A subscriber asks, "What day is the psalmist speaking of in the twenty-fourth verse of the 118th Psalm?"
The text is easily answered if we consider the context, which is as follows:
"Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord; This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise You; for You have heard me, and are become my salvation. The stone which the builders refused is become the head stoneof the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:19-24)
The subject under consideration is salvation, for which the psalmist is praising the Lord. This appears still more clearly when we read the entire chapter. He recognizes the fact that salvation comes through Christ, by saying: "The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner." (Psalm 118:22)
The fact that the subject of salvation is under consideration, and that he says, "Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord," (Psalm 118:19) is evidence that the psalmist is not speaking of any special literal day, but that he uses the word "day" in the sense of a period of time, as in Proverbs 24:10; "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small." (Proverbs 24:10) Ecclesiastes 7:14, "In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also has set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him." (Ecclesiastes 7:14) and other places.
Just as there is no special day of the week when men may have prosperity or adversity, so there is no special day when men may enter the gates of righteousness or may seek salvation. Ever since the fall, men could enter the gates of righteousness at any time they chose. Thus it will be until probation ends.
And so the day spoken of here by the psalmist, is the day of salvation of which Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians 6:2, for he says: "For he says, I have heard you in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored you; behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2)
That this is not limited to any particular day, nor even to what is called the Christian dispensation, may be seen from the fact that these words were written seven hundred years before Christ, and are quoted by Paul: "Thus says the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you: and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages." (Isaiah 49:8)
Again, the day spoken of is the day in which the stone which the builders rejected becomes the headstone of the corner. It is the day of salvation, that is, the whole period of time in which God's grace is manifest toward sinners. Christ is the head of the corner, because the entire plan of salvation centers in him. Paul says to the Ephesians: "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." (Ephesians 2:19-20)
This shows that Christ was the corner-stone in the days of the apostles and prophets, and this is in harmony with what Paul says: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 3:11)
Again Christ refers to the same day to which David does where he said of the Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad." (John 8:56)
Abraham saw the day of salvation, and entered into the gates of righteousness. The gospel was preached unto him and he rejoiced in it as did David. To say that John 8:56 refers to a certain day of the week, would make nonsense of the text; but no more than it would to limit Psalm 118:24 in like manner.
With the above explanation it is unnecessary to enter into an argument to show that the day to which David refers is not the first day of the week. Indeed, that has been shown already. It is not on Sunday or upon any other special day of the week alone that men can enter into the gates of righteousness and rejoice because of salvation.
But "now"--that is, the present time, this period of probation--"now is the accepted time;" "now is the day of salvation." Therefore Paul says: "Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice." (Philippians 4:4)--Signs of the Times, January 27, 1887--Psalm 118:19-24.