This message deals with the Psalm that was sung by the Lord when He kept the last Passover with His disciples. It is a Psalm that has many references in it, some of which are very definite allusions to Christ in His first coming, while others are related to Christ as He is coming forth in His many-membered Body in the end time. It speaks of something really glorious.
Matthew 26:17–30 establishes the background for the message. Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus saying, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.” ’ ”
And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. Now when evening had come, He was reclining at table with the twelve disciples. And as they were eating, He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” Judas kept the Passover Feast, didn’t he? And being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” And He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”
I have been much impressed recently with prophecies related to the end time that speak of the false Christs and the false prophets, of those in your own household betraying you. The spirit of Judas is in the earth again. Jesus refers to him as the son of perdition. Paul speaks of the antichrist and calls him the son of perdition. We have not exalted any idea of the antichrist in our teaching. We have exalted the Lord. I think it is an error to magnify Satan and his work. It is a good thing to magnify the Lord and what He is doing.
When I came into this walk with God, I had been listening to a word from the Lord that had been spoken to my heart. I had never been too familiar with Psalm 144, but in it there was a cry of King David, “Deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose right hand is a hand of falsehood and whose mouth speaketh lies.” Over and over it spoke of deception, but it also said that our sheep would bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets, our sons would be as plants grown up in their youth, our daughters would have a beauty with the similitude of a palace. There would be no breaking out and no breaking in, but happy would be that people whose God is the Lord.
From the very beginning, God has been trying to tell us that He must rid us from strange children—whose right hand is the hand of falsehood, whose mouth speaketh lies. Out of this move of God’s Spirit, very likely the false prophets will arise. It will be out of this that the traitors will come forth to betray one another, even within their own family. You can have a Judas within your own heart. You can be a potential Judas, to betray every covenant, every promise that you have ever made to the Lord. It is strange how God deals, and deals, and deals with us until there is truth in the inward parts, for all of the false prophets that will arise will be those whom God has first raised up to be true prophets.
At the Communion service we eat of His body and drink of His blood. We can do it with sincerity and truth. We do not need to keep the Passover and partake by dipping our hand with betrayal into the same bowl that Christ dips. We can say, “Lord, is it I? Search me, Lord. Take the potential of being a traitor out of my heart. Make me what You want me to be, Lord. Let me be submissive to the Lord today. Let the blood of Jesus cleanse me from all unrighteousness.”
Remember that Balaam stands out as the evil false prophet of the Old Testament, and yet, he was the one who made some of the outstanding references to Jesus Christ. He was a true prophet before he went astray. Judas was an apostle before he betrayed the Lord. There is spiritual wickedness in high places. Satan will not try to get someone out in the world to come in and betray you; he will try to usurp the anointing, the place, the openness that people have to you in the Body.
And Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said it yourself.” And while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat: this is My body.” And He took a cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is to be shed on behalf of many for forgiveness of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
When He said, “I will drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom,” I believe He was anticipating the next few days when He would rise again. We refer to this passage many times saying, “He will come and partake of it in His Kingdom,” yet the Lord has partaken of the Communion with us many times and every time we partake, we are in His Kingdom, partaking with Him.
And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. In the light of what we have just seen, this hymn becomes significant. It is Psalm 118. We will only look at certain verses of this Psalm—prophecies that were quoted in the New Testament by Jesus Himself. For instance, do you recognize verse 26? “You shall not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’ ” (Matthew 23:39; Luke 13:35). Notice verse 22: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is quoted in Matthew 21:42 and Mark 12:10. They were experiencing it at that very time: “The stone that has been rejected is going to become the chief head of the corner”; and they sang it as they made their way to Gethsemane, following the Passover and the institution of the Lord’s Supper.
Verses 15–18: The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but live, and tell of the works of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death.
In this feast, the Lord gave me the word again: I shall not die, but live, and tell the works of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death.
Only those who have lived with death, who know what a cold bedfellow he is to sleep with and what a tormenting thing he is to walk with throughout the day, only someone who has witnessed death working in a ministry in order that life may work in those to whom he ministers, can understand what this passage really means. In His life we shall live. I take this to myself, because as Christ comes forth in me, I am aware that I am going through something very similar to what He experienced.
Verses 19–24: Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous will enter through it. I shall give thanks to Thee, for Thou hast answered me; and Thou hast become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Picture the scene in your mind. It was dark. Maybe the disciples carried a torch or two, or perhaps they could find their way through the dark without a torch, for they had often gone to the little garden of olive trees just outside Jerusalem. As they made their way, they sang this Psalm. It was a fateful night and before it ended, the mob would come with staves and swords to take Jesus to trial. The Passover had ended and now He was going to be crucified. He sang this song with His disciples, This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
When we sing that today, we get the idea that we are talking about the days of joyfulness, the days of victory, the days in which we seem to be triumphing over all of our problems. But happy is the one who realizes that he is in a day of conflict and warfare, a day with unbelievable satanic assault. This day was prophesied and it will be remembered. In the future, when people identify periods of time, they will call this the day or the period of the raging of Satan. He rages against the inhabitants of the earth because he is cast down and knows that he has but a short time. No one comes into anything from the Lord, but what Satan and demonic powers come against him.
You may say, “I know my walk is really of the Lord, but why all this opposition?” This is not only the day of the Lord and His visitation, but for a little season we will know it as the rage of Satan. Can you still say, “This is the day which the Lord has made, and we will rejoice! We will be glad in it!” Can you rejoice and create psalms as David did, when you must face a giant? You face many enemies, living in constant jeopardy, and one deft stroke of a sword could end it all if God did not deliver you from the hand of your enemies. Can you still lift up your voice and rejoice? Can you say, “God, You brought me forth for such a day. I shall not die, but live. Even though the Lord has disciplined me severely, He has not given me over to death. This is the day which the Lord has made—this day in which I am going through all of this, this day when the pressure is on me—and I will rejoice and I will be glad in it.”
It is a day of problems. It is a day of attacking and attempting things that are absolutely beyond our abilities, and even if they were within the scope of our abilities, that would soon be wiped out because of the devil opposition coming against us. If the Lord would say to you, “Go down to the corner and buy a newspaper,” and that action were a ministry to be fulfilled, I guarantee that you would run into many impossible obstacles before you got to the corner to buy that newspaper. God has allowed opposition to come against us to drive us into His omnipotence, to drive us into the appropriation of His victory.
This is the sole purpose for which we are raised up—to manifest Christ’s victory in the earth. You are not raised up to see how much you can attain, what you can do, or what you can accomplish. You are raised up and put into an impossible situation so that you draw on His victory and manifest it to all the world. You do not manifest your ability; you manifest Christ’s victory in His name. Those who will proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the world will not be those who have ability, talent, or resources to do it. This will be done through those who must confess that except for the grace of God, it is impossible. He enables us. He is the One who brings us forth. Today we say, “This is the day which the Lord has made.”
Are you facing a situation that is utterly impossible? Are you seeking something that you believe is in the perfect will of the Lord? Are you concerned about the ministry that the Lord can give you? Now do not start reasoning after the flesh, but say in your heart, “It is impossible, but God has raised me up and anointed me so that the impossible can be done through me.” Then pray for it and believe for it. Many of the projects are utterly impossible. Each time we get a thing worked out, the enemies come in against it again, and again, and again. In everything we attempt, it seems as though the enemy is ready to wipe it out if he possibly can. As every ministry comes forth, it seems that the old dragon is waiting at the womb, ready to swallow up the manchild as soon as it is born. This is characteristic of the raging of Satan: he is ready to swallow up anything that God brings forth. And yet, “This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
This is the day the Lord made. He has created this day for Himself. Satan seemed to have everything going in a state of apostasy and unbelief, in a revival of devil power and witchcraft, of everything evil in the earth, and now this troublesome little remnant, that is coming forth into the restoration, is bothering Satan with this gospel of the Kingdom that he had not heard for a long time, and Satan remembers the words of the Lord. Do you think he will not try to stop it and stamp it out?
This reminds us of the time that a vicious wicked king ordered all the babies killed, in order to kill one special baby who had been born at that time. But He was saved by fleeing to Egypt. This was our Lord. Now as this glorious hour begins to come forth, we think sometimes, “Oh, we can’t stand so much opposition. The Christ in us is so tender; we are so immature. We have not developed, and we will not be able to stand it.” Oh yes you have, and you will. When every effort is made to wipe out everything else, God will preserve you. This is the day that the Lord has made.
He is creating something that stands as an absolute contradiction to every trend that the world has known. Through faith we understand that the ages were framed by the Word of God. Ages were framed, they come forth out of nothing that appears. Through faith we understand that God is creating a new age. Look at all the historians, look at those who analyze trends, who understand the times and conditions, and you will find that none of them are predicting a great revival. The trend is going the other way. But then God speaks by His Word, “This is the day that I have made. This is the day that I am bringing forth.”
By faith we understand that the ages are framed by the Word of God. God gives a word and creates a new age. God gives a word and creates a company of people. When the love of many waxes cold, when men are truce-breakers, incontinent, fierce, when they are traitors, heady, highminded—all the conditions that are predicted for the end time—then we see God beginning to create a closely knit Body of brethren who will lay their lives down for each other. This is not the way it is supposed to be. In a time that will be like the days of Noah and of Sodom and Gomorrah, with men becoming more and more evil, here is a people coming forth in righteousness, coming forth in oneness, in the Body of Christ. Why? Because someone began to prophesy it.
The Lord gave a word, “The Body will come together,” and it is coming together. We prophesy, “God will raise up a remnant,” and the remnant is being raised up. We prophesy it and the age is framed by the Word that God gives. God speaks a word and it comes forth; and as it begins to come forth, it is a contradiction, an impossibility. It is opposed by Satan and it should not even survive for a single moment, but it does. Then the ransomed of the Lord begin to sing, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will he glad and rejoice in it.” With all of the battle and all of the struggle, something is coming forth that is created. Prophesy until God frames another age for us and brings forth another day. Prophesy, “Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done!”
It is true—people do not want this. But who in the world cares what people want! Nor do the churches want it. That is their problem. Do not tell me their problems. I do not want to hear them. I am going to rejoice in the Lord. I am going to walk in this day.
Is there any reason why God should upset nations, why He should change the whole complexion of the spiritual world? It is being prophesied. It is being spoken by the Word of the Lord. He sends His Word and the ages are framed by the Word of God. So out of nowhere, out of nothing that appears, no trends, no forces, no conditions in the earth to bring it to pass, we are going to find a Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. We will have a remnant that is seeking the Lord with all of their heart.
It was a beautiful Psalm that they sang at the close of the last Passover that Jesus had with His disciples. I find my heart singing it today too. “This is the day which the Lord hath made.”
