Psalm 92. Now, just as I begin to talk about this, you know, people have different views of how we ought to treat Sunday. I know that we've talked about that before. Some believe that Sunday is a real Sabbath. They would call it the Christian Sabbath because they observe it on Sunday as opposed to Saturday, which is, quite frankly, the real Sabbath day. Sabbath is a word that simply means Sabbath. That's what it means. And so it refers to the seventh day of the week, which we know is Saturday. In fact, if you go back into Bible times, you won't see any names for the days like we have now, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and so forth. They just counted their days by the first day of the week, the second day of the week, the third day of the week, and all of that kind of stuff. That's the way they did it. And the seventh day was Saturday, so it was the Sabbath. It was the day that the Jews worshipped. We worship on Sunday because this is when Jesus was resurrected. In observing the Christian Sabbath, as some call it, such people believe that we should set aside Sunday for worship and rest and works of mercy only. And we know that. In other words, we worship corporately, we pray, we rest, and anything else we might do on that day is to be of necessity. Works of mercy would include things like visiting people in nursing homes, or visiting shut-ins in their homes, or things like that. In other words, so what you are doing on your Sunday is you are either resting, or you are visiting people, or you are doing some kind of work of mercy. Now, those that believe that way, they would agree with us. Obviously, hospitals, fire departments, police departments, all of those have work so that those would be valid works as well. You have to do those things. Those are things that have to happen. According to this view, Christians should not go out to eat because if they do that, they are causing others to work who don't really need to be working on Sunday. You say, what about grocery stores? Well, people that believe that also believe that you should do all your shopping before Sunday comes. So you don't go to restaurants and you don't go to stores or anything else on a Sunday. Now, all time that is not spent in corporate worship or works of mercy should be spent resting, enjoying God's creation, praying, reading scripture, or reading Christian works. That's how people would believe. Others believe that you can do other things on that day, that we're not so restricted. And this is one of those issues that Christians agree to disagree on. You say, well, what do we believe in this church? Well, it really is an individual thing. If somebody here believes that you can only do certain things on the Sabbath or on Sunday, on the Lord's day, then that's fine. If there are others who believe you don't have to be restricted thus far, that's fine as well. But whichever way you look at it, we need to understand that Sunday is a day of worship. It's a day of worship. Even though we agree to disagree about how exactly that day should be carried out, it is a day of worship. It's a day of corporate worship, I might say. I want to separate that because every day to the Christian is a day of worship. But why do we worship on Sundays? Well, again, I said it earlier. This was the day that Jesus was resurrected from the grave, and we understand that on the first day of the week, they worshiped. That was something that the early church did. Now again, without going too far into it, I would argue that if you lived in a place that for some reason everybody had to work, there was a situation there where everybody had to work on Sunday and the day off was Tuesday, that was a free day, then if you move your worship to Tuesday, in my view, that would be fine. But all things being equal, Sunday is the day that we should worship. And that's what the Lord has called us to do. It's a day that the first Christians set aside for worship. So you will notice the title of our psalm. Notice, above the scripture, there's a title here. These titles are not scripture, but they are things that we can count on. In other words, they're very reliable. Notice what it says. As you begin Psalm 92 there, a psalm, a song for the Sabbath. Their worship day was Saturday, so this psalm is about worship. It's about their worship day, but of course our worship day's on Sunday, so it's about our worship as well. And we wanna break this psalm down into three stanzas as we look at it. The first stanza's in verses one through four. We will entitle it, it is good to praise God. It is good to praise God. Why is it good to praise God? Well, one thing we could say, it's good to praise God simply because that's what we ought to do. It is the right thing to do. He is God and we are not. He created everything and He redeemed us. And all of that is right, but when you say it that way, it sounds like we're just praising God out of obligation. You know, we do it because we're supposed to, we ought to, because that's what we're told to do, and it's just that. And as long as we do what we're obligated to do, we're okay. We do it because it is the work that we are called to do. We show up on Sunday morning, we go through the motions of worship, and then we go away from here and we go on to other things, whatever we choose to do. But worship that is just an obligation is not true worship. True worship is delightful, and it's good for us. True worship makes us glad, as verse four says. True worship is emotionally pleasant to the heart. Martin Luther called true worship precious. The Westminster Catechism says at the start of that, you've heard me talk about this, the very first thing it says is the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Well, how do we glorify God and how do we enjoy God? We do that by obeying Him and by praising Him. We do that by acknowledging that He is God and we are not. He is one who is worthy to be praised, and because He is God, we also must obey Him. And if we belong to Him, that is a pleasure, that is a privilege, that's something we enjoy doing. We come to corporate worship, but it doesn't end there. Our praise and enjoyment of God should be going on night and day. Notice verses one and two. 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. Our praise should be happening all the time as we go through our days. We should live a life of praising God and obeying God. We pray when we come to worship. We read scripture. We ought to be doing these things at home. We pray, we read scripture. We may sing hymns to ourselves. That's a good thing to do. Don't just sing hymns when you're here, but sing hymns when you're away from here. Maybe when you're riding in your car, when you're walking on the street, when you're at home doing housework or whatever you're doing. Have some hymns that you're willing to sing. We acknowledge God's presence in our lives every day. It's not just a Sunday thing. And we have missed the point badly if we see it that way in our lives. Okay? Worship is not just for Sunday, it is for every day, but coming back to Sunday again, Sunday is important. Verse three talks again about corporate worship. Notice what it says. When he says, declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, and then he says in verse three, to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. There are some who suggest, also, that we shouldn't be using any instruments in our worship. I don't see how you could ever come to that conclusion when Scripture is full of that. Everything that Scripture says about worship music, all the instruments that they used, you could never come to a conclusion that we shouldn't be using instruments in worship. These instruments that he refers to here are stringed instruments. There is the lute, which was a 10-stringed instrument, and then there's also the harp. And you've seen all harps can be in all kinds of different shapes and sizes. When I think of a harp, I usually think of that great big thing that's kind of a half of a heart, and then it's got all kinds of strings in it. That's usually what I think of. But that's what they had. It's a 10-stringed instrument, and then it's a harp. Any instrument really is valid to use in worship. Any tool that we can use to praise God more is a good thing, as long as it's done tastefully. Now, you certainly can use instruments in a bad way that don't bring worship at all. They're just a lot of noise. But if it's done well and it's done tastefully, any instrument can be used. As far as what we praise God for, we must praise God. We say, well, what are we supposed to praise Him for? Well, there are many things that we praise Him for. He speaks of two things here in verse two. He speaks of God's steadfast love and His faithfulness. In other words, His love continues all the time. It never goes away, and He is faithful to us all the time, and that never goes away, those of us who are His. God's love and faithfulness are constant themes in the Psalms. They alone could keep us busy praising God for a long time, if you just think about that. But there are so many things, so many things. It's good to praise God. It is a joy and a delight and something that we need to do, both corporately, when we come together, as we do on Sunday, and individually. There is a second stanza that is in verses five through nine, and we might call this the silence of the senseless. the silence of the senseless. Though God is worthy of praise and is to be praised forever, the wicked do not care to praise Him at all. Those who reject Him, those who do not follow Him, they don't care to praise Him at all. I remember reading one time that there was an actress who kind of looked at the world and talked about God being the creator and controller of the world, and her statement was, if there is a God, He needs to come up with another plan. In other words, if there is a God out there, he needs to know that whatever he's come up with is not working and he needs to change it. Well, that's a sad thing to say. Yeah, we look at the world and it is right now in a shambles, but the God who created it all is in control of it, and one day he, in fact, I would tell that woman, he does have another plan. There is a plan. One day God is gonna make everything right, and one day we're gonna go to heaven to be with him eternally. Notice what he says in verses five and six. How great are your works, O Lord, your thoughts are very deep. The stupid man cannot know, the fool cannot understand this. Where it says a stupid man, the Hebrew actually says a brute man. In other words, he's equating a senseless man with an animal. He knows no more of reality than an animal does. That's what he's saying. Men and women are made to know and to enjoy God, but when they turn their backs on him and reject him, they isolate themselves from all spiritual life and operate merely on a physical level. And there are so many people that do that. It says in Psalm 8, 4, and 5, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. Why does the psalmist say that we have been made a little lower than the angels? Well, by saying we're a little lower than the heavenly angels, rather than a little higher than the early beasts, he is calling us to look toward God. We're lower than the angels, therefore we need to look up toward God. We can become like him in whose image we are made. But if man is not willing to look up and the only place left for him is to look down, and in that case, he becomes just like an animal. Someone said that God made man a little lower than the angels and he is still trying to get lower Still ever since God made man a little lower than the angels and he's trying to see if he can get even get lower than he is It's amazing So those who do not and will not praise God are like brute beasts. Secondly, they are wicked in their beast-like behavior. That is what he calls them in verses seven and nine when he writes of their judgment. Let me read verses seven through nine for you. That though the wicked sprout like grass and all the evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever. But you, O Lord, are on high forever. For behold, your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish. All evildoers shall be scattered. People who reject God are blind, but theirs is a willing blindness. It's a willing blindness. They don't see because they choose not to see. They don't know God because they don't want to know him. That's really the idea. Verse seven is really haunting to me in a way. Many times we see the wicked flourish, really do. There are many people who are wicked and yet they flourish. I mean, they do well, they have a lot of money, they have everything that they want, they have everything going for them. They rise up and they seem to be successful. They are being raised up just for the purpose of being destroyed if they continue in the path that they're going. They are simply vessels prepared for destruction, no matter how much they're able to accomplish, no matter how much they accumulate in this world. They are vessels prepared for destruction. Notice what he says in verse nine. Let me read that for you again. For behold, your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish. All evildoers shall be scattered. All evildoers shall be scattered. There is destruction that awaits the wicked. Who are the wicked? All those who reject Jesus Christ, all those who do not have a relationship with him by faith. That brings us then to verses 10 through 15. The righteous will flourish. That's what this tells us. The righteous will flourish. Notice what verse 10 says. but you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. You have poured over me fresh oil. What is this? The horn symbolized an animal or human strength and majesty. That's what it was about. It really talked about power. It's like a majestic thing to see a horn. And so it emphasized, whether you're talking about an animal or a human, their strength and their majesty. Humans don't have horns, so it's used as a metaphor there, but that's what you're talking about. And the imagery is of a horn on an animal being rubbed with oil so that that horn gleams as well. So you see strength in just the horn itself, It can do damage and you see majesty in that the horn gleams when the oil is put on it. That's the image that he's trying to produce there. In other words, the psalmist is saying he has been invigorated. He has been invigorated. You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. You have poured over me fresh oil. In other words, I am invigorated. There is vitality in me. I am strong. He has been given new strength and vitality, we might say. Look then at verse 11. Notice what it says. My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies. My ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants. The psalmist desired to see the wicked punished, and his desire was gratified by God. Now, It's not that we go around just laughing and having fun when we see people suffering or being hurt, but we know that when the wicked are punished, God is vindicated. It's the right thing. And when the psalmist talks about his enemies here, it's because he is a child of God, so his enemies are God's enemies. What he's really doing is sticking up for God here. The psalmist desired to see the wicked punished, and his desire was gratified by God. That's the idea. Now, as we look at life, we may say, well, man, it sure doesn't look like it's happening. It sure doesn't look like anything's going wrong with the wicked. They just seem to be getting worse and worse and worse and doing more and more damage. But it will happen. That is a guarantee. That's the idea. I understand that by faith, and so I can rest in that. Even though I may be disappointed about all the evil things that are going on in the world and everything that everybody's doing, I know that the Lord is going to make it right. And I think that's what the psalmist is alluding to here. My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies. My ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants. Even though it may not look like it, we know it's going to happen. Look at verses 12 and 13. The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord. They flourish in the courts of our God. What do the palm tree and the cedar symbolize? Well, together, they symbolize what we've already talked about, strength and vitality. The cedar, this giant tree. The cedars of Lebanon, they used to talk about those. Those were taken to help build the temple. Massive trees. We talk about strength when we think of that, and of course the palm tree, just a palm tree is something that's growing in a top tropical place that's rich, that's full of life. There's a lot of vitality there. So the palm tree and the cedar together, they symbolize vitality. Psalm 1 describes the wicked as like chaff. The wind will drive them away. That's the idea. They're just like chaff. They're just like the chaff that you would throw up in the air and the wind would drive it away. But the righteous will stand forever. They will stand strong forever. Notice also at the end of verse 13, they flourish in the courts of our God. What does he mean by that? Well, a tree planted in the courtyard of the temple symbolized the thriving condition of those who maintain a close relationship with the Lord. That's the idea. How is it for me to have vitality? How is it for me to be revitalized? I maintain a close relationship with the Lord. So the righteous will flourish like a palm tree and like a cedar. There's a second statement about the righteous in verse 14. Notice what it says. They shall bear fruit in old age. They are ever full of sap and green. Now some people might look at that, older people, and say, I don't think that's talking about me. I sure don't feel like that. I don't feel like, verse 14, they shall bear fruit in old age, they are ever full of sap and green. Well, he's not talking about physical strength here, although there are some people who are blessed with great physical strength, even at the end of their lives. But not all people are. In fact, most people are not. And though that can be a blessing that the Lord bestows on some, what he's talking about here is great spiritual strength and vitality. In other words, it doesn't matter what's going on with your body. You can have this. And this is what he talks about. Paul speaks of this in 2 Corinthians 4, 16. So we do not lose heart, he says, though our outer self is wasting away. And that's true of all of us. We might try to hold it off, but it's coming. Our outer self is wasting away. Our inner self is being renewed day by day. In other words, even though our outer self is getting weaker and weaker and weaker, our spiritual strength can continue to get more vital and more strong. We can continue to grow in vitality and in strength. That's what he's talking about here. The body may be wearing out, but the spirit is getting stronger. And one day, the body will be made strong again and prepared for heaven, and we'll unite with our spirits again. That's what the righteous have to look forward to. It's a wonderful thing to consider. Then the third statement about the righteous in verse 15. Let me start with verse 14 again, because it's a full sentence. They will still bear fruit in old age, they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. What is this? The righteous will have the strength to continue to praise the Lord even at the end of their lives. Even at the end of their lives. So, we come full circle with verse 15. We are back to what was happening in verse one, praising God. That's what righteous people do. They praise God all of their lives. If a person finds worship boring and tedious when he's relatively young, I mean, how will he ever continue to worship God when he's old? If it just seems boring and tedious for me to worship God, how am I going to be able to worship him when I become old? There's some people who just give up on worship. They get to a certain age. Okay, I've had my thing. I just don't feel like doing that anymore. I've done it enough. We're meant to do it individually as well as we live all of our lives. We need to be obeying and praising God all the time. day by day, but also as much as we can for as long as we can, we want to do it corporately with God's people. Praising God is to be a day, night kind of thing. We're to praise Him and obey Him all of our lives, every day of our lives, as we make every day a day of worship. This is to inhabit everything in our lives. There is no more joyous thing than to spend time praising God. There's great fruit and benefit that comes from that, and it's something that the Lord has called us to do all of our lives. Let's pray. Father, thank you. We do want to praise you, Father, because you are worthy of our praise, and forgive us, Lord, but sometimes we get caught up in so many other things that our minds become dull. and other things look more attractive to us than you do. And even though they may seem that way for a while, Father, if we keep going down that path, we're gonna move away from what brings us real joy. Joy is in you. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. The chief end of man is to praise God all the days of our lives. and to obey all that he's asked us to do. That's where true joy is. That's where true purpose is. And so, Father, we pray that you would help us to do that. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.