Many of us (ministers, elders, and church members alike) regularly give thought to how we can, by God’s grace, cultivate healthy churches. In that vein, I daresay one of the most underappreciated and underutilized tools we have at our disposal is the Lord’s Day.
It is no secret that the world is full of hostility against God’s people, and together with the flesh and the devil, the world is happy to cater to us with a sin-glutted cynicism. In response to that sin-glutted cynicism, God’s people must, in part, counter with joy—biblically-fueled joy, not mere sentimentality. And, Christian, in God’s economy, the Lord’s Day is for your joy.
In so many ways, we come at the Lord’s Day all wrong, and we lose the race right out of the gate. We will discuss this more later in our series, but for now, think about this: What would you do if you did not have anything else to do? If you were free from constraints—the ordinary chores that typify the rest of your life—think of all the things you could do. Think of all the joys, all the delights you could fill the day with.
Every week, God gives you precisely that kind of day. He serves up the first day of the week to you and says: “Here is a day you are free to fill with the things your soul needs, things you want to do, not things you have to do. Here is a day to enjoy me.” Yes, there are works of necessity and mercy—our Reformed confessions are clear about that. They have their place. But in the main, here is a day, free from ordinary constraints, where you get to delight in the Lord and his blessings and benefits. Here is a day to refresh and recalibrate your soul.
Psalm 92 tells us about the Sabbath, and we may right apply its truths and applications to what we now call the Lord’s Day (what our Reformed confessions and catechisms refer to as the “Christian Sabbath”; Westminster Confession of Faith 21.7; Heidelberg Catechism 104). Psalm 92 tells us about God’s day: what it is and what it is for. This day is an essential component in our arsenal. It is a God-ordained ingredient in our fight for godliness and Christian joy.1
There is also an important thematic progression to note from Psalm 90 to Psalm 91 to Psalm 92. Not unlike the progression observed in Psalms 22, 23, and 24, the first psalm in this triad speaks broadly of lament, the second psalm speaks of hope/reassurance/promise, and the third psalm speaks of eschatological triumph. Psalm 92 speaks of the goodness of God and his Sabbath day in this present age, but it also points forward to the eschatological judgment of the wicked and the flourishing of the righteous in the presence of the Lord.
There are a number of legitimate ways we could outline this text, but let us examine it under four broad headings.
- Verses 1–4 speak of Delight
- Verses 5–11 speak of Downfall
- Verses 12–15 speak of Blessing
- Recapping a bit in verses 8–11 the psalm speaks of the Savior
A Psalm of Delight
Notice even the superscription above verse 1: “A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.” It is the only psalm in the Psalter that is given this inscription. The author is cluing us in to the fact that this psalm is especially appropriate for the Sabbath because it helps us to understand what this day is for.
As we look at verses 1–4, we learn very clearly that worship in the assembly of God’s people is a sheer delight to the believer. And what is it that fills this man with such delight? Four things stand out.
Notice verse 1: it is God himself who moves this believer to such sheer delight. “It is good to give thanks to the LORD.” The covenant name, the personal name of God, is employed here as the psalmist speaks to the children of Israel. Invoking that covenantal, personal name communicates a holy nearness of God to his people, an intimacy.
He goes on in that first verse: “To sing praises to your name, O Most High.” The psalmist employs the word “Elyon” (עֶלְיוֹן), a Hebrew title of majesty, describing the transcendent greatness of God above, in all of his glory. The psalmist is giving thought to the God of his Fathers, the Lord of All Creation, who is transcendent, soaring, and supreme above all things. He extols the God who is “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth” (Westminster Shorter Catechism 4)—merely thinking about this God causes this man to worship!
Notice verse 2: it is not only God himself, but God’s redemptive works that move this man to sheer delight:
To declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night.
This language in verse 2 is likely a deliberate parallel calling attention to the Old Testament pattern of the morning and evening sacrifices, a lamb sacrificed on the altar in the morning and again at twilight (Exod 29:38–42). If this morning and evening sacrificial custom is functioning as a backdrop to the psalmist’s morning and evening praises, surely the connection can be drawn from those sacrifices to God’s praiseworthiness. Every morning and evening, the psalmist observes, a sacrifice is made; yet again, sin has been committed, and yet again, God has provided a sacrifice to make atonement for that sin. Over and over again, twice daily, the psalmist is reminded of his sinful failures, and over and over again, he sees God’s provision of a means to forgive his people and the Lord’s unrelenting commitment to his covenant promises (cf. Exod 34:6–7).
All day long, the psalmist loves to talk about God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. The Hebrew word that stands behind “steadfast love” is hesed (חֶ֫סֶד), one of the most marvelous words in the Hebrew language. I love one man’s description of hesed: “God’s stubborn determination to be true to his covenant and to be kind to your soul, no matter how long it takes him, no matter how much it costs him, and no matter what you deserve.”2
The psalmist looks back to the promises made to Abraham, to the Exodus under Moses, to the era of Joshua and the Judges, to David and the promise of an eternal king for David’s throne, and the psalmist is bursting with praise on account of God’s steadfast love.
Dear reader, if this is the old covenant psalmist’s reaction—regarding God’s determined, covenant love to his people—how much more should this reaction be characteristic of us? We who, from our vantage point in redemptive history, look back on even more evidence of God’s unrelenting faithfulness. We have the privilege of looking back upon Christ, the eternal Son of God, who in the fullness of time took on flesh, was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, who drank the cup of God’s wrath down to the dregs, swallowed up death and hell in his glorious resurrection, so that all those who are united to him by faith and believe on his name are forever made clean and given the right to be called the children of God.
How the Lord has showered his people with his steadfast love throughout the ages; how faithful he has been to bring about all of his covenant promises and pledged mercies to pass. Is that not something to sing about? And what better day, says the psalmist, to sing of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness than on this day of rest and gladness?
In verse 3, the psalmist makes note of the music and the instrumentation used in temple worship. He loves to sing of the covenant faithfulness of God his Redeemer with all the splendor of music.
And notice verse 4: it is not only God himself, not only God’s works of redemption, but also God’s works of creation that move him to sheer delight:
For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
From the mighty cosmos of the universe, in all of its ninety-two billion light-years of observable length, to the tiniest mycoplasma—next to which a human hair is five-hundred times wider—all creation declares that this God is worthy of praise!
But also notice before we leave this section that it is not only right to worship God, it is good to worship God—not just right, not just morally commendable or obedient Christian duty, but intrinsically good to worship the Lord of glory. Derek Kidner aptly notes, “Clearly enough it is right to give God thanks and sing his praise; but here we go further and call it good: good, no doubt, in the sense that, in love, he values it, as he valued his creation; but also in the sense that it uplifts and liberates us.”3
People will sometimes draw a dichotomy between the Old Testament and the New Testament and suggest something along the lines of, “Old Testament worship was largely focused on external, ceremonial matters. It centered around the priestly system of sacrifices at the temple and the cycle of Jewish festivals. It was all very outward-facing and performative. But in the New Testament is where we finally reach the heart of true religion, real worship.”
But take another look at this author of Psalm 92. Does this man look like he is miserable in his religion? Not at all. Andrew Bonar says this of the tone and tenor of this psalm:
It is tuned, we noticed, to the strains of the eternal Sabbath. But still, it is no less suitable for every Sabbath now, inasmuch as every Sabbath speaks in type of the “rest remaining for the people of God.” A redeemed soul will sing it gladly as he awakes on the Lord’s day; our day of rest on which Jesus finished his work of resurrection. . . . “The Lord’s day.” The dawn of day, after dark night, the dawn of day without toil before him, cannot but seem a sweet type, or emblem of the Lord’s “lovingkindness” appearing in salvation after a night of sin.4
For the believer, this is a chief driver of our joy: how great God is and how kind he has been in himself, in creation, and in redemption. And what a day his Day is to discover and experience afresh what it means to enjoy him, and to begin now what we shall be doing forever. Truly, it is good to give thanks to the Lord.
There is more for us to unearth in this beautiful chapter of Scripture, and we will do just that when we return next week for our ongoing Saturday Psalm Series.
Notes
- Christopher Ash wonderfully suggests reading this psalm alongside Mark 2:23–3:6, setting out as it does the significance of the Sabbath and sabbath-rest, and how Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary, 4 vols. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024), 3:561.
- Neil C. Stewart, “Experience God on Sunday,” Reformation Worship Conference, Midway Presbyterian Church, 2014.
- Derek Kidner, Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 16, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1975), 366.
- Andrew A. Bonar, Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860), 278.
©Sean Morris. All Rights Reserved.
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Sean Morris
Sean was educated at Grove City College, Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson, MS), and the University of Glasgow (Scotland). He is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, and serves as a minister at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge, TN. He also serves as the Academic Dean of the Blue Ridge Institute for Theological Education. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Historical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Sean lives in Oak Ridge with his wife, Sarah, along with their children and useless beagle.
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