Psalms 118:24 Meaning and Explanation
“This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →The line often appears on coffee mugs and morning calendars, applied to any given Tuesday. Reading it inside Psalm 118 gives it far more weight. A specific day is in view, one the crowd could point at, and the joy is a decision made about that day. Knowing which day helps us see why the verse has kept its power.
A worshipping crowd responds to a day God himself brought about. Recognizing his hand in what has just happened, they commit together to gladness as the fitting answer to it.
The Context of Psalms 118:24
Psalm 118 is a processional thanksgiving song, traditionally the closing psalm of the group sung at Passover. It opens and closes with the refrain that God's mercy endures for ever, and calls Israel, the house of Aaron, and all who fear the LORD to say so. The middle recounts deliverance: distress answered, nations surrounding him, a hard chastening that stopped short of death. At verse 19 the singer asks for the gates of righteousness to be opened. Verse 22 names the rejected stone made head of the corner, verse 23 calls it the LORD's doing, and verse 24 follows immediately.
What Does Psalms 118:24 Mean?
The demonstrative points at something. This is the day, said by people standing in it, about an event they have just witnessed. The relative clause identifies its maker: which the LORD hath made. The day is God's work in the same sense the stone in verse 23 is God's doing, and the singer says so in the same breath. Then the response arrives as a shared resolve. We will rejoice and be glad in it uses two verbs of joy, joined and future, spoken in the plural. Gladness here is chosen out loud, in company, about a day whose significance has already been named.
Sequence gives verse 24 its content. Verse 22 describes a builders' reject becoming the cornerstone. Verse 23 attributes the reversal to God and calls it marvellous in our eyes. Verse 24 then labels the day on which such a reversal happened. Verse 25 cries out for salvation with the word English readers know as Hosanna, and verse 26 blesses the one who comes in the name of the LORD. The whole passage reads as a festival liturgy for a day of vindication, when someone cast aside was raised and the gathered people saw it. Israel's calendar was built around remembering days God had made.
The New Testament returns to this passage repeatedly. Crowds greeted Jesus entering Jerusalem with the words of verse 26 and the cry of verse 25 (Matthew 21:9). Jesus applied verse 22 to himself at the end of a parable about a rejected son (Matthew 21:42), and Peter used the same verse before the council in Jerusalem (Acts 4:11). Reading verse 24 in that company, the day the LORD made becomes the day of the stone's vindication, which Christians have understood as the day of resurrection. Easter morning gathers up everything this psalm celebrates, and the church's joy on that day is verse 24 kept.
Psalms 118:24 in the Original Language
asah (עָשָׂה), 'hath made' -- the ordinary Hebrew verb for doing, making, or bringing about. It covers a craftsman shaping an object and a king accomplishing a deed, so the day here is something God actively brought to pass.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 118:24
“The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.”
- Psalm 118:22
“Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?”
- Matthew 21:42
“This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.”
- Acts 4:11
“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our LORD: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
- Nehemiah 8:10
Where Psalms 118:24 Echoes in Scripture
Peter takes up the stone image again in a letter, telling scattered believers that the stone the builders disallowed has become the head of the corner (1 Peter 2:7). He writes to people under pressure, far from any festival procession, and hands them this psalm as ground to stand on. The pattern holds: what one generation sang in a temple courtyard, a later generation prayed in exile and hardship, finding in the same verses a God who reverses situations and gives days worth rejoicing in.
How to Apply Psalms 118:24 Today
Taken as a daily practice, this verse asks us to look for God's hand in the specific day in front of us before deciding how to feel about it. Some mornings that is easy. On the hard ones, the psalm still holds, since the day it celebrates came directly after chastening and after enemies pressing in from every side. Gladness declared in advance is a real form of trust. It helps to say the words out loud, and it helps to say them with someone, since the psalm's verbs are plural. A day received from God is a day worth showing up for.
Reflection & Prayer
What has God already done in the last week that we walked past without naming? A prayer to borrow: LORD, this day came from your hand, and I have been treating it as something to survive. Open my eyes to your work in it. Give me the honesty to rejoice where rejoicing is warranted, and the patience to wait for what you are still doing.