Psalm 118:22-23

Psalm 118:22-23

He has become the cornerstone

The singer of this Psalm comes to an end of his personal tributes to the Lord and gives way here to the wider community, his people joining in with their own exaltations. The first of these is a familiar refrain repeated in Matthew, Mark and Luke when Jesus applied it to Himself. (Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10-11, Luke 20:17.) Peter quoted these words in his defence before the Sanhedrin in Acts 4:11. He must have had a special affinity with Psalm 118:22 because he repeats the words in 1 Peter 2:7-8. Finally, Paul alludes to them in Ephesians 2:19-22 when he talks about the spiritual building that is the church. So, what do they mean? What was the psalmist trying to convey here?

In the context of the Psalm, it could be that the beleaguered king, who had just poured out his heartfelt woes and recognised how close he had come to death, was the stone that the other nations rejected. Perhaps he had been rejected by some of his own people too? Equally, it could refer to Israel who had already got used to the idea that most of the world’s nations held them in contempt but with the Lord on their side, they would triumph and become a great nation themselves. 

The allegory is telling here, a stone rejected by builders is obviously of little use in the construction industry, maybe it is too uneven and cannot be trimmed, maybe it’s of poor quality or in some way deformed, maybe it simply doesn’t fit into the planned structure. Whatever the cause, this stone is useless and is cast to one side only to be selected later, to become the most important component in a new building whose construction is being supervised by the Lord Himself. Israel certainly fills this description but our Lord Jesus, even more so. He encapsulated the rejection faced by His own people but then went one step further and was Himself, despised and rejected by the whole world. They all discarded Him, Jews included, but God raised Him from the dead and He became the most important Being who ever trod this earth. By the way, the Hebrew language sometimes uses the term “cornerstone” as a metaphor for a leader or ruler. Jesus is our cornerstone, men still find Him to be of little use but, to all who believe, He is the greatest stone of all. The Lord has done this, and it is “marvellous in our eyes.” Hallelujah! 

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