This Is the Day
Summer is nigh upon us, which means warm weather, open pools, and the smell of grilled meat. It also means that you’re more likely to hear this time-tested line from Psalm 118:24 when you talk with your Christian friends: “This is the day that the Lord has made, so let’s rejoice and be glad in it!” I admire (and encourage!) this instinct to praise God for beautiful, sunny days. It is fitting to acknowledge God’s hand in crafting the day we find ourselves in (whether the day is filled with sunshine or not) — and Psalm 118:24 certainly give us some excellent words to express our thankfulness.
But when it comes to the Scriptures, it’s always worthwhile to ask, “What did the author of this passage intend to communicate with his words?” For in answering this question one shall discover many of the riches of the Bible. So in the case of Psalm 118:24, we must ask: did the psalmist intend his words as a general thanksgiving to God for the gift of today? Or was he, perhaps, praising God for something more specific through these words?
The best way to answer such a question is to look at the context of the verse, and this certainly holds up in the case of Psalm 118:24. Consider just the two verses that precede it:
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:22–24).
So upon even a cursory reading, we can see that the psalmist is thanking God for a rather particular event: namely, the psalmist is praising God for the day that some rejected stone became the cornerstone. In other words, the psalmist has in mind a specific day in which some despised and reviled man was properly esteemed and given the place of prominence. There is a seeming sweetness that comes from the poetic justice of such a restoration. But the question then becomes: what day is this, and who is the rejected and restored figure? Well, we get a hint to that in verse 21: “I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.”
This Jesus
With all of these words, light begins to break through the darkness of this mystery. This is what Isaiah would call a “day of salvation” (Isaiah 49:8), and it has somehow dawned in the honoring of the once-rejected stone as the cornerstone. Yet the identity of this figure remains shrouded in darkness until the New Testament.
When Peter is speaking to the Jewish council in Acts 4, he reveals who the mysterious man is: “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11–12). Now the high noon of the Scripture shines out clearly — and what we see is that the “day” of which the psalmist originally spoke was surely the day of Christ’s resurrection from the dead: for on the day he rose to life, he was vindicated as the promised Savior of God’s people (cf. Romans 1:4). In other words, the Lord who was rejected by his own people was proven to be the King over all (cf. John 1:11).
God the Author
This great reversal so demonstrates the indomitable power and goodness of God, that the psalmist could not help but declare that it was the Lord’s own doing, and therefore it is marvelous (Psalm 118:23). And it is this specific day — the day in which the once-rejected Christ was raised from the dead and made the cornerstone of the church — that the psalmist rejoices in. Of course, the reason that the psalmist can be writing about this event hundreds of years before it occurred, is because God himself is the ultimate author working through the psalmist (cf. 2 Peter 1:21).
So why have we made this brief excursion through the Scriptures? Well, in short, we have done so in order to more fully and truly understand the word of God (which is always a worthwhile endeavor), and to see how all of the Bible really is pointing us to Christ. So the next time you or a friend say, “This is the day that the Lord has made,” remember that it is good and right to give thanks to God for the gift of today; but also, remember Easter Sunday and the empty tomb, for that is what the psalmist was ultimately writing about.
