Heaven on My Mind
Tomorrow’s sermon is pretty much straight down the middle of my goal in life. I want to see (and show others) the glory of Jesus in the Bible, and to live (and help others live) like he’s real. Psalm 92 is a glorious invitation.
But it also has some depth to it that I’m not able to mine during the sermon, so here’s a swing at that now. It has to do with the superscript, the capitalized words above the first verse:
A PSALM. A SONG FOR THE SABBATH.
Now that seems a little funny, doesn’t it? Isn’t this true of every psalm?
Every psalm is a, well, psalm — and all of them were used for worship on the Sabbath. So how is Psalm 92 special? What is this superscript saying?
What’s unique about Psalm 92 is that the Sabbath referred to here is not talking about the weekly Sabbath, but this is about the final Sabbath that’s realized in the end-time new-creation.
I think “Sabbath” here is referring to heaven, and here are three reasons why:
1) Heaven has already come into view in Psalm 90:13–17.
Psalm 90, the beginning of Book IV, is a Mosaic reality-check on life under the curse. And it’s resolution is the hope of heaven, because that’s the only thing that makes our endurance worth it. Eternal morning is coming and it’s that future joy that reaches back into our present lives now. That’s what hope does. Psalm 90 puts heaven on our minds.
2) Psalm 91 envisions the Messiah’s victory over his enemies.
We saw last week that Psalm 91 is about the Messiah, and overtly so. Jesus knew this, and Satan did too (which is why he quoted it as applying to Jesus!). The Gospel writers also understood this, and my favorite Psalm-91 breadcrumb is in Mark 1. We don’t read the details of Satan’s temptation in Mark’s account, but he tells us this:
And [Jesus] was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him. (1:13)
Wild animals with Jesus and angels helping him out — is that strange? No, not when we remember Psalm 91:11–13,
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
Jesus is the death-defeating victor of Psalm 91. That’s the message of the final verse, verse 16:
With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.
That’s “long life” as in eternal life, as in resurrected life, as in Jesus is going to be raised from the dead in triumph.
And Psalm 92 is the song of praise in response to that victory. So we’re thinking post-victory celebration. Psalm 92 is the song to sing when it’s all said and done.
3) The writer of Hebrews reads Psalm 95 to refer to heaven.
The writer of Hebrews quotes the Psalms more than any other Old Testament book, and his most extended exposition is in Chapters 3–4. It’s a dense argument, but suffice it to say that he reads Psalm 95 to talk about heaven. He comments on the “rest” mentioned in Psalm 95,
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God …
“Another day” … “there remains a Sabbath rest” — he’s not merely talking about the rest we experience now by faith, but the final rest, when our faith is sight. He’s thinking about heaven when he reads Psalm 95, and that’s because he’s got heaven on his mind in this section of the Psalms — a section known as the theocratic psalms (93-100), because they repeat the refrain “Yahweh reigns!”
I trust the writer of Hebrews. He’s onto something here.
Ultimately, I agree with Christopher Ash’s comment: “[Psalm 92] celebrates the unending day of that final Sabbath rest” (The Psalms, 561).
This is a song we’ll be singing in heaven.
