Trusting In The Chief Cornerstone

Psalm 118:14-29

The psalm selection for this week is a triumphant one, one that shows the Lord’s protection of us as believers, and one that shows His victory over His enemies.  No matter what our troubles are, if we love and trust God, He will be with us.  As long as we are trusting in Him, we do not need to fear anything.  Let’s look at these verse from the 118th Psalm verse by verse.

Who are we turning to for our help, to carry us through our problems day by day?  The psalmist here in verses 14 thru 16 says the Lord is his strength.  Not anyone else, or even himself.  When we rely on Him, we will come out of our  trial singing!  It is the Lord’s powerful hand which delivers us from all harm.  Whatever the problems were this psalmist was going through, they were so bad that he seriously thought he wasn’t going to get through it with his life.  He seriously thought he might die, but then he turned to the Lord in trust and prayer, and He delivered him from death, as verses 17 and 18 show.  No matter how grim and hopeless a situation might be, when our trust is in the Lord, He will bring us through it.  Trust in Him and His strength!

When we have trusted in the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He gives us His righteousness.  Then, we have the right to enter and go through the gates of righteousness (vs. 19-21).  We can go through them, entering His Kingdom with a song of praise to the Lord on our lips, praising Him for hearing us when we call upon Him, and for saving our souls.

Verses 22-23 should be very familiar for many.  Jesus quoted these verses in reference to Himself.  The Jewish religious leaders had completely rejected Him as the Messiah, and so He told them the parable of the vinedressers, and then concluded with these verses in Matthew 21:33-46.  They may have rejected Him, but God made Jesus both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).  The cornerstone, or as some versions say, the capstone, is one of the most important parts of the structure of a building.  These Jewish religious leaders rejected Jesus.  He was not important, not what they wanted, toss Him off to the side as rejected.  But God said otherwise.  He is the cornerstone, the most important part of the “building” He was making.  How do we view Jesus in our life?  Is He the most important one, the cornerstone of our life?  Or is He something that we view as not important at all?  Let’s make sure He is definitely our cornerstone!

Verse 24 is one that I have repeated to myself just about every morning for a number of years when I first wake up.  That’s not me trying to be super-spiritual or anything.  When things were starting to go terribly wrong in my life, and my depression increasing, I dreaded the start of each new day.  One thing that I was seeing, though, was that I needed to get my focus on something positive at the very start of the day.  God has given us the gift of a brand new day with each dawning.  Things may be difficult, we may be going through some trials, but haven’t we seen how, if we are His children through the Blood of Jesus, He will carry us through each day, and we can rejoice in Him.  Every day, no matter what we are going through, can be a good day if Jesus is in it!

The first part of verse 25 we see the prayer, “Save now, I pray, O Lord”.  That phrase is what the word “Hosanna”, translated into English means.  As we read that verse and the next, verse 26, we can be reminded of Palm Sunday, and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.  The people on that day cried out “Hosanna” to Jesus, and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  Those crowds, just like the religious leaders of the people, turned out to reject Jesus a few days later.  Right now, though, the psalmist is praying these verses to the Lord God, along with the rest of the psalm (vs. 27-29).  We, too, can pray these verses back to the Lord God, giving Him praise and thanksgiving.  As the last words of this passage say, “His mercy endures forever”.