Getting several days to rub elbows with so many of the regional directors and missionaries with CEF from third-world nations this week is always such a spiritual encouragement to my soul. To spend time with these dear saints who have virtually nothing of the world’s goods, and yet have a contentment and joy in the Lord so profound, it is almost contagious. Most of them struggle against tremendous financial hardship, let alone threats to their personal safety for their even owning a Bible in some of the countries in which they live and minister. And yet, they are full of God’s kind of happiness – Biblical joy. Indeed, chapter 59 in Robert J. Morgan’s book, One Hundred Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart, underscores one important admonition of the Lord that we would all be wise to memorize: This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps. 118:24).

Morgan provides the following discussion relative to this verse. 

God is in the day-making business. The Ancient of Days is the Manufacturer of Days. He has a continually-running conveyor belt stretching from the sun to the earth and from Heaven to this world. One new day rolls off God’s assembly line every 24 hours, right on schedule, each one unique. We rise from bed each day knowing that an endless succession of sunrises and sunsets come from the workbench of His will, all of them individually crafted, packaged with grace, wrapped in love.

This verse reminds us that God’s compassions never fail; they are new every morning, for great is His faithfulness. Goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives; and as our days may demand shall our strength ever be.

In its context Psalm 118:24 is Messianic. The author composed this Psalm to be sung by the crowds approaching the Temple during great worship festivals in Jerusalem; and this is the song the children sang as Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He is the stone, rejected by the builders, who became the cornerstone (vv.22-24). In his book, Shadows on the Wall, the devotional writer F.W. Boreham told of preaching in a particular church during his college days. His lodgings were with Old Bessie, the elderly widow of the former pastor; and Boreham was given the room she normally occupied. He rose the next morning and threw open the blinds. There, etched in the glass, were the words, “This is the day.” At breakfast he asked her about it.

“I had a lot of trouble in my time,” she explained, “and I am a great one to worry. I was always afraid of what was going to happen tomorrow. And each morning when I woke up I felt as though I had the weight of the world upon me. Then one day, when I was very upset about things, I sat down and read my Bible. It happened that I was reading the 118th Psalm. When I came to the 24th verse, I stopped. This is the day that the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it .... It flashed upon me like a burst of sunshine on a gloomy day.

Snatching up a glass cutting tool from the kitchen, Old Bessie ran upstairs and scrawled the words on the windowpane. “There!” she thought. “Now I shall see that little bit of Bible every morning when I draw up the blind, and I will say to myself, ‘This is the day!’”

Memory tip: The verse reference is easy to remember. Each day is composed of 24 hours the Lord has made. Psalm 118:24.

This is the day the Lord hath made;
He calls the hours His own;
Let Heaven rejoice, let earth be glad,
And praise surround the throne.
(Isaac Watts)

Morgan’s account ends there.  Joy is defined as a “total absence of fear”. It is an attitude more than an emotion. Indeed, it is a fruit of the Spirit. Let’s ask God daily to enable us to choose to be joyful.

Love,

John & Terri
Ps. 118:24