Saturday, March 17, 2007
Matthew 26:30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
VICTORY MARCH
When Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples on Maundy Thursday, they sang from the hymnal of the Old Testament, the book of Psalms. Psalms 115-118, the second part of the Hallel Psalms, would have been used to conclude the evening's festivities.
What a picture this is: As Christ and His disciples leave that room and walk toward the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the cross at Golgotha, they have been left with the words of Psalm 118 ringing in their ears.
"The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies . . . Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: 'The LORD's right hand has done mighty things! The LORD's right hand is lifted high; the LORD's right hand has done mighty things!' I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done . . . The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Even as the darkness of anguish, arrest, and trial descend, we discover a few rays of Easter sunshine already beginning to gleam. Hallelujah!
