Psalm 92

Amen. Again, our scripture is taken from the 92nd number of Psalms, and we'll look at verses 1 through 4. Psalms 92, verses 1 through 4. Psalm, a song for the Sabbath. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, almost high, to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night. To the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyric, to you, O Lord, have made for you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work, at the works of your hand, I sing for joy. May God richly bless both the reading and the hearing of his holy word. There are four main thoughts that we want to look at with some supporting thoughts along the way, and the first thing is to note is this, and that is the title of this particular song. It is called a song for the Sabbath. Now some have argued that in the Jewish Psalter there were songs or songs that were associated with given days, each day of the week, and also some that were used in conjunction with some of the feast days and the holy days. So this is a song that was dedicated for the Sabbath. Now I must admit that everything that we've read from our responsive reading to our hymns are somehow related to the Sabbath, and that was unintentional. I wasn't convinced on this particular text until after we had made those decisions, but what is our accident is God's intention. So therefore it's interesting and it's worth noting that this song, and as we attempt to unpack it, we'll see that it provides a good and a healthy guide for focusing our thoughts and our meditations as we gather corporately on the Lord's day. And as we gather on the Lord's day, it should prepare us, well first office should refresh us from the week that we have already endured, and it should prepare us as we anticipate the week that is before us. So therefore since this is a Sabbath song, there are a couple of footnotes that we need to make note or that we should call attention to, and one of them is that I don't want to make a big deal on which day. I know some are strict seventh day in terms of what is the appropriate Sabbath, so that being the case, here's what we understand. We understand two things, one that Jesus himself is the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest. The Sabbath is intended to give man rest, not physical rest from exertion even though we use it in that way. But it is rest of another nature. I've often pointed out that Adam was created on the sixth day before he went to work, and on the seventh day he rested. So Adam was created on the sixth day, the seventh day was the Sabbath, and before he went to work he rested. So therefore the rest that is contained in the Sabbath is more than physical rest. It is really is the means by which man is to properly understand his labors and to understand the world in which he labors. So therefore Christ is the end of the Sabbath. Now it should also be pointed out that in our fallen condition we need help in learning how to rest. And so therefore Christ is the fulfillment of the substance of the Sabbath, and being the fulfillment of the Sabbath, as he says in Matthew chapter 11, I come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy-latin, and I will give you rest. And he makes it very clear in that passage that he's not just talking about rest for the body, but rest for the soul. So ultimately Christ is the substance of the Sabbath, and when we look at the Sabbath as a way or God's rest, as we look at it as a way to refresh ourselves from that which has been done, and to prepare ourselves for that which is before us, then I would argue that the best way to do that is to be reaffirmed in terms of who we are in Christ. So therefore Christ is the substance in the fulfillment of the Sabbath. The other thing that that should be noted, the footnote that should be noted, is why there is a shift from Saturday to Sunday. Now that was actually captured beautifully in the transition of in our in our response of reading the transition of the verses. It began with the implementation of the of the original Sabbath, and then it shifted to the language of the resurrection of Christ. He rose on the first day of the week, and then at the it towards the end of the reading, it mentions in the and he went to them that same evening which was the first day of the week. This is why we call it the Lord's Day. So since Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath, if we shift our focus from Saturday to Sunday, and our focus is the substance that is in Christ, no one will not go to heaven because you chose to worship on Sunday rather than Saturday. So let's get that out of the way. Here's the other thing that we also also should note when it comes to observing the Sabbath that the laws, the laws were very strict in Israel concerning the Sabbath, and some of us grew up with some of those carryover of those strict laws in regulations. Certain things, activities that we were not allowed to do, maybe you couldn't watch television or play sports, there are there are many athletes that could not play sports because it was the Lord's Day. And remember Eric Little, the Olympic runner that they made the movie cherry, it's a fire about the reason he chose to run the race that he ran, he was an Olympic runner, but he chose to run the race that he ran because when he was preparing for the Olympic, they didn't run on Sunday. They didn't run that race, they didn't run that race on Sunday. So therefore he chose, he changed his event so that he could honor the Lord's Day. So here's what I want to say, whether it comes to working and I have friends who are strict sabitarians, again I don't think our entrance into heaven is going to be determined by how minutely we keep to the letter of the law concerning the Lord's Day. I don't think any of us will be losing rewards because we prepared a meal or went to a restaurant on the Lord's Day. But it is clear that the Lord's Day, whether the day has shifted, we have shifted the day from Saturday to Sunday, and whether that means we go home and watch television or play sports. Here's what is clear and what we don't want to lose, that the Lord's Day is to be honored in a way. For our good, not for him, he doesn't need us to cease from our activities on first day or last or the seventh day of the month of the week. He doesn't need that, but the Sabbath is for our good. And so while the way we observe it is not our ticket into or our ticket out of heaven, there is something that is supposed to be special about the Lord's Day. And God calls us away from our regular ordinary routines. And he gathers us into his presence for our own good. So understand that this Sabbath song should help us and guide us in how we are to strengthen ourselves and to prepare ourselves to honor God on the day that he has given to us, whether it's Saturday, whether it's Sunday, that the purpose for our gathering is because God has told us to be still for a moment, to be still. Now I don't want people to get guilt trips every time you miss a time of worship, but at the same time, sometimes we get so caught up in the liberties that we have that we don't honor it as highly as we should. And so the point here is that the Lord's Day has been given to us for purpose and let us learn therefore some, and we're going to transfer from the Sabbath to the Lord's Day, people get, you know, they get touchy on those issues. Oh no, it's not the Sabbath, you guys worship on Sunday, but since Jesus is our Sabbath and Jesus is the fulfillment, let us then learn from this song ways in which we can properly benefit from properly honoring the Lord's Day. Here's the second thing to note, and that is the opening line of this particular song. The opening line says it is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praises to your name most high. Now from this I would conclude that the spirit that should govern and dominate our gathering on the Lord's Day is twofold. The spirit that should dominate and should should should govern us when we come together on the Lord's Day is a spirit of gratitude and a spirit of humility. Again, holding in mind that what we do when we gather on the Lord's Day is we refresh ourselves from the week that has passed and we prepare ourselves for the week that is ahead of us. Now brothers and sisters, we might be surprised at how a good or a bad week can nurture within us a sense of complacency and a sense of self-sufficiency that only the right of use of the Sabbath can fix. Either way, sometimes we can be so burned out and beat up by the things that we have experienced, that we overlook the goodness that we have in the gospel of God's grace or the beauty that we are part of when we observe God's creation. And sometimes we can be so beat up and bow down by the things that we experience, that we forget that God has been good to us and is supplied all of our needs. And sometimes we exhaust our pain above God's solution. Sometimes we are like the psalmist who asks to speak to ourselves, why are you cast down? Oh my soul, why are you cast down? Has not God given you everything that you've needed? And so sometimes a good week or a bad week. That's a bad week. A bad week can cause us to be so cast down that we overlook God's blessings to us. And sometimes it can cause us to be so beat up that we forget to say thank you. But can't we say the same thing for a good week? You know, can't a good week? Can't we go through some things that we we get a windfall? We get good news? We get excited? We experience something so great in the week that we say, you know what? I'm just going to take the day off. I'm just not going to do my own thing that sometimes and even when we gather, sometimes the good or the bad week can dominate our spirit and cause us to either be puffed up because finally you did something right and you're proud about it. And so we we're rushing to tell everybody how good we are or we are so beat up that it's woe is me. One of the things that the spirit that should dominate and govern us when we come into the Lord's house is that which are a spirit of gratitude and a spirit of humility. Now, therefore, let me observe three things in that regard. One, notice what the psalmist says, it is good to give thanks. It is good to give thanks to the Lord. And the reason it is good to give thanks to the Lord is because it is it reminds us that we are dependent creatures. Do you realize that God is the only person that doesn't need to say thank you?

Everyone else needs to say thank you. And it is God who is the giver of all things. It is God. And so as Paul asked the Corinthians, what is it that you have that you have not received? And so, therefore, it's good for man to give thanks. It is good for him to give thanks because it is a reminder to him that we are dependent creatures. And the moment we cease to give thanks is the moment that we will buy into our own press, press clippings and think that we are better than we are and think that we have what we have because of our ingenuity or we will think that, well, I work my fingers to the bone and we'll be talking about our working, our fingers to the bone and not recognize it is the great God of the universe who gave us the strength in our bodies to work at all. It's good for man to give thanks because it is a reminder to man that you have an obligation of gratitude when you are the recipient of everything that you have. What is it that we have that he is not that we have not been given? What is it? Is it our health? We didn't. If you think you have good parents, you didn't pick them. You have a great wife. You didn't create her. Everything that we have, we have been given and there is no breathing creature. There is no image bear of God who does not have a reason to be grateful. I know we listen. All of us have a whole list of things that's wrong with us. But if we want to be honest about it, we also can create a whole list of what's been done by us that's wrong. Yet here we are breathing. Here we are. Here we are living. Here we are recounting even as our bodies grow older. I don't care how old you are. Don't you have some good memories? That's because God has been good to us. And so therefore it's good for us to be to give thanks because when we cease to give thanks, then we will somehow diminish the goodness of God and the sufficiency of what He has provided. And we will become guilty. We talked about it this morning in our Sunday school class, the different sources or the different ways in which we send with the gift of speech. We will become grumblers and complainers. So it's good to give thanks because it is a reminder to the image bearers of God that we are but dependent creatures. And it is the Lord who has provided all that we have needed and all that we have. And sometimes we just need to pause and not just say thank you. I remember years ago preaching a Thanksgiving message that Thanksgiving is more than a word, that our actions and our attitudes would demonstrate that we are indeed grateful. But here's a second observation in that regard, being thankful for and mindful of God's provisions to us is also a means by which we can nurture a charitable and generous spirit towards others. It's being grateful that we, it's acknowledging that what we have, we have been freely given. So as God places us in the pathway of another towards others, it's being grateful that we, it's acknowledging that what we have, we have been freely given. So as God places us in the pathway of another person's need, it is out of the fact of what He has given to us that enables us to connect to the needs of others. Brothers and sisters, what have we needed that God has not provided? And surely He has put individuals and things in our path by which He provides what we have needed. In the same way that He sent a raven to we light it to give him meat and bread. God sends human ravens our way. God, God gives someone, He puts someone in our paths that will speak a kind word for us to give us into that job interview. It is God opening the door through His use of the individuals that He put in, puts in our lives, and when we come into His sanctuary and we start recounting the goodness of God towards us, then we think of the different legs and feet and faces by which God's goodness has been communicated to us so that when someone else's need comes our way, we're not so tight-fisted. It nurtures us. That's why Paul tells the Corinthian church and second Corinthians when he's admonishing them to give and to have a generous spirit for the needs of the church in Jerusalem. He lifts up the poor church. He says out of their poverty, they gain. That's a, and it's not always about, that's the beautiful thing about charity and generosity. It can't always be calculated in dollars and cents. It's a spirit. It's the spirit of others who are willing to partner with you in your time of need. And what is it that opens up our hearts? We live in a cynical world. We live in a, and we can, we can become cynical. We've all gone to some public place and we've seen someone panhandling and then we've become suspicious because we see they're wearing night shoes. Maybe we see them on another part of town driving a nice car. Maybe they gave us a sob story and we bought it and then we come back an hour later and they're giving the same sob story to someone else and it can cause us to become cynical and it can cause us to to dry up in terms of being meeting the needs of others but when we come into his presence and we are reminded that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us that while he was, he was rich in glory and laid aside his riches and for our sake, he became poor. When we thank God for such generous grace, we are mindful. We don't just hoard whatever, however much or little we have, we don't just hoard it for ourselves. We open up our hearts and we share with the needs of others beginning. As Paul says, we begin in our charitable giving and loving with those who are the household of faith, but also God when we give, when we come into the sanctuary of God and give thanks to him, we are recognizing that he has given to us undeserving sinners more than we could ask or think. So when another undeserving sinner comes into our path with a particular need, however much or little we have, being thankful, nurtures the spirit of generosity, it nurtures the spirit of charity. It makes us mindful of how fortunate I hate to use the term, but our fortunate circumstances is the opportunity for us to put on display to others, the goodness and the graciousness of God towards us. But here's a third observation to be made on that first statement that it's good for man to give thanks and then not only does he say to give thanks, but also to sing praises to your name almost high. It's good, not only that we give God, our gift, thanks giving to God for what he has done. It's good for us because of what it nurtures, but it's also good for us to give praise to the most high. You know why? Because when we give praise to the most high, it's a reminder of who's really in charge. And sometimes we forget, we forget sometimes who's in charge of our lives, who's in charge of our homes, of our communities and the world in which we live. And when we come into God's presence, and we give thanks to him for his goodness towards us, and we exalt him and we stop in our tracks, and we say, you are the most, do you know what it means to be the most high? That is to recognize as Mahalia Jackson used to saying that there is somebody bigger than you and I. And those things that we don't always see, I love that part of the hymn in this is my father's world that we are reminded that though the wrong seems to somehow get by, we come into God's presence and they don't, no they don't. As a matter of fact, later in this hymn, he goes on to make that point. He makes it clear in verse 7, he says, though the wicked sprout like grass and all evil doers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever because the most high is in charge. And so the Lord's day, our Sabbath rest not only is a time for us to give thanksgiving to God, which therefore reminds us that we are dependent and not self-sufficient. But it's also the time for us to exalt, and it doesn't mean make God more than what he is. But it's a matter of pulling away from our own routines and recognizing who he is. One of my favorite of thousands of favorite verses is Psalm 4610. Here's what the Lord says, and that could very well be, it should probably be the theme of every Sabbath gathering. Be still and know that I am God and I will be exalted in the earth and I will be exalted among the nations. The Lord's day, the day of rest is resting in him, and resting in him is to be grateful for all that he's done. But as we are grateful, we are also humbled. We are humbled because when we come into his presence, we recognize who it is that is in charge, who it is that's in control. What that brings us to a third consideration, and that's really taken from verse 4 because the Psalmist goes on to say, at the end of verse 4, he says, for you have made me glad by your work. At the work of your hands, I sing for joy. The Lord's day should call our attention to the work of God and the work of God should be our joy. The Lord's day as we contemplate him, as we meditate on him, we look at his work. Now, of course, Adam from the very first Sabbath day, the only work that he could see was God's work of creation, and then he could reason from God's work of creation and recognize how good this God is that spoke with him, but he had never seen. All he saw was God's work, his handy work. But I would argue that there are three areas of God's work, the work of God's hand that we should rejoice in as we are refreshed and renewed in our Sabbath gatherings and in our resting in Christ. Number one, his work of creation. Again, sometimes you've heard people say, well, take time to just breathe, take time to smell the flowers, and you know, that's, I know people are divided along the lines of, I'm a city person, I'm a country person, and I'm a little bit of both, I love the city, I love the solitude of the country, I could never live in the country, but I love the solitude of the country. But sometimes you just, it's good as you pull yourself away and just look at the beauty of what God has done. Look at his work of creation. And we are reminded of the details. I remember what Jesus says in the New Testament. He says, you know, you, you're complaining, take time and look, you're, you're striving, you're, you're working, you're overexerting yourself, trying to get and gain. He says, look at the lilies of the fields. Look at the lilies of the fields. He says, they neither toil nor work. Yet they are better dressed in Solomon. Look at the, look at the flowers. One of the things that we've really had a privilege of enjoying since we've been in Florida is more of a close-up view of different kinds of birds. My mother when she was dying in a cancer and we had a time to spend with her and she was at home and she would sit up in her bed and they were living, she was living in Arkansas and we would, she would look up in her bed and I'd go sit with her and she's just looking out the window enjoying God's birds. And again, you know, I'm, I'm from Los Angeles. We, our birds were pigeons and starlings and crows. You'd see some crows.

Now when we walk through the house who look out on the patio, my wife will get my attention or I'll get hers and we have this group of bad, like little toddlers, blue birds. Beautiful, but they go into our patio and and then they get into the flowers and start digging out, you know, just, just throwing dirt all over the place, but it's beautiful. It's beautiful to behold. Sometimes to just stop what you're doing as you're getting ready to go to the doctor's office, just pause for a moment. Look at the robins, look at the owls, look at the splendor of what God has created. One poet says that poems are made by fools like you and me, but only God can make a tree. Look at the trees. You don't have mountains, but that's okay. Look at the stars. Look at, look at what God has made. Consider what God when He calls us away from our work. Sometimes we can be so busy and so caught up with the things of the world, not just working and what those things that we call a necessity, but God gives us a day where we can pause and look at His work of creation. Look at Him and then when we look at it, look at the way David describes it. He says, he doesn't say, wow, look at those stars and look at the constellation. He says the heavens declare. Look at that word declare. He says they are preaching a message in that message is to everyone who has eyes and what they are declaring is the glory of our God. One of the throwaway lines in the book of Psalms is that He made the stars also. It's a throwaway line. Look at the details of a single star. Why is that good news for those who are at the call of God? Because we as Jesus tells His audience in Matthew, when He tells them to consider the lilies of the fields and then He also reminds them of the birds of the air. We are reminded that He who made those things, not only made us, but He loves us. And we are of more worth and value than the lilies of the fields and the birds of the air. He says that the Father knows all of them, not one falls without Him knowing it, and then He transfers that to us and says there's not a hair on your head, even where hair used to be, that is not numbered by God. Look, pause on the Lord's day and look at His work of creation and tell me He's not good. Brothers and sisters, we are not just creatures. We are redeemed creatures. So therefore the work of God, the work of His hand, that we get to contemplate on the Lord's day is not just the work of creation. That would be good enough, but we also get a chance to pause in the presence of the one who redeemed us. Look at His work of redemption, because the work of creation is awesome as it is, but the work of redemption is, you see, we say that He created ex-Nealo out of nothing. He created out of nothing, but His work of redemption is an assist greater than that, because He doesn't start with nothing, He starts with something. And here's what He starts with, He starts with enemies, He starts with those who are rebels, He starts with sinners, He starts with God-haters. The end result of His work of redemption is that the haters become the lovers of God, the rebels become the children of God, the enemies become the the heirs of God, the work of redemption certainly should cause us to praise God, because He had no reason, just as He had no reason to create the robins other than for the fact that He wanted to create robins. But when we were yet sinners, He sent His sons to die for us, and it's not because of us, it's because of Him. The Lord's Day is an opportunity for us to pause and to rejoice in God's work of creation and to rejoice, because that's what He says here in verse 4, that I will seem with great joy, with joy at the hands of the work of your hands. Rejoice, that's why Paul and Philippians says, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Rejoice in the work of God's work of creation and rejoice in God's work of redemption. And thirdly, when we pause on the Lord's day, we can rejoice in God's work of providence. We can poem what I mean by providence is God's intentional use of the free actions of human beings, sinful human beings to accomplish His purposes. Look at how, look again at the people that He has put in your pathway. Look at the doors that He's opened. Look at the mouths that have been shut. Look at the way that you almost went, but didn't go, and because you were here and not there, you got this instead of that. Look at how God has timely, has in a timely way connected us with those things that we have needed most. It's good for God's people to give thanks, but it's also good for God's people to rejoice in the work of His hands, and the work of His hands in what He has created, the work of His hands in what He has redeemed, and the work of His hand in bringing everything to accomplish His purpose. Paul says in Romans 828, all things work together for good, for those who love God and are the cause according to His purpose. That means there's no accidents with God. He's not a scientist who goes into the laboratory and explores, and then after trial and error comes away with something. God knows His purposes for us, and there is nothing that will hinder, frustrate, or stop His purposes, and sometimes when we take ourselves away from the world, or take ourselves away from His day of rest that He has given to us where we cease in our activities and contemplate Him, sometimes when we neglect that, we forget His providence. That was the point that we made this morning that Ethan the Ezra, the Ezra height was making in Psalms 89. That in spite of the appearance of things, God is doing what He has promised to do, and He will continue to do what He has promised to do. Regardless of the way things look, can you imagine of course in the life of Joseph how things must have looked, yet big dreams, and here He is in jail. And not only in jail, the reason He's in jail is because first off His brother sold Him, and then Lied and said that He was dead, but God in His providence, knew of a famine that was coming and knew how He wanted to bring things together, and He used the circumstances, the ill circumstances of Joseph to accomplish His purposes. That's why towards the end of His life, after the Father died, I should say, that Joseph, when his brother stand before him in guilt, and they are afraid that he's going to, now that they watch Godfather, a preview of Godfather, right? That as soon as, as soon as as long as Papa is alive, you're good, but when He's gone, you've got a problem. So they were assuming that they were going to be in trouble, now that their father was dead. And so Joseph has to tell them, I know what you did, but listen, you minute for evil, and you did mean it for evil, but God minute for good, to bring many people alive, look at the work of God, His work of creation, His work of redemption, and His work of providence, and rejoice. Rejoice in what God is doing, and rejoice in what God has done, and trust what He will do. Well that brings us to a fourth and final point here, and that from verse 3. Something else that we discover about the Lord's day, and I love the way that it's worded here, in verse 3, He says, in verse 2, He says, to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night. Now we looked at the coupling of those two phrases this morning from Psalms 89, but here we see them coupled together again. But here's what I find interesting, because in verse 1, He says, it is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to your name, oh God, so there are two things, two activities that the psalmist is indicating that should be the work of the person or the activity of the person on the Lord's Sabbath. And that is to give thanks to God, to sing praises to His name, and then He says to declare your steadfast love. Here's what's interesting about this, most of the time we know that God's steadfast love and faithfulness is declared to us by God. But here's what the writer is suggesting, that when we gather into his presence, the Lord's day prepares us for the week that is before us, because on the Lord's day we confess back to God what He has promised to us. It is the individual worshipper that's not asking God to do anything, but declaring what God has declared. Now notice that it brackets today in some of our, or explain this as meaning that he refers to the song or the declaration in the morning, and then the declaration in the evening to correspond to the morning and evening sacrifices, which were an ordinary part of temple worship. But however we view that, and you might even say it applies to morning service, evening service, however you use it, here's what should take place on the Lord's day, here's what prepares us for the week that is ahead of us, rehearsing God's own words, verbalizing, declaring, confessing, professing what God Himself has said. We don't have to find the word, but we declare what God Himself has declared to us, and here's what He has declared, that language by the way is covenantal because what God is pledging Himself to is what He has given by way of covenant which is also alluded to in the song. On the Lord's day, we come into His presence, we sing, we give thanks to Him, we sing praises to Him because He is the most high, and then we declare amongst ourselves what God Himself has declared to us, and what He has declared to us is His steadfast love and His faithfulness. Isn't that what has kept us thus far? And so as we go into the week that is before us, we don't know, we don't know what tomorrow will bring, that's what James says, don't let any man say, I will go here or there because we are but a vapor, and we don't know what tomorrow brings, but here's what we know. Again, those, I think, the hell you used to sing this too, I don't know about tomorrow, either what lies from day to day, but here's what I do know, I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand. Brothers and sisters, whatever is before us, those unknown corners, those individuals, those things, we don't know but here's what we declare in the audience or in the sanctuary of the most high God, the one whose work is on display in the stars and in the moon and in the trees and in the birds whose work is on display in broken bread and shed blood that feeds us and nurtures us whose work is on display and the circumstances that lead us in the path that He would go and those things that He would want us to have. Here's what we know that He will never stop loving us, and He will never break the promises that have been sealed by the blood of His Son. He is faithful, and so as we head into the weak, that is, let us begin, let us let us prepare by recognizing, yeah, it's another, it's another grind, it's another this, whatever you hear, whatever you experience, let the words of God to you flow from your lips and bring in your ears and resonate in your heart that He is faithful and His steadfast love will never fail us. That's what we need. We need it daily, but thank God for a day that He has given us whereby we can say thank you, we praise you, we trust you. Amen. Let us pray. Father, we thank you again for this day that you have blessed us to see another Lord's day, another opportunity where we can gather with our brothers and sisters and raise our thoughts above the mundane, rejoice in what you have done and in what you are doing and trust you for those things that are unknown and unseen before us. But we know of your eternal everlasting steadfast love. Let that be our guide. We know that you are faithful. Let that be our rock so that whatever we experience, whatever wherever we go, it would always be our intentional aim to glorify you because you are God. Thank you for the day that you have appointed for our good and we pray that we would use it for your glory. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.