This is the day that the LORD has made; let us 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.
Whose Day It Is
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:
J. N. DarbyThis 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":
F. B. HoleToday 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 Trials Included in the Day
The word "day" here covers more than the moment of rejoicing. It gathers up everything that led to it, including the suffering:
F. W. Grant"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.
The People Who Will Say It
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:
C. E. StuartThat 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."
Sung by Christ Before the Cross
One writer pictures Jesus singing this psalm with His disciples, only hours before He was rejected:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWhat 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.
Rejoicing Before the Day Dawns
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:
C. StanleyThe 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:
F. B. HoleWhen 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.
Summary
- 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.