WEDNESDAY 24th
Psalm 92
NIV – ‘It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night’
ESV – ‘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’
The psalmist continues to say that it is also good to do these things, give thanks, praise the LORD and to sing with the accompaniment of music, he mentions the lute, harp and the lyre and then continues with ‘For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your works; at the work of your hands I sing for joy.’ The psalmist had contemplated the wonder of all that God had done for him, and continues ‘How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!’
What were the works that the psalmist was thinking about? It may have been the work of creation, and that certainly was great, but I wonder if he was thinking more in line with God’s working towards his people, Israel, the way that he had called them, delivered them and had continue to lead them and to provide for them and protect them, and on a personal level he may have been contemplating the way that God had worked in his own life, for he recognises the personal things that God had done for him in verses 10-11.
The heading above the psalm says that it is a song for the Sabbath, and for us it can become a song for us, not on the Jewish Sabbath which was a Saturday, but on what is called the first day of the week, the Sunday which has become the Sabbath for the believer, we know that it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, to sing praise and to declare God’s steadfast love as we also remember the work of his hands, and for us in particular it is his hand working out his wonderful plan of redemption, the work of the Cross which has given to us salvation, and as a result we can give thanks for his work in our own lives personally as he has called us by his grace and is keeping us by his grace. God is good in all his ways, and he is worthy of all our praise and adoration, his work towards us in and through the Cross should cause us to want to give thanks and sing praises with grateful hearts. And what a joy to be able to do it with music.