Daily devotional · April 15
This Is the Day
“The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. Shouts of joy and salvation resound in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the LORD performs with valor! The right hand of the LORD is exalted! The right hand of the LORD performs with valor!” I will not die, but I will live and proclaim what the LORD has done. The LORD disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. I will give You thanks, for You have answered me, and You have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the LORD, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
The psalmist sings of a rescue: the Lord is my strength and my song. He remembers being pushed to the edge and then helped. Then comes the well-known line about a rejected stone becoming the cornerstone, which the New Testament applies to Jesus. And then the invitation: this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice in it. It does not say every circumstance is easy; it says the day itself is a gift from God. Gratitude is a decision, and it grows when we practice it. Today, begin with one sentence of thanks before you check your phone, and name three specific things you are grateful for. Carry the thought into hard moments too. Rejoicing does not deny problems; it remembers who holds the day.
Prayer
Lord, this day is Your gift. Give me a grateful heart from morning to night. Amen.