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Day 40: Enjoying the Lord's Day (Ps 92 - Pt 1).
Prayer
O my Lord, how desperately I need you. My soul is a desert, and you alone the fount and spring of water. Thorns and thistles I have gotten for myself, a ruin and a desolation. O Lord, pour out your Spirit and fill my barren soul with life. Meet me in the wilderness at the hill of calvary. Make me to live again, Lord. I am weary and sick with sin, wash me anew again, forgive me Lord. Restore me, Lord. Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth. All my hope is in you. I have no other place to go, no other hope. Please forgive me for whoring myself after earthly joys and delights. Please wash me and make me clean, renew a steadfast spirit within me. Save me Lord, I am yours. In Jesus’ precious name I pray, Amen.
Reading
Psalm 92.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”
Meditation
I wonder if you are feeling weary? I wonder if there are trials in your life? I wonder if your soul is dry, and your feet are sore and dusty from your wilderness wonderings? It is time to rest. It is time to worship. In Luke 4:8 Jesus said: ““It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”” As we’ve considered the seventh day, this is very much in keeping with the theme of worship. I wonder if your Lord’s Day worship is full of delight in the Lord? Delight in God is very much at the heart of the Lord’s Day. In this final of meditations, we will extend ourselves to dwell on this final theme. In foreshadow of our final sabbath rest, this meditation will too shall extend. Take it as an opportunity for a prolonged, prayerful, seeking of the Lord, particularly through the worship he has given us on his hold day.
We have learned in these meditations that the Lord has set apart one day in seven to be his day, that’s what it means in Gen 2:1-3 when God made the day holy. If something is holy, that means it is set apart to God, which is why Scripture calls this day “the Lord’s Day.” This is why, in Isaiah 58:13, God calls the sabbath “my holy day.” Even under the Old Covenant, the Sabbath was called “the Lord’s Day”, they are one and the same thing! So this day of worship is to be dedicated to God in a special way as a day where we cease from our the work of dominion, and rest in God and worship him. The Old Covenant anticipated Christ by worshipping on the seventh day, we now follow the apostolic example and worship on the first day of the week which looks back to what Christ has done and anticipates the resurrection which is yet to come. In this meditation, we revel and delight in the beauty of the Lord’s Day.
We’ve seen in Genesis 2 that the Lord “blessed” the seventh day. The day of worship was therefore created to be just that: a blessing! We will open up that blessing in Psalm 92, a “Song for the Sabbath.” Now perhaps you remain unconvinced, and you’re not a “Sabbatarian”, so to speak. Very well, I do not judge you for that (Col 2:16). However, even if this is the case, I trust that your heart will be allured by the beauty of worship presented in this psalm, and that it will enrich your joy in the Lord at times of gathered worship with the saints. Sabbatarian or not, every Christian should be able to agree that there’s nothing better than worshipping God, and however you view your Sundays – the idea of having a day set aside to worship him and open up his word should still be a chief delight to your soul.
To those who believe in the Christian Sabbath, there is an important message as well. Sadly I think, for many, the Lord’s Day has become a day of drudgery rather than the day of blessing that it was made to be. I sometimes hear elderly folk in reformed circles talking about what Sunday used to be like when they were kids, and a common impression that I get in those conversations is that Sundays were defined by what you couldn’t do. But when the Lord’s day becomes defined by a list of what you can’t do, then the heart and purpose of the day has already been lost. And yet even today those kinds of questions still get talked about among reformed people: Can you watch tv on the Lord’s Day or can’t you? Can you play sports or can’t you? When our thoughts and conversation about the sabbath have degraded to that level of question, it’s an indication that something is drastically wrong. If we are truly experiencing the blessing of the Lord’s Day, then watching some football game will not occur to us as a competitor for our interest and affection, because it can’t compare with the blessing of communion with God.
But what is this delight we’re speaking about? As we close out these meditations on the Genesis prologue, I put twelve final thoughts before you from Psalm 92. These insights, I trust, will lay out before us the blessing of the day of worship.
First – the Lord’s Day is good. In this “Song for the Sabbath”, the psalm writer begins: “It is good to give thanks to the LORD.” It is good! We see in this language an echo of the goodness of the creation days. And so the Sabbath Day too is good as the fullness and completion of the days of creation. Jesus told us that the Sabbath was made for man, and God made only good things for man! The Lord’s Day is good.
Second – the Lord’s Day is for thanksgiving. “It is good to give thanks to the LORD.” I wonder if anyone has ever given you a significant gift? Or if, perhaps, you’ve been blessed in some profound way? Maybe someone gave you a car. Maybe they stuck with you when you were in a dark place. Maybe they did something kind for you when you were struggling. In our lives, it is the LORD above all who has blessed us. Not only did he make this beautiful world, and we enjoy the good things of this world day by day (fresh air, good health a lot of the time, other people, good food, family, etc), but beyond this he has been so very good to our souls. He has been patient when we sin, he has been merciful when we deserved judgment, he sent the Lord Christ to take our place in hell and to give us life again. In Psalm 34 the psalmist cries out: “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” As a day dedicated to God the Sabbath Day is, in a special way, a day for public thanksgiving.
Third – the Lord’s Day is for worship. “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High.” Thanksgiving and praise come hand in hand, they are like twin sisters, and this is why we sing on the Lord’s Day. As you read verses one to four of this psalm, you will notice the emphasis is on singing. When we sing in corporate worship, it ought to be a singing from the heart. It ought to be a singing for joy that is welling up in our souls, a song of thanksgiving.
Fourth – the Lord’s Day is God-focused. “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night.” There is a focus in these verses on the name of God. The song is occupied with his name, attributes, and works. God’s names reveal his glory and are a mighty fuel for our worship. He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider, he is Eloheem – the Almighty Creator. The psalmist also exalts in God’s attributes: his steadfast love (v2) is a love that melts the heart of undeserving sinners such as we. But also he is faithful – the trustworthiness of our God is unfailing! Beyond this, there is an infinite expanse of glory in his being, wisdom, and works: “How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep.”
Fifth – the Lord’s Day is gospel-focused. Notice that the psalmist highlights God’s steadfast love and faithfulness: “to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night.” Our worship and liturgy ought to have a gospel shape. In the reformed tradition, this is why we traditionally have the greeting following our call to worship “Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is why we have the corporate confession of our sins, that we might taste his steadfast love and mercy. This is why as we preach the word itself, that we might hear the good news of Jesus Christ. This is why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. For Israel, the Sabbath was a reminder of the Exodus – their redemption. The exodus was a type of the great and true exodus from sin that Christ won for us on the cross. The Lord’s Day is gospel-focused. If you ever find yourself in a worship service that is not saturated with the gospel, something has gone terribly wrong.
Sixth – the Lord’s Day is personal. We come and ought to come to worship, out of a personal dealing between us and God. “For you, O LORD, have made me glad your work; at the work of your hands I sing for joy.” Worship is communal, but it ought also to arise from a deep sense and individual experience of the Lord’s mercies and work in each of our lives. Has that been your experience? Have you had a personal dealing with the Almighty? Or is Sunday worship to you a matter of keeping up appearance? Do you sing for joy at what Christ has done for you?
Seventh – the Lord’s Day is a day of worship. Sunday worship is not the sum-total of one or two hours spent at church on a Sunday morning, it is to be a whole day dedicated to rejoicing in God! “...to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night”. The psalmist mentions day and night here to emphasise that the whole day is to be sanctified to the worship and seeking of God. Many churches in our land used to have a Sabbath service morning and evening. Evening services are hard to find these days, but if they are not positively commanded, certainly this passage suggests that the Lord’s Day ought to be bracketed by the worship of God. Even if you don’t take it as a moral principle, what better thing could there be to do on a Sunday evening? It is good to declare his faithfulness by night on the Lord’s Day! To those who delight in worshiping morning and evening on the Sabbath Day, it cannot be denied – it is a true blessing indeed!
We don’t really have an application in this post, as it’s a “Part 1.” But here is at least one application: be sure to tune in for the next article!! Don’t neglect it, you won’t want to miss it.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Our Lord and our God, we thank you for the day of worship that you have made for us. We thank you that it is a blessed day. You've made the Sabbath for man and it's a blessing to us. Lord, we pray that you'll please forgive us for all the many times that we have come before you in worship with your saints and we have not rejoiced in you. We have let our minds wander to other things and our hearts have been hard and unmoved. Lord, please forgive us in this. We are very weak. Lord, we pray, please fill our hearts with love for Jesus the Nazarene. Lord, that we may come and sing praises to you. And Lord, help us to use this day for the glory of your name and for the spiritual good of our hearts and souls and those of your people and our families. Lord, we pray that you would please revive in your church a deeper and more joyful experience of worshipping you together on the Lord's Day. And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
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By Reformed devotions from all of scripture.Prayer
O my Lord, how desperately I need you. My soul is a desert, and you alone the fount and spring of water. Thorns and thistles I have gotten for myself, a ruin and a desolation. O Lord, pour out your Spirit and fill my barren soul with life. Meet me in the wilderness at the hill of calvary. Make me to live again, Lord. I am weary and sick with sin, wash me anew again, forgive me Lord. Restore me, Lord. Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth. All my hope is in you. I have no other place to go, no other hope. Please forgive me for whoring myself after earthly joys and delights. Please wash me and make me clean, renew a steadfast spirit within me. Save me Lord, I am yours. In Jesus’ precious name I pray, Amen.
Reading
Psalm 92.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”
Meditation
I wonder if you are feeling weary? I wonder if there are trials in your life? I wonder if your soul is dry, and your feet are sore and dusty from your wilderness wonderings? It is time to rest. It is time to worship. In Luke 4:8 Jesus said: ““It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”” As we’ve considered the seventh day, this is very much in keeping with the theme of worship. I wonder if your Lord’s Day worship is full of delight in the Lord? Delight in God is very much at the heart of the Lord’s Day. In this final of meditations, we will extend ourselves to dwell on this final theme. In foreshadow of our final sabbath rest, this meditation will too shall extend. Take it as an opportunity for a prolonged, prayerful, seeking of the Lord, particularly through the worship he has given us on his hold day.
We have learned in these meditations that the Lord has set apart one day in seven to be his day, that’s what it means in Gen 2:1-3 when God made the day holy. If something is holy, that means it is set apart to God, which is why Scripture calls this day “the Lord’s Day.” This is why, in Isaiah 58:13, God calls the sabbath “my holy day.” Even under the Old Covenant, the Sabbath was called “the Lord’s Day”, they are one and the same thing! So this day of worship is to be dedicated to God in a special way as a day where we cease from our the work of dominion, and rest in God and worship him. The Old Covenant anticipated Christ by worshipping on the seventh day, we now follow the apostolic example and worship on the first day of the week which looks back to what Christ has done and anticipates the resurrection which is yet to come. In this meditation, we revel and delight in the beauty of the Lord’s Day.
We’ve seen in Genesis 2 that the Lord “blessed” the seventh day. The day of worship was therefore created to be just that: a blessing! We will open up that blessing in Psalm 92, a “Song for the Sabbath.” Now perhaps you remain unconvinced, and you’re not a “Sabbatarian”, so to speak. Very well, I do not judge you for that (Col 2:16). However, even if this is the case, I trust that your heart will be allured by the beauty of worship presented in this psalm, and that it will enrich your joy in the Lord at times of gathered worship with the saints. Sabbatarian or not, every Christian should be able to agree that there’s nothing better than worshipping God, and however you view your Sundays – the idea of having a day set aside to worship him and open up his word should still be a chief delight to your soul.
To those who believe in the Christian Sabbath, there is an important message as well. Sadly I think, for many, the Lord’s Day has become a day of drudgery rather than the day of blessing that it was made to be. I sometimes hear elderly folk in reformed circles talking about what Sunday used to be like when they were kids, and a common impression that I get in those conversations is that Sundays were defined by what you couldn’t do. But when the Lord’s day becomes defined by a list of what you can’t do, then the heart and purpose of the day has already been lost. And yet even today those kinds of questions still get talked about among reformed people: Can you watch tv on the Lord’s Day or can’t you? Can you play sports or can’t you? When our thoughts and conversation about the sabbath have degraded to that level of question, it’s an indication that something is drastically wrong. If we are truly experiencing the blessing of the Lord’s Day, then watching some football game will not occur to us as a competitor for our interest and affection, because it can’t compare with the blessing of communion with God.
But what is this delight we’re speaking about? As we close out these meditations on the Genesis prologue, I put twelve final thoughts before you from Psalm 92. These insights, I trust, will lay out before us the blessing of the day of worship.
First – the Lord’s Day is good. In this “Song for the Sabbath”, the psalm writer begins: “It is good to give thanks to the LORD.” It is good! We see in this language an echo of the goodness of the creation days. And so the Sabbath Day too is good as the fullness and completion of the days of creation. Jesus told us that the Sabbath was made for man, and God made only good things for man! The Lord’s Day is good.
Second – the Lord’s Day is for thanksgiving. “It is good to give thanks to the LORD.” I wonder if anyone has ever given you a significant gift? Or if, perhaps, you’ve been blessed in some profound way? Maybe someone gave you a car. Maybe they stuck with you when you were in a dark place. Maybe they did something kind for you when you were struggling. In our lives, it is the LORD above all who has blessed us. Not only did he make this beautiful world, and we enjoy the good things of this world day by day (fresh air, good health a lot of the time, other people, good food, family, etc), but beyond this he has been so very good to our souls. He has been patient when we sin, he has been merciful when we deserved judgment, he sent the Lord Christ to take our place in hell and to give us life again. In Psalm 34 the psalmist cries out: “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” As a day dedicated to God the Sabbath Day is, in a special way, a day for public thanksgiving.
Third – the Lord’s Day is for worship. “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High.” Thanksgiving and praise come hand in hand, they are like twin sisters, and this is why we sing on the Lord’s Day. As you read verses one to four of this psalm, you will notice the emphasis is on singing. When we sing in corporate worship, it ought to be a singing from the heart. It ought to be a singing for joy that is welling up in our souls, a song of thanksgiving.
Fourth – the Lord’s Day is God-focused. “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night.” There is a focus in these verses on the name of God. The song is occupied with his name, attributes, and works. God’s names reveal his glory and are a mighty fuel for our worship. He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider, he is Eloheem – the Almighty Creator. The psalmist also exalts in God’s attributes: his steadfast love (v2) is a love that melts the heart of undeserving sinners such as we. But also he is faithful – the trustworthiness of our God is unfailing! Beyond this, there is an infinite expanse of glory in his being, wisdom, and works: “How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep.”
Fifth – the Lord’s Day is gospel-focused. Notice that the psalmist highlights God’s steadfast love and faithfulness: “to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night.” Our worship and liturgy ought to have a gospel shape. In the reformed tradition, this is why we traditionally have the greeting following our call to worship “Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is why we have the corporate confession of our sins, that we might taste his steadfast love and mercy. This is why as we preach the word itself, that we might hear the good news of Jesus Christ. This is why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. For Israel, the Sabbath was a reminder of the Exodus – their redemption. The exodus was a type of the great and true exodus from sin that Christ won for us on the cross. The Lord’s Day is gospel-focused. If you ever find yourself in a worship service that is not saturated with the gospel, something has gone terribly wrong.
Sixth – the Lord’s Day is personal. We come and ought to come to worship, out of a personal dealing between us and God. “For you, O LORD, have made me glad your work; at the work of your hands I sing for joy.” Worship is communal, but it ought also to arise from a deep sense and individual experience of the Lord’s mercies and work in each of our lives. Has that been your experience? Have you had a personal dealing with the Almighty? Or is Sunday worship to you a matter of keeping up appearance? Do you sing for joy at what Christ has done for you?
Seventh – the Lord’s Day is a day of worship. Sunday worship is not the sum-total of one or two hours spent at church on a Sunday morning, it is to be a whole day dedicated to rejoicing in God! “...to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night”. The psalmist mentions day and night here to emphasise that the whole day is to be sanctified to the worship and seeking of God. Many churches in our land used to have a Sabbath service morning and evening. Evening services are hard to find these days, but if they are not positively commanded, certainly this passage suggests that the Lord’s Day ought to be bracketed by the worship of God. Even if you don’t take it as a moral principle, what better thing could there be to do on a Sunday evening? It is good to declare his faithfulness by night on the Lord’s Day! To those who delight in worshiping morning and evening on the Sabbath Day, it cannot be denied – it is a true blessing indeed!
We don’t really have an application in this post, as it’s a “Part 1.” But here is at least one application: be sure to tune in for the next article!! Don’t neglect it, you won’t want to miss it.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Our Lord and our God, we thank you for the day of worship that you have made for us. We thank you that it is a blessed day. You've made the Sabbath for man and it's a blessing to us. Lord, we pray that you'll please forgive us for all the many times that we have come before you in worship with your saints and we have not rejoiced in you. We have let our minds wander to other things and our hearts have been hard and unmoved. Lord, please forgive us in this. We are very weak. Lord, we pray, please fill our hearts with love for Jesus the Nazarene. Lord, that we may come and sing praises to you. And Lord, help us to use this day for the glory of your name and for the spiritual good of our hearts and souls and those of your people and our families. Lord, we pray that you would please revive in your church a deeper and more joyful experience of worshipping you together on the Lord's Day. And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe