“The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

                As you read the through the book of Psalms you might do what I frequently and unfortunately do: skip over the little introductory information that many psalms have at the outset.  Many of them set the context for the psalm that follows. Check out these examples: “A psalm of David.  When he fled from his son Absalom” (Psalm 3), “A psalm.  A song.  For the dedication of the temple.  Of David” (30), “For the director of music…Of David…When the Philistines had seized him in Gath” (56), “A prayer of Moses the man of God” (90), etc.  Some are very generic: “A psalm of David” (numerous), “A song of ascents” (120-134), etc.

While every psalm has a uniqueness all its own, one psalm might be more unique than any other: Psalm 92.  That’s because it is the only psalm whose introduction says, “For the Sabbath day.”  In other words, the unknown author wrote it specifically for the weekly day of rest, Shabbat or Saturday.  In that sense, we might take it as a kind of “church bulletin” that many churches offer worshippers each week.

Verses 1-3 set the tone that all who enter “the house of the Lord” (v. 13) are to “praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High.”  The writer says this “is good,” as is proclaiming the Lord’s “love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.”  Maybe they had a morning and evening service too.  Also good were “the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.”  OK, they’re not exactly guitars, but if the point is to use what’s contemporary to your times, then guitars fit.

Verses 4-5 picks up the movement by saying that rest and refreshment come from the gladness of focusing on God’s deeds and the “work of your hands.  How great are you works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts!”  This is quite different from many contemporary choruses and some hymns that focus on what the singer will do for God.  I know that our response to the Lord is a part of praise, but the joy comes from being the receptors of God’s generous grace.  After all, what can we do for him that he has not already done for us?  I mean, us singing of what we’re going to do can be nothing more than so much bravado.  God’s not impressed or blessed by that.  But when we sing of his works unadulterated with human action, that brings a smile to his face.

Verses 6-9 get to the result of us belonging to God via a contrast of those who don’t: “The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.”  They spring up like grass and last about as long, “which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire” (Matthew 6:30).  Such people are ‘senseless” and “fools.”  Look at their outcome: “forever destroyed” (v. 7), “will perish” and “be scattered” (v. 9).  But not us!  Talk about the grace of God to spare us from such!  Talk about it and sing: “But you, O Lord, are exalted forever!” (v. 8).

Now the writer shifts in verses 10-14 to recounting additional blessings of God that should be remembered and appreciated on Sabbath Day: “the defeat of my adversaries,” “the rout of my wicked foes,” “the righteous flourish like a palm tree” that are “planted in the house of the Lord” and “will flourish in the courts of our God.”  They will also “bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.”  Boy, talk about blessings this side of heaven too!

All of this leads up to the final proclamation that “the Lord is upright” (v. 15).  This is what the writer is getting to.  Interestingly, when you look at how many times “upright” is used in the Bible, it describes God’s people — like Job and David — far more often that way than it does God.  My guess as to the reason is that is what God wants his people to be, because they’re not inherently so.  Because God is upright, “he instructs sinners in the way” (Psalm 25:8).  When Jesus walked on the earth, he instructed with his life and speech. Then he laid his life down for everyone, further instructing by example all who yearn to be upright themselves by simple trust in him.

Does your worship play out according to this script?  Is your life upright like he wants it to be?