What Day Is Today?

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

I often start the day by asking my kids, “What day is today?”

By now they know how to respond, “The day the Lord has made!”

“And what are we to do?” I ask.

“Rejoice and be glad in it!”

Before you begin to think this moment is always special, just yesterday I asked the boys this question, and my youngest son responded in a huff, “Why do you ask us that every single day?”

The answer lies in the question, because every day we face new challenges that shroud our memory and lure us to forget God’s faithfulness. We need to shake our souls awake with the reminder that God has made this day, and because he is in control, we can rejoice and be glad in the minutes we’ve been given.

It’s easy to reserve rejoicing in the Lord for days that flow seamlessly and are laced with magical moments. But God has also made the days when we experience heartache, discouragement, and suffering. In seasons when I battled anxiety and when hope felt like a distant dream, I dug deeper into the meaning of Psalm 118:24. How could I rejoice and be glad when everything within me was shouting the exact opposite?

The verses leading up to Psalm 118:24 provide context for this passage. The psalmist says, “I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (verses 21-23). David, who was likely the writer of Psalm 118, had been like a rejected stone, yet God chose him to be the king of Israel.^a

The ultimate fulfillment of this psalm came through Jesus Christ. Jesus referenced this passage multiple times, and several other New Testament writers mentioned it as well (see Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10-11; Acts 4:11; and 1 Peter 2:7-8).

When Jesus quoted this psalm, he was on his way to Jerusalem, where he would be crucified. As he entered Jerusalem on a donkey, people in the crowd spread their cloaks onto the dirt for him, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9) When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he came as King—the chief cornerstone who would later be rejected by the same people who were now celebrating him.

Because Christ is King over everything, exalted now and forever, we can rejoice and be glad in this day. Salvation, redemption, and hope are found in Jesus, who lived the life we could not live, died the death we deserved to die, and was raised to life so we could have eternal life in him.

When your heart is filled with anxiety or despair, remember Christ, who suffered and bought your salvation. Then ask yourself, What day is today? Because you live in the shadow of the cross of Christ and the light of his redemption, you can answer with confidence, “This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!”

Word before World Because Christ is King over everything, we can rejoice and be glad in his faithfulness today.

Grow in Grace Write Psalm 118:24 on a notecard and place it somewhere you’ll see it often as a reminder that today is the day the Lord has made. He will bring you through.