Psalm 118: The Redemptive Half

[0:00] But if we could, this evening, with the Lord's help and the Lord's enabling, if we could turn back to that portion of Scripture that we read, Psalm 118.

[0:16] Psalm 118. As I said, we're looking at the second half of the psalm this evening. But if you read again in verse 14, there's this personal confession of faith.

[0:33] Psalm 118 and verse 14, The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation.

[0:48] As you know, with many of the psalms, Psalm 118 is a favorite. And in the 18th century, there were many French martyrs who loved Psalm 118.

[1:05] In particular, there were three Protestant Huguenot pastors who loved this psalm, Psalm 118. They were Huguenot pastors. These three men, they were known as Rang, Roger and Rochette.

[1:19] Rang, Roger and Rochette. Now, Huguenots, the Huguenots, they were French Protestants who followed the teaching of the French reformer, John Calvin.

[1:31] So they were Calvinists, just like we are. We're Calvinists. We follow the theology of John Calvin. But as Calvinists, the Huguenots, they were considered by the Roman Catholic king in the 18th century.

[1:44] They were considered to be heretics. Therefore, like many of the Protestants of that generation, they were put to death for their faith. Rang, who was the first Huguenot pastor, Louis Rang as he was called, he was captured and condemned to death in 1745.

[2:02] He was offered freedom. Then, he was offered to be released and to go home if he would only recant and renounce his Protestant faith. But, of course, he refused.

[2:14] A few weeks later, another Protestant, the second man, this other Huguenot pastor, he was called Jack Roger. So there's Rang and there's Roger. Roger, he had been hunted by the authorities for nearly 40 years.

[2:27] It was actually 37 years they were looking for this Jack Roger. Until he was finally caught, he was captured, and then he was condemned to death again in 1745.

[2:38] Then 17 years later, in 1762, the last of these three Protestant Huguenot pastors, the last one was called François Rochette. He was also put to death for his stand against the Roman Catholic Church.

[2:54] The reason I mention them is what's amazing about these three men, or these three martyrs, Rang, Roger, and Rochette, is that they loved Psalm 118.

[3:06] Because as they were being hanged, as they were being hanged for preaching a gospel, a gospel of God's grace to lost sinners, As they were being hanged, they each sang in French the words of verse 24, where it says, This is the day the Lord has made.

[3:26] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Do you know what a testimony to have? To die singing, This is the day the Lord has made.

[3:38] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. But you know what I love about these three martyrs, Rang, Roger, and Rochette, is that they all had something in common with Jesus.

[3:50] They all had something in common with their Savior, which we will probably never have. Because before they were put to death, the last words they were singing were from Psalm 118.

[4:04] And as we mentioned this morning, that was also true about Jesus. The last words Jesus sang before His death were Psalm 118. Because both Matthew and Mark, they tell us in their gospel that after Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper for the first time, when He had the last supper with His disciples, Jesus and His disciples, they sang a hymn.

[4:26] And then they went out to the Mount of Olives, where Jesus would go on to be arrested and then crucified. And the hymn that they sang was Psalm 118.

[4:36] It's the last Egyptian Hallel hymn that was often sung during the Passover meal. And as we said this morning, it's a hymn of thanksgiving. And so as we consider the second half of Psalm 118 this evening, I think it's important for us to remember that like Rang, Roger, and Rochette, these are the last words Jesus sang before His death.

[4:59] These are the last words Jesus sang before His death. But what's remarkable is that as Jesus sang Psalm 118 during the Passover, He would have known what this psalm pointed to.

[5:15] He would have known who this psalm was portraying. He would have known that I was speaking about Him as the only Savior of sinners. And so I want us to think about this, the second half of this hymn this evening under three headings.

[5:31] The righteous resounding, the righteous rejected, and the righteous rejoicing. So three headings. The righteous resounding, the righteous rejected, and the righteous rejoicing.

[5:45] So first of all, the righteous resounding. The righteous resounding. Look at verse 14. It says there, The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous.

[5:58] The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord exalts. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. So we mentioned this morning that when we were looking at the first half of Psalm 118, that the first half of this psalm is the repetitive half of the psalm because there's so much repetition.

[6:19] We said that the title, Lord, it's repeated 24 times in 29 verses. The phrase, His steadfast love endures forever, you see there, it's repeated five times in this psalm.

[6:32] There's also the repeated confessions that the Lord is on my side and that it's better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in mere mortals. Because even as the psalmist says, even when the enemy surrounds on every side, there's this repeated confession, in the name of the Lord, I cut them off.

[6:53] And so the first half of Psalm 118, it's the repetitive half of the psalm. But as we said, repetition isn't to be seen as a problem. It's to be seen as a positive.

[7:04] Because the repetitive half of Psalm 118, it's preparing us, it's preparing the way for the redemptive half of Psalm 118. And what connects both halves of these, of the same psalm, what connects both halves, the first half, the repetitive half, and the redemptive half, what connects these two halves is this personal confession in verse 14.

[7:30] The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. In fact, this personal confession, it's the pivotal point in this entire psalm.

[7:43] It's the pivotal point in this hymn of thanksgiving. But as we said, the confession of verse 14, it's also a repeated confession. It's a repeated confession.

[7:54] It's not repeated in this hymn, which is quite fascinating. It's not repeated at all. But it's actually repeated throughout history. Because we mentioned this morning that when the Israelites were rescued and redeemed from slavery in Egypt, Moses sang on the banks of the Red Sea, the Lord is my strength and my song.

[8:11] He has become my salvation. And then when Isaiah later prophesied about the rescue and redemption of the Israelites from exile in Babylon, he also sang in his song of salvation, the Lord is my strength and my song.

[8:24] He has become my salvation. And now Psalm 118, it's looking forward in anticipation to the fullness of this redemption, the fullness of this rescue of sinners through faith in Jesus Christ.

[8:38] And the hymn writer calls all of us, whether we are, as we saw this morning, God's saved people, God's serving people, or God's seeking people, whoever we are, the Lord is calling us in this psalm to personally confess, the Lord is my strength and my song.

[8:55] He has become my salvation. And you know, it's a great confession of faith because it's actually all about Jesus. You know, we often wonder, where is Jesus in the Psalms?

[9:08] You often hear people saying that. And he's right here. Verse 14. As you know, they called his name Jesus. They called him Savior or salvation because he would save his people from their sins.

[9:21] And that's what we're being called to personally confess here. Verse 14. The Lord is my strength. He's my song. And he has become my Jesus.

[9:31] My Yeshua. My salvation. The Lord is my strength and my song. And he has become my Jesus. But as we said, Psalm 118, it's the last of these Egyptian Hallel Psalms.

[9:45] It's the last of this group of hymns that were sung during the Passover meal. And they're called Hallel hymns from the word Hallelujah, meaning praise the Lord.

[9:59] So don't let anybody ever tell you that as a Presbyterian, you never say Hallelujah. We always say Hallelujah because these hymns, they're full of Halleluiahs. And their purpose is to praise the Lord for his work of redemption.

[10:12] For people, we are to give our Hallelujah for, first of all, the Exodus from Egypt where we see a picture of what's going to come. We are to give our Hallelujah for the exile in Babylon, another picture of redemption and rescue.

[10:26] And ultimately, we're to give our Hallelujah to the Lord for rescuing and redeeming sinners from slavery to sin through the cross of Jesus Christ. This hymn, it's looking forward.

[10:41] It's focusing our minds upon Calvary so that we will sing our song of Hallelujah and thanksgiving to the Lord for redeeming us, for rescuing us from slavery to sin.

[10:58] And you know, this is why we traditionally sing from verse 15 onwards as we come to the Lord's table and partake of the Lord's supper. So during a communion service, you'll have what they call the action sermon on the Sunday morning and then you'll fence the table.

[11:18] And just before you come to the Lord's table, we usually traditionally would sing Psalm 118, verse 15 onwards so that as the table is being set, these words are being sung.

[11:31] And we sing these words not just because they're part of the Passover liturgy, where it ultimately points us to Jesus as our Passover lamb. And we sing these words not just because they're the last words that Jesus ever sung before he was crucified.

[11:46] We do sing them because of that. But we also sing these words as we come to the Lord's table and partake of the Lord's supper because as we said, Psalm 118, it's a hymn of thanksgiving.

[11:58] And as you know, the Lord's table, it's a table of thanksgiving. And the Lord's supper is often described as a Eucharist, which is a supper of thanksgiving.

[12:09] And so the whole purpose of this psalm, as we saw this morning, is to give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for a steadfast love endures forever. Forever.

[12:21] Of course, the presenters, and Ivan sang the tune earlier on, the presenters, when we sing from verse 15 onwards in Psalm 118, it's always to be sung to the tune, Coles Hill.

[12:32] You daren't sing any other tune. And we sing those words, and dwellings of the righteous is heard the melody of joy and health the Lord's right hand doth ever valiantly.

[12:43] The righteous are resounding. They're singing in thanksgiving to the Lord. The Lord who has made them righteous through faith in Jesus.

[12:56] Jesus Christ, the righteous. So the righteous here, they're resounding, they're making this resounding noise to the Lord. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord of righteousness.

[13:07] But as you can see, as we move into the redemptive half, past verse 14, you see that there's more repetition. Because the righteous who are resounding, they repeat the phrase, the right hand of the Lord.

[13:21] Look at verse 15, glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

[13:32] So the righteous, they are resounding, and they repeat the phrase, the right hand of the Lord. And they do that because the right hand was always seen as the strong hand. So if, like myself, you're left-handed, then you're a weakling. Because the right hand is the strong hand. The right hand was always seen as the sovereign hand. A king would always hold his scepter in his right hand, the righteous right hand. It was the hand of the king, the hand of power, the hand of victory. And that's why the righteous are resounding. They're singing about the right hand of the Lord, because he has won the victory. He has won the victory. It's looking forward to Calvary, the one who would win the victory for us. And you know, that's why we were singing earlier in Psalm 98. The same picture, the same promise was looking forward to Calvary.

[14:32] Sing a new song to the Lord, said the psalmist, for wonders he hath done, his right hand and his holy arm. The victory have won. The Lord has won the victory. That's what these psalms are looking forward to. And the righteous here, they are resounding. They're singing in thanksgiving.

[14:52] That's how we're to sing. We're to sing in thanksgiving because we're looking forward. We're looking towards the cross in this psalm. We're looking to the moment when Jesus wins the victory by dealing with sin and defeating death and dismantling the grave and destroying the power of the devil. The righteous are resounding. They're singing their song of thanksgiving because the right hand of the Lord, as the psalmist says, he has done valiantly. And so in the redemptive half of Psalm 118, we see the righteous, they are resounding. But then we see, secondly, the righteous rejected.

[15:33] So the righteous resounding and then the righteous rejected. Look at verse 17. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it.

[15:58] I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Now, we mentioned earlier that Psalm 118 was a favorite of many of the French Protestants, these Huguenots who followed in the footsteps of the French reformer, John Calvin.

[16:23] But Psalm 118 was also a favorite of the German reformer, Martin Luther. That's an answer to one of the questions. In fact, Psalm 118, it's also my wife's favorite psalm. Alison loves Psalm 118.

[16:38] And I suppose you can see why. Our favorite verse is actually the favorite verse of Martin Luther. So Alison is in good company with the German reformer. But you know, the reason Psalm 118 was Luther's favorite psalm. It was because when he faced lots of obstacles and lots of opposition for his stand against the Roman Catholic Church. And Luther, he stood up to the Catholic Church to the point that they wanted to depose him, they wanted to defrock him, and ultimately they wanted to put him to death.

[17:11] And yet, despite the many obstacles from other Christians and even the opposition from the church, Luther always found comfort. He found consolation in the words of Psalm 118.

[17:25] In fact, Luther writes in his commentary that he had a plaque that would hang on his study wall in his home in Wittenberg in Germany. And written on the plaque were the words of verse 17.

[17:38] It was probably written in German. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. What's more is that Martin Luther, he loved Psalm 118 so much that he wrote a 60-page commentary on this one psalm, his favorite psalm. And in the introduction to his commentary, this is what Luther wrote. This is what he writes about Psalm 118. This is my own beloved psalm. Although the entire Psalter and all of Holy Scripture are dear to me as my only comfort and source of life, I fell in love with this psalm especially. Therefore, I call it my own. When emperors and kings, the wise and the learned and even saints could not aid me, this psalm proved a friend and helped me out of many great troubles.

[18:30] As a result, it is dearer to me than all the wealth, honor, and power of the Pope and even the emperor. Then Luther says, I would be most unwilling to trade this psalm for all of it. I would be most unwilling to trade this psalm for all of it. And you know, for Luther, it seems that Psalm 118 was not only his favorite psalm. It was in many ways his personal testimony. And I say that because if you know anything about Martin Luther, and if you don't know much about him, look him up. Fascinating character. Great to read about. Because for years, Luther, before he was converted, he lived as a monk in a monastery. And like many monks do, like many Roman Catholics do, they lack assurance of salvation.

[19:20] And Luther, he always thought that he needed to do more in order to be saved. He always thought that he needed to pray more, and to read more, and to meditate more, and to serve more, and to give more, and to do penance more. Luther always felt that he needed to do more in order to be saved, and have assurance of his salvation. And sometimes that's how we can think too. We can think that the more we do, the more we pray, that God will love us more because we prayed today, and we didn't, than not praying yesterday. That we need to do more in order to be saved. But then Luther discovered, and what he discovered became the text of the Reformation. From Romans 1 verse 17, the righteous shall live by faith. The righteous shall live by faith. And with that, Luther, he realized that his salvation and his assurance is not about what he does, because it's never about what he does.

[20:21] It's all about what Christ has done for him on the cross. For Luther, it was always, it became not looking inward, but looking outward and upward to the Lord. And for Luther, this was transforming.

[20:34] It was life-giving. It was a savor of life unto life, that the righteous shall actually live by faith, not by works, not by doing things, but by faith alone. We're justified by faith. We're made righteous before a holy God, not by our works, but by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And this is why Luther loved Psalm 118, because it was in many ways his testimony. It was his confession of faith, where he could say, I shall not die, but live, and shall the works of God discover. What a great confession to have. I shall not die, but live, and shall the works of God discover. And what Luther discovered, and what every Christian discovers when they come to faith in Jesus Christ, what we discover is that we are made righteous before God, not by anything we do, but by all of what Jesus has done for us. We discover, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, he who knew no sin, Jesus, he became sin for us, all so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. In other words, we are made righteous and accepted before God because the righteous one was rejected. We are made righteous and accepted before

[22:02] God all because the righteous one, Jesus Christ, was rejected. And remarkably, that's what Psalm 118 is actually prophesying to us. That's what it's pointing out to us in these verses.

[22:18] In fact, what's amazing is that Jesus actually explains this Psalm better than Martin Luther. Because Jesus points out to us in the New Testament that this is a messianic Psalm. It's a Psalm that speaks about Jesus. It's a Psalm that points us to Jesus. And the amazing thing is, is when Jesus actually explains this, you remember the occasion when Jesus, he's engaging with the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, which wasn't an unusual thing. He was always engaging in conversations with the scribes and Pharisees. And they were always trying to trick him and trap him into confessing that he's God so that they can stone him to death. But as Jesus always did when he was confronted by the scribes and the Pharisees, what does he do? He tells a parable.

[23:11] And on this occasion, he tells the parable. That's one of the answers to the questions. He tells the parable of the wicked tenants. That's what Jesus says. Here, therefore, another parable.

[23:23] There was a master of a house who had planted a vineyard, leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit threw near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.

[23:34] But the tenants beat one, killed the other, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son, saying, they will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the heir.

[23:53] Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Then Jesus asked the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, he asked them, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? And the scribes and the Pharisees, they all say to Jesus, well, he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons. And Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures? Have you guys ever read your Bible? That's what he asked them. Quoting, then he quotes here, Psalm 118, verse 22, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I tell you, says Jesus, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. And you know, the amazing thing is Jesus used Psalm 118 not only to teach us that sinners are made righteous and accepted before God because he, the righteous one, was rejected, but Jesus also used Psalm 118 as this solemn warning to us against self-righteousness, that we can somehow work our way to heaven. Because as the righteous, the righteous of God, we're to produce fruit. That's what Jesus is teaching here. There's to be fruit of our labor in this vineyard. There's to be evidence. That's what Jesus teaches. There's to be evidence that we have been at work in the kingdom. We're not to be like the wicked tenants. We're to be working in the kingdom. We're not to sit back and watch others working. But we've actually got to put our hand to the plow. We've actually got to get involved because Jesus warns, if there's fruit, it will be taken away from you. If there's no fruit, it will be taken away from you and given to a people who will then produce fruit. It's a solemn warning against self-righteousness and sitting back and doing nothing. But when Jesus is described as the chief cornerstone there in verse 22, and when Jesus describes himself as the chief cornerstone in the parable, he's not describing himself as the first stone in the foundation stone. He's not describing himself as the first stone. It's true that he is the foundation of salvation. But in this particular image, the image and the illustration that's actually being used is that of the temple, the chief cornerstone of the temple. But Jesus, he's not portraying himself as the first foundational stone. He's actually portraying himself as the final fulfillment stone. So he's not the first foundation stone. He's the final fulfillment stone. Because as Jesus explained in the parable of the wicked tenants, he said there were many servants before the son.

[27:12] There were many prophets, many priests, many kings who were all killed or put to death or cast out. And they all came before the final prophet, priest, and king, God's son, Jesus Christ. Because he's the final stone. He's the fulfillment stone. Literally, if you've got the footnote in front of you, footnote three, he's the head of the corner. He's the capstone. He's the cornerstone. He's the chief cornerstone.

[27:42] He's the crowning glory of all that has come before him. He is ultimately the full and final revelation of God's great plan of redemption. And yet the warning that's being presented to us in this hymn is that the scribes and the Pharisees, they rejected him. And they rejected him because they wanted to build God's kingdom without God's son. They wanted to follow God in their own terms.

[28:09] They wanted to follow God according to their own rules and their own religiosity and their own self-righteousness. They wanted to do it their own way. And the thing is, you know, nothing has changed.

[28:28] Two thousand years later, people still want to follow God in their own terms. They want to do it all according to their own rules and their own religiosity and their own self-righteousness. And tonight there are people still rejecting Jesus because they want to go to heaven their own way. And they want to build their empires and live their lives without ever coming before this cornerstone and confessing that he is the chief cornerstone. Far too many people, they reject this great cornerstone. There's, you know, there's so much in this hymn of thanksgiving.

[29:04] I feel even looking at it both ends today, I'm only scratching the surface. But what we see in this, the redemptive half of Psalm 118 is the righteous resounding. So they are making glad songs of salvation.

[29:19] Then there's the righteous rejected. Jesus, the chief cornerstone rejected. And then lastly and briefly, the righteous rejoicing. The righteous rejoicing. Look at verse 24.

[29:34] This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God and he has made his light to shine upon us.

[29:56] What we see in the redemptive half of Psalm 118 is that Jesus is the chief cornerstone. But that reference to Jesus as the chief cornerstone isn't the only reference used in the New Testament.

[30:10] Because the declaration there, if you go back to verse 19, where it says, Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.

[30:22] This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. That declaration there, it sets the scene for another day in Jesus' life.

[30:33] Not a day when the scribes and the Pharisees were confronting Jesus, but the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Those verses 19 and 20, they set the scene for Palm Sunday and the triumphal entry of Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem.

[30:54] Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. And you remember that Jesus, he rode into Jerusalem riding on a donkey.

[31:08] And as he was riding in, the crowds were there. There were so many people there. And they were all spreading their cloaks on the ground. And they were placing palm branches before Jesus.

[31:21] And the gospel writers, they tell us that all the people, the crowds were singing. They were all singing. And they were singing from a psalm. They were singing Psalm 118.

[31:33] Because they were singing, Hosanna. Hosanna to the King. They were singing, Hosanna, save us. That's what the word Hosanna means. Verse 25. Look at verse 25.

[31:46] This is what they were singing. Hosanna, save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord.

[31:58] The Lord is God. And he has made his light to shine upon us. So on Palm Sunday, the righteous were rejoicing. The crowds were rejoicing. They were all singing Hosanna as Jesus entered Jerusalem.

[32:12] Because they believed that Psalm 118 was being fulfilled. They believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of this psalm. It was being fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.

[32:23] But as we said earlier, we have to remember that Jesus was there. I think it's something we often forget. Maybe I forget it. We have to remember that Jesus heard the crowds singing this psalm.

[32:38] He heard them singing Hosanna to the highest. He heard them singing these great words of Psalm 118. That this is the day the Lord has made.

[32:50] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Jesus heard them singing on Sunday, Palm Sunday. Then only a few days later, Jesus himself is singing these words.

[33:02] He's singing these words with his disciples at the Passover and the Last Supper. He's singing these words. He's singing, this is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

[33:13] But you know what's quite amazing is that from Palm Sunday to Thursday night when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, then to Friday morning, everything has changed.

[33:26] The crowds completely change. Where they're no longer singing Hosanna like they were on Sunday. By Friday morning, they are all chanting, crucify him.

[33:40] Crucify him. Crucify him. What a change. What a transformation that had taken place in the experience of the crowds. They totally turned on Jesus.

[33:51] Singing Hosanna on Sunday. Shouting, crucify him by Friday. And yet through it all, through the darkness of Calvary, through the dereliction of Calvary, through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, Psalm 118.

[34:07] It reminds us there in verse 27 that the Lord is God. And he has made his light to shine upon us. And then there's the confession, verse 28.

[34:18] You are my God, and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, I will extol you. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever.

[34:35] You know, you can understand why Psalm 118 is a favorite for so many. Because whether you read the repetitive half, or study the redemptive half of Psalm 118, we can see that from the whole Psalm, we are being exhorted and encouraged to sing this hymn of thanksgiving to the Lord.

[34:58] We are to direct our praise to the Lord Jesus. And we are to sing, as the Psalmist says here, we are to sing, O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

[35:09] For his steadfast love endures forever. So may that be our song, as we go into a new week. To sing this wonderful song of salvation.

[35:22] This song of thanksgiving. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. Well, may the Lord bless these thoughts to us.

[35:34] Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we give thanks to thee this evening, that we have been reminded that this is the day that the Lord has made.

[35:47] And let us rejoice and be glad in it. And Lord, we have good reason to rejoice. We have good reason to give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever.

[36:00] We thank thee, O Lord, tonight that Jesus remains the chief cornerstone. And although many millions reject him, that doesn't change who he is, doesn't change what he has done, but that he calls sinners such as we are, to come and bow down before him, and confess about him that the Lord is my strength and my song.

[36:24] He has become my salvation. O Lord, we pray that thou wouldest bless us in the week that lies ahead, a week that is unknown to any of us. But Lord, we give thanks that this is where we are found.

[36:36] And these are the words that we are taking upon our lips, that we are to give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Keep us then, we pray, by thy grace, and go before us, we ask, for we ask it in Jesus' name, and for his sake.

[36:53] Amen. Now we're going to sing in conclusion the words of that psalm. Psalm 118. We're singing in the Psalter, page 399.

[37:09] Psalm 118. We're singing from verse 22 down to the end of the psalm. Psalm 118 at verse 22.

[37:22] But before we sing, I've got a few questions. Question one, what verse in Psalm 118 is repeated elsewhere in the Bible? No, not verse 8.

[37:36] No, not verse 17. Third time lucky, verse 14. Right, guys. Come on, boys. Question two, what reformer said that Psalm 118 was his favorite psalm?

[37:50] Good job. Martin Luther. Okay. Question three, what parable did Jesus tell and quote from Psalm 118? What is it?

[38:06] The Wicked Tenants. Good job, guys. Question four, is Psalm 118, it's controversial, a psalm, a hymn, or a spiritual song. No?

[38:18] A hymn. Good job, guys. Well done. Okay. Psalm 118, we're singing in verse 22.

[38:29] That stone is made head cornerstone, which builders did despise. This is the doing of the Lord, and wondrous in our eyes. This is the day God made, and it will joy triumphantly.

[38:41] Save now, I pray thee, Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. And we'll sing down to the end of the psalm, of Psalm 118, to God's praise. That stone is made head cornerstone, which builders did despise.

[39:07] This is the doing of the Lord, and wondrous in our eyes.

[39:22] This is the day God made in it, will joy triumphantly.

[39:35] Save now, I pray thee, Lord, I pray, send thou prosperity.

[39:53] Blessed is he in God's great name, that cometh us to save.

[40:08] We from the house, which to the Lord pertains to blessed house.

[40:24] Good is the Lord, who unto us hath made light to arise.

[40:40] Bind ye unto the altar's heart, with courts, with courts, the sacrifice.

[40:55] Thou art my God, I'll thee exalt. My God, I will thee praise.

[41:11] Give thanks to God, for he is good. His mercy lasts always.

[41:28] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and forevermore. Amen. And this is all in consideration.

[41:46] No. Amen. On. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Your son from God, every home with you all.