Introduction:
A. There was an article a few years ago in which a man gave his idea of a perfect world. He said:
1. “In a perfect world you would feel as good at 60 as you did at 17. And you would be as smart at 60 as you thought you were at 17."
2. “In a perfect world professional basketball and baseball and football players would be complaining because schoolteachers were signing multi-million dollar contracts.”
3. In a perfect world potato chips would have calories, but if eaten with dip, the calories would be neutralized.”
4. “In a perfect world, mail would always be early, and the check in the mail would always be for more than you expected it to be.” (Steve Shepherd, “A New Year-A New Life” sermoncentral).
5. Let me add: “In a perfect world, every year would be better than the year before it.”
B. The truth is: this is not a perfect world and it never will be!
1. Because last year was such a difficult year, it won’t be too hard for this year to be a better one.
2. But even if this year isn’t better than last year, that doesn’t mean that we can’t live life to the full and grow in Christ in the New Year.
C. Psalm 118 contains the words to one of my favorite choruses: (sing it with me)
1. “This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made.
I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made.”
2. What a simple song! But what profound meaning it has!
D. This morning, I want us to revisit this important biblical text and understand the context where we find the words of that chorus.
1. We need to put ourselves in the place where King David was.
a. At that moment in time, he was a man in a time of crisis with much conflict around him.
b. The humanity within him likely cried out, “Give up. You’re finished. There’s no hope.”
c. But the Spirit within him demanded that he affirm God’s goodness and love.
2. So, David was able to maintain a hold on two contrasting realities: the difficulty of his existence, on one hand, and the goodness of God, on the other.
a. He sandwiched the challenges of his existence between these opening and closing affirmations.
b. Psalm 118 opens with: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever.
c. Then Psalm 118 concludes: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever” (vs. 29).
E. What we find in between those verses includes the difficulties that his enemies brought.
1. They had surrounded him, on every side (vs. 10-11).
2. They had swarmed him like bees, but they died out as quickly as burning thorns (vs. 12).
3. He was pushed back and about to fall (vs. 13).
4. The Lord disciplined him severely, but did not give him over to death (vs. 18).
F. Yet, in the midst of those difficulties, the Lord was with him. David declares:
1. “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.” (vs. 6)
2. “The Lord is with me; he is my helper.” (vs. 7)
3. “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” (vs. 8)
4. “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” (vs. 14)
5. “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things.” (vs. 15)
G. So, what did David do in response to his situation and to what the Lord had done?
1. David says, “I will not be afraid.” (vs. 6)
2. “I will proclaim what the Lord has done.” (vs. 17)
3. “I will give thanks to the Lord.” (vs. 19)
4. “I will exalt my God.” (vs. 28)
5. It is toward the end of this Psalm (vs, 24) that we find that wonderful little verse that inspired the song, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
H. And so Psalm 118 gives us a wonderful example of how people of faith can face each day.
1. We can certainly identify with the up-and-down experience of the Psalmist.
2. As we gather as a church for worship, we are often filled with a jumbled bag of emotions.
3. Our pain and frustrations cause us to lament, while at the same time we see and know the faithfulness of God and are therefore filled with praise and thanksgiving.
I. This was a favorite Psalm of the great reformer, Martin Luther.
1. He loved it because it expresses the gratitude of one who, having suffered greatly, has been released from his distress.
2. Luther was certainly a man acquainted with suffering.
3. This Psalm portrays the wonderful faithfulness of God:
a. God hears the cry of the distressed.
b. God brings deliverance.
c. God shows a steadfast love which endures forever.
J. This Psalm also has a wonderful corporate dimension.
1. Verse 24 says, “Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
2. Verse 25 says, “O Lord, save us; O Lord, grant us success.”
3. Verse 27 says, “The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon us.”
4. We simply cannot “go it alone” in the Christian faith.
5. Jesus established the church and we need each other.
6. Yes, we are saved individually, and the church is made up of individuals, but together we form a body.
7. We are incomplete by ourselves, but we are brought together into a corporate wholeness.
K. Today, as we begin a new year, I commend this Psalm to you, and I want to focus our attention on this one verse in particular: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
1. Without forgetting the context that we have already considered, let’s focus on what this verse alone teaches us.
2. Let’s consider three revolutionary concepts for each day that come out of this verse.
I. The first revolutionary concept is: Today is the most important day in your life.
A. Perhaps you would like to argue that one.
1. You might say, “Today doesn’t seem to be all that special.”
2. You might say, “Many of my yesterdays seem so much more important and wonderful.”
3. While it is true that all of us may have had many wonderful yesterdays, and we should treasure the memories of those special times, we can’t live in the past.
4. We can thank God for the past, but God’s important question for us is not about the past, rather it is about today.
B. Perhaps you would rather not focus on the past, but you want to argue for a different starting point – you want to focus on tomorrow.
1. In your mind, you just want to forget about today, because you think a better life is tomorrow.
2. In your mind, life will begin for you after you graduate.
3. Or now that you have graduated, life will begin for you when you find a job.
4. Or perhaps your life will begin when you find a partner, a wife or a husband.
5. Or perhaps your life will begin when you get to retire.
6. Or to put another spin on the problem of the aged and infirmed, you are only looking to the future when Christ returns or you pass from this life.
C. So, a person can avoid focusing on today by focusing on the past or on the future, but that is not where God wants us to dwell.
1. God’s Word, however, says that we should focus on today, and that today is the most important day in each of our lives.
2. “This is the day the Lord has made.”
3. The Psalmist is declaring the importance of the “present tense.”
4. Listen to this wonderful piece written by Jason Lehman titled “Present Tense”:
“It was spring, But it was summer I wanted, The Warm days, And the great outdoors.
It was summer, But it was fall I wanted, The colorful leaves, And the cool, dry air.
It was fall, But it was winter I wanted, The beautiful snow, And the joy of the holiday season.
It was winter, But it was spring I wanted, The warmth, And the blossoming of nature.
I was a child, But it was adulthood I wanted, The freedom, And the respect.
I was 20, but it was 30 I wanted, To be mature, And sophisticated.
I was middle-aged, but it was 20 I wanted, The youth, And the free spirit.
I was retired, but it was middle-age I wanted, The presence of mind, Without limitations.
My life was over. But I never got what I wanted.”
D. What was the Psalmist trying to say about the fact that this is the day the Lord has made?
1. Perhaps he was speaking of it being a day of religious celebration - this was a psalm often used in temple worship.
2. Perhaps the affirmation refers to an era in time - perhaps it had a prophetic element to it.
3. But in addition to these religious applications, perhaps the Psalmist was declaring the importance of the day that simply is each day a person is blessed with.
E. Today is very special, because today is the only day you and I have to live – tomorrow is not guaranteed.
1. Every single chronological day is ushered in anew by the Lord.
2. Today and every day is a gift from the Lord.
3. God has gifted you and me with another day. What a privilege. What an opportunity. What a responsibility.
4. We must not live in the past, nor in the future.
5. We must simply live today with the assurance that this is the day the Lord has given.
6. As bland or as difficult as today may be, it is a very special day.
F. God has an important question for you and me: What am I and what are you doing with today?
1. Are we making the most of it?
2. Are there things that God would have you and me to do today that we are not doing?
3. What would God have us do in a better and more complete way, not in a half-hearted way?
4. Today is the most important day in your life and mine.
5. Let’s be sure we don’t waste it.
II. The second revolutionary concept is: The sovereign Lord is with you in this day.
A. Have we really ever stopped to think about that fact?
1. Certainly we have heard that truth before, but have we really stopped to think about its implications?
2. Have we ever really personalized it and benefited from it? “The Lord is with me!”
B. The psalmist declares, “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.” (vs. 4)
1. He further declares, “The Lord is with me, he is my helper.” (vs. 5)
2. “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” (vs. 8)
3. “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” (vs. 14)
C. It should give us great comfort to know that God is with us and that He is in charge, and that He is all-powerful!!
1. No matter how discouraging things might be, what a help it is to know that we are not alone.
2. We didn’t stumble into this day. This day is not an accident.
3. The very God who created me and you, who redeemed us, and who sustains us, is engaged in helping us make the most of this day!
D. Perhaps it is really hard for us to embrace and relate to this reality.
1. Perhaps God seems very remote to you and your problems.
2. Perhaps you do not sense that the sovereign God is with you in this day.
3. Please understand that you are not the first to feel that way.
4. Many God fearing, people of faith have felt that way…even some we read about in the Bible.
5. But even though we may not feel that God is with us, we know that He is because that is His promise to us “never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).
E. The truth is: God is bigger than you and me.
1. There are no easy answers to life’s complexity.
2. And our biggest crises are all cloaked in mystery and may never be figured out or explained in this life.
3. But in the end, we must understand that we are called to a faith that believes that God is good, that He understands what we don’t understand, and that He walks with us through the most painful and mysterious of tragedies, one day at a time, and in ways that go beyond our understanding.
4. Someone has said, “The beginning of sin is the growing belief that God is not good.”
5. But in contrast, the Psalmist declared, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” (vs. 29)
III. The third revolutionary concept is: You have a God-given command to be a joyful person today.
A. Before you get turned off by that statement, please hear me out.
1. Maybe you are the type of person who has been turned off by soupy, extra-happy Christians.
2. To you they appear a little bit unreal.
3. You might question whether they have ever faced any problems, or you wonder if they are really avoiding reality.
4. Maybe you are the kind of person who prides yourself in your seriousness.
5. Maybe you believe that merriment is a less than spiritual quality.
6. In your mind, religion is serious, and therefore, religious people should be serious.
B. What all of us need to understand is that the Bible commands us to be joyful.
1. In the verse we are studying today, the Psalmist says, “this is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice in it.”
2. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice.” (Phil. 4:4)
3. Joy is one of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22).
4. Joy is not supposed to be an isolated or occasional consequence of faith, but should be an integral part of the whole relationship we have with God.
5. As we live in the presence of God we have joy, but it is not our own joy, rather it is the joy of the Lord.
6. Our joy is not in our strength, but in God’s strength.
7. Our joy is not in our cleverness, but in God’s wisdom.
8. Our joy is not in our possessions, but in God’s provision.
C. As we read this Psalm we see why the righteous have the ability to be joyful.
1. Look at verse 15, “Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: ‘The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things! The Lord’s right hand is lifted high; the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!”
2. God and His works produce joy in us.
3. Joy is the reality of knowing that the almighty God is there and He is helping me and that He will keep His promises.
D. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that Christians are to be unhappy, gloomy people, carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders.
1. On the contrary, we are to be joyful, purposeful people who communicate the authentic conviction that our God is alive and is good and is with us.
2. The Lord has made this day, and we are going to make the most of it with His help by rejoicing in Him.
E. As we begin this New Year and this new week, let me give us a simple assignment.
1. Let me suggest that we allow this to be our first conscious thought each morning: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
2. What a great way to start every day! Amen!?
3. I believe it will help us begin each day with a focus on God and on what He might be doing today.
4. Print out the poster I emailed you and put it in a place you will see it at the beginning of each day.
F. Yes, today is the most important day in your life, as each day is when it comes.
1. The sovereign Lord has made this day, and is with you in this day.
2. Because of that, let us rejoice in Him.
G. If you are not yet a Christian, then you don’t know the joy of salvation, and you don’t have the fruit of the Holy Spirit, nor do you have the promise of God being with you and in you.
1. We would love to help you become a Christian by repenting and turning your life over to God, and by confessing your faith and being baptized into Christ.
2. When a person becomes a Christian, there is joy in heaven – God and the angels rejoice – and the saved person is giving an inexpressible and glorious joy.
3. Talk with us after this service or later today if you are ready to become a follower of Jesus.
