24. The Story of the Cornerstone

A Meditation of Psalm 118

In a struggle for survival, peaceful co-existence is not always possible. That is when a king has to lead a nation in war with another nation. The decision to go for a war is crucial. It involves tremendous risk. There is the possibility of the entire nation to get wiped off by the enemy nation. All the survivors might be taken as slaves. In spite of all that, a king sometimes has to decide to go for war when a war is pushed upon them. When a king and his soldiers go for war, the remaining people see them off with a heavy heart. Many of them might not come back. The kings of Israel led their soldiers for war with the faith that Yahweh was on their side, and that faith gave them so much strength. Once when they came back victoriously after a war, they went straight to the temple to say thanks to Yahweh for the victory. This is the context of psalm 118.      

In danger I called on Yahweh; Yahweh answered me and set me free (5). Yahweh is with me. I will not be afraid (6). It is better to go to Yahweh for safety than to trust in mere men (8). All the nations surrounded me (10). They swarmed around me like bees; in the name of Yahweh I cut them off (12). Yahweh has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death (18).

These verses imply that the king and his people were in a very risky situation. They were close to death. Only by God’s grace, they stayed alive, and came back victoriously. That is why they chose to go to the temple of God before doing anything else.

This psalm is liturgical in the sense that it is like a drama. Vs 1-4 is like what the leader says and the congregation responds alternately. Vs.19 is a request to open the gates of the temple, and vs. 20 is the response of the gate keeper while opening the gate. In response to a prayer to save and give success (25), the priests respond, “We bless you from the house of Yahweh.”  

Vs.22 is the most quoted verse in this psalm. “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” This probably refers to a legend among them. While the stone cutters were cutting big stones to build the temple, one stone was of the wrong shape and size, and so they threw it away. Much later, when they were building two walls, they needed a stone for a corner where two walls joined. They looked around for a stone that fitted that size and shape, and found the same old stone that once they threw away as the most fitting one. They put it there, and it fixed the two walls together. They saw the hand of God in this. When that stone was originally cut, God knew what it was good for although the builders thought it was unfit. Later when the same stone occupied an important position in the building, they were marveled at the miracle of God.  But what does it mean in the context of this psalm? We are not sure. Perhaps it means that the king and his people, although considered unimportant and worthless by the neighboring kingdoms once, have occupied an important place now.

Later this verse was quoted by Jesus and his disciples in a different context. Mat 21:42; Mar 12:10,11; Luke 20:17; Act 4:11; Eph 2:20-22; 1Pe 2:4-8. Jesus perhaps related himself metaphorically to this king in Psalm 118. Jesus and his army were out there fighting with the forces of evil—spreading the good news of the Kingdom, casting out evil spirits, and healing the sick. Finally he was coming victoriously to the temple to say thanks to Yahweh. On the way people greeted Jesus shouting Hosanna, which means “save us”, another quotation from psalm 118 (25).  They also shouted “Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh,” another quotation from Psalm 118 (26). Jesus and his people entered the temple and celebrated their victory.

Jesus referred to the legend of the cornerstone to probably mean that he and his movement, though despised and treated as worthless by others, was given a key position by God. He perhaps saw himself as the cornerstone laid by God in building a new Israel, a new group of stewards that would do the will of God in place of the unfaithful ones. Mat. 21: 33-43. There were other movements at that time for the creation of a new Israel, and some of them were extremists who believed in the use of violence. However, they were short-lived, and couldn’t make any significant contribution to the transformation of the nation. Jesus’ movement was non-violent, and it believed in a slow and steady transformation in human minds and hearts, which would eventually transform the social, political, and economic structures of the nation and the world.

Back to Contents