Yahweh & Yeshua in Psalm 118
Reading both Yahweh (or Yah where the abbreviated form is used) when the Divine name appears in Hebrew, and Yeshua where this Hebrew word for salvation appears brings Palm 118 alive for Palm Sunday and Easter Resurrection Sunday.
Verse 25 hits us with new impact when we hear the opening phrase: “Yeshua us,” representing the common English translation of “save us” — save of course being the verbal form of the noun salvation. The underlying Hebrew phrase is “hoshiyah na” (“cause salvation now”) which the Greek transliterates as hōsanna which English perpetuates as the transliterated word hosanna.
The ESV provides the base text for this layout facilitating a responsorial or antiphonal reading:
Psalm 118.14–29 (ESV, alt. with Yahweh/Yah and Yeshua)
14 Yah is my strength and my song;
he has become my Yeshua.
15 Glad songs of Yeshua are in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly,
16 the right hand of Yahweh exalts,
the right hand of Yahweh does valiantly!”
17 I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of Yah.
18 Yah has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to Yah.
20 This is the gate of Yahweh; the righteous shall enter through it.
21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my Yeshua.
22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
23 This is Yahweh’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that Yahweh has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Yeshua us, we pray, Yahweh! Yahweh, we pray, give us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh! We bless you from the house of Yahweh.
27 Yahweh is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.
29 Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
