"I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation." Psalm 118:21


Psalm 118

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.

Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

Let them now that fear the Lord say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.

The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?

The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.

They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

They compassed me about like bees: they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the Lord helped me.

The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.

The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:

This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter.

I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

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 hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.

Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.

God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.

Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
_______ 





"It is the end of the age which will vindicate the God of Israel. Till then appearances are adverse to His name and His people; and faith alone gains the victory unseen, which then will be manifest to every eye. All men may oppose meanwhile, and never more than at the close; Satan too may deceive and destroy as far as he can; and God may chastise right sorely but for good: Christ knew all this exceptionally, and much more than is here in view. But the end is blessing and glory, not for us only on high as we know from elsewhere, but for those who will enjoy the kingdom on earth, when it is no longer man's but Jehovah's day. What a blank must be in the outlook of all Christians, who leave out such a scene for the glory of the once humbled but now exalted Man! Then He shall sit on His own throne, as distinct from the Father's, before the eternal state. It is the age to come, on which almost all prophecy converges." William Kelly



"Christ, at His first advent, was the stone which the builders refused. This is put beyond all question by repeated quotations and allusions in the New Testament. When He arrived on the scene just over nineteen centuries ago men were very busy building their empires, their schemes, religious and otherwise. Had He been subservient to their ideas they might have been glad to work Him into their building, that He might adorn it by His supernatural powers. However, they discovered Him to be a Stone of such a shape and texture that they were unable to fit Him in anyhow or anywhere. They refused Him. Now He returns in glory to be the Head-stone of the building which is the handiwork not of men but of God. It will indeed be the Lord's doing, and we can understand how marvellous it will be in the eyes of those who at last see the truth, but who until lately looked upon Him as One rightly rejected.

In His glorious second advent He will be the stone cut out without hands, of Nebuchadnezzar's vision. He will fall with terrible and incredible velocity upon the proud kingdoms of men, and crush them beyond all recognition. The great winds of heaven will blow away the debris like chaff from the threshingfloor. Then the once-rejected Stone  - the blessed Lord Jesus — will inaugurate a new order of things, of which He will be both the Foundation and the controlling Head.

Before proceeding with our Psalm let us pause to note that today — before the second advent — the same thing is true in principle in connection with the church, as Ephesians 2:10-22 shows. First, certain things are abolished. The "enmity" and also "the law of commandments contained in ordinances" are gone. Indeed both Jew and Gentile, in their characters as Jews and Gentiles, are gone. What is of God's workmanship, "one new man," remains. There is the new building, God's building, and of this
"Jesus Christ Himself"
is
"the chief corner stone."
Our business is to keep out in practice what God has put out, and to promote in practice what God is building. No small task this, and one to send us to our knees, even as it sent Paul there — see Ephesians 1:16-20, and Ephesians 3:14-21.

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.

Everything centres in a Person, and in verse 26 we are not allowed to forget this. When the Psalm was written "the stone" was quite impersonal, and centuries had to pass before the significance of the word became quite clear. But no centuries had to roll away before it was revealed that blessing for men was bound up with the advent of a Person who would come in the Name of the Lord. He would be Jehovah's Representative. Ultimately we discover Him to be the Son, who is Jehovah, equally with the Father.

When the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem riding upon the colt of an ass, the multitudes cried,
"Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord," (Matt. 21:9).
But that was the result of a sudden gust of enthusiasm, and had no permanent significance, as the sequel showed. Within a week He was crucified. The Lord knew the worthlessness of their excited cry, and hence a little later He said,
"Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord" (Matt. 23:39).
The Psalm speaks of the moment when they will see Him again, and utter the cry of welcome with full truth and sincerity.

Lastly we come to the sacrifice, in the light of which God is known. At first sight it seems remarkable that we should come to this at the end and not at the beginning. The Psalm deals with His second coming, and His sacrifice was accomplished at His first coming. Yes, but it is only at His second coming that Israel will understand it. Then, and not till then, will it burst upon them as light from heaven; and what sacrifices there are in the millennial age will be bound to the altar as simple memorials of the great Sacrifice, that once and for ever was offered at Calvary.

In coming to sacrifice at the finish, we come to that which lies at the foundation of all. If He who was the refused Stone had not become the Sacrifice, He had never become the Head of the corner, nor would there dawn the day which the Lord has made. When men transfixed Him to the Roman gibbet, He turned His cross into an altar. The cords that held Him there were the cords of a LOVE that was both divine and invincible.

God has indeed showed us light, for we have the knowledge of what His sacrifice has accomplished. In the light of that we are waiting for His coming which will usher in the day which the Lord has made. Then the once rejected Stone, our adorable Lord Jesus, will stand forth in His glory.

We need not wait for that day to dawn in order to praise Him. Today we can say,
"Thou art my God, and I will praise Thee: Thou art my God, I will exalt Thee. Oh give thanks to the Lord; for He is good: for His mercy endures for ever."
F. B. Hole 
Psalms 114-118.







Fernando Ortega - O Thou, In Whose Presence - mchen730 Published on Dec 14, 2014

Most Popular Posts

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew 22:37-40

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." Romans 1:16-17

"And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground." Genesis 4:2

Other posts from the blog

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." Psalm 23:1

"Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock." Jeremiah 31:10

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:105

"For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." Jeremiah 30:3

"but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." Isaiah 66:2

"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:2

"for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known." Matthew 10:26

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." Romans 15:4

"But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matthew 15:9

"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Ephesians 2:13

_____________________

I'm a Christian saved by God, by His Sovereign grace. I want to encourage all to read, to hear, to believe, and to feed upon the only Words in all the world that are truly spirit and life, living and active; to know the One True God: God the Father, His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit; Who has graciously given us the Holy Scriptures
“All Scripture is God-breathed..."
2 Timothy 3:16–17; cf., John 3:31-36; John 6:63; John 14:26; John 17:3, 17; Romans 1:1-6, 16-17; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; 2 Peter 1:20–21; Hebrews 4:12-13. As for the commentaries I post and refer to; with much gratitude, as they have done for me, it is my hope and prayer that they serve to edify all who read them.

Shalom, beccaj
_____________________