Perhaps it is providential that during a week when our property has seen quite a few construction vehicles come and
go, and quite a bit of dirt moved, we would come to a service saturated with the language of building, and particularly
building the house of the Lord. We are called into worship this morning by Psalm 118, where we read that “the stone
that the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone.” The hymn Glorious Things Of Thee Are Spoken uses the
image of “Zion, city of our God,” which is founded on the Rock of Ages. We will sing about the Lord’s temple (Within
Your Temple—Psalm 48), His house (My Shepherd Will Supply My Need—Psalm 23), His holy city (From Babel To
Zion), and His holy hill, “the mountain which [He] has made” (The Song At The Sea). In the sermon text, Jesus is
compared to the builder of a house (Hebrews 3:3), while in the assurance of pardon we are described as “living stones”
that are “built up as a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). The service concludes with the hymn Christ Is Made The Sure
Foundation, which returns to the imagery of Jesus as our “cornerstone” and sets forth a prayer that His blessing would
forever be spread within our walls. —Henry C. Haffner
