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The rejected stone

Easter Sunday · Psalm 118: The Stone the Builders Rejected

The same psalm that welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday now sings of a stone rejected and made the cornerstone, and of a day the Lord has made. Christ is risen; rejoice in it today.

verse 14The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. verse 15Shouts of joy and salvation resound in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the LORD performs with valor! verse 16The right hand of the LORD is exalted! The right hand of the LORD performs with valor!” verse 17I will not die, but I will live and proclaim what the LORD has done.
Psalm 118:14–17BSB
verse 22The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. verse 23This is from the LORD, and it is marvelous in our eyes. verse 24This is the day that the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:22–24BSB

How this psalm points to Jesus

The New Testament quotes this psalm · verse 22

Jesus applied this verse to himself, and after the resurrection Peter preached that the Jesus whom the builders rejected, God raised from the dead and made the cornerstone.

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
Matthew 21:42BSB
verse 10then let this be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. verse 11This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ verse 12Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:10–12BSB
verse 4As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, verse 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. verse 6For it stands in Scripture: “See, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” verse 7To you who believe, then, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
1 Peter 2:4–7BSB

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