[The] stone which the builders rejected hath become the head of the corner
A single line from a song of thanksgiving became the sharpest verdict in Scripture on how men treated Christ. Who were these builders, what does "the corner" mean, and how does a discarded stone end up holding a whole building together?
The verse pictures builders at work, testing each stone:
Christ, at His first coming, was the stone the builders refused. The New Testament puts this beyond all question, quoting and referring to it again and again. When He arrived, men were very busy building. They were building their empires and their schemes, religious and otherwise. If He had gone along with their ideas, they might have been glad to work Him into their building. His supernatural powers would have decorated it. But they found Him to be a Stone of such a shape and texture that they could not fit Him in anywhere at all. They refused Him. Now He returns in glory to be the Head-stone of the building, which is the work not of men but of God. At His second coming He will fall on the proud kingdoms of men and crush them beyond all recognition. Then the once-rejected Stone will begin a new order of things, as both its Foundation and its controlling Head.
The phrase carries two ideas at once — the stone everything rests on, and the stone that crowns the whole work.
So the Lord Jesus is the chief corner stone that binds everything together. He is the foundation on which everything rests. On top of this, as the stone which the Jewish builders rejected, Christ has become the head stone of the corner. As well as being the foundation, He must have the highest place.
The same stone that bears the weight is the one every blessing depends on:
One day it will be clear that the One man rejected is the One through whom all blessing will come to Israel. He is like the corner stone, which bears all the weight of the building. If the rejection of Christ was man's act, the exaltation of Christ is the Lord's doing. It is the everlasting proof of God's delight in Christ and acceptance of Him — the ground of all blessing for man, whether Israel, the Church or the nations.
Rejecting Him cost the nation its place, and it is the act God used to lift Him up.
God takes away all the nation's privileges, and gives His vineyard, where He looked for fruit, to others. So by this great fact of man's sin and Jewish unbelief — that is, by the rejection and crucifixion of the Lord — God would exalt Him to His own right hand, and He would become the head of the corner.
Peter stood before the men who had crucified Jesus and pressed this verse on them after the healing of a lame man:
The name and the power were those of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom they had crucified and whom God had exalted. He fulfilled Psalm 118:22, and Peter went on to widen the testimony from one man to everyone. The power of the Name was right before their eyes in the one case of the lame man healed. It was just as powerful for the salvation of all people. The physical healing of the man was just a sign of the spiritual healing which the Name of Jesus brings. The despised Jesus of Nazareth is the only door into salvation.
A corner stone joins two walls, and that is what is happening now with people from every background:
The rejected Stone has now become the Corner for those called out from the Jews and those called out from the Gentiles. There both meet and grow into one building in Him. Rejected though He was, He is still the chosen of God. Israel stumbled at the Stumbling Stone. Man refused Him, but God glorified Him. Man treated Him as worthless and threw Him away. To God He was precious, and He honoured Him in heaven. Now to us the Corner-stone is precious also.
One day the people who refused Him will say these words about their own history:
When the Lord comes back, as He has said (Matthew 23:39), the people will gladly welcome Him. The stone refused by the builders will be owned as head of the corner. "This is Jehovah's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." That is how they will express themselves, out of the surprise and fullness of their hearts.
- Rejected — the builders examined the Stone and found He would not fit their schemes, so they threw Him out.
- Raised — the same crucifixion that discarded Him is what God used to exalt Him to His right hand as head of the corner.
- Resting — as corner stone He carries the weight and crowns the building. He is the foundation, and He must have the highest place.
- Reaching — at that corner two walls meet: those called from the Jews and those called from the Gentiles grow into one building in Him.
- Recognised — Peter told the builders to their face that this despised man from Nazareth is the only door into salvation. A day is coming when Israel too will own Him, with surprise and full hearts.
This is of Jehovah; it is wonderful in our eyes.
A stone thrown out by the builders turns out to be the one stone the whole building needs. The psalm says this reversal was no accident but God's own work, and those who see it are amazed.
The picture of the stone was well known to Israel's leaders. One writer asks whether they ever stopped to think that they were the builders in it.
The stone was a well known figure for Israel's Messiah, the Son of God. Surely the stone made the head of the corner could only be the Messiah. So the prophecy is plain: the builders would reject the Messiah, and later He would be given His rightful place of honour. Did they not stop to consider that they were the very "builders" of whom the prophecy spoke?
Their rejection was not random dislike. He did not fit the building they had drawn up.
He was the stone which they, the builders, were rejecting. He in no way fitted into the building which they designed and they refused Him. A day is coming when God will bring Him forward to be the foundation, and to set the lines of the building God has in view.
The phrase carries two ideas at once. It is the stone that holds a building together, and the stone set at the very top.
So the Lord Jesus is the chief corner stone that binds everything together. He is the foundation that everything rests on. On top of that, as the stone the Jewish builders rejected, Christ has become the head stone of the corner. As well as being the foundation He must have the highest place.
The verse credits the outcome to God, not to chance. The act that got rid of Him became the thing that lifted Him high.
By this terrible sin they were acting in direct opposition to God. They were about to nail Him to a cross, and God was going to raise Him to the highest glory.
These few words compress a whole national history.
Here is all Israel's history in short, described exactly in a few verses. All their conduct from Moses' time to the cross is set out in a few words... So along with this great fact of man's sin and Jewish unbelief — that is, the rejection and crucifixion of the Lord — He would be exalted to the right hand of God. He would become the head of the corner.
The word "our" tells us who is speaking, and when they will sing these words.
There is no restoration of Israel without Messiah, and Israel now owns Him once despised... The words "our eyes" show us who the real speaker is. The voice had been one, but now we see who joins in the psalm of praise.
Their response on that day will not be calm agreement but astonishment.
The stone the builders refused will be acknowledged as head of the corner. "This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes." That is how they will speak, out of the surprise and fullness of their hearts.
Commentators differ here. Some read the verse only as Israel's future confession. Others hold that faith can already say the words. One writer ties the marvel to the day Christ rose:
The question is this: on what day did God raise His rejected stone from the dead and give Him this glory? Clearly, on the first day of the week... I know this passage looks forward to Israel, to the time when Christ is shown to the world. But faith sees in the resurrection of Christ the pledge and assurance of all that is still to come.
- Rejected. The builders are Israel's leaders. The stone is the Messiah, refused because He did not fit the building they had designed.
- Raised. The act that threw Him out became the very means of His rise to the highest glory. Their fight against God served God's plan.
- Ruling. As cornerstone He is the foundation everything rests on. He is also the stone in the highest place, binding all together.
- Recognised. "Our eyes" belongs to a repentant Israel. They will one day own the Messiah they once despised, and speak out of surprise and full hearts.
- Rehearsed. Faith can already borrow the song. In the resurrection of the rejected Stone, believers see the pledge of everything still to come.
This is the day that Jehovah hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118 moves from a cry of distress to a shout of triumph. This verse comes right after the picture of a stone: the builders threw it away, and God made it the cornerstone. The question it raises is which day is meant — and who the "us" is that rejoices in it.
The wording marks the day out as God's own work, not a human achievement. One writer ties the day to Messiah and to the blessing of His people:
This is the day Jehovah has made; it is His day, the blessing of His people in connection with Messiah, and His people rejoice in it. And now they cry, Hosanna to the Son of David, the Jehovah of Israel; and say, Blessed be He who comes in His name.
Another writer sets that day against the age we live in now, which Scripture calls "man's day":
Today we look round upon a torn and distracted world. Men's hearts fail them for fear, and Scripture speaks in no uncertain terms of what is coming upon the earth. We sigh and say, This is the day which man has made. Scripture uses that very term, "man's day," in 1 Corinthians 4:3. There it is translated "man's judgment." Man's day is the day in which man insists on putting himself into the centre and forefront of the picture.
The word "day" here covers more than the moment of rejoicing. It gathers up everything that led to it, including the suffering:
"This is the Lord's doing" is now their cry, "and it is marvelous in our eyes." So indeed it will be; and the whole "day" will be seen to be of Jehovah's making. He has brought it all about, the trial and the sorrow which were His only way of blessing for them; and the end now reached is the glorious finish of it all.
Commentators read the psalm as Israel's own words after God rescues them. The nation once turned this Man away; here they welcome Him back:
That day of which Isaiah wrote will have dawned, the day which Jehovah has made (24), as the rejoicing people will term it. When the Lord comes back, as He has said (Matt. 23:39), the people will welcome Him with joy. They will own the stone they refused as the cornerstone.
The reversal runs deeper than a change of circumstances. It is a change of heart, described elsewhere as the sorrow of looking on One they pierced, a sorrow "whose sharp compunction shall be turned to more abundant joy, when the full light of the day which the Lord has made shines with unclouded brightness of salvation in their hearts."
One writer pictures Jesus singing this psalm with His disciples, only hours before He was rejected:
What He must have felt as He sang this with His disciples! … A little while longer, just a few hours, and the builders would reject Him. A few days more, and God would raise Him from the dead and make Him the cornerstone, the chief stone. And in that shout, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," He saw far ahead to a welcome from His people, when He comes again.
Writers apply the verse in more than one way. Some keep it entirely in the future. One writer applies it to the day Christ rose, and marks the difference himself:
The question is, On what day did God take up from the dead His rejected stone, and give Him this glory? Plainly, on the first day of the week. This, then, is the day of all days which the Lord has made. Those who are one with Him who is raised from the dead are glad and rejoice in it, and they need no command to do it. I know this passage looks forward to Israel, to the time when He is revealed; but faith sees in the resurrection of Christ the pledge and assurance of all that is yet to come.
Even if the day is still ahead of us, the call to be glad reaches into the present:
When Christ steps into the centre and forefront of the picture, the day which the Lord has made will arrive. It will be a day of salvation and prosperity. Men will rejoice and be glad in it. It even makes us glad to contemplate it before it dawns.
- Made — the day is God's workmanship, not humanity's; it stands opposite "man's day," in which people put themselves at the centre.
- Whole — the trial and sorrow are not the prelude to the day but part of it; God brought all of it about as His way of blessing.
- Owned — the day dawns when the very people who refused the Stone own Him as the cornerstone.
- Sung — Christ Himself sang these words with His disciples, hours before the builders rejected Him, already seeing the welcome ahead.
- Glad — commentators differ on whether the day is still future or began on resurrection morning. Either way, the response is joy, and it can start before the day breaks.