Sabbath psalm – 2/4/17

As I’ve mentioned before, Psalm 92 is an important psalm for our family. We read it every Saturday morning during our breakfast together (usually pancakes) and it sets our minds and hearts towards the sabbath day that is to follow. Psalm 92 is also the only psalm to be designated specifically as a psalm for the sabbath day.

So we’ve read this psalm hundreds of times now, but I’m amazed how new things still jump out at us. Today, for instance:

Struck by how much parallelism exists in Psalm 92. Almost every psalm has at least one example of the psalmist pairing up themes or ideas, “rhyming” those themes with repeated motifs or images. For example, “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High” (92:1) or “For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy” (92:4).

In Psalm 92, almost every single verse has this kind of classic parallelism. It drives the point home, but I think in ancient worship it also helped to set up the real kicker(s) of the psalms: that is, to make the verses without parallelism really stand out.

And in the case of Psalm 92, I think it’s these two verses:

“You, LORD, are forever on high” (verse 9)

and

“The LORD is just; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him” (verse 15, final verse)

These verses, then, are kind of like the “exclamation marks” of the entire psalm. They stand out from the rest of the text by virtue of their singularity, their “un-rhymed-ness.”

And these were good concepts to meditate on this morning at the start of another sabbath day: God alone reigns (past, present, and future) and his reign has been, is, and always will be about perfect justice and righteousness. Whew.

 

Of pancakes and Psalms

Yesterday (Saturday) was our day for sabbath. For us, Saturdays have made sense not only because of the biblical precedent but also for practical reasons: after all, Sundays are busy days for pastors and their families, and often feel like just another work day than a day of rest. If there’s any day when we can unplug a bit, Saturday’s it.

Our re-awakening to the importance of sabbath occurred about 8 or 9 years ago, shortly after we were married. A dear friend had recommended we read Mark Buchanan’s The Rest of God, so we did, and it deeply affected us: sabbath as a commandment, yes, but also sabbath as a gift. Why wouldn’t we want this in our lives?

And so we made the intentional decision early in our marriage to start setting aside Saturdays for whatever the Lord would have us do on that day. At the time, I was still a student and my wife Courtney was working as a teacher, so we agreed not to do any school work or textbook reading or grading on Saturday. It was a sacrifice. But once we started it and made it through the bumpy first few weeks (which almost always accompanies any new discipline, and is to be expected when incorporating healthy habits into life), we knew there was no going back. The benefits were extraordinary and almost immediate.

We’ve been through seasons with our sabbath observance. For a time it looked more like study hall: Courtney and I would drag out some of our religious books and spend hours reading and comparing notes and drawing parallels over hot tea and Nick Drake tunes. Other times, it involved just keeping our schedules open so we could be free to do something with family or friends on a whim should the opportunity arise. (And those opportunities did arise more times than I can count.) Now with two young kids, our sabbath is more about staying offline as much as we can manage; we really try to avoid checking email and Facebook so that we can be particularly present for our boys. We want them to know work can wait.

Through it all, though, two constants have remained: pancakes and Psalm 92.

I wrote that sentence expecting a better epiphany would follow, but now I really don’t know how else to elaborate other than the obvious: we always cook pancakes for breakfast, and before we eat said pancakes we read Psalm 92, the only psalm specifically designated as “for the sabbath.”

“It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord…”

This sets us on the right path for a day of rest. Moreover, it seems this psalm is always releasing new truths to us, as biblical passages will often do on the hundredth-or-so reading of them.

Yesterday was no exception. We cooked our pancakes (A’s current preference: a pancake shaped like an owl, complete with some silver dollars for “owl eggs”) and sat around the table together. As we read Psalm 92, the word “just” popped out at me in a way I’d never noticed before:

92:13 — The just shall flourish like the palm tree

92:16 — The Lord is just

The Christian’s goal is to be just so that we may flourish, but we also recognize that the Lord alone is truly just. We emulate Him as we follow Him; we are to copy what we see our Father doing. He is just, and part of His justice is a desire to see us flourish. Wow.

After pancakes we drove down to St. Augustine and spent some time (and money) there. Then did a library run. Then helped out a new friend who needed some help with pet-sitting. Then went out to dinner. Plenty of time throughout the day, too, for reading with the boys and playing some music and making up silly games. I don’t think we ever turned the TV on, which was nice. Yesterday was fun and refreshing, which was exactly what we needed after a long, weird week (which included a hurricane warning, plus all the time and energy spent prepping for that).

There is so much more to say about sabbath, but this post is long enough and there will be other opportunities for unpacking more about it. What I hope emerges over these future posts, though, is the relative fluidity of sabbath observance (at least for our family). Resting with God and with one another can take many forms.

For us, sabbath isn’t so much about creating an ever-growing list of “do’s” and “do nots” for any given Saturday, but rather cultivating a mindset of asking, “What feels like work?” and then making the conscious effort to avoid those things… for at least one day.

Friday night lights

It’s Friday night, which means we all gathered at the table and watched Courtney light the sabbath candles (the original Friday night lights!) prior to dinner. Then we all sang a version of “Shabbat Shalom” together. (Our boys love clapping along; it’s a catchy number, and it’s not uncommon for them to request this song regardless of what day of the week it is.) Then comes the best part– we eat! Together!

Courtney and I have always placed a high premium on eating dinner together as a family around the table, but we’re also pretty flexible… last night, for example, we all had an indoor picnic in our TV room and watched old episodes of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse while we sat on a giant blanket on the floor and ate burgers together. A. was thrilled, and Courtney and I enjoyed the change of pace, too. We were together, and that’s really the checkmark we were looking for.

But Friday nights are different. It’s a time to come to the table and shut off the noise and junk and burdens of the week. A time to listen to Courtney/Mama pray for us and speak words of thanksgiving and blessing over her 3 boys. A time to eat and chat and ask questions and listen and laugh and, best of all, linger.

We’ve found we have to be intentional about resting and relaxing. It can feel counterintuitive to approach sabbath as something you have to work at, but we’ve found you do have to work at resting because it’s not going to happen on its own. It can be hard work to shut off your brain from all the demands that keep echoing and clamoring for one more moment of your attention. It can be hard work to orient ourselves towards taking a day off. It can be really hard work. But it’s good work.

Zechariah talks about the primacy of “guiding our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79) and in a way, this is what Friday nights are about: we work at pointing our feet in the direction of sabbath peace and rest, so that we’ll start walking in that direction once the sun comes up.

Tonight’s sabbath meal concluded with A. putting on a quasi-dinner theater performance for us, with some inspired renditions of such classics as “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and the theme song from Gilligan’s Island. As he sang/shouted “Here on Gilligan’s I-i-i-isle!!” and then took a bow (or five), it finally sunk in that this week’s sabbath had arrived.

As much pressure as I place on myself to always be teaching my kids something about God, I know they’ve got me beat when it comes to sabbath. Sabbath is when I sit back and learn from them, because they are the masters of reveling in rest. They’ve got this thing figured out. Praise the Lord.