Jesus told the Pharisees:

33 “Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. 34 When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruit. 35 The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they treated them the same way. 37 But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”

41 They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit in its season.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,

'The stone which the builders rejected,
the same was made the head of the corner,
This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?’

43 “Therefore I tell you, God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation producing its fruit."

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke about them. 46 When they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes, because they considered him to be a prophet.

Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46 - World English Bible

The rhetorical question of the farmers' fate led to the quote from Psalm 118:22-23. The psalm was one of the Hallel hymns (Psalms 113-118) recited by Jews on the major feast days of Passover (see Matthew 26:30, Mark 14:26), Shavuot and Sukkot, as well as Hanakkak and Rosh Chodesh (beginning of the new month). The song was a prayer of praise and thanksgiving, depending upon God even in the midst of a siege around Jerusalem, seeing that siege broken (118:10-14), then, celebrating the victory in a parade outside the walls of the capital (118:19-21). In this context, Judea was the stone spurned by foreign powers, but used by YHWH as a cornerstone to his Kingdom (118:22-23). Jesus, however, flipped the image. Now, the stone referred to a new people (his disciples) who did the will of the Father, producing good fruit. Such was the moral to the story.Sometimes, common wisdom confuses the right road to God, for it projects human thinking into a situation. It was true in the time of Jesus, it is true today. Knowing the road to the Kingdom requires prayer and discernment, not a poll of popular sentiment.

How have you prayed for guidance on your spiritual path?