This Is the Day

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 196, This Is the Day.

"This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24.

Notice carefully what the psalmist does not say. He doesn't say "this is the perfect day." He doesn't say "this is the day with no problems, no pain, no interruptions." He simply says: this day. Today's day. The real one. With everything it carries — the bills, the hard news, the conversation you've been putting off, the tiredness carried over from yesterday. This day. Not some idealized day that exists only in imagination.

And why rejoice in this ordinary, often difficult day? Because the LORD made it. The day didn't just show up by accident, like a glitch on the calendar. It was made. Produced. Designed by God with intention. And if He made it, He has purpose in it — even when you, from your limited vantage point, cannot yet see what that purpose is.

Now, to feel the full weight of this verse, you need to know where it sits inside the psalm itself. Just before this line, the psalmist describes someone surrounded on every side — "all nations surrounded me," he says, "they surrounded me like bees." Nearly defeated. Close to the end. And then comes the rescue: the right hand of the LORD does valiantly. And only after that — after the rescue, not before — does he say: this is the day the LORD has made, let us rejoice in it. The joy here is not born from someone who never suffered. It is born from someone who has already been rescued and knows they can trust again.

And look at the verb chosen: let us rejoice. It is not a passive feeling waiting for circumstances to improve first. It is an action. A verb you practice, a decision you make in spite of what has not changed yet. You don't wait for the day to turn good before you rejoice — you choose to rejoice, and that choice reshapes how you move through the day.

And there is something prophetic tucked into this very psalm worth knowing: a few verses earlier, the psalmist speaks of a stone the builders rejected that became the cornerstone. That is a prophecy about Christ — rejected by men, made the foundation by God. And that teaches us something important: the day God makes can even include what looks like rejection, hardship, disappointment — and still, in His hand, it becomes the foundation for something greater.

So today, before breakfast, I want to challenge you to do something that might feel counterintuitive: say out loud "this is the day the LORD has made" even if you don't feel like it right now. Say it anyway. And then choose one concrete reason — just one — to rejoice today. It doesn't have to be big. It could be a hot cup of coffee, someone who loves you, or simply the breath you still have. Name it. And let that chosen joy, felt second rather than first, begin to shape the rest of your day.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.