A Word in Season: Spiritual Exercises (Psalm 92:1–4)

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Perhaps somebody has asked you why do you have to go to church or why do you have to go twice?

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For some the idea of being among God's people on the Lord's Day is just a bore and a chore.

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Even for some who profess Christ it's something to be done as quickly as possible, put out of the way so that we can get on with the other things that we really want to be about.

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But can you imagine David going to the temple and thinking, oh really

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I've got to go through this again? Or the pilgrims of Israel whose hearts were right with their

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God as they went up to Jerusalem for the great feasts saying, I can't believe I've got to do this again.

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There's an appetite to be among God's people and in God's presence in God's healthy children.

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In Psalm 92 described as a song for the Sabbath day the psalmist begins, it is good to give thanks to the

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Lord and to sing praises to your name O Most High, to declare your loving -kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night, on an instrument of ten strings, on the lute and on the harp with harmonious sound.

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For you Lord have made me glad through your work, I will triumph in the works of your hands.

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What's the dominant note then of those who gather for worship? It's good to do this, to sing praises to God's name.

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We're declaring his loving -kindness and his faithfulness, we are glad because of his work, we are triumphing in the works of his hands.

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Someone said, do you have to? We would say, how would you stop me? Think of what

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God is to me, think of who this covenant Lord is and how he has demonstrated his love toward a wretched sinner such as I am.

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It is good for me, it is both delightful and proper to give thanks to the

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Lord, to return to him the praises that are due to his name, to lift up my heart and my voice to the

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Most High God and to speak of all his glories and excellencies. In particular

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I will declare his loving -kindness in the morning and his faithfulness every night.

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That's not a strict distinction as if to say that I have to do only one thing in the morning and only one thing in the evening but rather it's one of the patterns that the faithful saints in Christ's Church have observed down through the centuries of meeting morning and evening on the

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Lord's Day in order to speak forth his praises. They are glad, they have been made glad through the work of God, what he has accomplished for them in his

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Son on the cross, when the Lord Jesus laid down his life for ransom at Calvary in order to bring them out of darkness to light, to make them truly the people of God, to bring them into his kingdom.

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This rejoices the hearts of God's people and they cannot be held back from hearing more of what

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God has done and then from speaking out to God and to others all that he has accomplished on our behalf.

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It's a declaration or a demonstration of triumph. Not so much ours but God's.

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We enter into the triumph of Jesus Christ. We triumph in the works of his hands.

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We are boasting in the cross and not in ourselves. And as we review all that the

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Lord has accomplished on our behalf, as we think about the Father sending the Son and the

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Son dying in our place and the Holy Spirit bringing the blessings of Christ's redemption accomplished for us to our souls and then taking up residence within us as that foretaste of the full and final glory to come, it should draw out our hearts toward him.

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If we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, if we know that the one who trusts in him is truly blessed eternally and fully happy because of what

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Christ has accomplished, then we will say with the psalmist, it is good to give thanks to the

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Lord. Sometimes we're necessarily kept away from the gatherings of the saints on the

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Lord's Day. When that's the case, perhaps even from a sickbed, our souls can nevertheless be tuned to the song of heaven.

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And as the few gather in some places or the many in others, as the sun sweeps across God's globe, this chorus of thankful praise should rise from the hearts and the voices of his people in every place.

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Has God made you glad through his work? Has he saved you from your sins, brought you into his kingdom, established you in his family and given you a promise of the glory to come?

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Then you can and should, you will triumph in the works of God's hands and therefore you will find it good to give thanks to the

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Lord, to sing praises to his name, to declare his loving -kindness in the morning and his faithfulness every night.