THE BUILDING BLOCK AND THE DARKNESS
The building block that was rejected
became the cornerstone of a whole new world
—NOEL PAUL STOOKEY (1977)
Psalm 118:22–23 uses a striking metaphor that has reverberated through the centuries:
I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.
The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Psalm 118, like so many other psalms, is a call for God’s salvation from a man who is surrounded by a ring of enemies (verses 11–14). In this case the foes were “builders”—men of power in Israel, “the movers and shakers.” They rejected a “stone,” which may have been the king of Israel, or the Lord himself, or perhaps it was the truth of God’s Word. Isaiah 28:15–16 speaks of the leaders and rulers rejecting God’s “tested stone” for a pack of lies.
But when we get to the New Testament, the apostles make it clear that all this foreshadowed Jesus Christ (Romans 9:30–32), who was rejected by the rulers and powers yet who, through his rejection and death, became the cornerstone of a new, living spiritual house in which dwells the Spirit (1 Peter 2:6–10; Ephesians 2:20). This living temple contains the power of the new creation. It is a counterculture, an alternate humanity. It will grow until the entire earth is filled with God’s glory and is renewed (Revelation 21–22). God’s “marvelous” vindication of Jesus, the rejected stone, is the resurrection, as implied by Peter in Acts 4:10.
Noel Paul Stookey based a 1977 song on this powerful idea, writing, “The building block that was rejected became the cornerstone of a whole new world."... Jesus brings his salvation through rejection, weakness, and sorrow. Yet not despite his weakness but through it he brings the presence of the future and begins to build a whole new world through us.
Stookey rightly sees that this message of the Great Reversal, of light out of darkness and blessing out of curse, is something that can support us through dark times of fear and grief.
When all your dreams have been connected
And your vision has been returned
Remember, love, you are protected
By the truth your heart has learned.
The building block that was rejected
became the cornerstone of a whole new world
Another place where the Bible points us to the resurrection for our hope is what has been called the darkest of all psalms—Psalm 88.
I cry to you for help, Lord;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Why, Lord, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?
From my youth I have suffered and been close to death;
I have borne your terrors and am in despair.
Your wrath has swept over me;
your terrors have destroyed me.
All day long they surround me like a flood;
they have completely engulfed me.
You have taken from me friend and neighbor—
darkness is my closest friend.
(Psalm 88:13–18)
Most psalms that are laments and cries of pain end on at least some note of hope. But Psalm 88 recounts all the writer’s griefs and his imminent death and ends by saying that God has abandoned him and that “darkness is my closest friend” (verse 18). In fact, in the middle of the psalm he actually asks bitterly, “Do their [the dead’s] spirits rise up and praise you? Is your love declared in the grave?” (verses 10–11). He is in despair. But the New Testament answers with the Great Reversal. Do the dead rise up to praise? Yes! Is your love declared in the grave? Oh yes!
Here’s your hope.
Jesus was truly abandoned so that you only feel abandoned but you’re not. When Jesus Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane and the ultimate darkness was coming down on him and he knew it was coming, he didn’t abandon you; he died for you. If Jesus Christ didn’t abandon you in his darkness, the ultimate darkness, why would he abandon you now, in yours?
Because it can be said truly of Jesus Christ that, on the cross, darkness was his only friend, and so he paid for your sins—then you can know that in your darkness God is still there as your friend. He hasn’t abandoned you. He’s not going to take two payments for the same debt. Jesus paid for your sins, and now he loves you.
If you know—and keep on remembering—that resurrection is coming, then you won’t be in utter darkness. I know a chronically ill woman who, whenever somebody says to her, “Oh, you seem like you’re suffering so much; how do you feel?” always says, “Nothing the resurrection won’t cure.” She’s right. If you know the resurrection is coming, it’s impossible to be in utter darkness.
There’s a man who wrote a commentary on Psalm 88, and he concludes the commentary with “This [darkness] can happen to a believer, [this psalm] says. It doesn’t mean you’re lost. It can happen to someone who does not deserve it; it does not mean you have strayed. It can happen at any time as long as this world lasts; only in the next will such things be done away with. And it can happen without you knowing why. [But] there are answers, there is a purpose, and eventually you will know.”
