Enter The Gates Of Righteousness

Psalm 118:19-29

Today’s Psalm reading is a fitting one to follow yesterday’s Palm Sunday reading from the Gospels, with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  Our passage from this psalm pictures an entrance through a city’s gates with joy and praise. Let’s look at it together.

The writer of our psalm seeks to enter through the gates of righteousness (vs. 19-20).  What are the gates of righteousness? They speak of more than just entering in through the city gates of Jerusalem.  The gates of righteousness are ones of justice, and being made morally right. It is an entry way which leads into the presence of God.  We cannot find or go through this gate on our own. We incapable of being righteous on our own. When we’ve accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf for ourselves, then we can ask for the gates of righteousness to be opened for us.  Through Jesus’ Blood we have the right to walk through those gates. Jesus spoke of this when He told us to seek to go through the straight and narrow gate, which leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14).

Many people try to find a way to enter into God’s presence, and think there are many ways to get there.  However, there is only one way to get into His presence, only one gate, and that is through His Son, Jesus (John 14:6).  All other ways are the wide way that Jesus speaks of that leads to destruction.

Our psalmist wished to praise God for answering his cries for help (vs. 21). God had rescued him from physical, earthly defeat, as we read about earlier in the psalm, and also possible death.  He also praises the Lord for saving him spiritually. He does the same for us, as well. He will rescue us in our earthly distresses, but more importantly He will save us from spiritual death if we call upon Him. He is our salvation.

Verses 22 - 23  are prophetic, and speak of the Lord Jesus.  Jesus is the chief cornerstone. He is the chief capstone or foundation, the most important, vital part in God’s work for mankind.  There is no salvation without Him. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day, however, rejected Him as their Messiah, their Savior and Savior of mankind (Matthew 21:42).  The apostle Peter declared in his first sermon that God made Jesus, who they had rejected, who they crucified, both Lord and Savior (Acts 2:36). Though He was rejected by His own people, God made Him the chief cornerstone, and it is indeed marvelous in our eyes.  The day that the Lord made Jesus Christ His chief cornerstone, despite being rejected by the religious leaders, was a day for rejoicing (vs. 24).

Verse 24 is also a verse that believers can claim and hold on to when our own days are long and discouraging.  There can be times when even getting up and out of bed can be so difficult because of the problems we face. All we want to do is roll back into bed and pull the blanket up over our head.  If we have access to go through the gates of righteousness by having made Jesus our Savior, if we are on that straight and narrow path, and have taken Jesus as our chief cornerstone, then we can rejoice in the day the Lord has made.  We can decide to have a good day everyday, despite the problems we are going through. It’s a choice, a decision. We can decide yes or no. Will we go through the day, hand in hand with Jesus, or not? When we rise up in the morning, regardless of what we are facing, and especially if we are facing something difficult, we can recite this verse.  The Lord has given each day as a gift to us, and He will go through it with us. Rejoicing and giving Him praise puts all demons to flight, and will ensure a blessed day for us!