This Psalm closes this series of lofty songs of praise. The Psalm 110 had seated Adon or Christ at Jehovah’s right hand in heaven, and anticipated His return to the power and rest of the kingdom. Here the nation of Israel welcome Him back, and, appropriately, in the character of the “head-stone of the corner,” for such had His previous exaltation in heaven made Him (Acts 4:1111This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. (Acts 4:11)). It is the language of Israel, just in readiness for Jesus and His kingdom (Matt. 23). It is the bringing in of this head-stone with shoutings (Zech. 4:77Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. (Zechariah 4:7)).
Scripture abounds with reference to Christ as “the Stone.”
This wondrous Stone or Rock was formed at Calvary; for the archers had to grieve Him, and shoot at Him, and hate Him, before He could be fully formed the stone, the “tried stone” (Gen. 49). Then, in due time, He was laid down before Israel as their foundation; but they stumbled over Him instead of building on Him (Isa. 28; Rom. 9). He is now, in the same character, presented to a whole world of sinners, and some find Him their life-giving stone, while men generally disallow Him (1 Peter 2). But He is in heaven, owned as the head of the corner, and from that elevation He will in season descend, and in His fall grind His despisers to powder (Dan. 2; Matt. 21). Then, His true Israel will welcome Him, as this Psalm shows us. And in His kingdom He will be the stone—on earth, engraved with “seven eyes,” exercising diligent government over the whole scene (Zech. 3)—in heaven, enthroned as the glorious precious stone (Rev. 4), with His risen saints sparkling as glorious precious stones around Him (Rev. 21).
Wondrous story! but this only as we pass by this magnificent Psalm; our wonder, as another observed, however nothing less than worship.
It is the kingdom, or “day of the Lord,” that is here rejoiced in, as it had been “the resurrection” before, in Psalm 116. And this “day” will, of course, bring “light” (Psa. 117:27) to Israel; and be also the great witness, that God’s “mercy endureth forever,” the great theme or occasion of continued sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving (Psa. 117:28-29). For the joy of Jesus and His saints is twofold: the joy of resurrection, and the joy of the kingdom. Jesus knew the first, when He broke in His own person the power of death and the grave; He will know the second in the coming day of His power in Jerusalem.
This is a suited and solemn close of this great Hallel, as the Jews themselves call this collection of Psalms, as I have observed already. And this last of them, Psalm 118 is the celebration of the glorious ways of the Lord, in a stage beyond that to which (save in prospect) Psalm 110 had led Him. There we saw Him seated at the right hand in heaven, and we left Him there, an expectant of His day and kingdom. But here His expectation is realized. His enemies have been subdued, and He is entering the gates of His royal city. As He once went up the shining way from earth to the right hand of God, so now He has descended the shining way from heaven, to execute vengeance on His enemies, as then promised to Him, to satisfy the wishful waiting hearts of His people, and to seat Himself in the kingdom.
What paths for the feet of Jesus are these! Those feet which had known only the thorny places of this desert world, in these Psalms travel these glorious paths—the path upward to God, and the path downward to the kingdom. Then the Lord will have His day. And it will be a jubilee, when God’s principles form and fill the scene (Lev. 25). His counsels of wisdom and love shall be displayed and exalted, and His people shall lift up the praise, as they do here—“bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” But who can utter it all? As our poet sings—
“Who shall fulfill the boundless song?
What bold pretender dares?
The theme transcends an angel’s tongue,
And Gabriel’s heart despairs.”