Psalm 92 - Song for the Sabbath
Chapter 3
“A Psalm, a Song for the Sabbath Day”
Interesting superscription - “a song for the Sabbath Day." This psalm is for worship!
It is good to give thanks to the Lord
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning
And Your faithfulness by night,
With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp,
With resounding music upon the lyre.
For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done,
I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands. (Ps. 92:104, NASB)
It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord. What activity of life has more value than that? Does making money? Watching television shows? Eating? Those things are all good. But not as good as giving thanks to the Lord and singing praises to His name. These are the activities of eternity. When we transition through death to life we will not make money, we will not watch TV, we probably will not eat (although I don’t know that for sure), but we will give thanks and sing praise for all of eternity.
Parallelism is a basic construction principle of Hebrew poetry.
Sometimes two lines are synonymous. They communicate the same thought using different language.
Sometimes two lines are antithetical. They communicate the opposite thought to draw attention to a particular idea.
Sometimes they chiastic, meaning in the pattern of an X, where the first phrase of the first line links to the second phrase of the second line and vice versa.
To see a helpful chart of these forms, see:
https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Hebrew_Poetry01.pdf
There are many other kinds of parallelism in Hebrew poetry.
In the opening lines of Psalm 92, we see synonymous parallelism. The writer states the same thought using different words to emphasize the truth of that thought. So,
It is good to give thanks to the Lord
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; (Psalm 92:1, NASB)
Even though it is synonymous parallelism, it is also true that both statements are accurate and true.
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord” .
We should give thanks to the Lord. As Psalm 103 states, we should not forget any of His benefits. We should be thankful for all that the Lord has done for us.
The book of Ephesians divides into two parts. Chapters 1-3 describe what God has done for us, and Chapters 4-6 describe how we should respond by walking according to His ways (the word “peripatew," to walk-around, is used five times and seems to be the organizing principle to the second half of the book).
It is good to be thankful - to remember what God has done and how He has done it. It is good to remember what He is currently doing and what He will do in the future.
The parallel line, “And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High” is also true. It is good to sing praise. When we worship corporately, that is, all together at church, we sing as a part of our worship. Why is it a good thing to sing corporately? Because in the act of singing, we vocalize truth together. We could just say the words without music, and sometimes we do, but combining the words with music allows us to have both a discursive and non-discursive experience.
A discursive experience is a cognitive activity, meaning communication occurs where there are specific referents. If we say, “the dog chased the ball," we can form a particular mental image of a dog and a ball, and we can also draw a specific picture of a dog in motion following a ball.
A non-discursive experience is an aesthetic activity, meaning communication occurs where there are not specific referents. An aesthetic experience is the kind of connection that happens with music and the arts. When we hear music, when we see a painting, when we see sculpture, when we view dance - often there are not specific referents. The art may not have anything in it which we recognize, and yet we respond to it emotionally and intellectually - it communicates with us. Music communicates this way - it does not use words with specific referents, but sound, which creates in us an aesthetic experience. We have music aesthetic experiences where we feel certain things because of how the composer organizes and develops the sound.
So when we sing praises to the Lord, both kinds of communication are occurring: discursive communication in the words of the texts, and non-discursive communication in the music aesthetic experience.
Therefore, singing to the Lord heightens our experience of praise over simply reciting the texts altogether.
Verse 2 emphasizes that giving thanks and singing praise should be a continual activity - morning and night.
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning
And Your faithfulness by night, (Psalm 92:2, NASB)
Some people see praise and worship as that which only happens at a church at a particular time. For many in the US, it is Sunday at 9 AM, and only for an hour. But here in Psalm 92, we are encouraged to make it an ongoing thing.
The First Baptist Church of Van Nuys, in southern California, had a seating capacity of about 2000 people. During the 1960s and 70s, there were three services each Sunday morning in what we would call today a traditional style with choir, organ, and hymnals.
The evening service had a more popular style, and it is was packed every Sunday night. The accompaniment to congregational singing was in a contemporary style with a small band, and this was many years before the modern worship team model became standard. The young people sat in the balcony, and yes, it was a bit rowdy at times, but there was such a spirit of excitement and anticipation - no one wanted to miss it.
Few churches in America today have both a morning and evening service. Once television began to rule Sunday evenings, people stayed at home rather than going to church. What a shame - we used to “declare Your lovingkindness in the morning And your faithfulness by night."
That music should accompany our thanks and praise is further encouraged in verse 3.
With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp,
With resounding music upon the lyre. (Psalm 92:3, NASB)
Here, once again in synonymous parallelism, the author alludes to three stringed instruments. Instruments from those times have not survived, but artwork from the period gives us a good idea of how they may have sounded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_music_in_the_biblical_period
Of the three instruments listed in verse 3, all appear to be stringed instruments. These instruments were undoubtedly similar to the one that David played to soothe King Saul (1 Sam. 16:23). David must have been extremely proficient on his instrument to play for the king. Today, stringed instruments also dominate the modern worship experience - the guitar, the bass guitar, and the keyboard. Even with the influence of modern electronics, the original basis for each instrument's sound is vibrating strings.
Brass and percussion instruments are listed many times in the Old Testament as God ordained accompaniments for worship.
(See Numbers 10; Joshua 6; Judges 7; I Chron. 13:8; 15:24 & 28; 16: 6 & 42; 2 Chron. 5:13; 7:6; 13:12 & 14; Ezra 3:10; New. 12: 35 & 41; Psalm 98:6; Rev. 8)
For many people, brass music brightens the holidays in worship. Easter Sunday morning announces the good news of the resurrection with trumpets, french horns, trombones, and tubas. Young people studied brass instruments in school as a result.
Why write and arrange music, schedule and conduct rehearsals, set up instruments, sound equipment, music stands, and everything else that goes along with modern worship? Because it is a response to what God has done.
For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done,
I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands. (Psalm 92:4)
What has He done? From verse 5, the psalmist describes many of the things which God has done.
How great are Your works, O Lord!
Your thoughts are very deep. (Psalm 92:5, NASB)
The psalm writer does not think highly of those who do not see the greatness of the works of God.
A senseless man has no knowledge,
Nor does a stupid man understand this:
That when the wicked sprouted up like grass
And all who did iniquity flourished,
It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore. (Psalm 92: 6, 7, NASB)
But regardless of what man might think regarding God's works - whether or not they are seen or perceived - it does not change the fact that God is exalted and the King of His Kingdom.
But You, O Lord, are on high forever.
For, behold, Your enemies, O Lord,
For, behold, Your enemies will perish;
All who do iniquity will be scattered. (Psalm 92: 8-9, NASB)
The Lord empowers and encourages those who trust in Him regardless of the opposition which comes against them.
But You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
I have been anointed with fresh oil.
And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes,
My ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me. (Psalm 92: 10-11, NASB)
Indeed, those who invest in the Kingdom of God will find a significant return over time. The US stock market is subject to sudden and precipitous falls, yet over all, it has risen steadily throughout its history. Similarly, the person who follows the Lord may face difficult times, but generally speaking, they will find long-term blessing.
The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree,
He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Planted in the house of the Lord,
They will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still yield fruit in old age;
They shall be full of sap and very green, (Psalm 92: 12-14, NASB)
The final verse is a declaration of the trust the writer has in God, which makes him want to praise the Lord.
To declare that the Lord is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. (Psalm 92: 15, NASB)
So the psalmist exhorts us to “sing for joy." When we sing, especially when we sing together in corporate worship, we need to consciously determine not to be distracted as we sing for joy. There are so very many things which can distract us.
If the musical elements are not well prepared, it can be very distracting, especially to a musican. Recently a friend posted a song in which he sang and played his guitar. He is an excellent guitar player. But his guitar was not in tune. He acknowledged that this was not his regular instrument, which was in the shop being repaired, and we joked about the problems we often face with replacement instruments. But regardless, it was distracting that his instrument was not in tune. We must purpose not to let distractions impair our worship.
The current worship style of songs (which could be described as the Hillsong model, after the worship and publishing group out of Australia) have extremely simple harmonic vocabularies. In the history of music, the pendulum always swings from simple to complex, back to simple, to complex, and back to simple. We are in a simple phase right now, both musically and lyrically. The playing and technical aspects of the sound is more complex than it was 20 years ago, but the basic musical language of the songs - the melody and harmony - is much more simple than it used to be. For musicians, that can be very distracting. The music aesthetic element of worship is greatly reduced when the music vocabulary is overly simplistic. The music is simplistic because it must be learned by rote since there is no longer a written form of music in worship. Songs are learned by hearing and repeating many times rather than by reading music. One may wish this were not true. Some contend that it makes for a more immediate emotional response, which is one of the strengths of the worship team model. This may be true, but it also leads to very, very simple music, which is unfortunate because the simplicity limits the music aesthetic experience of worship.
Many other non-musical things can also distract from worship - so many that it is not even wise to begin listing them here. The point is that we must choose not to be distracted in our worship, but to focus on expressing our thanks and our praise to the Lord, Most High. Amen?