Amazon went public in 1997. Imagine if you had invested in the company then. At first offering, the price of an individual share was just $18. Some very rough math tells us that if you purchased 100 shares in 1997 (an investment of $2,000) you’d be sitting on close to $250,000 today. Too bad time machines don’t exist!
The future remains a mystery to all of us. Yet we deal in the future every day. Credit cards borrow money from the future. Our calendar apps borrow time from the future. James warns us from relying too much on the future. (James 4:14)
So how should we think of the future? The Scriptures invite us to find our present joy by placing our eyes on God’s future.
David writes in Psalm 118:24, “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” At first glance, this seems like an encouragement to treat every 24 hours as a gift from God. And we should! Yet, David is saying something more.
Psalm 118 was meant to be sung. God’s people sung these verses during the celebration of Passover, commemorating their rescue from Egypt. In Jesus’ day, the crowds quoted it as Jesus entered into Jerusalem. (Luke 19:38). He sang this with his disciples before heading to Gethsemane and then the cross. (Matt. 26:30)
“This day” is not just any day. David wrote, the crowds shouted, and Jesus sang of a day coming soon, a future day. They hoped for a day marked by great reversals, “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” (vs. 22) As Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, David’s descendant returned. A reversal. As Jesus hung on the cross, he wasn’t losing, he was winning. A reversal. As Jesus walked out of the tomb, he left death in it’s grave. A reversal. Now, ascended in heaven, we can read Psalm 118:24 with a longing for another day. A reversal of all we see wrong in us and around us.
Today, we can sing and speak Psalm 118:24 with our eyes on another future day. A day where King Jesus brings his kingdom of righteousness and justice, in all it’s glory, to earth. (Psalm 89:14, Revelation 7:9)
The next time we say “this is the day that the LORD has made“; look further down into the future, past our 24 hour day. Today, we can pull joy from the future, a future day where Jesus and His church rule and reign together.
Jared Stacy 