|
by
Doug Ward |
One popular worship song repeats the words of Psalm 118:24: "This is the
day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
When
I sing these words, I am reminded that life is good, and that each day is a
gift from God. These are good sentiments. It turns out, though, that the words
in their original context refer to something more specific, to a particular
kind of day rather than to every day.
To
identify the "day" in Psalm 118:24, let's look at Psalm 118, which
originally may have been sung by worshipers walking in a procession to the
Jerusalem Temple for a festival like Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles. The
psalm begins with a worship leader exhorting everyone to thank God for his love
and faithfulness to his people (verses 1-4).
Next,
an individual representing the congregation praises God for delivering him or
her from a life-threatening trial (verses 5-21). In the face of severe
opposition, the individual cried out to God and was saved from death. Verses
14-16 quote Exodus 15, an earlier song praising God for the rescue of the
Israelites from Pharaoh's army during their Exodus from Egypt. The message is
that just as God saved the Israelites at the Red Sea, so he continues to save
his people.
As
the procession approaches the Temple, the entire congregation rejoices. They
compare the individual to a stone that initially is rejected for use in a
construction project but later is given the most prominent position in the
building. "The stone that the builders rejected has become the
cornerstone," they declare in verse 22.
It
is this day of rescue and thanksgiving that is in view in verse 24. As Dr.
Daniel Estes of Cedarville University explains in his commentary on the Psalms,
"This day for rejoicing has been made by the Lord, who by his
extraordinary intervention on behalf of the psalmist has created this
opportunity for his thankful people to praise him."
For
Christians the individual in Psalm 118 foreshadows Jesus of Nazareth, who was
welcomed to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday by worshipers singing Psalm 118 (see Mark
11:1-10). Like the stone of Psalm 118:22, Jesus was rejected, undergoing a
death by Roman crucifixion. But then God raised him from the dead to be the
foundation of a spiritual Temple composed of believers from all nations (Acts
4:11; Ephesians 2:20).
Christians,
then, view the day of Christ's resurrection as the greatest example of the day
referred to in Psalm 118:24. It is in this day, above all others, that we can
"rejoice and be glad."
File
translated from TEX by TTH,
version 3.66.
On 11 Mar 2025, 16:18.
