Praise the LORD for His Merciful Love and Faithfulness

Psalms 92:1-15 

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath day.

1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
2 To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,
And Your faithfulness every night,
3 On an instrument of ten strings,
On the lute,
And on the harp,
With harmonious sound.

4 For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work;
I will triumph in the works of Your hands.
5 O LORD, how great are Your works!
Your thoughts are very deep.

6 A senseless man does not know,
Nor does a fool understand this.
7 When the wicked spring up like grass,
And when all the workers of iniquity flourish,
It is that they may be destroyed forever.

8 But You, LORD, are on high forevermore.

9 For behold, Your enemies, O LORD,
For behold, Your enemies shall perish;
All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
10 But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox;
I have been anointed with fresh oil.

11 My eye also has seen my desire on my enemies;
My ears hear my desire on the wicked
Who rise up against me.

12 The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Those who are planted in the house of the LORD
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
15 To declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

This song of praise was written for the Sabbath day, a time of rest and reflection in the LORD.  It looks up to God on High to give Him thanks and praise in acknowledgment of who He is and all He does.  We should be like the psalmist in beginning each day by telling others of His great love in mercy, and end every day proclaiming His faithfulness of that and all former days in reflection.  We can do this in song as patterned for us here as well as words of everyday conversation, as long as our hearts are full of thankful praise and our mouths make that known, just as we now do so by proclaiming the gospel of His work for us to His glory, honor, and praise.  When we consider all His work from creation through our fall and to our redemption and ultimate glorification, we should be exceedingly glad as in Matthew 2:9-10 when the magi came to the Savior to worship.  Our triumphant victory is in God’s work on our behalf, the atoning work of the Messiah to redeem us from God’s just wrath by His justification of atonement for our sin to bring us back to Him.  How truly great are His works and how deep the thoughts to design and predetermine and bring forth these things!  Foolish ones without understanding given them from on high cannot grasp this, and are therefore set against our sovereign God in futility.  They rise up in an appearance of power and might, yet soon wither away and face certain everlasting destruction, just as the devil and his minions (Jude 1:6).  But our LORD God sits high above all in sovereign rule and control as always, and is not moved.  We cannot but praise Him for who He is.  He will scatter His enemies, those who live against His word and will in sinful disobedience, but lifts up those He has chosen for Himself with His mighty hand who humbly give Him alone the glory and credit (1 Peter 5:6).  It is His anointing which makes us His own (Ephesians 1:13-14)!  That is as our fresh oil hinted at here.  Our enemies will be recompensed, and those declared righteous by His work will prosper in eternity, whether or not always visibly in this life.  In His presence and in His house of worship we flourish, bearing good fruit in our old age with inner vitality as we proclaim God’s righteousness and rest in that foundation of our Rock upon which we build our lives (Matthew 7:24-25).  As the psalmist ends the song, the LORD is righteous and right, my Rock of salvation upon whose work I build on.  Praise the Lord for His merciful love and faithfulness (2 Thessalonians 3:3)!  Amen.