Just Deal With It!
Your Way!

Psalm 118:19-29

† I.H.S. †

May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ cause you to rest, knowing God has a plan!

• Somebody’s Day

In 6 weeks, it’s Mother’s Day!

You know what that means, right? Mom’s all over the United States will pretend that they are doing exactly what they want to do that day!

A few weeks after that is Father’s Day, and dads everywhere will “choose” as their favorite restaurants those their kids like!

There are other days, grandparent’s days, teacher appreciation day, even Tom Brady Day, the first Sunday in February.

All these days have in common is that the person who is honored usually ends up doing what everyone else wants! Moms, Dads, teachers, don’t get those days off! They spend time entertaining rather than being cared for by those who say they want to honor them.

With that in mind, hear verse 24,

But before the ink is even dry on that thought, comes…

PLEASE LORD, please save us!

Please, LORD, give us success!

And the Day the Lord made, to rest and walk in the presence of His people… becomes another day of work for God!

• But I want it my way!

Growing up, I still remember some old guy singing a song about the end of life, and facing the final curtain, sure of his fate, because, in his words, “I did it my way.”

I pray at the end of our lives that we aren’t so…proud? Self-centered? Ignorant?

And we wonder why the younger generations seem so self-centered when people applaud Sinatra for choosing to do it his way, rather than Gods!

This may sound like a minor thing, a song written in the 1960s or 70s. But it shows that self-centeredness is nothing new, and it wasn’t then. It is what Satan appealed to, as he convinced Eve and then Adam to eat the apple. It is what makes politics so captivating, the fear that someone else will get what is ours or that our plans must be fulfilled. That self-centeredness challenges marriages. It appears in workplaces and demands that we get ours, even if it is illegal or immoral.

Our way leads to a mess. Look around, and we see that! People are arguing over water bottles. People are at war with each other over this right or that one. Couples struggle with each other while their kids look on, and the world has become a brutal place simply because people want what they want when they want it.

And at the bottom, we finally cry out, either in sarcasm or in despair, for God to save us. Lord, Just deal with it!  Deal with it YOUR WAY!

And as we do, we are yelling out with the crowds on the first Palm Sunday, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Son of David, Save us!”

• This is the Day the Lord Has Made!

Hear the words again, the words before the people of God crying out for God to deal with it…

¹⁹  Open for me the gates where the righteous enter, and I will go in and thank the LORD. ²⁰  These gates lead to the presence of the LORD, and the godly enter there. ²¹  I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory! ²²  The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. ²³  This is the LORD’s doing, and it is wonderful to see. ²⁴  This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Jesus, the righteous one, would go through those gates and thank the Father. He walks through Jerusalem’s gates that are opened, and as He does, the way into the presence of God the Father is opened to all!

See there that what was rejected! He has become the cornerstone/Archstone. He is the stone that not only sets the foundation, but He is the stone that locks it all together.

His plan, His work, and it had one focus, saving us. That is the purpose of this Palm Sunday, and why it is called the Sunday of Christ’s Passion – he went through those gates for us…

He would be fastened to the place where He would be the sacrifice! He is both High Priest – and the Atoning Sacrifice.

That is why, when this is realized, there is nothing but worship…

Hear it again,

You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you! ²⁹  Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever!

It all boils down to this: when we cry out for the Lord to deal with it… He did already… at the cross.

That was His intent all the time, as He looked to those gates, as He heard the people of cheer, and cry out praises and cries for deliverance….

He knew how He would respond to both…by taking on the cross.

And there, having dealt with it, He has led us into a peace that goes beyond all understanding, that guards our hearts and minds, for they are in Christ. AMEN!