The Halal Psalms
Many Christian parents teach their kids the song to greet each morning, ‘This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice, we will rejoice and be glad in it….’ I have taught it to my kids, and I am sure that there are parents teaching it to their kids right now. This song comes from our verse today, Psalm 118:24 “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
This Psalm is part of the Halal Psalms, from 113-118; these in particular were sung during the feast of Passover. If you recall in Matthew 26:30 that when Jesus had instituted the Lord’s Supper, and when they had finished, they sung a hymn and went out. They were most likely singing Psalm 118 or one of these Halal Psalms. Imagine the beauty of Jesus singing ‘This is the day that the Lord has made’ as He walked out to the Garden of Gethsemane and prepared himself to die.
This day, this particular day that the Lord had made, was orchestrated by the power of the Almighty God, though never violating the will of man from Genesis 3:15,
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
The promised Seed of the woman, signifying Jesus’ virgin birth and that He would kill Satan; but in the process of doing so, receive a temporary wound, that of a bruised heel. Psalm 118:24 is a further fulfillment of another prophecy made by Abraham in Genesis 22:8,
“And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”
Abraham and his only son of the promise, Isaac, are travelling to mount Moriah to offer a sacrifice. Abraham knows that God has asked for his only son, but Isaac is unaware and asks his dad where the sacrifice was. Abraham offers to us an answer that is a double prophecy. God does provide a ram as a substitute for Isaac; but looking hundreds of years ahead, the prophecy tells us that God will provide Himself as the sacrifice. The day that Jesus died on Mount Moriah, called Calvary, for our sins, was the fulfillment of this prophecy. Jesus went out singing, knowing full well that this day, this particular day, was a day that God had planned even before the earth was formed (see Revelation 5:9, 12).
We are told in Hebrews 10:1-4 that the blood of animals and the sacrifices at the Temple were just a picture of the real sacrifice that was to come in Jesus. Some 250,000-300,000 lambs were sacrificed over the Passover celebration. This went on for about 1,500 years before Jesus came and was our full and final payment.
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”
The millions and millions of gallons of animal blood that were shed for the sins of men could not ever take away sins. It only provided a temporary covering until Jesus came, to save His people from their sins. His blood washes away our sins forever, and they are remembered no more.
Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
Micah 7:19 “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
Hebrews 8:12 “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
Do you get the picture? On this day, that day in April 32AD—on that day, the day that the Lord had made, the day that the Lord had planned from before creation—Jesus paid the price to completely cancel our sin debt if we could trust in His death, burial and resurrection for the full payment of our sins. Have you done that? Don’t wait any longer; death is certain to all men and then the judgement. Is this day a day that you can rejoice in?
Psalm 118:24 “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
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