Gavin Robert Hames teaches Psalm 118:22-23, using a halftime analogy to show how God transforms rejection and brokenness into something marvelous. The rejected stone becomes the cornerstone. He urges listeners to trust God with life's debris and give glory to the doer, not the rejecters.
Chapters
There is an exegetical invitation I want to extend to you, and I pray that you accept. You've been invited to fellowship with me this morning in the 118th Psalm. Y'all praying with me this morning? I'm so sleepy. Y'all better thank God for Sister Patchett and her giving me that clock so I don't babble on too long today. She, she actually did y'all a favor. Psalms 118. TC, I think I'm gonna need you to count my amens this morning because I think they want to hold them back from me. I got TC here with me today. He ain't gonna play that. Psalms 118. I want to paragranate down to verse number 23. Y'all pray for my nerves this morning. Psalms 118, verse number 23. The word of God reads, this is the Lord's doing, it's marvelous in our eyes. You may be seated. This is the Lord's doing, it's marvelous in our eyes. Just a few moments on this second Sunday, God has laid it upon my heart to share with us from the Dalit Delight in the doing. Delight in the doing. Former athlete, and as a fan of sports, I've become increasingly fascinated with the modern ways in which halftime is handled. Because halftime, it is a time of adjustment, meaning that whatever happened in the first half, you can look at what happened in the first half and make adjustments based upon what happened. Defense may have thrown a lot of stuff at you in the first half. They may have hit you with different looks. They may have hit you with various coverages. They may have thrown you different blitzes, if you will. But in modern halftime, now they allow the team to have replay and film to see what the defense did to you in the first half.
And what's important about halftime is that now you are on the outside of the situation. And by being on the outside of the situation, you now have a different look at what you were in in the first half. And when you come out in the second half, you can take what the defense is throwing at you and you can take what they are doing and use it against them to help you out. You can't change the fact that the defense is there, but now that you've had a different look, you now know that there is a way that when you can't stop the difference from being there. You can use what they're doing to build you up, perhaps, which is the point. Psalms 118, in this halel song, the anonymous writer of this song starts the song talking about distress. That he was in. Then he goes on later to talk about how he was surrounded by enemies and facing death. And the entire beginning of the psalm is focused on how the psalmist, or perhaps a nation, was in the midst of what life was throwing at them. And they were being victimized by what was happening to them. They were victimized by the enemies. They were victimized by what was surrounding them. They were facing death. They were dealing with calamity. But somehow, some way, these The psalmist changed his mind and tone from the distress, and then he had to confess that I'm no longer distressed, but now I'm delivered. The psalmist spent the entirety of the beginning of the psalm talking about being distressed, talking about being surrounded. But he made it through the psalm and said that the story didn't end with me being distressed, the story ends with me being delivered.
Now y'all think that I'm just telling you a story about Psalms 118, but not only am I doing an exegesis of the psalm, I'm doing an exegesis of your life because many of us in here today You've been distressed and you've been surrounded and you've been depleted, but thanks be to God that you can testify on March the 8th that you have been delivered. You were sick, but look at you now. You were broke, but look at you now. You were in sin, But look at you now, and you're able to survive and tell the story that God, I've been delivered.
The psalmist goes on even further. I was in Psalms 118, verse 23, but, and if you read verse 22, he says something that if you No New Testament, uh, Christology. It's a shout.
I'm gonna say it.
Come and see what y'all do.
The psalmist says that he compares himself or the nation to a stone that the builders rejected, and that same stone that was rejected is now the cornerstone. In other words, I was thrown out, I was thrown away, I was rejected by other people, I was rejected by other nations. But when people threw me away, another builder came in and made that stone that was thrown away and made it the most essential component of the building. And I want to ask somebody today, have you ever been thrown away in life? Has life ever happened to you? Has life ever thrown you out?
Has life ever thrown you away?
But let me give you some good news. When life throws you away, there's another doer in the presence who can take what life has done to you and do something with you. And when you look and see what has happened in your life Y'all got these brakes on me this morning. You will be able to testify that it was nobody but God. And I want to survey the room today to— is there anybody who knows that my testimony is, is that I'm a nobody but God case? It was not my doctor, it was not my lawyer, it was not my job. It was not my governor, but it was Jehovah Jireh. It was Jehovah Nissi. It was he who sits high and looks low. And I went through all of this so I can say that it was the Lord's doing. It wasn't my doing, but it was the Lord's doing. He's the reason that I'm here today, because if it were left up to you I would have been gone a long time ago. If it was left up to me, I would have given up a long time ago. But he reached down to where life threw me away. He reached down to where I threw myself down, picked me up and formed me and made me and molded me. And look at me now. I'm the Lord's doing, I tell you. Y'all talk about my past, but you wasn't there when God did something with my past. It's the Lord's doing, I tell you. I was in the doctor's office, I saw the MRI results, and the doctor tried to do one thing, but another miracle worker came in. The one who healed Peter's mother-in-law, the one who raised Jairus' daughter, the one who got the widow named Son of The one who let his son die on Friday and get up Sunday morning, he's the one who did it in my life.
Lord have mercy.
And what I'm trying to tell you, I'm not worried about what life did to me. But what I am concerned about is giving glory to the one who does something. And then, is there a doer in the house this morning who knows that you have a God who don't just sit high and look low, but he does something when he sits and looks?
I'm about to have fun, Tony, but before I have fun Can I give y'all my thesis? This is how you know you have faith. Trust— I'm 2 minutes ahead of schedule— trust and faith is in trusting God with what life throws at you because you know he can use that to build something in you. Why y'all don't like that? Say it again, make them like it. Faith is trusting God with what life throws at you because you know that God can take that and build something in you. TC, why they don't like that?
What I'm trying to tell you, when you really have faith, you don't worry about what life throws at you because you know that God will use that, put it in his hands and work it together for your good. So if life is throwing something at you now, shout in advance because you know that God's gonna take that and use it and build something out of it.
I got a good pace this morning. I tried to tell you why we need to delight in the doer. There are some hominid highlights that God has given me to share out of this text. I'm going to unpack them and share them with you. If you don't get happy, I'm gonna get happy, and I'm gonna drive up 167. This text teaches us this morning that you must focus on the featured contractor. The featured contractor. This is the Lord. Doom. I just want to stay right there for a while. This is the Lord's doom, because in the earlier verses, the psalmist was focused on that. He was focused on the distress. He was focused on being surrounded by the enemies. But something happened between verse 1 and verse 22 when he understood that he's now the one that was rejected but now the cornerstone.
He says that another person entered the story.
And took what they did. And now since he took what they did, my focus ain't on they, my focus is on he. Lord, you know what's problematic about this text? Y'all sleeping, Sam, is that The psalmist says that this is the Lord's doing. We think that this is the Lord's doing is just verse 22. In verse 22 is where he understands that he or the nation is no longer the rejected stone but the stone that is now a cornerstone. Are y'all here with me this morning? But I want to argue that this is more than the victorious moment, but this is also inclusive of those moments that made the psalmist uncomfortable. Because in order for this to be the Lord's doing, the Lord had to have something to work with in order to make this a good story. And you should be curious this morning to ask this question: God, what did you use to make this rejected stone into a cornerstone?
Well, God whispers this morning and he says, I don't have to just use that which you like to make something good out of you, but since I'm God I can also get some of this bad dis and put it with me and take the bad dis, take it with the good dis, and work it all together and form something in your life that nobody else can do. And that's why God had to do it, because he's the only one that can take what the devil tried to do in your life He's the only one that can take those lies and that gossip about you. He's the only one who can take the sickness in your body, put it in his hands, and say, let me have this, because when you give me this, I can take this and make something with this that will blow your mind. And what I'm trying to tell you, sweet children, is that you may be dealing with this, this morning. I don't know what this is for you. I don't know how bad this may feel for you, but here's one thing I do know: that we serve a God who can take your this, and he specializes in your this, and make it into something that you couldn't do yourself. And since you couldn't do it yourself, you know it had to have been God.
I know I'm talking to some people this morning who's been with some bad shit in your life.
You've dealt with some this that has you confused. You've dealt with some mess that has you up at night. You've dealt with some this that has so much water coming out your eyes that you should be this hot dehydrated. Oh, but by God's grace and mercy, he let you see a brand new morning, and those things that were against you, he made it for you.
And so many of us are stuck in the verses earlier in the song. You came in here this morning Worried about your this. You can't lift your hands because you worried about this. You slow up and down. That Lord, we need a musician so we can have church. You have a skilled man on the organ this morning, but your mind's still on this.
But until your mind change, I don't care if we have a better orchestra in here, the church will still be dead. Until we take our minds off this and put it on the Lord who can do something with this.
Lord, have mercy. I done caught y'all in a lie. He now says that what did happen happened But he happened too. Y'all missing me this morning. He does not say that what happened is erased, but here's what he does declare: that because he happened, what happened didn't erase me. Preach, Gavin Robert Hames!
I can't erase what happened in my past. Oh, but thanks be to God that what happened in my past did not erase me. It tried to eliminate me, it tried to take me out, but I'm still standing because I got the Lord who's doing something with it.
I gotta move on. The big hand is on the 7, so I need to make my turn and try to get to this second point. But before I do, I travel weekly and I have my different landmarks, and I get fascinated by the simplest things in my journeys. And there's this one particular place that looks like a total mess. It's bricks everywhere, dust and dirt everywhere, tools, trash everywhere. So I've been asking the question, are they tearing something down or are they building something? I've been asking this question week after week because I like that tone. They're at a standstill and it looks like destruction because you got brick everywhere, you got dirt everywhere, you got mess everywhere, and it looks like something has been torn down, but I got the answer to the question.
You want to know how I got the answer to the question?
When I passed by this place recently, I saw a sign on a vehicle that said XXXX Construction Company. It did not say XXXX Demolition Company. Audible, they missing me this morning.
And so now I know, because of who I saw at the trash, that even though it looks like trash now, but because I saw a certain somebody at the scene I know that it may look like this now, but because of who I see there, it's going to be built into something even though I thought it was going to be torn down. And what I'm trying to tell you, that at the trash places in your life, the places that look torn down, the places that look rugged, the places that look rough I see something else at that place, and I see God at the place of your debris. And since I see God at the place of your debris, I know that the debris gonna end up being development. Preach by yourself, Gavin. What I see in your life now may be debris, but since I see God at the same spot, I know that he's gonna do something with your debris and build you up out of it.
I told you I'm gonna get happy by myself. Y'all can go ahead and leave now. I have church by myself.
I made my own car, so I stay here by myself.
I got a key and I turn these lights on. Not only do we focus on the future contract, because you have all these people dealing with your mess and see your mess. But you feature on the contract and you see what's gonna happen. The text also teaches us about fixed credibility. Fixed credibility. This is— this is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous. In our eyes. Can we go to school for a second? That word marvelous in the Hebrew is the word pahlah.
And what pahlah—
I got you, Tony— what pahlah means, it means something that's not just good, but it means something that's not only amazing, but it's something that's amazing, literally, that only God could have done. It's the same word used in Exodus when God didn't just take stones, but he took some water separated the water and let the children of Israel walk through on dry ground. Now, I tried it.
I tried to step in some water, but I didn't walk on it like Peter. I didn't walk on it like Jesus. What I did, I sunk, which means that God has to do it and I can't do it.
And so what the psalmist is saying here is that my elevation, my transformation, my turnaround was so bad.
And the reason I'm here today is because it was far beyond my reach, and I know that it was nobody but God who did it.
And, and, and I'm getting more and more convinced that many of us, we actually kind of believe in the hype in ourselves. You know, I treat folks right. That's like Lord— that's like Lord good me. I treat folks right. You know, God favor you. When you do folks right, you know, I do folks right. You know, I do folks right. But let me tell you something, with those doing folks right self, you've done enough wrong that you should have eliminated yourself.
But you're here to tell the story because God looked over your ignorance and blessed you anyway. Oh, y'all hate when I tell y'all stuff like that.
One of these days y'all gonna enjoy my preaching. It was kalah, the Lord's doing, and it was marvelous in our eyes. This part might make you a little bit mad. Y'all pay attention to me here, okay? The psalmist started the song talking about what people did. Verse 22, he was a stone. And we believe that the stones—
we don't know if—
we don't think this was of a Davidic Psalm. We think this may have come post-exile, and the Psalmist may have been talking about what happened to Israel after exile. I wasn't there when he wrote it. I'm just doing the best I can with what we have. So the Psalmist is saying, we were rejected, we were put in a bad situation. Now we're the cornerstone.
It couldn't have been nobody else.
It was not us, because to be honest, be honest, be honest, Some of the stuff we dealing with, we did it.
That's another one of them things y'all don't like. Y'all gonna appreciate my preaching one day though.
Some of the stone rejected, it's really just us sometimes. But what's the miracle in the text? The miracle is found in the fact of once again the credibility of the one who brought them out and delivered them. Unpack it again. It's marvelous in our eyes. You know what bothers me about that? Because The perception of those who rejected me didn't necessarily change. Put my hand in my pocket. This is the Lord's doing and is not marvelous in the rejecter's eyes. But it's marvelous in our eyes. In other words, you can't do nothing about other people's perception. And you mad right now because God doing something in your life and you can't flex on nobody.
And tell them, see what God did.
You want your ex to see your glow up so bad, but they still ignoring you. You left the ministry because you thought they were going to suffer without you. They still going on, God blessing you. And ain't nobody paying attention to it. But here's what the psalmist says: I don't need external validation when I got eternal victory. Because the ones who rejected me did not have anything to do with the one who rebuilt me. So I'm not going to focus and give credibility to those who rejected me.
I'm going to spend my time focused on the God who brought me back up. And some of us, our pressure will go down if we take our mind off of the rejectors and put our mind on a God who's done it for us anyway. Let out all of those people who didn't want to have anything to do with you because God did something with it. So don't pay attention to them and give glory to your God.
You ain't got to post it on Facebook when you see what you do.
When you, when you going to God, God on your side, he'll make your haters your elevators. Well, focus on the elevator.
So busy missing out on the praise because you're focused on those who rejected.
But this psalmist teaches us, bye-bye rejecters, because now I'm the cornerstone, and now people gotta honor the fact that I'm here because what God has done in my life and what God put inside the stone can't be denied, even when people deny it. So focus on what God is doing for you and not who sees it. Preach, Gavin Robert Hams.
'Cause if you do that, you give too much credibility to the outside forces, and you take your focus away from what God has done, and you miss out on giving God glory because you still trying to get even. Let me close this thing. Other day walking. I see this all the time, but this time it said, 'Gabby, can you include me in Sunday sermon?' I said, 'Show me what you got, and I'll see if you fit in.' It was a weed of grass coming up, not just out of the ground, but on a concrete sidewalk. I was intrigued because what are you trying to preach to me, Mr. Weed? It says, he says, this is what happened in my life. Somebody planted me a long time ago, and through time some other people tried to pour concrete over what somebody planted. And they thought that since they poured concrete over what was planted in my life, that I was not going to grow.
But here's something about me, Gavin. Little did those who poured concrete know that what was planted inside of me is greater than what's been poured on top of me. Since y'all missed it, child of God, what God has done in your life is greater than the concrete that the devil has tried to pour on you. So don't give glory to the concrete, give glory on to the one who planted it in your life.
Now there's more to the story.
Me and the weed was having a conversation, then I got another call.
I answered the call and said, Gavin, I hear you and that weed talking, but guess what?
The same thing happened to me.
I said, who is this?
Your voice sound familiar. Give me your name to help me remember who you are. He said, I'll give you a hint. You stand up Sunday after Sunday and you preach about me. And let me tell you what happened to me. Good night. Over 2,000 years ago, they tried to kill me. I laid my life down. And guess what they did to me after I died? They put me in a man named Joseph Baratun. They thought that what they put me in I was gonna stay in. But little did they know, it was too much on the inside of me. And I'm the chief cornerstone that they rejected. And they put me there, and I stayed there Friday. They put me there, and I stayed there Saturday. They put me there, and I stayed there Saturday night. Oh, but early Sunday morning, I got up with all power in my hand. And since I got up Now I live inside of you. So every time you go through something, remind yourself that they may try to pour it on you, but they can't stop you from growing.
I ain't got no key, man. We the light. In the doer. Life tries to do stuff to you, but your job is to delight in the ultimate doer. I offer the doer to you this morning. I offer him to you now, the great Emmanuel, God with us. The chief cornerstone. This was just a cornerstone here. That was a chief cornerstone. All of this is built upon the solid rock, and we're all built upon it. And every time we hear that, we remember that whatever's been rejected Somebody else will lift it up and make it into something, because he's a great contractor. And when you see him on the scene, it may look like destruction, it may look like debris, but since he's there, it'll turn into development. I'm a living witness, I tell you. Come to him right now. He's already come to you, now you come to him. That's right, that's right. Somebody else is a living witness.
Bless you, Holy Spirit.
Bless you. I'm praying for you this week. Hear me, hear me.
Delight this week in the doer.
This is the Lord's doing. And it's marvelous in our eyes. That next verse says— and we say this just as a— we've always used this verse to kind of get the church going. But this verse, put it in context, is talking about the same thing. He said, this is the day that the Lord has made, I shall rejoice. And be glad in it. Now you know why you should be glad, because this day that he made is a day in which he took you from nothing and made you into something that you could not do for yourself. That's why this is the day, not that I made, but the Lord has made.
I know the Lord made it because I couldn't do it myself.
And so now I rejoice and I'm glad about it. Let's give God a hand clap of praise this morning.
