Psalm 118:24
This is the day that the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day
The phrase "This is the day" emphasizes the immediacy and the present nature of God's work. In Hebrew, the word for "day" is "yom," which can refer to a literal 24-hour period or a more extended time of significance. Historically, this phrase has been understood to refer to a specific day of deliverance or celebration, possibly linked to the Passover or another significant event in Israel's history. In a broader spiritual sense, it reminds believers that each day is a gift from God, filled with His presence and purpose.

that the LORD has made
The word "LORD" in Hebrew is "Yahweh," the covenant name of God, signifying His eternal, self-existent nature and His faithfulness to His promises. "Has made" comes from the Hebrew verb "asah," meaning to create or accomplish. This phrase acknowledges God's sovereignty and creative power. It is a declaration that God is the author of time and history, and every day is crafted by His divine will. This understanding calls believers to trust in God's plan and to recognize His hand in the unfolding of daily events.

we will rejoice
The Hebrew root for "rejoice" is "giyl," which conveys a sense of exultation and gladness. This is not merely a suggestion but a call to action, an invitation to respond to God's work with joy. Historically, rejoicing was a communal activity in Israel, often associated with festivals and worship. In the Christian life, rejoicing is a response to the recognition of God's goodness and faithfulness, regardless of circumstances. It is an act of faith, choosing to focus on God's blessings and promises.

and be glad in it
The phrase "be glad" comes from the Hebrew "samach," which means to be joyful or to take delight. "In it" refers back to "the day," emphasizing that the joy and gladness are rooted in the specific time and circumstances ordained by God. This phrase encourages believers to find contentment and happiness in the present moment, trusting that God is at work. It is a reminder that true gladness comes from recognizing God's presence and purpose in our lives, leading to a deep-seated peace and satisfaction.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The LORD (Yahweh)
The covenant name of God, emphasizing His eternal presence and faithfulness to His people.

2. The Psalmist
Traditionally attributed to King David, though the specific author is not definitively known. The psalmist expresses a communal call to worship and gratitude.

3. Israel
The nation of God's chosen people, often the primary audience and context for the Psalms.

4. The Day
Represents both a literal day and a symbolic time of divine intervention or blessing.

5. The Temple
While not directly mentioned in this verse, the context of Psalm 118 suggests a setting of worship, possibly linked to temple rituals or festivals.
Teaching Points
Recognizing God's Sovereignty
Acknowledge that each day is a gift from God, crafted by His hands. This recognition should lead us to trust in His plans and purposes.

Choosing Joy
Rejoicing is a deliberate choice. Despite circumstances, we are called to find joy in the Lord and His provision for us each day.

Living in the Present
Focus on the opportunities and blessings of today rather than being consumed by past regrets or future anxieties.

Gratitude as Worship
Expressing gratitude for each day is an act of worship. It aligns our hearts with God's goodness and faithfulness.

Community Rejoicing
The call to rejoice is communal. Encourage others in your faith community to join in celebrating God's daily mercies.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does recognizing each day as a creation of the Lord influence your perspective on daily challenges?

2. In what ways can you intentionally choose to rejoice and be glad today, regardless of your circumstances?

3. How does the concept of God's new mercies each morning (Lamentations 3) enhance your understanding of Psalm 118:24?

4. What practical steps can you take to live more fully in the present, as encouraged by Matthew 6?

5. How can you encourage others in your community to join in the practice of daily rejoicing and gratitude?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Genesis 1
The creation account highlights God's sovereignty over time and His role as the Creator of each day.

Lamentations 3
Emphasizes God's mercies being new every morning, connecting to the idea of each day being a fresh opportunity for rejoicing.

Philippians 4
Encourages believers to rejoice in the Lord always, echoing the call to joy found in Psalm 118:24.

James 4
Reminds us of the brevity and uncertainty of life, urging us to acknowledge God's will in our daily plans.

Matthew 6
Jesus teaches about not worrying about tomorrow, reinforcing the importance of focusing on the present day that God has given.
Easter DayA. Grant, D.D.Psalm 118:24
Evangelical GladnessBp. Hacket.Psalm 118:24
The Blessings of a DayA. A. Livermore.Psalm 118:24
The Day of DaysCanon Liddon.Psalm 118:24
The Day the Lord Hath MadeS. Conway Psalm 118:24
The God-Made DayR. Tuck Psalm 118:24
The Lord's DayJ. Hughes.Psalm 118:24
The Memorial of Christ's Resurrection Ought Perpetually to be CelebratedR. Fiddes.Psalm 118:24
A Blessed Consciousness, a Marvellous Providence, a Joyous DayHomilistPsalm 118:21-24
People
Aaron, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Delight, Full, Glad, Joy, Rejoice
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 118:24

     4006   creation, origin
     5766   attitudes, to life
     7429   Sabbath, in OT

Library
June the Thirtieth God My Strength and Song
"The Lord is my strength and my song." --PSALM cxviii. 14-21. Yes, first of all "my strength" and then "my song"! For what song can there be where there is languor and fainting? What brave music can be born in an organ which is short of breath? There must first be strength if we would have fine harmonies. And so the good Lord comes to the songless, and with holy power He brings the gift of "saving health." "And my song"! For when life is healthy it instinctively breaks into song. The happy, contented
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Gratitude for Deliverance from the Grave
"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."--Psalm 118:17, 18. HOW very differently we view things at different times and in differing states of mind! Faith takes a bright and cheerful view of matters, and speaks very confidently, "I shall not die, but live." When we are slack as to our trust in God, and give way to misgivings and doubts and fears, we sing in the minor key, and say, "I shall die. I shall
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

Bound to the Altar
Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.' (Psalm cxviii. 27.) Periodically in our Halls we have had what we call Altar Services. At such times, and more especially during the Self-Denial and Harvest Festival efforts, Soldiers, friends, and others who are interested in God's work are invited to come forward with gifts of money to lay upon the special table which, for that occasion, serves the purpose of an altar. Those who have been present at these Meetings will not need
T. H. Howard—Standards of Life and Service

The Entry into Jerusalem.
THE fame of Christ's acts had been diffused among the thousands of Jews [652] that had gathered from all quarters for the Passover. The resurrection of Lazarus, in particular, had created a great sensation. As soon as the Sabbath law allowed, [653] they flocked in crowds to Bethany to see Jesus, and especially to convince themselves of the resurrection of Lazarus by ocular evidence and inquiry on the spot. Perhaps on Sunday morning, too, before Christ went to Jerusalem, many had gone out. [654] The
Augustus Neander—The Life of Jesus Christ in Its Historical Connexion

On the Soul and the Resurrection.
Argument. The mind, in times of bereavement, craves a certainty gained by reasoning as to the existence of the soul after death. First, then: Virtue will be impossible, if deprived of the life of eternity, her only advantage. But this is a moral argument. The case calls for speculative and scientific treatment. How is the objection that the nature of the soul, as of real things, is material, to be met? Thus; the truth of this doctrine would involve the truth of Atheism; whereas Atheism is refuted
Gregory of Nyssa—Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, Etc

Sabbath Morning Hymn.
"This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."--Psalm 118:24 "Hallelujah! Schoener Morgen." Schmolk. [[66]Jonathan Krause] transl., Jane Borthwick, 1858 Hallelujah! Fairest morning, Fairer than my words can say, Down I lay tbe heavy burden Of life's toil and care to-day; While this morn of joy and love Brings fresh vigor from above. Sunday, full of holy glory! Sweetest rest-day of the soul, Light upon a darkened world From thy blessed moments roll. Holy, happy heavenly
Jane Borthwick—Hymns from the Land of Luther

The Monk Nilus.
Nilus was born at Rossano, in Calabria, in the year 910, of an old Greek family. His pious parents, to whom only one child, a daughter, had been given, besought the Lord that he would give them a son. This prayer was heard, and that son was Nilus. They carried the child to the church, and consecrated him to the service of God. On that account, also, they gave him the name of Nilus, after a venerated monk of the fifth century, distinguished by his spirit of vital Christianity, and to whose example
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places

Letter X (In the Same Year) the Same, when Bishop
The Same, When Bishop He exhorts him to adorn the dignity which he had obtained without preceding merits, by a holy life. 1. Charity gives me boldness, my very dear friend, to speak to you with great confidence. The episcopal seat which you have lately obtained requires a man of many merits; and I see with grief none of these in you, or at least not sufficient, to have preceded your elevation. For your mode of life and your past occupations seem in nowise to have been befitting the episcopal office.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

The Evolution of Early Congregationalism the Stone which the Builders Rejected is Become the Head of the Corner. --Psalm cxviii
CHAPTER I THE EVOLUTION OF EARLY CONGREGATIONALISM The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner.--Psalm cxviii, 22. The colonists of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven were grounded in the system which became known as Congregational, and later as Congregationalism. At the outset they differed not at all in creed, and only in some respects in polity, from the great Puritan body in England, out of which they largely came.[a] For more than forty years before
M. Louise Greene, Ph. D.—The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut

Epistle vii. To Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch .
To Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch [1310] . Gregory to Anastasius, &c. I have found what your Blessedness has written to be as rest to the weary, as health to the sick, as a fountain to the thirsty, as shade to the oppressed with heat. For those words of yours did not seem even to be expressed by the tongue of the flesh, inasmuch as you so disclosed the spiritual love which you bear me as if your soul itself were speaking. But very hard was that which followed, in that your love enjoined me to
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

The Effects of this Fourth State of Prayer. Earnest Exhortations to those who have Attained to it not to Go Back, nor to Cease from Prayer,
1. There remains in the soul, when the prayer of union is over, an exceedingly great tenderness; so much so, that it would undo itself--not from pain, but through tears of joy it finds itself bathed therein, without being aware of it, and it knows not how or when it wept them. But to behold the violence of the fire subdued by the water, which yet makes it burn the more, gives it great delight. It seems as if I were speaking an unknown language. So it is, however. 2. It has happened to me occasionally,
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Letter xx. To Pope Damasus.
Jerome's reply to the foregoing. Exposing the error of Hilary of Poitiers, who supposed the expression to signify "redemption of the house of David," he goes on to show that in the gospels it is a quotation from Psa. cxviii. 25 and that its true meaning is "save now" (so A.V.). "Let us," he writes, "leave the streamlets of conjecture and return to the fountain-head. It is from the Hebrew writings that the truth is to be drawn." Written at Rome a.d. 383.
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome

Of the Conformity of Our Will to that Will of God's which is Signified to us by his Commandments.
The desire which God has to make us observe his commandments is extreme, as the whole Scripture witnesses. And how could he better express it, than by the great rewards which he proposes to the observers of his law, and the awful punishments with which he threatens those who shall violate the same! This made David cry out: O Lord, thou hast commanded thy Commandments to be kept most diligently. [360] Now the love of complacency, beholding this divine desire, wills to please God by observing it; the
St. Francis de Sales—Treatise on the Love of God

'My Strength and Song'
'The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation....' EXODUS xv. 2. These words occur three times in the Bible: here, in Isaiah xii. 2, and in Psalm cxviii. 14. I. The lessons from the various instances of their occurrence. The first and second teach that the Mosaic deliverance is a picture- prophecy of the redemption in Christ. The third (Psalm cxviii. 14), long after, and the utterance of some private person, teaches that each age and each soul has the same mighty Hand working for
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A New Kind of King
'On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt. These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Lively Stones. Rev. W. Morley Punshon.
"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."--1 PETER ii. 5. There is a manifest reference in the fourth verse to the personage alluded to in Psalm cxviii. 22, 23: "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." And this passage is applied by Christ to himself in Matthew xxi. 42: "Jesus saith unto them, Did
Knowles King—The Wesleyan Methodist Pulpit in Malvern

To Pastors and Teachers
To Pastors and Teachers If all who laboured for the conversion of others were to introduce them immediately into Prayer and the Interior Life, and make it their main design to gain and win over the heart, numberless as well as permanent conversions would certainly ensue. On the contrary, few and transient fruits must attend that labour which is confined to outward matters; such as burdening the disciple with a thousand precepts for external exercises, instead of leaving the soul to Christ by the
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

Lydia, the First European Convert
WE MAY LAUDABLY EXERCISE CURIOSITY with regard to the first proclamation of the gospel in our own quarter of the globe. We are happy that history so accurately tells us, by the pen of Luke, when first the gospel was preached in Europe, and by whom, and who was the first convert brought by that preaching to the Savior's feet. I half envy Lydia that she should be the leader of the European band; yet I feel right glad that a woman led the van, and that her household followed so closely in the rear.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

The Great Privilege of those that are Born of God
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." 1 John 3:9. 1. It has been frequently supposed, that the being born of God was all one with the being justified; that the new birth and justification were only different expressions, denoting the same thing: It being certain, on the one hand, that whoever is justified is also born of God; and, on the other, that whoever is born of God is also justified; yea, that both these gifts of God are given to every believer in one and the same moment. In one
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

The First Day in Passion-Week - Palm-Sunday - the Royal Entry into Jerusalem
At length the time of the end had come. Jesus was about to make Entry into Jerusalem as King: King of the Jews, as Heir of David's royal line, with all of symbolic, typic, and prophetic import attaching to it. Yet not as Israel after the flesh expected its Messiah was the Son of David to make triumphal entrance, but as deeply and significantly expressive of His Mission and Work, and as of old the rapt seer had beheld afar off the outlined picture of the Messiah-King: not in the proud triumph of war-conquests,
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Fourth Commandment
Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it. Exod 20: 8-11. This
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

In the Last, the Great Day of the Feast'
IT was the last, the great day of the Feast,' and Jesus was once more in the Temple. We can scarcely doubt that it was the concluding day of the Feast, and not, as most modern writers suppose, its Octave, which, in Rabbinic language, was regarded as a festival by itself.' [3987] [3988] But such solemn interest attaches to the Feast, and this occurrence on its last day, that we must try to realise the scene. We have here the only Old Testament type yet unfilfilled; the only Jewish festival which has
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Letter Xlvi (Circa A. D. 1125) to Guigues, the Prior, and to the Other Monks of the Grand Chartreuse
To Guigues, the Prior, And to the Other Monks of the Grand Chartreuse He discourses much and piously of the law of true and sincere charity, of its signs, its degrees, its effects, and of its perfection which is reserved for Heaven (Patria). Brother Bernard, of Clairvaux, wishes health eternal to the most reverend among fathers, and to the dearest among friends, Guigues, Prior of the Grande Chartreuse, and to the holy Monks who are with him. 1. I have received the letter of your Holiness as joyfully
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

A vision of Judgement and Cleansing
'And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. 2. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? 3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the Angel. 4. And He answered and spake unto those that stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him He said,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

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