(A Psalm, a Song, for the Sabbath day.) It is good to give thanks unto Jehovah, and to sing psalms unto thy name, O Most High;
This psalm is headed for the sabbath day, and it opens with a verdict rather than a request: giving thanks and singing are good. Commentators take up two questions here: whose rest the song celebrates, and what makes praise good.
One writer reads the heading as pointing to God's own rest, and notes what comes before it:
This is "A psalm, a song, for the sabbath day." Here the psalm looks ahead to the true Sabbath, the rest of God, when man's restless toil is over. How well this song will suit that day needs no comment here. Blessing on earth follows judgment. That is the Old Testament order. The psalms that follow, up to Psalm 100, hang on this title.
Its place in the sequence sets the tone:
We have looked at the prayer in Psalm 90 and seen the full answer to it in 91. So we are ready for the outflow of praise in 92, "A Psalm, or song, for the sabbath day." That is its title. And it will suit the faithful remnant of the future well, when they enter that rest God has foretold to them.
The two names in the verse are not chosen at random:
"Jehovah, the Most High" are titles that connect this psalm with the last. We know the second of them as God's name for the coming age of His reign, when He will be plainly supreme over all the earth. That time is now in view, and in the next psalm comes: Jehovah reigns, and the earth is subject to Him. Here the soul already celebrates Him under that name, and sees how "good" (or "right") it is to celebrate Him.
That title has a history reaching back to Abraham, and a future attached to it:
Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, met Abram as he came back from defeating the kings. He blessed him in the name of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth (Gen. 14:18-20)… The prophetic Spirit in the psalmist uses the same title in songs about the reign of Jehovah in the coming age (Ps. 91:1, 9; Ps. 92:1).
Praise does two things at once, and the second matters more than the first:
Every believer can gladly echo verse 1… Not only does such praise gladden the heart of the believer, but much more importantly, it glorifies God.
Singing is also a form of exercise, and the one who sings gains from it:
Singing enlarges the heart and the mind, and leads to a more practical knowledge of truth. Exercise develops and strengthens a person's mental and physical powers, and it is the same with the faculties and emotions of the believer's spiritual nature… The psalmist says it is good to give thanks to the LORD and to sing praises to His name (Ps. 92:1). It is no less good to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The praise here is real, but one writer marks a limit to it:
This is not the full outburst of praise found later in the psalms, which flows from the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus… Our psalm does not speak of the redemption Christ Jesus would bring. But it does draw the heart to the Person who would bring it, and He is certainly worthy of our praise.
Yet the song is not premature. Rest and singing follow provision, as they did in the wilderness:
As the poor man in Israel might bring his grain offering for atonement, though "the blood that makes atonement" was not found in it (Lev. 5:11-13), so we are permitted already to rejoice in the fruit of what has not yet become our possession… Meanwhile God's delight is in His Son; and as the Sabbath followed the manna in the wilderness (Ex. 16), so now already we have here a song. He is worthy, although the fullness of His glory has not yet been seen.
If thanks is good, it should be regular rather than occasional:
"It is good to give thanks to the LORD" (Ps. 92:1). One mark of professing Christians in our day is ungratefulness (2 Tim. 3:2). Giving thanks should mark a believer instead (Eph. 5:4; Col. 2:7)… There is much to be said for habits that please the Lord and follow a scriptural pattern. We can begin each day with thanksgiving and end it the same way… and make thanksgiving our first reaction to every difficulty as well.
- Good means right. The word for "good" also means "right." Praise is not just pleasant. It is the right response to God.
- Good because of rest. The title sets the song on the sabbath day, and commentators tie it to the rest of God, when human toil is over.
- Good because of the Name. "Most High" is God's name as supreme over all the earth. It links this psalm to Melchizedek's blessing and to the reign in the psalm that follows.
- Good but not yet full. The praise here is real, yet one writer notes it falls short of the fuller praise that follows the sacrifice of Christ. It still draws the heart to the Person who would bring that redemption.
- Good every day. What the psalm calls good is meant to become a habit: morning and evening, and as our first reaction to difficulty.
To declare thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness in the nights,
This psalm is headed a song for the Sabbath, and verse 2 sets the pattern for that song: praise opens the day and praise closes it. Why is loving-kindness named for the morning and faithfulness for the night?
Verse 1 addresses God as "Most High," and the psalm opens with His covenant name, Jehovah — printed as "the LORD" in most English Bibles. One commentator ties these two titles to the psalms on either side. He then reads the morning-and-night rhythm as a statement about God's constancy:
"Jehovah, the Most High," are titles that connect this psalm with the last one. We know that second title as God's millennial name — the name for the day when everyone will see Him supreme over all the earth. That time is now in view. In the next psalm comes: Jehovah reigns, and the earth is subject. Here already the soul celebrates Him in this way. It sees how "good" (or "right") it is to celebrate Him: His loving-kindness in the morning, His faithfulness in the nights. In opposite circumstances He is the same still; in darkness as in light His love works and declares itself.
Each quality fits its hour. Morning looks back on a night God brought us through. Evening looks back on a day in which He never failed us.
At the beginning of the day — the morning — how fitting it is that we declare His loving-kindness! It has been plain to see in keeping us safe through the night. Then at the end of the day we may well reflect on His faithfulness, which has been unfailing.
Loving-kindness and faithfulness are not two names for the same thing. Where the ESV says "steadfast love," the writers quoted here say "loving-kindness" or "mercy." One commentator keeps mercy and faithfulness apart. Faithfulness, he says, takes a people through trouble, not around it:
Realizing that God's loving-kindness endures forever, Israel knew that in the end the nation would come into blessing. At the same time God's faithfulness lasts as long as His mercy. So it follows that mercy brings them into final blessing, while faithfulness must pass them through the great tribulation on the way there. God shows mercy because of man's need and His own love: God acts in faithfulness because of man's sin and His own holiness.
The heading over the psalm points forward. Commentators read the whole song as the gladness of a rest that has not yet come:
The 92nd Psalm sets out the results of Christ having come into the circumstances of mortal man. The heading describes the psalm as "A Song for the Sabbath day." In keeping with that heading, the psalm looks ahead to the gladness of the future day that the Sabbath pictures.
Another writer compares that coming rest with the first Sabbath of creation. The difference lies in what there will be to celebrate:
In this coming Sabbath, God's thoughts will be celebrated as well as His works. This will give the joy and praise of the final Sabbath a higher character than the first had, when the works alone were celebrated. For counsels of grace, which are God's deep thoughts, have produced this.
The verse is also a plain pattern for living. God's mercies arrive new every morning, so our praise should be new too. Even the day's troubles give us reason to end it in thanks:
His mercies are new to us every morning and our praise should be new as well. And if we begin our day with praise and thanksgiving and faith and hope, we must end it with thanks and praise. Its needs and ups and downs only bring out the trustworthiness and the resources of our God. Extend the day to the year. We did not know what would happen to us in the morning of the year, but we began it right — we began it with praise and thanksgiving. We have now reached its evening. Has God given us any reason to murmur or complain?
- Morning — daybreak calls for praise of His loving-kindness. The night just passed proved it.
- Night — the day's end calls for faithfulness, because the hours behind you tested it and it held.
- Both — mercy meets our need out of His love; faithfulness answers our sin out of His holiness. One brings the blessing, the other carries us through to it.
- Always — in darkness as in light He is the same, and His love still works and makes itself known.
- Onward — this daily song points to a rest still coming. Then God's deep thoughts, not only His works, will be the theme of praise.