The Way It Is Supposed to Be :: Psalm 92

It is good to give thanks to Yahweh, to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to confess your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness in the night, on the tenth and on a lute, upon the meditation with a lyre, because you, Yahweh, make me glad with your work. In the deeds of your hands, I sing a ringing cry of joy (vv. 1-4).

For many of us here at Trinity, worship is not just part of our lives, it is our pacemaker. It keeps our heart in the rhythm with the Lord. We know it is good to give thanks to the Lord. We desire this time with our Lord. We long for his Divine Service to us to receive his gifts ... through the proclamation of his Gospel that he has reconciled himself to us on account of the life and death of Christ, whose blood has atoned for all our sins for all time.. 

This is why it is good to give thanks to the Lord (v.1). 

So we do ... as we celebrate in his means of grace ... as he leads us back to his baptism that now saves us (1 Pt 3:21), as he announces absolution, and as he guides us back to the green pasture of the his Supper, where he delivers to us the forgiveness of our sins (Mt 26:28). ... 

Thanks be to God ... 

HIS DIVINE SERVICE DELIVERS HIS GIFTS IN THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE

Here, we receive the good and glorious feeling that comes when we unload our hearts ... when we express our gratitude to the Most High for doing the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the most profound thing ... living, dying, rising, and promising to come again. 

Though he knew no sin, he became sin so that he could suffer for our sin and die in our place, ensuring that our sin is buried forever. In rising from the dead, he gave us the living hope of eternal life with him. Though we were lost, he found us. Though we were separated from him, he called us home and enlightened us.And now we can give thanks to the Lord, to sing to his name, the Most High, to declare his steadfast love in the morning, and his faithfulness in the night (v. 2). This is the way it is supposed to be.

But we aren’t really very good at it, are we ... giving thanks to the Lord? It shouldn’t be that way. We probably all know what it’s like to come to worship on Sunday mornings ... not with a heart overflowing with praise but out of simple routine. Maybe we are better than most ... look at all of you who are here again ... but sometimes we just let life get in the way, don’t we? The pains, worries, and anxieties can be so overwhelming as we try to carry our burden of sin, as we try to hide from it. So we stop singing and praying ... drawn into ourselves.

It’s not supposed to be that way. 

Some days we just don’t feel good, and our heart feels dull and heavy. Some days we are so consumed with the cares of this life that we lose rhythm with him. We might want to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praise to the name O Most High, to herald his love in the morning and his faithfulness in the night, but we think life in the here and now is more important, don’t we? We struggle and doubt what God is doing for us in the Divine Service. 

So today, let’s return to the Psalms again. Like last week when we returned to our confession to be reminded of his absolution to us ... this week we return to Psalm 92 to remember why we are here ... to give thanks to the Lord in prayer and praise, singing songs and psalms. 

Psalm 92 will remind us this is the way things are supposed to be. 

How great are your works, Yahweh! Your thoughts are very profound! 

The senseless man will not know; the fool will not understand this: though the wicked spring up like grass and all iniquity will flourish, they will be devastated forever. 

But you, Yahweh, are on high forever. For, behold your enemies, Yahweh ... Behold, your enemies will perish. All the work of iniquity will be separated. 

But you have exalted my horn ... anointed me with fresh oil. ... 

The righteous will flourish like the palm; like a cedar in Lebanon, he will grow. They are planted in the house of Yahweh. They will flourish in the courts of our God. Still they will bear fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and green to show that Yahweh is upright.

He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

The title given to this Psalm is “A Psalm ... A Song for the Sabbath.” 

You can hear why! It is a song of refreshment. A song of faith ... faith in Christ ... faith that God has set things right. That is what the Sabbath is for ... rest in the truth of the Lord. While today isn’t the Sabbath ... which is Saturday ... it’s still the Lord’s Day, and because of his work, on this day, the Day of Resurrection, we are in his rest. Jesus has given us this rest through all his redeeming work, obeying the law for us, dying under the law in place of us, and freeing us in the law through his resurrection. So it is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing his psalms of praise.

So what are Psalms any way? To say that the Psalms are just songs is not quite right. We shouldn’t simply call them only poetry either. This Psalm is for the Sabbath. In it we hear the echoes that Luther wrote five hundred years ago. The Psalter, he said, “promises Christ’s death and resurrection so clearly ... and pictures his kingdom and the condition and nature of all Christendom ... that it might well be called a little Bible.” In other words, like all of scripture, you can’t read them too often ... Nor can you know them too well. But I urge you to embrace them. Read them slowly. Listen to them. Hear them. This is the way it is supposed to be, and in this way we can give thanks to the Lord. 

The Book of Psalms gets its name comes from the Greek word ψαλμός instead of the Hebrew word מִזְמוֹר. No matter how you say it, it is the most beloved book of the Old Testament ... an ancient hymnal that millennia later, it is still speaking and still singing. These songs are models for prayer and praise ... vivid pictures of our future with God, giving us voice especially for the times we forget. They are the most quoted in the New Testament.

Originally, the Psalms were sung to the accompaniment of a harp, although today most Lutherans use an organ. I sometimes wish you would sing them with me, but there is nothing wrong with simply speaking them. The important thing is that we give thanks to the Lord ... through the Psalms ... It’s one of the ways it is supposed to be.

We can give thanks to the Lord in many more ways ... through our hymnody and liturgy. It is good to sing these praises to his name (v. 1). 

I know sometimes you have trouble finding that rhythm in the hymns I choose, but when you do ... read along to give thanks in that way. Our hymnody, like the Psalter, presents to us not the simple speech of the saints ... they lay before us not the inmost treasure of our souls. God speaks to us in these means, and in these words, we find great joy to help us give thanks.

This is the way it is supposed to be.

We have come to God’s house today for this reason. The Divine Service reminds us of this. It helps us recall God’s goodness, and gives us an opportunity to sing our thanks. 

The reason for our thanks centers in God’s gift of his Son, Jesus Christ, for our salvation, which is fully realized in the Eucharist, God’s good thanks. While I don’t normally call the Lord’s Supper the Eucharist, I understand why others do. It is good to give him thanks for this particular means of grace that nourishes our faith. We should receive this gift of thanks as often as we can ... with joy ... from our Lord. For as often as we eat his bread and drink his cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Cor 11:26), giving thanks for his gift to us. He has forgiven us! 

This is the way it’s supposed to be. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we proclaim this word because it is here iniquity has been put asunder and eternal life is proclaimed. 

Jesus willingly gave up His life for you, suffering an eternity's worth of sin for you and for the entire world. He did that so you could have the free gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven. He has seen fit to bless you in this way, not to reward you for being such a stand-up person, nor as a way of bribing you into being a better person. This is why it is good to give thanks to the Lord. 

He has blessed you with all that you have and all that you are for the sole purpose of equipping you and aiding you in reaching out to share this wonderful Gospel message of life and salvation with those who don't yet know it or believe it so that they, too, can share in our redemptive, Christ-centered joy. This is why it is good to give thanks to the Lord. 

God desires the death of no man. He desires that all may believe and have life in Him, which is precisely why He sent His one and only Son to die for the sins of the entire world. This was the way it was supposed to be. Because of Jesus, whether we live or die or prosper or suffer in this veil of tears, we belong to Him forever. This is the way it is supposed to be. 

So let us pray this becomes your joy to ... the way it is supposed to be.