The stone that was rejected
Albert Bogle
April 09, 2026
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Listen to this daily worship
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 (NIV-UK)
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures for ever.2 Let Israel say:
‘His love endures for ever.’
14 The Lord is my strength and my defence;
he has become my salvation.15 Shouts of joy and victory
resound in the tents of the righteous:
‘The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!
16 The Lord’s right hand is lifted high;
the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!’
17 I will not die but live,
and will proclaim what the Lord has done.
18 The Lord has chastened me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
19 Open for me the gates of the righteous;
I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord
through which the righteous may enter.
21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
23 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvellous in our eyes.
24 The Lord has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad.
Walking with Jesus is a strange feeling. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He still talks to modern day disciples about rejection and the role of grief and sadness and disappointment in his life story and also ours.
His rejection must have cut like a knife. Now these are feelings we’ve all gone through, some of us many times, from job applications to personal relationships. Loss and rejection make up our life stories. But none so cruel as the one Jesus of Nazareth endured.
The angry crowd when asked to choose between two men with the same name, Jesus Barabbas, (which literally means son of the father) and Jesus of Nazareth the true Son of the Father — the crowd chose the wrong Jesus. Stop for a moment and think what it must have felt like for Jesus to hear the crowd cry, ’Crucify him, crucify him!”
Yet the stone the builders rejected would become the cornerstone. Here in this story, ‘the living dynamic cornerstone,’ explains to these first disciples why rejection had to be in his story. Rejection would lead to crucifixion, crucifixion to resurrection, resurrection, to a new creation, a new kingdom where swords would become ploughshares and spears pruning hooks. A time when the eternal love of the father written about in Psalm 118 would become a living reality
So today, for us we learn that in our times of great trial we can fall back on the eternal love of God. It is not the love or adoration of leaders or individuals or even a job title that will sustain us in life. It is to know that we are loved and sustained by God our Father. The psalmist reminds us that the Lord is our strength and our song and it is he who is our salvation (verses 13 and 14). It was this knowledge that sustained Jesus through rejection.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus,
My Lord and my God
When I think of You
Walking and talking and guiding me
I’m overcome by the sheer strength in your humanity
And the empathy of your divinity
A humanity that put its trust in the eternal love of the Father
A divinity that feels the pain of suffering
]Give me the faith to fall back on the Father’s love
Give me the grace to accept rejection
To humble myself and be humbled
It’s like the song says
‘You raise me up’
You take little old me
And raise me up
To see beyond my self
To see beyond my time
To become prophetic
To be positive
Even in the darkest of time
Lord Jesus
With you by my side
I fear no evil
I can live through rejection
Because I know
I am accepted and loved by You.
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