The Messiah Simeon Waited For

Psalm 118:21-24 This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous will enter through it.
²¹ I will give thanks to You
because You have answered me
and have become my salvation.
²² The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
²³ This came from the Lord;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
²⁴ This is the day the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.

In addition to becoming our cornerstone, the Messiah would become our gate, our door.

So he is the both the foundation for our building and the way we get inside.

In the gospels, Jesus said as much. He said that whoever enters life by him will go in for safety and go out to find pasture. And when we go inside the gate, he will close it firmly behind us.

So what is the pasture we go out for? I think he gives us that at the end of the gospel of Matthew: go into all the world and preach the gospel… Those who haven’t heard yet are our pasture.

But we need to come back into the fold often. We need to come back inside to receive nourishment. We need to come back inside to rest. We need to come back inside when the wolves pursue us.

And Jesus, who built the enclosure that houses us has invested his very life in its foundation and security. His blood secured it for eternity when he, as the verse says above, became our salvation.

Only God could do all these things. Only God could ensure our protection. Only God could overcome the curse of Adam. Only God could build a gate without hands that secures the believer.

That’s why the end of this Scripture passage calls it ‘wonderful’.

A wonder means something beyond words, something that inspires awe, something that amazes and confounds. Christ, God as man, does all of that. But without him, there would be no salvation, no protection, and no hope.

But with him, we have abundant grace and free-flowing mercy. This is why the psalmist says: This is the day the LORD has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Because any day after accepting Jesus’ offer of salvation is a day to rejoice and be glad.