Psalm 118:15-29
More deliverance. A number of verses for comment today.
First, very common for Avanza folks: This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (v. 24) This is one of Carol’s gathering songs for our Avanza kids. They all know it (2nd grade and beyond); they stand up and clap their way through it. I can’t read the verse without singing it!
The second verse is one close to me: The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. (vv. 22-23, NASB) During the spring before I went on to graduate school I saw a void in the market in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. No one was building poured-wall basements in an area where block basements were too porous to the high-water level in the area. No one, that is, except a contractor named Jesse James, an appropriate name for someone who did shoddy work! I had experience in this work through my family connections, so I found a partner who had cash available from his father and we started “Cornerstone Construction”. These verses, especially v. 22 were our “cornerstone” verses. I vividly remember praying them as we sat in a car before we went in to get a commercial loan; we did not get the loan, but we did get our first customer – the banker who was financing a new development south of town. Glory!!
Finally, a verse familiar to all of us: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! (v. 26a) This verse was sung by the “Hosanna” crowd upon Jesus’ Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem. Clearly the crowds people knew their Scriptures! This verse is cited in all four Gospels (Mt. 21:9; Mk. 11:9; Lk. 13:35; Jn. 12:13). Surprising to me, Jesus also spoke this verse in the context of His longer speeches in both Matthew 23:39 and Luke 13:35. If only we knew our Scriptures as well as the Jewish peoples back then…!!
Just another thought or two on that “Cornerstone” verse, Ps. 118:22… First, note the overall tone of this psalm, how the psalmist exults in God’s victories. The psalmist faces severe difficulties, but in each case, the LORD delivers him victoriously. Things appear to be going disastrously, but then the LORD comes through in the clutch. And here in verse 22, the stone that the (human) builders determine to be unsuitable is in fact the One that God sets as the Chief Cornerstone. That is, God again produces success out of what we might consider failure. We know from the New Testament that this Cornerstone is a reference to Jesus Christ (see Mt. 21:42; Mk. 12:10; Lk. 20:17; Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:20; I Pet. 2:6-8), Who was rejected and crucified, but Who now sits at God’s right hand. Glory!
On an unrelated note, my cousin published another blog post that I think you all might find interesting and helpful. It’s about the fear of God. Please take a look.