Tuesday October 1, 2024

Today is Tuesday, October 1, and we are learning what the Bible says about Cornerstone.

May the cornerstone of my life, and our life together, be Christ and Christ alone.

Holy and Loving God, as we pause to humbly enter your Presence this morning, we sing out to You, rejoicing, as your ancient people also sang, saying, “Come, let us sing to the LORD; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and raise a loud shout to him with psalms. LORD, God of hosts, hear our prayer: The LORD lives! Blessed is our Rock, and exalted is the God of our salvation! We will extol you among the nations, O LORD, and sing praises to your Name forever!” Amen.  Psalms 95:1-2; Psalm 84:7; Psalm 18:46

Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the capstone [cornerstone]; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you. Psalm 118:19-26

Today’s scripture reference gives us another use for the word “cornerstone.” Psalm 118 is a hymn of thanksgiving for deliverance from enemies. Its wording suggests that a king is entering the inner court of the temple, returning from a victorious battle against enemy nations. He is offering praise to the Lord for the Lord’s answer of victorious salvation from defeat. The people in the procession remind the king that only those who are considered righteous can enter through the gates; the king declares that the Lord’s answer of a victorious win in battle has deemed him righteous to enter. The Lord has provided his salvation. However, this psalm isn’t referencing God’s deliverance of only a single individual; it is being used communally to affirm the confidence of all persons of faith that God will readily come to our aid in times of need. In fact, it is through the life, death, and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who has deemed the believer as “righteous,” that it is possible for us to enter the gates of heaven. In verse 22, “the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone {cornerstone},” in this instance is referring to Israel, a nation held in contempt by the enemy nations. A capstone, or cornerstone, is used to anchor and align the corner of a wall; this stone has become the most important stone in the structure of the new world order that God is bringing through Israel. This verse also reminds us of King David, the youngest and “the least likely” of Jesse’s sons to be chosen as the leader of Israel, but God chose him and gave him favor. Our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, used this same verse to describe Himself in the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Psalm 118 also declares that, because the Lord has made Jesus Christ the cornerstone of our faith, we should rejoice and be glad for today, the day that he has made and has given us to live as his people! Thanks be to God for his marvelous gift to us of salvation in Jesus Christ!

Ask: What victories over the enemy has the Lord, our Cornerstone, given to me today?

Pause and Pray

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve. Pour upon your church the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Phyllis Tickle, “The Divine Hours: A Manual for Prayer”

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