Psa 118:19-23 “The LORD is my Strength and Song, and is Become my Salvation” – Part 4

Psa 118:19  Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD:
Psa 118:20  This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.
Psa 118:21  I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.
Psa 118:22  The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
Psa 118:23  This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

God’s goodness will be revealed in leading us unto repentance and giving us the ability to not despise the chastening of the Lord (Pro 3:11) which happens to every son who is being received of God and having “the gates of righteousness” open unto them. His children will mature as a kind of first fruits (Jas 1:18) to a point of acceptance and great rejoicing in knowing that His grace is sufficient for us in this age, and God’s goodness will be expressed through Jesus Christ as he works in the lives of His children with a spirit of “forbearance and longsuffering” which is needed in order to lead us to repentance.

Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness [Col 1:27] and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing [2Pe 3:18] that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Pro 3:11  My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Heb 12:10  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Heb 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

In this study we will look at how it is only through Christ our high priest that we enter into those narrow strait gates of holiness “and live” (Mat 7:13) where “I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD” because it is God who is working in us both to will and to do this, that is our hope.

Heb 4:14  Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. [Rev 3:11]
Heb 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Heb 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

We are instructed in Romans 11 to Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off”, and as we just read in Romans 2:4 it is “…the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering;” that we are not to despise in this process of spiritual completion through judgment we are experiencing, a process which witnesses to the reality that we are God’s workmanship being created in Christ Jesus in this age, that “we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ” (Joh 21:18, Eph 2:10, Eph 1:12). God’s workmanship is all centered around the temple that we are and typified by the living sacrifices which the high priests offered daily. All those sacrifices in the temple represent the lifetime of presenting ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service to Him (Rom 1:12, Heb 13:13).

How we walk in those sacrifices

Joh 21:18 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. [Jer 1:14-19, 1Pe 4:17]

Jer 1:14  Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Jer 1:15  For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. [Psa 118:19]
Jer 1:16  And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
Jer 1:17  Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
Jer 1:18  For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
Jer 1:19  And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee. [1Jn 4:4]

1Pe 4:17. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. [Joh 21:18]

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Heb 7:19  For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God. [Col 1:27]

Heb 7:23  And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
Heb 7:24  But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. [Mal 3:6]
Heb 7:25  Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Heb 7:26  For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; [Eph 1:21, Eph 6:12]
Heb 7:27  Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.

We naturally despise this process of judgment until our hearts are supernaturally softened (Eze 36:26) as God causes us to walk in the light of Christ (1Jn 1:7, Joh 6:44, Joh 8:36) who alone can “bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” (Psa 118:27). We present ourselves as that living sacrifice (Rom 12:1) being bound to the horns of the altar that represents the cross and the redemptive power of God (1Jn 1:7, 1Jn 2:2). Looking at these promises of God and being reminded that Christ is the author and finisher of our faith (Php 1:6) brings us to these hope-filled verses which discuss the impossibility of our being separated from the “love of Christ” that has the body of Christ bound together in love (Rom 8:31-39, Col 3:13-17, Eph 4:15-16).

Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Col 3:13  Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Col 3:14  And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
Col 3:15  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Col 3:16  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Col 3:17  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

When the word of God is dwelling in you richly in all wisdom you will be filled with God’s spirit and able to be “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord”, that is what it means to say “The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation”.

Eph 5:18  And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Eph 5:19  Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

Act 11:24  For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Psa 118:19  Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD:

When God opens to us “the gates of righteousness” it is a result of our being dragged to Him and being given hearts that are prepared to open the door when we hear Him knocking.

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Mat 13:9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Mat 13:16. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

When we are given to truly see how blessed we are in this age to know God and Jesus Christ and His body, it is “At that day” (Joh 14:20) “I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD“.

Joh 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Joh 17:4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

Joh 18:9  That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.

Psa 118:20  This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.

This gate of the LORD” is the mind of Christ that God has given to very few in this age, and it is through Christ “into which the righteous shall enter” where we “…come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”.

1Co 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Psa 118:21  I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

When Christ came into Jerusalem “upon a colt the foal of an ass” it was for our sakes as a living admonition of how it is only through Christ taking control of that beast, which represents humanity (Ecc 3:18, Joh 2:15) that we can become “lowly” as He was and share in bringing salvation to the world through Christ.

Zec 9:9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

The way to salvation is through the bruising and stripes which Christ’s body go through in this life that is typified by the “branches of palm” and their “garments” that were spread and strawed “in the way“. It is through the trials and temptations “branches of palm” and their “garments” that were spread and strawed “in the way” which we go through, that God’s power is made manifest so we can be a people with a “poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word”.

Joh 12:13  Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. [Psa 118:19]

Mat 21:8  And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.

Exo 15:24  And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
Exo 15:25  And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
Exo 15:26  And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
Exo 15:27  And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

Gen 30:36  And he set three days‘ journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
Gen 30:37  And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
Gen 30:38  And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

Isa 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isa 53:6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Gen 30:41  And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

God’s elect “will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation“.

Luk 19:40  And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
Luk 19:41  And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Luk 19:42  Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

Psa 118:22  The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
Psa 118:23  This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

To reject the cornerstone is to reject Christ and His Christ (Mat 10:40, Joh 13:20, 1Sa 8:7) who were created to be the foundational part of God’s plan and purpose. The imagery of the disciple whom Jesus loved leaning on his bosom and Christ telling Peter that he was the stone (Peter) that would be built upon the rock (Jesus) are two examples which demonstrate the strength and assurance that we can have in our Lord as members of His body. This high calling we have in Christ “is the LORD’S doing” and “it is marvellous in our eyes” as it was “determined before to be done” and “predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will”.

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

Rev 7:4  And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Joh 13:23  Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.

Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance^G2820 [Heb 1:4, 1Jn 3:1], being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Heb 1:4  Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance^G2820 obtained a more excellent name than they.

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone

Next week, Lord willing, we’ll look at the last six verses of Psalm 118. where the focus will be on the spiritual fruit that is born in the body of Christ as a result of being  bound “unto the horns of the altar”.

Psa 118:24  This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psa 118:25  Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
Psa 118:26  Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
Psa 118:27  God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
Psa 118:28  Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.
Psa 118:29  O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.