PSALM 92 - A Life That Sings

Introduction

One of the many great kindnesses of God to our church family is in the way He is growing us in our singing together in worship. This is all the more remarkable, since a congregation full of farmers, factory workers and truck drivers isn’t typically the kind of group you’d expect to be very enthusiastic singers.

But we can’t get away from the fact that our faith calls us to be singers in our worship, doesn’t it? It’s right here in the opening verses of our psalm for today:

Psalm 92:1 LSB

It is good to give thanks to Yahweh And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

We don’t sing in our gathered worship services because we simply think it’s a good idea, or it’s traditional to sing hymns in church—we are summoned by God Himself to sing praise to Him. It is a good thing to praise God with songs.

The subheading of this psalm is that it is “A song for the Sabbath day”—the seventh day of the week, the day that God set aside for His people to rest in Him and worship Him. The Sabbath Day was patterned after the seventh day of the Creation Week when God rested from all His work. Our day for rest and worship is the first day of the week, when Jesus Christ began His work of the New Creation with His resurrection.

So this psalm is one of the reasons that we sing when we gather together to worship on Sunday. But I want us to consider not just how this psalm calls us to worship on Sunday mornings; I want us to find here in these verses a call to sing our song of gratitude and joy in God with our life itself.

Because people can gain all kinds of proficiency in singing sacred music—learning more technically-challenging music, learning to sing in parts, learning more complex arrangements—and still be real jerks! There are a lot of really big, really impressive churches out there that have these amazing orchestral and congregational renditions of some of the most beautiful psalms, hymns and spiritual songs of the Christian faith—but are full of people who will curtly inform you that you are sitting in “their” pew, and would you please move! Their worship is beautiful and proficient, but the church itself is absolutely dead and lifeless.

So I want to submit to you that real, vibrant, God-honoring singing in worship will always flow out of a life that is itself filled with real, vibrant, God-honoring praise. What comes out of your mouth in praise here on Sunday morning is going to be governed by what has been coming out of your mouth (and your life) all week long.

So here is the aim of this sermon this morning—genuine, God-honoring songs of praise will flow from you when you

Make your entire life a SONG to the WORTHINESS of God

We can think of a song in terms of three different elements—a song has rhythm, it has a melody, and it has lyrics. So let’s use those three elements as our guide to considering the pattern of a life that is a song to our God Who is worthy to be praised.

In the first four verses we can identify the rhythm of the song of our life—it has

I. A rhythm of JOYFUL GRATITUDE (Psalm 92:1-4)

Psalm 92:2–4 LSB

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 Yahweh, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

There it is—the regular rhythm of every morning declaring God’s lovingkindness, and every evening declaring His faithfulness. Every sunrise, every sunset, every day your life is marked by the regular rhythm of

Praise that FILLS your DAYS

The word “lovingkindness” is a familiar one to regular readers of the Old Testament—it is the Hebrew word hesed, meaning the steadfast, faithful, loyal covenant love that YHWH has for His children. It was a word that was actually created by the translators of the King James Version in an attempt to capture the sense of the word for an English-speaking readership. Not only the love of God, and not only the kindness of God, but both together.

God's love for you causes Him to show His kindness to you; His kindness is not a disinterested, passing touch of affection (like the kindness of paying for a stranger’s groceries at the supermarket)—it is a kindness that is borne of His never-failing love for you in Christ! Surely you can start your day with a reason to praise Him for His kindnesses to you? Surely you can find reason to offer Him praise at the end of the day for the way He has shown you His faithfulness, how He has kept and guided and provided and strengthened and cherished you? Begin building that rhythm of praise into your life day by day, “[declaring His] lovingkindness in the morning And [His] faithfulness by night”.

That rhythm of joyful gratitude fills your days with praise—and eventually gives way to

Praise that COMES out your FINGERTIPS (vv. 3-4; cp. Col. 3:17)

Look with me at verses 3-4:

Psalm 92:3–4 LSB

With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, With resounding music upon the lyre. For You, O Yahweh, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

There are some churches and some denominations that say there should be no musical accompaniment for singing in worship—but Psalm 92:3 is one of the verses that help us understand that it is appropriate to use musical instruments in our worship.

And I want to suggest that this verse shows us that the praise of God is worth working hard to produce. You don’t just pick up an instrument and immediately start making music, do you? Our Peals of Praise bell choir can tell you that it takes practice to make music, right? Our accompanists that have served here at Bethel—Pat and Cheryl and Laura Lynn and Kim and Taryn have all spent decades playing and practicing in order to provide music for our worship, and we are grateful for all of them.

In the same way, a life governed by the rhythm of joyful gratitude will find that gratitude and praise working itself out in everything you do—the works of your hands will reflect your joy in God, the excellence with which you carry out your vocation will testify to your gratitude for His lovingkindness:

Colossians 3:17 LSB

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Establish the rhythm of joyful gratitude in the song of your life—and then build on to that rhythm

II. A melody of CONFIDENT TRUST (Psalm 92:5-9)

Look with me at verses 5-7:

Psalm 92:5–7 LSB

How great are Your works, O Yahweh! Your thoughts are very deep. A senseless man does not know, And a fool does not understand this: That when the wicked flourished like grass And all the workers of iniquity blossomed, It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.

Now, you can sing a song in a major key or a minor key—a major key sounds naturally happy or positive or upbeat, but a minor key sounds sad or apprehensive. These verses would indicate that the melody of your life’s song to God should be in a major key—rejoicing in the amazing works of God in your world and in your life, and not afraid of the schemes of the wicked—they are no more permanent than the grass of the field or blossoms on a tree. The happy melody of your life shows that

You are not INTIMIDATED by a HAYFIELD

The melody of your life doesn’t get dragged down by the schemes of those who hate God; watching the evening news with its litany of crimes, lies, betrayals and wicked plots doesn’t destroy your peace in God. Because you know that all of those plots and schemes and betrayals and maneuverings and accusations and threats—all of those “workers of iniquity” are going to simply wither and die. None of those schemes or plots will bear the fruit they intend; God allows them to sprout up just so they might be destroyed.

And moreover, you don’t let a hayfield of doomed weeds ruin your rest in God! When you are slandered or attacked or betrayed or cheated you don’t respond with a thin-skinned attack of your own. You are able to take the ungodliness of your adversaries in stride, because you know that they are just grass for His sickle. There is no point in getting all stirred up over a hayfield full of God’s enemies.

In fact, look at verse 8-9 and you will see another element of your confident trust in God—

You do not OWN your ENEMIES (cp. Jn. 15:18-19)

Look at the way the psalmist sings about the hayfield of the wicked:

Psalm 92:8–9 LSB

But You are on high forever, O Yahweh. For, behold, Your enemies, O Yahweh, For, behold, Your enemies will perish; All the workers of iniquity will be scattered.

Those adversaries that hate you, the senseless and foolish who do not regard God at all, who spend their time ignoring Him and instead are churning out hatred for Him and His people—the melody of your confident trust in God is not soured by their opposition. Because you recognize that they are His enemies first; they only hate you because you remind them of Him!

This is the same thing Jesus said to His disciples on the night He was betrayed:

John 15:18–19 LSB

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

The melody of your life is sung in a major key, Christian, because you have confident trust in the authority and power of the Living God:

Psalm 27:1 LSB

Yahweh is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strong defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?

Christian, make your entire life a song to the worthiness of God—let the rhythm of that song be the morning and evening praise of His lovingkindness and faithfulness. Let the melody of your life be the major key of confident trust in His supremacy in all things.

And to that rhythm and melody, add

III. A lyric of FLOURISHING LEGACY (Psalm 92:10-15)

Every good song needs great lyrics—and for the song of your life, make the lyrics tell of God’s great and abiding faithfulness toward you. Verses 10-11 of Psalm 92 tell us of God’s great faithfulness to the psalmist:

Psalm 92:10–11 LSB

But You have raised up 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.

The psalmist can sing to those who are coming after him that

You have ALWAYS found Him FAITHFUL (vv. 10-11)

He sings to YHWH that He has “raised up his horn like that of the wild ox”—the Hebrew metaphor of “raising up the horn” means to grant someone power and victory, to vindicate them and show that they have God’s favor.

Christian, this is how the lyric of your life’s song to God’s worthiness must be written—tell of how faithful He has been, tell the stories of how He came through for you, how He brought you through trials and opposition, how He not only rescued you from adversaries and enemies around you, but how He delivered you from the penalty and power of your sin through faith in Christ; how through the New Birth He crushed the power of sin over you and freed you to live in obedience to Him and not to your flesh.

Even when the trials and heartaches and disappointments seemed that they would overwhelm you and you sang so many verses of your life in the minor key of grief or sorrow or pain, tell of how that bitter refrain always resolved to a major key of deliverance and restoration, and how He renewed your strength and “anointed you with fresh oil”—restoring your joy in Him and showing Himself faithful over and over again.

Fill the lyric of the song of your life with the assurance that you have always found Him faithful, and sing in such a way that

You will FINISH your race WELL (vv. 12-14)

Back in verse 7, the psalmist portrayed the wicked as nothing more than a hayfield; easily cut down, blown away and withered. Nothing endures of the wicked or their schemes, but

Psalm 92:12 LSB

The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

The legacy of the wicked is to be withered, blown away and forgotten—but for those who seek the wisdom of God and His righteousness, they will be established like a strong, flourishing tree. Note that both of these trees that are named here have connections to the Temple in Jerusalem—Solomon’s Temple was decorated with palm tree motifs, and most of the wooden beams and supports of the Temple came from the cedar trees of Lebanon. The psalmist says that the righteous man will flourish and grow

Psalm 92:13 LSB

Planted in the house of Yahweh, They will flourish in the courts of our God.

The righteous man will be planted there in God’s house; he will be a strong and majestic presence among God’s people, and he will be a blessing to those who come after him:

Psalm 92:14 LSB

They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be rich and fresh,

Look here and see the end result of a life that is a song to the worthiness of God—not “mean and small, fruit shriveled on the vine”, but fruit that grows “lush and sweet, a joy to all who taste, Spirit-sign of God at work, stronger, fuller, brighter at the end...” (Robertson McQuilken, “Let Me Get Home Before Dark”, 1981, https://mcquilkinlibrary.com/sermons/homebeforedark/, accessed 6/6/2025)

And what is that fruit that you bear for the next generation of God’s people, that “rich and fresh” blessing that you leave for those who come after you? The psalmist tells us in the last verse of the psalm:

Psalm 92:15 LSB

To declare that Yahweh is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Beloved, that gift of your testimony that the LORD is upright—that clear and sure declaration that He can be trusted!—that is a massive gift to those who come after you in the faith! When the lyric of the song of your life has consistently been one of rejoicing in His faithfulness—even when your life plays in the minor key of tragedy and loss, even when you have suffered from the attacks of those who hate you because they hate Him, even when it seemed like He had forgotten you or turned on you—when the grand Final Verse of your life is sung, it will be a song of testimony that YHWH has always been your rock and righteous fortress! He has never failed you, He has never abandoned you, and that everyone who puts their trust in Him will never be disappointed!

This is the song that we are called to sing with our lives—with the rhythm of joyful gratitude for His lovingkindness and faithfulness, with the melody of confident trust in Him no matter how much the evil of this world seems to grow like weeds; with the lyric of a flourishing legacy under God’s steadfast faithfulness and goodness.

What does God’s Word reveal in you this morning? What kind of song are you singing with your life? Because the truth is that all of us are singing some kind of song with our lives—the choice is not whether we sing or not, the choice is between singing a Godward song or a self-centered song. You will either sing well with your life or sing badly; one way or another, you will sing.

Since today is Father’s Day, it is appropriate to apply this psalm in that context. Dads—what kind of song are you singing in front of your wife and kids? Is the rhythm of your life governed by a cycle of daily gratitude for what God has done for you and your family—His lovingkindness and faithfulness—or is your day governed by the pressures of the work day and the grind of your job? Do you get up in the morning rejoicing in God’s covenant faithfulness for you and your family, or grumbling at the prospect of another day in the salt mines? Do you come home at night with a fresh testimony of God’s faithfulness to you at work (and moms, do you greet him with that testimony?) or do you come home to unload your gripes and complaints about the day?

Is the melody of your life written in the minor key of anxiety and fear about the course of your life? Does your family see your thin-skinned reactions to people at work that set themselves up as your competitors or adversaries? Do you come home whining about how unfairly your boss treats you because of your faith, or do you sing in the full-throated major key of the victory of God over His enemies? Are you confident before your family about the way God is working in your life and in the state of the world around you?

What is the message of the lyrics of your song? What do your kids learn from you about the way the world works? That God is only worth considering when you are in a fix and need help, but otherwise you need to make your own way and look out for yourself? That people can’t be trusted and you have to do what you need to do in order to get ahead? Do they see you stealing lyrics from Frank Sinatra, telling them “I did it MY WAY”?

Or do your children and grandchildren hear one overriding refrain from you—that the older you get, the more you’ve experienced, the longer you’ve lived, you’ve found one thing to be true—that GOD IS YOUR ROCK! That there is nothing you cannot trust Him with; that He has never failed you, He has never steered you wrong, you have never been ashamed when you put yourself into His hands. That is a lyric that will nourish them long after you have finished your race—the fruit borne from a life that sings of the worthiness of God.

But perhaps you come from a home where the only song you ever heard was written in the minor key of abdication or abandonment; there is no rhythm of gratitude in your life for God’s faithfulness but only disappointment and resentment towards God and everyone else. Perhaps the only song you know how to sing with your life is filled with lyrics of pain and regret and disappointment and loss.

If that is you, then God’s Word invites you to trade that song of pain and regret and sin and shame for a new song—as David writes in Psalm 40—

Psalm 40:1–3 LSB

I hoped earnestly for Yahweh; And He inclined to me and heard my cry for help. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a high rock, He established my steps. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God...

When you cry to Him for help—when you turn from your rebellion against Him and acknowledge your sin and shame, when you take that load of guilt and brokenness of your past and confess it all to Him, He will bring you up out of the pit of destruction, He will rescue you from the swamp of your regret, He will set your feet firmly on His covenant promises to forgive you and cleanse you and establish you as His precious child. All of this was purchased for you by Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, Whose life echoed with the rhythm of gratitude to His Heavenly Father for His perfect lovingkindness and faithfulness, Who suffered and died at the hands of wicked men for sins He did not commit, and Who then triumphed over those workers of iniquity three days later in His resurrection—a testimony of the Father’s faithfulness, raising Him up and anointing Him as Messiah and Savior.

When you come to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, the song you sing with your life will be the song of His never-ending lovingkindness to you, resolving all of the minor chords of pain and regret and despair into a beautiful new melody of His constant delight in you and the bottomless ocean of His grace and mercy. You can have all of this—right now, right here, today and forever—when you come (and welcome!) to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 LSB

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

Why is singing such an important part of Christian worship? How does this psalm encourage you to participate more fully in corporate worship, particularly when it comes to the songs that we sing?

How can you actively incorporate a rhythm of joyful gratitude into your daily life? What is one specific way you can express praise to God during both morning and evening?

Does your life reflect confidence in the way God is governing this world? How does knowing that “the wicked flourish like grass” (v. 7) enable you to remain confident in God when the darkness of this world threatens to overwhelm you?

In what ways does the testimony of your life demonstrate that “YHWH is upright, that He is your rock, and that there is no unrighteousness in Him?” Pray that God will establish your legacy in Him for the sake of future generations!