Psalm 118 (Douay-Rheims Psalm 117), the last of the Hallel psalms sung at Passover, contains the builders' verse: 'The STONE which the builders REJECTED; the same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing: and it is wonderful in our eyes' (118:22–23). Isaiah had laid the same stone earlier: 'Behold, I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion... a corner stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation' (Isaiah 28:16).
In the Temple, days before His death, Jesus closed the parable of the wicked vinedressers — who kill the owner's son — by quoting the verse at the chief priests directly: 'Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected...?' (Matthew 21:42). 'They sought to lay hands on him' — the builders confirming the casting.
The apostles made it the Church's first christology. Peter to the Sanhedrin: 'This is THE STONE which was rejected by you the builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other' (Acts 4:11–12); and again in his epistle, joining Psalm 118 and Isaiah 28 (1 Peter 2:4–8). The rejection itself — the thing that looked like the prophecy failing — was the prophecy.