What does it mean that "this is the day that the Lord has made" (Psalm 118:24)?

This immediately involves the blessed person of Christ, "the stone which the builders rejected." Centuries before, Israel had been building, but when the "chief cornerstone" was presented to them, they not only refused Him, but persecuted and crucified Him. Now, after centuries have passed, He will become the chief cornerstone (v. 22), the One in fact who introduces the glory of the millennium, so that He stands out above all others, the corner stone from which the whole building receives its character. Manifestly this is the Lord's doing, for it is far above what man would ever conceive (v. 23). Then verse 24 refers specifically to the millennium as "the day the Lord has made," a time for fullest rejoicing. Of course, people commonly use this verse as referring to any day they choose, for it is true enough the Lord has made every day, but the millennial day particularly fits the case here.

Now the gates of righteousness are open before Israel. The turning to this at once, as the result of trial, is beautiful: he will go in and praise Jehovah. It is withal the gate of Jehovah, and the righteous enter into it. Israel there will praise, for Jehovah has heard him and become his salvation; but further and deeper truth comes out here. There is no restoration of Israel without Messiah, and Israel now owns Him once despised. "The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner. This is Jehovah's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." We see, in the expression "our eyes," who is the real speaker, and, though the voice had been one, who they are that now take part in the psalm of praise. 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 that comes in His name. This gives us the witness from the Lord's own teaching, who it is that speaks in the psalms, and to what time it applies; for the house was left desolate, and they were not to see Him again till they said, Blessed be he that comes. So that it is Israel, that is, the remnant, who speak, and in the day of their repentance, under grace, when they are to see Messiah again. They bless Him that comes out of the house of Jehovah. Jehovah is the God of strength, He has given Israel light; and now worship and sacrifice are offered to Him that has delivered and blessed. Now they say, Thou art my God, and praise and exalt Him.

When the once rejected Stone is established as the Head, a new day will be inaugurated. Redeemed men will say with exultation, "This is the day which the Lord has made," and what a day of glory and blessing it will be! 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. The very term, "man's day," is used in 1 Corinthians 4:3, though 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. It has been one long-drawn-out nightmare, and special horrors are predicted as marking its close when human iniquity reaches its climax. Man's day will be quenched in the night of judgment.

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.

On the first day of the week “He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” “He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.” “God raised him from the dead.” “As it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee.” (Acts 13:23-39.) “This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner,” &c. The epistles also are full of the glory of the resurrection of Christ. The whole question of our salvation hangs on the resurrection of Christ. Now it was on this first day of the week that Christ arose, the first-born from among the dead — the first-fruits of them that slept. (1 Cor. 15:20; Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5.) “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:22-25.) 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; and without a command, those are glad and do rejoice in it, who are one with Him that is raised from the dead. I know this passage looks forward to Israel, as to the time of the manifestation; but faith sees in the resurrection of Christ the pledge and assurance of all that is yet to come. “Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus.” As Jesus was the first-fruit pledge of the coming harvest, so that day on which He arose is a foretaste of the eternal peace and joy at His right hand in the glory.

In Psalm 118 we are still on the ground of final blessing, so that the government of God in the midst of trial is only referred to in the past. It is Israel's recognition of the divine ways and of Christ Himself when blessing is come, owning that Jehovah's mercy has lasted out all their ways and endured for ever. I notice only the aspect of circumstances as applicable to us at all times. God is for His people; but men, all men, may be against them. One has only to trust the Lord, and victory remains with faith. But in this, where evil has to be governmentally corrected, Satan also seeks, Satan has, his part. How truly it was so in leading all men against Christ; how fully so in the last days of Antichrist's power, I need not say; but as the book of Job shews, it is so in the various chastenings of God. Evil on the conscience, or even unconsciously in the heart, gives him a handle, sometimes a terrible one, against the soul even where it is upright. Rest is found only in self-judgment and confession of what gives him a handle. Satan would seek to make us fall thus; but behind all this the hand of God is to be seen, as in Job's case. "Thou hast chastened me sore, but thou hast not given me over unto death." It is for blessing. One only could declare "The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me"; but with us, all is love and blessing to make us know ourselves, and then enjoy His blessing (compare Deut. 8), and fully own what Christ is according to His victory and glory in the counsels of God. We must be thus exercised, the ground ploughed and harrowed, but the result is, "this is the day which the Lord hath made." No doubt this is the final blessing of the earth when Christ comes, but in every exercise of a soul brought to the point of uprightness with God, the principle is made good; the gates of righteousness into the joy of communion, so to speak, are opened. And the mercy to which we had no title we own to be the Lord's doing, and all is light. The direct application to the remnant is evidently the just application of the psalm, but we connect this great display of God's government with the details in which it applies to us.

We are carried thus far beyond the fact of their merely temporal deliverance, great and marvelous as that must be, and realize the foundation upon which the worshipers stand, and the "gate" which "belongeth to Jehovah," through which they come into His presence. Not any righteousness of their own is here in question. The once refused and slain; now risen and glorified One is all their joy.

"This cometh of Jehovah" 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 its glorious consummation. And now, all hindrance to their blessing being removed, their "Hosanna" ("save now") can be heard: "Save now, Jehovah, I beseech Thee; I beseech Thee, Jehovah, send now prosperity."

But as God's truth endures for ever, so does His mercy. And this Israel, the house of Aaron, and godly Gentiles are called on to attest, saying, "His mercy endures for ever" (118:1-4). This refrain, met with already in Ps. 106:1, 107:1, we shall meet with again in Ps. 136. David in his day, and the whole congregation with him, proclaimed it (1 Chron. 16:34). Solomon, with the people in unison, years later re-echoed it (2 Chron. 5:13; 7:3). The returned remnant in all their weakness, when the foundations of the Temple were again laid, gave expression to it (Ezra 3:11). By and by, in full chorus, will the returned and finally delivered people of Israel confirm it. Suited language near three thousand years ago will be suited language for Israel for ever. Set then in a large place, who can make them afraid (118:5-6)? Victory will be for them. And that which Isaiah (12:2) had predicted, echoing words from the song of Moses (Ex. 15:2), will have been fulfilled (Ps. 118:14). That day of which Isaiah wrote will have dawned, the day which Jehovah has made (24), as the rejoicing people will term it. The Lord come back, as He has said (Matt. 23:39), gladly will the people 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" (Ps. 118:22-23). Thus will they express themselves out of the surprise and fulness of their hearts. And "Jah," the victorious One, will they celebrate in their song (5, 14, 17, 18, 19), never ending praise becoming those delivered ones. What will it be for them to read in this Psalm of the language they are using in that coming time! God, who foreknows, and who alone can search hearts, foretells what will be passing in their minds, to be expressed by their lips.

It is the kingdom, or "day of the Lord," that is here rejoiced in, as it had been "the resurrection" before, in Psalm 116. And this "day" will, of course, bring "light" (ver. 27) to Israel; and be also the great witness, that God's "mercy endureth for ever," the great theme or occasion of continued sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. (ver. 28, 29) For the joy of Jesus and His saints is twofold: the joy of resurrection, and the joy of the kingdom. Jesus knew the first, when He broke in His own person the power of death and the grave; He will know the second in the coming day of His power in Jerusalem.

Nevertheless, the One that is rejected by Israel is exalted by God. It will at last be manifested that the One that man rejected is the One through whom all blessing will come to Israel, even as the corner stone 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, and the everlasting proof of God's delight in, and acceptance of, Christ — the ground of all blessing for man, whether Israel, the Church or the nations. The time will come when it will be as marvelous in the eyes of the Jewish remnant as it is in the eyes of the Christian today. Thus the day of glory will be ushered in with joy and gladness.

And now they leave the room after they had sung a hymn. This has been and is still the custom of the Jews in connection with the passover feast. Indeed it would be interesting and helpful to mention here the passover customs of the Jews; they are full of significant ceremonies. However this would lead us too far. Suffice it to say that the hymn they sang consisted of Psalms 115, 116, 117 and 118. In the Jewish ritual they are called the great Hallel. With what emotion of soul He must have sung with His disciples! What encouragement it must have been for Him! These Psalms contain such blessed and full messianic predictions. "The stone, which the builders refused, is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord." These words come in at the close of that hymn they sung, and while the disciples sang them as they had done so often before as pious Jews, for Him it meant so much. A little while longer, just a few hours, and the builders would reject Him. A few days more and by resurrection from the dead He would be the head of the corner, the chief stone, and in that shout, "Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord," He saw in the distant future a welcome from the remnant of His people, at the time of His Second Coming. And so the blessed One even then saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied.