Since I have served as the Music Minister for the past couple of years, I have often found myself asking the question, ‘Why worship?’ Or maybe more specifically, ‘Why worship corporately?’ It seems to me that as Christians these are important questions. I would hope that we can all offer some reason for why we have gathered this morning. I would hope that there is purpose behind the songs we sing, the prayers we pray, the sermons we preach, the ordinances we observe.

One of the themes of the Psalms is to call the people of Israel to remember and proclaim the great deeds of the Lord corporately in worship. Thus, we see the Psalmist write in the Psalm we opened our service with: Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. Likewise, many of the Psalms are simply retellings of how the Lord has provided for the people of Israel, how he has rescued them from Egypt, and delivered them from their enemies. Thus, there is this call to worship God for the great deeds which he has performed.

This morning, our Psalm fits into that theme in the Psalms. The Psalmist is offering a psalm to be used in the corporate worship of Israel. Thus, he is offering instruction to the people of God for the worship of their God. In looking at this Psalm together, I would like to begin by identifying the purpose of the Psalm, following that with two points of explanation of this purpose.

The purpose of Psalm 92 is to call the people of God to thanksgiving and praise before God for His great works (v. 1-4).

As we have already noted, the intention of this Psalm was that of the corporate worship of Israel. We are told that it is a Psalm for the Sabbath. Thus, as with other places in the Old Testament, especially throughout the Psalms, we are given a glimpse into the public worship practices of the people of Israel. We can then see how God has instructed his people to worship him in the past.

We see from this passage that it is a call to sing. I guess as a current Music Minister this offers great purpose to my job. It should be said that we did not sing congregationally this morning on a whim. The elders did not meet this past week and discuss the different means we could use corporately to worship our God. No, we simply have stood in a long tradition of the people of God coming together corporately to sing his praises. It is difficult to know exactly, although speculation could be offered, as to why God has chosen the particular means of singing. Yet, the reality is that God has called his people to gather together and sing his praises. Even in my time here, I have seen the wisdom and good in this command through being encouraged and spurred on even through our corporate singing. There is something good and right about hearing the people of God respond to the Word of God with singing and praise. God uses the corporate singing of his people not only to receive praise and thanksgiving, but also to encourage and exhort his people. Thus, the continual call to us is to be a singing community, to sing the praises of our God day and night as he calls for in v. 2. I pray that we would find great joy and delight in coming together and singing the praises of our God.

Yet, we must say at this point, that our corporate singing and our corporate worship as a whole is not to be a time that is void of content. The call is not to sing for the sake of singing or to celebrate for the sake of celebrating. No, it is to be a celebration with content. As we have said, a great theme in the Psalms is praising God for his marvelous deeds, so in our Psalm this morning we see the Psalmist calling for the people of God to offer praise and thanksgiving for what God has done (look again at v. 4). We don’t just sing to sing. No, we sing to proclaim the excellencies of our God. This is what the Psalmist is calling for here.

Yet, rightly we could ask: What exactly are the deeds that the Psalmist is calling for the people of God to celebrate? What is the content? What are the great works? I believe the Psalmist mentions two in our text.

First, we are to celebrate the Lord’s defeat of the wicked (v. 5-11).

The Psalmist teaches us in this passage that God is providentially ruling over the wicked. Even as Lee has spoken of recently, we are tempted at times to wonder where God is in certain situations. We see evil all around us and struggle not to conclude that it will win the day. Yet, the Word of God reminds us over and over again that our God is in the heavens and he is doing all that he pleases. Yes there will be times when we do not see the whole story and we cannot understand the purposes behind every event. Yet, this does not change the fact that our God is ruling over this world. Only the Lord’s reign will continue forever as the Psalmists tells us in verse 8.

In contrast to the continual reign of the Lord, the Psalmist tells us that the wicked will only prosper for a time. Look again at verses 6-8. The writer of the psalm describes the wicked as grass. He uses this comparison to make the point that even though grass may sprout up for a time and flourish, eventually it will die off and be destroyed. We can see examples of this throughout the history of the world. Wicked men will flourish for a season but they cannot avoid the grave and judgment. They are but grass, here today and gone tomorrow. Their time is fleeting.

Yet, not so with our God. His reign is forever. He is currently in control of the universe and He will always remain in control. God’s sovereignty will never be thwarted or run out. His reign is from everlasting to everlasting.

As we look around us today, we see all evil proclaiming loudly against our God. The on-looking sees evil and the prosperity of wicked men and concludes that surely there cannot be a just and holy God. Thus, we see the great need for the people of God to proclaim loudly the reign of our God and His coming justice. We are to be a people who celebrate the fact that the Lord has defeated and will continue to defeat the wicked. Lee spoke to us last week about the fact that our redemption involved the defeat of God’s enemies and our own. The Psalmist speaks of God defeating his enemies in verses 10-11. Yet, how much more can we, who have seen the victory of the cross and the defeat of sin, Satan, and death, celebrate the great deeds of our God. We, as the people of God through faith in his risen Son, should join with the Psalmist and the people of God who have gone before us in singing praise to our God for his defeat of the wicked.

Yet, what else does the Psalmist call us to celebrate?

Second, we are to celebrate the Lord’s provision for the righteous (v. 12-15).

The Psalmist continues the metaphor that he began earlier by comparing the wicked to grass. Here, he compares the righteous to a palm tree and a cedar in Lebanon. He writes that they are planted in the house of the Lord and they continue to bear fruit even into old age. In contrast to the wicked, who sprout quickly like grass but soon face destruction, the righteous are sustained by the Lord and continue to bear fruit throughout their life. The Lord sustains his own, even as we sang earlier:

Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth
Hast thou not seen how thy desires e’er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth
Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do
If with His love He befriend thee.

And yet, this talk of bearing much fruit should remind us of even what we have already seen in the book of Isaiah, namely that Christ is the true vine and that through him we may indeed bear much fruit by being obedient to our Father’s commands. Thus, again as we read from Philippians 3 and proclaimed in song, we do not boast in our own fruit, but only in the fact that our righteousness is that which we have through faith in Christ. Thus, we celebrate the Lord’s provision for the righteous by celebrating the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

The Psalmist goes on in verse 15 to point out that all this is to be done as a public display of God’s righteousness. Read verse 15 with me again. Our proclamation of God’s provision for the righteous is in fact a proclamation of the very righteousness of God. Even though it may seem at times that evil has the upper hand, the Psalmist makes clear that justice will be served. God will destroy his enemies and He will uphold the righteous. Why will He do this? It will be done as a public display of His righteousness.

The amazing reality is that our very salvation and redemption is a public display of the righteousness of God. Paul writes in Romans 3 that Christ’s atoning work was to show God’s righteousness at the present time. Our redemption is not God simply forgetting His righteous indignation against sin. No, our redemption is the fulfillment of God’s plan to righteously redeem a people by pouring out His wrath onto His own Son and clothing us with the righteousness of Christ. Thus, we are living testimonies of the righteousness of our God. More than anything, our salvation proclaims loudly that our God is a holy, righteous, loving God.

It reminds me of the story I have told here before, but bears repeating. When Lee and I were in Europe, we spent a few days in a town located in the Swiss Alps. I remember walking the streets of the town one night and finding my way to the cemetery behind the only Church I could find in the town. After walking around a bit, I found a place to sit down facing the Alps and just spent some time looking at the Mountain. I thought to myself, “How much does that Mountain scream out the glory of God? It is so great and majestic and the Lord simply spoke it into existence.” I remember wanting to proclaim God’s glory in such a way. And then it hit me. My salvation proclaims God’s glory in a way that the mountain never could. How glorious is it that God could take a wretch of a man such as myself and righteously transform him into someone who, in his better moments, longs to be spent on the glory of God? Our salvation screams the glory of God. Even as Paul tells us in Ephesians 2, we have been made alive through faith in Christ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

This morning, we read of the Psalmist calling all Israel to gather together and to sing the praises of God and his mighty deeds of defeating the wicked and providing for the righteous. In the same way, the Psalmist is calling all the redeemed of the Lord to gather together to sing and offer thanksgiving to God for his great deeds. Indeed, through Christ our God has defeated our enemies. With one blow he has crushed sin, Satan, and death. He has clothed those who believe in the work of his Son in righteousness. And he has done it all without compromising His character. Thus, may we be a people who with joy sing our praises to our God. As Israel sang of the Exodus, may we sing of the cross. The song of God’s redemption should be ever on our lips and in our hearts. As we come to the table, may we indeed come with an attitude of thanksgiving and praise to our God for his great redemption. May we join together in singing, O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer’s praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace! Amen.

A CALL TO THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE