Psalms 118:24 (KJV)

Bible Study: Psalms 118:24

Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” The verse is commonly used as a morning declaration about every new day, and that devotional use can be meaningful. Yet within Psalm 118 the line has a more specific setting: it celebrates a decisive act of divine deliverance in a communal song of thanksgiving.

Psalm 118 belongs to a cluster of psalms associated with public worship and festival praise. Working Preacher describes it as an entrance liturgy likely connected with temple worship and later Jewish festival use. The psalm repeatedly summons Israel, the house of Aaron, and those who fear the Lord to confess that God’s steadfast love endures forever.

The speaker recounts severe distress. Nations surround him, enemies press hard, and death seems near. Yet the Lord becomes strength and song and brings salvation. The psalm moves from danger to deliverance, from exclusion to entrance, and from threatened death to public testimony: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.”

Verse 24 therefore does not arise from an ordinary morning in which nothing difficult has happened. It comes after a crisis has been overcome. “This is the day” points toward a moment defined by what God has done.

Some scholars note that the Hebrew can be understood as “This is the day on which the Lord has acted.” Working Preacher highlights this possibility, emphasizing that the verse concerns divine action more than the mere passage of twenty-four hours. The rejoicing is a response to salvation.

The immediately preceding verses speak of “the stone which the builders refused” becoming “the head stone of the corner.” The transformation is attributed to the Lord and called marvelous. Verse 24 then invites celebration because the reversal has become visible.

The New Testament repeatedly draws on Psalm 118 in relation to Jesus. The Gospel traditions use the rejected-stone language and the cry “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Christian communities therefore came naturally to hear Psalm 118 through the death and resurrection of Christ, especially in Easter worship.

Working Preacher notes this long Christian reception while also preserving the psalm’s Jewish identity. Christians should remember that Psalm 118 did not begin as an Easter hymn. It belongs first to Israel’s worship and memory of God’s saving acts.

That historical grounding actually strengthens Christian application. The verse teaches that joy is rooted in remembrance of divine faithfulness. Christians do not rejoice because every circumstance is pleasant. They rejoice because God’s saving work gives the day a meaning deeper than the circumstances within it.

This protects the verse from shallow positivity. Someone facing grief, illness, unemployment, or trauma should not be told that the command to rejoice means sadness is forbidden. The Psalter contains extensive lament. Psalm 118 itself remembers distress and threat before it celebrates deliverance.

Joy in Scripture can coexist with pain. The command “we will rejoice and be glad” is communal, suggesting that worshiping communities can carry joy for one another when individuals feel unable to produce it emotionally.

The verse also invites thanksgiving rather than entitlement. The day is “made” by the Lord, and the decisive action belongs to God. Rejoicing becomes recognition that life and salvation are gifts rather than achievements.

As a daily devotional verse, Psalm 118:24 can therefore be used with richer meaning. Each morning can be received as another day lived inside the larger story of God’s faithfulness. The believer need not know that everything will go well. The day is entrusted to the God who has acted before.

The line can also become a discipline against spiritual numbness. Human beings often move quickly past mercy once a crisis has passed. Psalm 118 pauses to celebrate. Remembered deliverance becomes public praise.

For discipleship, the verse asks Christians to notice God’s acts rather than merely track problems. What has been preserved? What grace has been received? What door has opened? What truth has become clear? Where has community carried someone through difficulty?

It also asks believers to rejoice together. “We will rejoice” is plural. Biblical gratitude is not only private emotion but shared worship that teaches a community to remember.

Psalm 118:24 therefore is more than a cheerful slogan about the calendar. It is the language of people who have seen God bring life out of threat and reversal out of rejection. The day becomes a day of rejoicing because God has acted. Christian readers can carry that confession into ordinary mornings without forgetting its deeper claim: joy is grounded in the saving faithfulness of the Lord.