

Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord … – The word save here seems to be used in the general sense of imploring the divine interposition and mercy. It is a part of the word which in the New Testament is rendered “Hosanna” – save now Matthew 21:9 – and is the language which the multitudes employed when they followed the Savior as he went from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. The language which they used on that occasion was borrowed from this psalm, and was eminently appropriate to the occasion – “Hosanna – blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord;” but the fact that it was thus employed does not prove that the psalm had original reference to the Messiah. The language was not improbably used on high festivals, and would be naturally employed when the Messiah came.

Send now prosperity – Give success; be favorable. God had interposed, and now the prayer is that there might be continued and uninterrupted prosperity; that as the tide had begun to turn in the psalmist’s favor, it might recede no more; that the calamities and woes which he had experienced might not be repeated. This was omitted in the acclamations of the multitude that attended the Savior Matthew 21:9; but it is eminently an appropriate prayer to be used in connection with his coming – since his coming, whether to the world, to an individual, to a church, or to a community, brings the highest kind of “prosperity” in its train.

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John Gill

Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord,…. Or, “we beseech thee”; for they are the words of the people, wishing all health and happiness to their king; and it is as if they had said, “vivat rex,” that is, “let the king live,” or, “God save the King”: and no doubt these words were used by the people, when all the tribes united and made David king over all Israel, and when he became the head of the corner; which was attended with the shouts and acclamations of the people, expressing themselves after this manner, And certain it is that these words were used by the followers of Christ, and applied to him, when he made his public entry into Jerusalem, crying, “hosanna” to the son of David. The word “hosanna” is the same with “save now”; and is compounded of the two words in the text, thus translated, Matthew 21:9;

O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity; to our King: give him success in all his undertakings, and victory over all his enemies; may the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hands; may his Gospel run and be glorified, and be spread all over the world, and multitudes bow to the sceptre of his kingdom; may his kingdom be enlarged, and his dominion be from sea to sea; and may this spiritual building rise, and be brought to perfection, of which he is the foundation and chief corner stone. The allusion may be to the shouts usually made at the laying of the foundation or cornerstone of any considerable edifice, and at the bringing in the head stone of it; see Ezra 3:11.

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Matthew Henry

Let him have the acclamations of the people, as is usual at the inauguration of a prince. Let every one of his loyal subjects shout for joy, Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord! This is like Vivat rex-Long live the king, and expresses a hearty joy for his accession to the crown, an entire satisfaction in his government, and a zealous affection to the interests and honor of it. Hosanna signifies, Save now, I beseech thee.

[1.] “Lord, save me, I beseech thee; let this Savior be my Savior, and, in order to that, my ruler; let me be taken under his protection and owned as one of his willing subjects. His enemies are my enemies; Lord, I beseech thee, save me from them. Send me an interest in that prosperity which his kingdom brings with it to all those that entertain it. Let my soul prosper and be in health, in that peace and righteousness which his government brings, Ps. 72:3. Let me have victory over those lusts that war against my soul, and let divine grace go on in my heart conquering and to conquer.“

[2.] “Lord, preserve him, I beseech thee, even the Savior himself, and send him prosperity in all his undertakings; give success to his gospel, and let it be mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strong-holds and reducing souls to their allegiance to him. Let his name be sanctified, his kingdom come, his will be done.“ Thus let prayer be made for him continually, Ps. 72:15. On the Lord’s day, when we rejoice and are glad in his kingdom, we must pray for the advancement of it more and more, and its establishment upon the ruins of the devil’s kingdom. When Christ made his public entry into Jerusalem, he was thus met by his well-wishers (Mt. 21:9): Hosanna to the Son of David; long live King Jesus; let him reign forever.

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Adam Clarke

Save now, I beseech thee — These words were sung by the Jews on the feast of tabernacles, when carrying green branches in their hands; and from the הושיעה נא hoshiah nna, we have the word hosanna. This was sung by the Jewish children when Christ made his public entry into Jerusalem. See Matthew 21:9, and see the note there, Matthew 21:9, in which the word and the circumstance are both explained.

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The Pulpit Commentaries

THE NEED FOR EARNEST PRAYER. (Psalms 118:25.)

1. That the individual soul may be “saved,” strengthened, comforted, sanctified.

2. That the Church, the society, the institution, may be “prospered;” that its officers may be inspired and directed; that its action may be pure in motive and high in aim; that its efforts may be crowned with true and lasting success.

Church prosperity.

I. WHAT IS IT?

1. Not mere numbers. Crowd-winning is not soul-winning.

2. Still less mere rank, wealth, and talent in the Church. He is a fool who despises these things, but he is a still greater one who claims them to be identical with true prosperity, or a substitute for it.

3. But it consists in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit of God. This will be seen in the conversion of sinners; in the holiness and zeal of believers; in their increase of unity and love.

II. WHENCE IS IT? It is from God. We are to look to him. We are terribly apt to look elsewhere.

III. HOW IS IT OBTAINED? By waiting upon God with earnest, importunate prayer. “O Lord, I beseech thee,” etc. And one such earnest seeker can do much to gain this. It is the prayer of one man—”I beseech thee”—that we have here.

IV. WHEN MAY IT BE HAD? NOW! The earnest longing for it is an omen of its approach. The prayer of faith works marvels.

V. WHY SHOULD WE SEEK IT? For our own sake, for the Church’s sake; for the world’s sake; for Christ’s sake.—S.C.

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Cross-References

Matthew 21:9 (KJV )

⁹And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.

Matthew 23:39 (KJV )

³⁹For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Mark 11:10 (KJV )

¹⁰Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.

Psalm 20:9 (KJV )

⁹ Save, Lord:

Let the king hear us when we call.

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Geneva Bible 1560

Psalm 118:25

25 (m) O Lord, I praie thee, save now: ô Lord, I praie thee now give prosperity.

(m) The people pray for the prosperity of David’s kingdom, who was the figure of Christ.

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Closing Thoughts

Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law. Psalm 119:18 NKJV

Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, For in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, For I lift up my soul to You. Psalm 143:8 NKJV