What "This Is the Day the Lord Has Made" Actually Means (Psalm 118:24 Is Not a Morning Mantra)
Michael MaioShare
"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24)
You have seen this verse on kitchen signs, coffee mugs, and motivational posts. It gets treated like a Christian version of "Good morning! Choose happiness!"
But that is not what this verse is.
Psalm 118 is not a cheerful poem about mornings. It is a war song. A survival song. A declaration from someone who was nearly destroyed, who cried out to God from the edge, and who is now standing on the other side saying, "I made it. And the fact that I am alive today is not an accident. It is God."
When you know that, the verse stops being a bumper sticker and starts being one of the most powerful declarations of faith in the entire Bible.
The Context That Changes Everything
Psalm 118 begins with distress:
"When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord; he brought me into a spacious place." (v. 5)
"All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I cut them down." (v. 10)
"I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me." (v. 13)
This is not someone having a nice morning. This is someone who was attacked, surrounded, nearly defeated, and rescued by God.
And after describing all of that, the psalmist says: "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
That is not blind optimism. That is battle-tested gratitude. The psalmist is not saying, "Every day is great!" He is saying, "I should not be here. But God made this day possible. So I will rejoice in it."
What "This Day" Actually Means
The phrase "this is the day" is not about every generic day. It is about a specific day: the day of deliverance. The day when God showed up. The day the stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone (v. 22).
Christians have always read this as pointing to the resurrection. The day that death was defeated, the day the rejected One became the foundation of everything, the day that changed the trajectory of human history.
So when you say, "This is the day the Lord has made," you are not just saying, "Today is nice." You are saying, "Today exists because God acts. Because He delivers. Because He builds what others reject. And because He did that, every day I have is a gift."
That is a much bigger statement than a morning affirmation. It is a declaration that the God who saved you from death is the same God who gave you this morning. And that changes how you walk through it.
Why It Matters on the Days That Are Not Good
Here is where this verse gets uncomfortable and beautiful at the same time.
"Let us rejoice and be glad in it" does not require the day to be good. The psalmist had just described a terrible season. Surrounded. Pushed back. About to fall. And yet: rejoice.
Not because everything worked out perfectly. Because God was in it.
That is the same principle behind "count it all joy". Joy is not contingent on circumstances. It is contingent on the presence and faithfulness of God. And God is present and faithful on your worst days just as much as your best.
If you are reading this on a day that feels heavy, this verse is not asking you to pretend it is light. It is asking you to acknowledge that even this day, this hard, exhausting, disappointing day, is a day the Lord has made. And if He made it, there is something in it worth receiving.
Maybe it is a lesson. Maybe it is endurance. Maybe it is the kind of mercy that comes new every morning, even when the morning does not feel merciful.
You are not being asked to feel happy. You are being asked to recognize who gave you this day and choose gratitude anyway.
The Stone the Builders Rejected
Verse 22 comes right before verse 24, and it is essential to understanding the full meaning:
"The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes." (Psalm 118:22-23)
Jesus quoted this verse about Himself (Matthew 21:42). He was the rejected stone. Rejected by the religious leaders, rejected by the crowds who chose Barabbas, rejected on the cross. And yet that rejected stone became the foundation of everything.
So when verse 24 says, "This is the day the Lord has made," it is tied to the resurrection. The day death was reversed. The day rejection was overturned. The day the cornerstone was set.
Every day you have as a Christian exists in the shadow of that day. Every morning you wake up is a continuation of the story that started when the rejected stone was raised and the tomb was found empty.
That is why you can rejoice even when the day is hard. Because the hardest day in history already happened, and God turned it into the greatest day in history. If He can do that, He can do something with your Tuesday.
How to Actually Rejoice
Rejoicing is a decision, not a feeling. Here is what it looks like in practice.
Start the morning with acknowledgment. Before your feet hit the floor, before you check your phone, before the anxiety of the day kicks in, say it: "This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." Not as a magic formula. As a declaration of who is in charge of this day.
Name three things you are grateful for. They do not have to be dramatic. Coffee. Sunlight. The fact that you woke up. Gratitude rewires how your brain processes the day, and it is one of the simplest spiritual practices you can build. The Christian Gratitude Journal makes this a daily habit in less than five minutes.
Reframe difficulty as participation. When the day gets hard, instead of asking, "Why is this happening to me?" try asking, "What is God doing in this?" You may not get an answer immediately. But the question shifts your posture from victim to participant.
End the day by giving it back. Before you sleep, thank God for the day. Even the parts that were painful. Not because pain is good, but because God was present in it, and acknowledging that is an act of faith that sets up the next day on the right foundation.
Every Day Is a Gift. Even This One.
The world tells you that some days are good and some days are bad, and the goal is to have more good ones.
The Bible tells you that every day you have was made by God, and the goal is to receive it with open hands and a willing heart.
That does not mean you ignore pain. It does not mean you pretend difficulty does not exist. It means you start from a different premise: this day is not random. It is not an accident. It is not meaningless. God made it. He put you in it. And there is a reason for that.
Trust the One who made the day, and let the rejoicing come from there.
Keep Going
If starting each day with a truth from God changes how you carry everything that follows, the Do Everything in Love: A 365-Day Devotional gives you that anchor every morning. One page. One truth. One day the Lord has made.
If you want to build a daily gratitude practice, the Christian Gratitude Journal for Women or the Prayer & Gratitude Journal gives you a simple, daily rhythm that takes less than five minutes but changes how you see the rest of the day.
And if wearing your faith is how you carry the reminder with you, the Love1614 collection puts 1 Corinthians 16:14 where people can see it and ask about it. That conversation is part of what this day was made for.
Let all that you do be done in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14)
Read next: What "His Mercies Are New Every Morning" Actually Means (Lamentations 3:22-23)