Ps. 92 (Intro: Sabbath-psalm)

Before we move into the psalm itself I want to offer some preliminary remarks that will set the state, so to speak, for the entire psalm. They are largely ‘structural’ observations, but they carry with them a profound depth and puts this psalm within a very pregnant context for us. As an overarching observation, the psalm is designated as a Sabbath psalm. As such, it is a psalm to be recited on the seventh day, the day not of creation’s completion but of Yhwh’s ‘rest’. The Sabbath observations: on the Sabbath there is no night, but a type of perpetual day. It is a time when that primordial light of the ‘first day’ becomes perpetual and permanent. This leads to another—the ‘rest of Yhwh’ is to understood as the ‘rest of the god’ as he comes into his completed Temple/Home. In the ancient world, after the construction of a god’s temple, the god would then ‘come to his rest’ and inhabit the Temple. That was when his, or her, glory would come to ‘abide’ in the Temple. In Genesis, the Sabbath comes to represent the time when Yhwh comes to his ‘rest’ in the Temple that is Creation (and, a Temple that he has constructed; not a Temple that man has made for him). This insight, along with the fact that there is no ‘darkness’ on the Sabbath, creates a very rich image—the indwelling presence of Yhwh, within the Temple-that-is-Creation, dispels, without remainder, the darkness (of chaos). We should, of course, hear in the back of our minds, the opening of the Gospel of John with the ‘light’ that came into the world, that the darkness could not overcome—the gospel of John is recounting the ‘coming Sabbath’, and inhabiting of God fully into the Temple of his creation (ultimately, on the Cross and Resurrection). A third observation—the Sabbath falls on the seventh day, the number of perfection and the number of the covenant (to ‘seven-one-self’ is to ‘cut a covenant’). The Sabbath, then, represents a day—a time—of completion and perfection. As such, it is forward looking. It points to a time of completion, a time of utter light and presence. But, it is also present. As such, the Sabbath is an ‘already-but-not-yet’ type of sacrament of the final, and completed, reign of God, of ‘heaven on earth’. Finally, the Sabbath is not simply about Yhwh inhabiting his Temple—it is about his inhabiting it with (or, through) his ‘image on earth’, his ‘king on earth’, his ‘son’, his Adam. Adam becomes the ‘idol’ in the Temple, the ‘image of Yhwh’. As such, the final, Sabbath, dispelling of darkness is not one that takes place solely at the hands of Yhwh, but also through this ‘image’ of his. Now, with these preliminary remarks we can point out the following—in this psalm Yhwh is mentioned seven times; there are seven units in the psalm (1-4, 5-7, 8, 9, 10, 11-12, 13-16); it is the seventh of the Sabbath psalms (24, 48, 42, 94, 81, 93, 92). And, lastly, the psalm concludes in the Temple, after Yhwh’s Adam (his king), has dispelled the ‘darkness’ of Yhwh’s enemies, establishing the ‘shalom’ (the peace, the ‘rest’) of Yhwh. And, one final (final) note—I do not think it a coincidence that the psalm begins with “It is good…” echoing Yhwh’s words at the end of the ‘days’ of creation. So, what we see here is this—this psalm is a participation-liturgy to, an already-but-not-yet praising of, the Sabbath of God and his people.