THE SONG JESUS SUNG
The Hallel (Psalm 113-118) and Matthew's Gospel (Mt 21-28)
There is a remarkably tight connection here. And I think there is a very good possibility that we can see something that can become a major biblical-theological thread through Matthew 21–28. The key is to put the Hallel, Passover, the Last Supper, Psalm 118, and Matthew's Passion narrative on the same timeline.
Let me make this point of contention up front: We cannot prove that the specific hymn Jesus and the disciples sang in Matthew 26:30 was Psalm 118. But Matthew's wording, the Passover setting, the Hallel tradition, and Matthew's extensive use of Psalm 118 make it quite reasonable to think that the hymn was the concluding Hallel psalms, potentially including Psalm 118. Scholars commonly identify the Hallel (Psalms 113–118) as the likely background. And if Psalm 118 was indeed part of what they sang, the implications are huge.
START WITH THE HALLEL
The word Hallel comes from hallelu-yah—“Praise Yah.” Many times in the Psalms, “yah” is a poetic, shortened version of “YHWH”. That is also why we can say “hallelu-yah is Praise the Lord”.
Psalms 113–118 became known as the Egyptian Hallel, because they were associated with God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt and became central to Passover worship and the people would have sung these psalms during the Passover feast along with eating the different parts of the meal and drinking the different cups of the meal.
God delivers His rejected servant/king
That's already beginning to sound like the Gospel story. And Psalm 118 doesn't merely end the collection. It brings the whole thing to a climax. Matthew isn't merely telling us that Jesus celebrated Passover. He is showing us Jesus as the fulfillment of the story Passover was always telling. There are a couple of places where we need to distinguish what we know from what we can reasonably infer, but the theological connections are remarkably rich.
THE HALLEL TO THE RESURRECTION
The Hallel is Psalms 113–118, traditionally associated especially with Passover. The association is ancient, although the exact first-century order and mechanics of the meal shouldn't be reconstructed too confidently from later Jewish practice.
Matthew 26:30 simply says that after the meal Jesus and the disciples sang a hymn before going to the Mount of Olives. We cannot prove which psalm or psalms they sang, but the Passover/Hallel connection makes Psalms 113–118 a very plausible background, and many interpreters identify the closing Hallel as the likely hymn.
Now watch what happens.
The Hallel is Psalms 113–118, traditionally associated especially with Passover. The association is ancient, although the exact first-century order and mechanics of the meal shouldn't be reconstructed too confidently from later Jewish practice.
Matthew 26:30 simply says that after the meal Jesus and the disciples sang a hymn before going to the Mount of Olives. We cannot prove which psalm or psalms they sang, but the Passover/Hallel connection makes Psalms 113–118 a very plausible background, and many interpreters identify the closing Hallel as the likely hymn.
PSALM 113 – GOD SEES THE LOWLY
Psalm 113 begins with praise to Yahweh and then makes a remarkable movement: God is exalted above the nations, yet He stoops down to see the lowly. The psalm celebrates the God who raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap.
Now put that beside Jesus.
Matthew has spent the Gospel showing us a Messiah who doesn't operate according to normal human definitions of greatness. He touches lepers. He welcomes children. He eats with sinners. He heals the broken. He blesses the poor. And then Matthew 21 gives us the King: not on a war horse, but on a donkey.
That's Psalm 113's theology embodied: The high God comes down.
And Philippians 2 will eventually make that movement explicit: the one who possesses divine status humbles himself and becomes obedient to death. So before we ever get to Psalm 118, the Hallel has already prepared us to recognize what kind of King Jesus is.
PSALM 114 – THE EXODUS
This is the most obvious Passover psalm. It remembers: Egypt → Israel → Red Sea → Jordan → God's presence. Creation itself responds to God's saving presence. The sea flees. The Jordan turns back. The mountains tremble. Why? Because God has come to dwell among His people.
Now put that beside Matthew. Jesus is about to celebrate the Passover, but Matthew has been announcing a new Exodus. At the beginning: “Immanuel” — God with us. Now at the end: “I am with you always.” And in between? Jesus leads His people through a new kind of Exodus. Not: Pharaoh into freedom but: seeing the truth about sin and death, God’s kingdom and our new creation.
This is where N.T. Wright's broader New Testament framework is particularly helpful: Jesus' death and resurrection aren't simply about individual forgiveness detached from Israel's story. They are the climax of Israel's story of God rescuing His people and bringing His kingdom. So Psalm 114 becomes the Exodus backdrop for the Last Supper.
PSALM 115 – WHO WILL YOU TRUST?
Psalm 115 contrasts: Yahweh with idols. The idols have mouths but don't speak. Eyes but don't see. Ears but don't hear. Hands but don't act. And then comes the great refrain: “Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to your name be the glory.”
Now watch Matthew's Passion.
Jesus is surrounded by people who are constantly trying to define: What kind of Messiah is this?
The crowd wants a king. The religious leaders want a Messiah who fits their categories. Peter wants a Messiah who won't suffer. Pilate wants to know whether Jesus is a king. Even the crucifixion scene becomes a contest over: “If you're really the Son of God…”
Psalm 115 asks: Where does your trust actually belong? And Matthew's answer is: Trust the God who appears to be losing. That's the scandal of the cross.
PSALM 116 – THE CUP
Now we get to one of the most fascinating connections. Psalm 116 is a personal testimony of someone who has experienced extreme distress and been delivered from death. The psalmist says he loves Yahweh because God heard his cry. And then comes: “I will lift up the cup of salvation.”
The psalm goes on to connect that cup with thanksgiving and vows before God. Psalm 116 belongs to the Hallel and therefore to the Passover tradition. One scholarly treatment notes the relationship between the "cup of salvation" and thanksgiving sacrifice, while also cautioning against simply equating Psalm 116's cup with one specific Passover cup.
Now go to Matthew 26. Jesus takes the cup. But Jesus doesn't merely say: “This cup represents salvation.” He identifies the cup with: His blood, the covenant for the forgiveness of sins.
And then He goes to Gethsemane. And what does He pray? “Let this cup pass from me…” That's incredible when Psalm 116 is sitting in the Passover background. The Hallel has just been celebrating: God's salvation. The cup represents deliverance from death and Jesus now looks at His own suffering and says: “This cup.” He's taking the salvation story of Israel and embodying it in Himself.
AND THEN PSALM 116:15
There's another line that becomes haunting when you hear it beside the cross: “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones.” Again, we shouldn't turn that into a simplistic prediction of Jesus. Psalm 116 originally speaks about the psalmist's own deliverance.
But canonically, the early church could hear the language of death, deliverance, thanksgiving and salvation through the resurrection of Jesus. Psalm 118 in particular became deeply important for this kind of Christian rereading. And now Jesus is the faithful servant walking willingly into death.
PSALM 117 – ALL NATIONS
Don't overlook this tiny psalm. It's only two verses. But it changes the direction of the Hallel. After remembering: Israel's salvation the song ends by calling: ALL NATIONS to praise Yahweh. That is incredibly important for Matthew. Because Matthew begins with: Israel's Messiah. But ends with: “Make disciples of all nations.”
That is not an accidental ending.
The salvation that began with Israel's Exodus is now moving outward to the nations. So: Psalm 114 says God rescues Israel. Psalm 117 says: The nations are invited into the praise. Matthew 28 calls the disciples to be sent to the nations - all nations - to restore all the nations back to God. That's a beautiful Great Commission trajectory.
PSALM 118: THE SONG OF THE REJECTED KING
I think the dramatic movement is: DISTRESS → DELIVERANCE → PROCESSION → REJECTION → REVERSAL → THE DAY → THE KING. And then salvation/praise surrounds the whole thing. That's important because Psalm 118 is not merely predicting individual events. It tells a story of God's salvation.
1. DISTRESS – Psalm 118:5–9
“Out of my distress I called on the LORD…” This is where the song begins to get personal. The speaker isn't singing from the mountaintop. He's singing after having been surrounded, threatened, and pressed. The language is intense: “All nations surrounded me…” “They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side…” The repetition creates the feeling of being completely boxed in.
And then: “I called on the LORD…” And: “The LORD answered me.” That is the first movement. The crisis is real. The prayer is real. The deliverance is real. And notice what the psalmist does not say: “I got myself out.” He says: “The LORD answered me.”
The song is ultimately about God's steadfast love, not human heroism. The psalm begins and ends with: “His steadfast love endures forever.” Psalm 118:1 and 118:29 form the frame around the entire song. Now put Jesus here.
Matthew's Jesus is about to enter His greatest distress. Gethsemane. Arrest. Abandonment. False accusations. Mockery. Crucifixion. The Son is about to experience the deepest possible version of: “I am surrounded.”
2. DELIVERANCE – Psalm 118:10–18
Then the language intensifies. “All nations surrounded me…” “They surrounded me on every side…” “They surrounded me like bees…” But then: “In the name of the LORD I cut them off.”
The psalm repeatedly emphasizes: “The right hand of the LORD is exalted.” And then one of the most important lines: “I shall not die, but live, and recount the deeds of the LORD.”
Now here's where we need to be careful. Psalm 118 isn't originally saying: “A thousand years from now Jesus will be crucified and resurrected.”
That's not how the psalm works in its original setting. It is a testimony of God's real deliverance from death/threat. But the New Testament sees Jesus as the ultimate embodiment of this pattern: God's chosen one enters death → God vindicates him → death does not get the final word.
That's why Psalm 118 becomes so important in early Christian proclamation. The rejected stone becomes the cornerstone. The one threatened by death lives. God's right hand wins. The New Testament repeatedly applies Psalm 118:22 to Jesus.
Ephesians 1:19-23 New Living Translation
19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. 21 Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. 22 God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. 23 And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.
3. PROCESSION – Psalm 118:19–21
This part is easy to overlook. The psalmist says: “Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.” This is now becoming a processional song. The person who has been delivered is moving toward the Temple. He's coming through the gates. And what happens? Praise. Thanksgiving. Worship. So the psalm has moved: Crisis to Cry to Deliverance to Procession and then to Worship.
That matters enormously when you get to Matthew 21. Because what does Jesus do? Jesus enters Jerusalem. And the crowd responds with the words of Psalm 118.
4. REJECTION – Psalm 118:22
Now comes the shocking turn: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” This is the theological center of the psalm. The one who was rejected becomes the one upon whom the building depends. And notice how strange that is. The builders are supposed to know what they're doing. They're the experts. They examine the stone. They reject it. Wrong stone.
But God says: That's the stone I'm using. The crowd says: “Hosanna!” Then Jesus goes into the Temple. And what does He find? A Temple that has failed to become what God intended. Then He cleanses it. Then: “the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.” Then children begin shouting: “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
And the religious leaders become angry. Matthew 21:15. And Jesus responds by quoting Psalm 8:2 about praise coming from children.
Now here is where Psalm 118 presents rejection followed by God's reversal. Several scholars understand the figure in the psalm as a Davidic king whose rejection is overturned by God's action. Now watch Matthew. Jesus tells the parable of the wicked tenants. The son is rejected. Killed.
And then Jesus says: “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?” Matthew 21:42. Matthew doesn't leave you wondering what Jesus means. Jesus is the stone. The leaders reject Him. God will vindicate Him.
5. REVERSAL – Psalm 118:23
This is the line that changes everything: “This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” The reversal isn't human achievement. It is God's doing. That's important because the cross initially looks like: Jesus lost. The authorities won. The disciples scattered. The movement collapsed. The Messiah was executed.
But Psalm 118 teaches you how to interpret that kind of moment: Don't interpret God's work by the appearance of the moment. The rejected stone becomes the cornerstone. The apparent defeat becomes God's victory. The cross becomes the pathway to resurrection. The tomb becomes the doorway to new creation.
And Matthew 21 puts Psalm 118:22–23 directly into Jesus' confrontation with the Temple leadership.
6. THE DAY – Psalm 118:24
Now comes the line we quote constantly: “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” But notice the context. What day? The day of God's decisive action.
The day when the rejected one is vindicated. The day when God's purposes become visible.
That's why I would resist turning this verse into: “It's a beautiful day outside, so praise God!” It's true that we can praise God for a beautiful day. But that's not the psalm's big idea.
The psalm is saying: Look what God has done! The rejected stone is now the cornerstone. The Lord has acted. “This is the day.” Now think of Easter. The disciples arrive at the tomb. Jesus is dead. But then: The tomb is empty.
And suddenly Psalm 118:23–24 sounds different: “This is the LORD's doing.” “This is the day the LORD has made.” That's not a random devotional verse anymore. It's a resurrection declaration.
7. THE KING – Psalm 118:25–26
And now we reach the section Matthew puts directly into Jesus' entrance. Psalm 118: “Save us, we pray, O LORD!” The Hebrew says: Hoshiah na and this comes from: HOSANNA
Then: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!”
Now Matthew 21: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Matthew is directly using Psalm 118:25–26. And this is where the Psalm becomes explosive.
Because Psalm 118 originally gives us a deliverance procession. And Matthew puts Jesus in the middle of it. The crowd isn't simply saying: “Welcome to Jerusalem, Jesus!” They're using Israel's salvation song to welcome Him. And all of this points to the “Day of the Lord” and the King’s second coming to make all things new.
AND NOW LOOK AT THE ORDER: 1) 118:5: “Out of my distress…”, 2) 118:6: “The LORD is on my side…”, 3) 118:17: “I shall not die, but live…” 4) 118:19: “Open for me the gates…”, 5) 118:22: “The stone the builders rejected…”, 6) 118:23: “This is the LORD's doing…” 7) 118:24: “This is the day…” 118:25: “Save us!” 118:26: “Blessed is he who comes…”
That is an extraordinarily coherent movement and don’t miss this movement: They walk toward Gethsemane. If Psalm 118 was among the Hallel psalms they sang, Jesus has just sung:
“The LORD is with me; I will not fear.” Then He goes to Gethsemane.
“The stone the builders rejected…” Then He goes to His arrest.
“I shall not die, but live…” Then He goes to the cross.
And here's where I think the connection becomes incredibly beautiful: Jesus isn't accidentally walking into the story. He knows the Psalm. He knows the story. And He is consciously walking into the story of Israel's deliverance.
AND NOW LOOK AT THE WHOLE HALLEL AS THE STORY
This is what I think you're really seeing.
PSALM 113 – God comes down and God lifts the lowly. Jesus comes down.
PSALM 114 – God delivers (The Great Exodus). Jesus leads the new Exodus.
PSALM 115 - Put your trust in God not idols. Jesus puts his full trust in the Father - “Your will be done!”
PSALM 116 – Now God hears the cry of the faithful. We see death; God sees deliverance; a cup of salvation. Jesus takes up the cup of salvation and allows us to drink from it as well.
PSALM 117 - Salvation expands outward to redeem all nations for Christ. Jesus dies for all nations and has done what Israel could not or would not do.
PSALM 118 - The rejected one is vindicated. The people pray: “Save Us”. The blessed one has come and is coming again. The rejected stone is the cornerstone; so let us look at what the LORD has done. This is the day that Jesus dies for the nations. Jesus is rejected, raised to new life. This is the day Jesus becomes the cornerstone. This is the day that Jesus sends his disciples to the nations and begins the countdown for his return to establish all things new.
AND THERE'S ONE MORE CONNECTION I DON'T WANT TO MISS
Matthew's Gospel gives us two different Passover moments. Matthew 21 that shows us Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. The people say: Hosanna! Now, Matthew 26 shows us Jesus celebrating the Passover. He takes the cup. The disciples sing.
Matthew 27 describes how Jesus dies. Matthew 28 tell us that it’s not the end: Jesus rises. But now go back to Psalm 118:24: “This is the day…” The psalm's “day” is the day of God's decisive saving action. That makes the resurrection morning incredibly powerful as a Christian rereading of the Hallel. The day Jesus was rejected becomes: THE DAY GOD HAS MADE.
Not because the cross wasn't real. Because God turned the cross into victory.
The Passover remembered the Exodus and “The Hallel” sang about the Exodus. Jesus fulfilled the Exodus. And Matthew presents Jesus' death and resurrection as the climactic act of God's saving work—bringing Israel's story to its intended destination and opening that salvation to the nations. And perhaps even more simply: THE SONG BECAME THE STORY.
Israel sang about God's salvation. Jesus became God's salvation. Israel sang about the rejected one being vindicated. Jesus was rejected and vindicated. Israel sang, “Save us.” Jesus became the answer. Israel celebrated the Exodus. Jesus inaugurated the new Exodus.
And the Hallel ends with praise reaching beyond Israel. Matthew ends with: “Go to all nations.”
So before the Last Supper even happens, Matthew has already told you which Psalm you need to be listening for. Then Jesus eats Passover, gives the bread and cup, sings, walks into Gethsemane, is rejected, dies, and rises. That's not just a collection of interesting parallels.
That's a story. And I think “The Song Became the Story” can become a groundwork for us to understand what God is calling us to do as disciples who want to make disciples.
NOW PUT JESUS AT THE PASSOVER TABLE
Matthew 26 tells us: “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” — Matthew 26:30. Matthew doesn't tell us what they sang. But the Passover connection is extraordinarily important as we have tried unpack.
The Hallel was associated with Passover, and the concluding portion was traditionally sung at the end of the meal. Modern Jewish practice divides Psalms 113–118 around the meal, with 113–114 before and 115–118 after; the precise first-century sequence should be treated cautiously, but the association of the Hallel with Passover is well established.
So picture this: 1) Jesus has just taken the bread - “This is my body.” 2) Jesus has just taken the cup - “This is my blood of the covenant.” 3) Jesus knows He's going to Gethsemane - He knows Judas is coming. He knows Peter will deny Him. He knows the cross is hours away.
And then…They sing. And if the concluding Hallel included Psalm 118, Jesus walks into the night singing words that sound remarkably like the story He's about to live.
THE LAST SONG JESUS SANG
Imagine the beginning: “Before Jesus went to Gethsemane, before the soldiers came, before the nails, before the cross, Jesus sang.”
And then ask: What did Jesus sing? We don't know with absolute certainty. But He was celebrating Passover and may very well have sung Psalm 118 - The Hallel. It was the traditional praise collection associated with Passover. And Psalm 118 was the climactic Hallel psalm.
So there is a very real possibility that the last song Jesus sang before He went to the cross included the words that would soon be fulfilled in His own body.
And then read: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” And say: “Jesus didn't just sing that song. Jesus became the story.”
That's a connection I think is worth discovering!
I think it’s a song that is worth singing!
