In the sermon titled 'The Time for Praise & Thanksgiving,' Peter Allison expounds on Psalm 92, emphasizing its role as a psalm and song for the Sabbath day, highlighting the importance of giving thanks and praise to God both in the morning and evening. Allison reflects on the historical context where churches practiced morning and evening worship, lamenting the decline of this tradition. He stresses the significance of God's names, attributes, and works as the foundation for gratitude, illustrating this with examples like God's loving-kindness, faithfulness, and His works of creation and redemption. The sermon further explores the necessity of singing in worship, noting its frequent biblical pairing with thanksgiving. Allison encourages believers to cultivate gratitude, which can transform their prayer life and spiritual growth, leading to flourishing and fruitfulness in their faith. The sermon ultimately calls for worship in faith and anticipation of God's final victory, celebrating His ongoing work in creation, providence, and redemption.

Psalm 92. Hear God's word. A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day. It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name almost high, to declare your loving kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night. On an instrument of ten strings, on the loop and on the harp, with harmonious sound.

For you, Lord, have made me glad through your work. I will triumph in the works of your hands. O Lord, how great are your works! Your thoughts are very deep. A senseless man does not know, nor does a fool understand this.

When the wicked spring up like grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed forever. But you Lord are on high forevermore. For behold your enemies O Lord, for behold your enemies shall perish and all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But My horn you have exalted like a wild ox. I have been anointed with fresh oil.

My eye has seen my desire on my enemies. My ears hear my desire on the wicked who rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.

They shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Praise the Lord. Almighty Heavenly Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for your Holy Spirit that brings the illumination that teaches us. We ask that you would do so this morning. I also ask that you would sanctify these sinful lips that they may proclaim the wonders of your glory, the riches of your grace. In Christ's name, amen. Well, the Jews had a psalm for every day of the week.

Separate psalm according to the according to their writings. And this was the psalm for the seventh day, the Sabbath day. Psalm 24 was the Psalm for the first day and so forth. Each day had a Psalm. This was the Psalm for the Sabbath day.

It's a psalm and it's also a song for the Sabbath day that's right in the psalm itself. And so this is something then that is especially written to be sung, because that's what it is, it's a song, and songs if we're singing, it's a song to be sung on the Lord's Day, on the day that we gather together for corporate worship That is the that is the occasion of this giving of thanks, But there's actually more detail on this occasion. It's a song for the Lord's Day, but it's also something that is done in the morning and in the evening. It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your loving-kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night." This is one example, one place in scripture where we see, or from which is derived, the practice of Christians over the centuries, over the millennia, of worship, private worship, in the morning and in the evening. It's also been the practice of the Church of Jesus Christ to, on the Lord's Day, meet for worship in the morning and in the evening.

That was the practice of most churches. And I remember in my years growing up that was the practice of our church. Almost all of the time, all the churches that I was in, had a morning worship and an evening worship. The praise of God opened the Lord's Day and closed the Lord's Day. I pray that we may one day get to that point where we are able to do that.

It seems to be something that is falling away, that many churches have lost that practice and there are real difficulties we we live far away It's very difficult to drive an hour in the morning and and drive an hour home and then drive an hour back That's Very difficult if not impossible to do on a weekend and week out basis but we ought to but we ought to Not Give up that goal That we as God's people would be able morning and evening together to gather together to worship him That speaks of a church that is In the community that we live that speaks of the prospering of the church such that in every community where we live there is a place where God's people assemble. Do you realize Who has that goal today? Think about it. To drive around, what is in every community? Almost in walking distance of every house, in every major city, in every little city?

Government school Don't they have an elementary school in every community you can almost walk to them even where we live you could almost walk to it There's a There is an elementary school. We live in sort of in the country. There's an elementary school within two miles of our house. You could walk that in a reasonable time. They in a reasonable time.

They realize that goal. And that's the way it used to be with churches in most countries, where the gospel has gone, where Christ's kingdom has triumphed over that culture, as it did in our land. The very first building that was built in many communities was the church building, the meeting place, where God's people could gather together. And they were close enough that they could do it in the morning and in the evening, and declare his faithfulness and his loving kindness. Throughout the Dakotas, which is probably one of the most remote states, maybe Wyoming is similar, a couple other states, 75 years ago there were churches in every little community, places where God's people gathered corporately for worship.

And The story of the last two generations has been the consolidation of those churches. That where there were seven churches, 75 years ago, I know of places where there were churches, five and ten churches that have all disappeared and all consolidated into one church that everybody now drives 30 minutes to. But that used to be churches scattered throughout all those communities where people would meet even if they didn't have a full-time pastor. The pastor could travel around but God's people could meet in the morning and in the evening. I recognize it's just an inference in this passage.

But this isn't the only place, and I think these inferences in the Bible are important. It's good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praise to your name, O Moshe, to declare your loving kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night. It also helps in a very practical way for us to be able to set aside the Lord's Day by having it marked in the beginning and the end by corporate worship of God's people. It changes the focus of the day, how we organize our day, how we plan our activities, speaks to how we, And changes how we view the day. Right?

Some churches go to a worship service at 8 a.m. In the morning. Or even Saturday night. Why? Well, if you talk to those people, some of them will say, well, that way I can go to church and then I'm done for the day and I can spend the rest of the day doing my own pleasure or if it's better yet if I go on Saturday then I can wake up Sunday and have the whole day to myself.

And yet, what does Isaiah talk about? The Lord's Day is a day of turning aside our foot from doing our pleasure on His holy day. To call the day a delight, the holy of the Lord, and to honor it, not doing our own pleasure, but spending the day declaring His loving kindness in the morning and His faithfulness every night. You see, it's a day that we Set the whole day aside for that purpose. Yes, there are necessities and works of mercy that we do on that day.

Sometimes we do have to travel. Sometimes there are other things that happen. We need to eat. We need to clean up from that. So there are all these necessities.

But the focus of the day is determined by how what we plan on that day and where we plan our meetings Do we plan the corporate meeting of God's people for the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night? When we do that it It describes it defines that day for us, and how we will use it and how we will think about it. And I think it's a great privilege to be able to live near where God's people meet, to be able to open that day, to be able to, with declaring his faithfulness in the assembly of the saints, to be able to spend the day in fellowship with God's people in rest, to be able to take a physical rest on the Lord's day, a nap even, to be able to have time, you know, We don't have time to read God's Word, but that day is a whole day set apart to declare His loving-kindness in the morning and His faithfulness every night. And then having met with the Lord with His people, having met with His people, having had time because we have a day that there is nothing else that we need to do, then we can close that day again.

That's a great privilege. What is the basis of our thanksgiving, our praise and thanks. Why? Are we given motivations in the scriptures to do so? Absolutely.

What we see here are that God's name, His attributes, and His works are given to us as the basis for our gratitude, the basis for our giving thanks. God's names, His attributes, and His works. God's names are here. It is good to give thanks to the Lord. That word, that's Jehovah.

That's God's covenant name. That's His personal name, if you will. God is what He is. What is God? God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.

His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, that is what is God. But God's covenant name, His personal name if you will, the name of His person is Jehovah. And so it is good to give thanks to Jehovah and to sing praises to your name. Almost High, El Ion, or El Elion, God Most High, is a name of God, it's descriptive of who God is. He is Most High, Most Exalted, that's the superlative.

Most High, he's the one most high being We are also taught to give praise to and thanks to him For his works, I'm sorry His attributes, we'll get to His works. His attributes here, His loving kindness. To declare your loving kindness in the morning. Loving kindness is a good Old Testament word, because there's a lot wrapped up in loving kindness. Loving kindness includes God's mercy, withholding His wrath, His grace in extending privileges to us as His children.

All of his blessings from the rain in its season, in measure, that gives us all of the plants from which we eat and by which we live. That's part of His kindness to us. It's part of His grace to us. His love of us. This is all wrapped up in God's loving kindness and his faithfulness.

He's constant in everything that he does. Just think about gravity a minute, to think about God's faithfulness. We might say, who passed the law of gravity? Physicists like to talk about laws. Well, who passed this law?

And who enforces this law? Because laws that are on the books that aren't enforced, we all know they're not really laws. Nobody pays any attention to them. Laws have to be enforced. So who passed this law and who enforces it?

Well, God does. He's the one that passed the law. He's the one that enforces that law. Gravity is simply our description of God's, of God acting, of how God acts. And So think about gravity a minute.

Is there ever a minute, is there ever a moment when gravity is not operating? Never, right? Sometimes we maybe wish that there was a moment when it quit working, when we had that china vase that slips out of our hands or something. But gravity is always there Because God is faithful. That's God's faithfulness.

There is never a moment that we can recall ever in our life that gravity wasn't working. That God was not sustaining and upholding the moral order and the physical order of His universe. That's God's faithfulness. Directly God's faithfulness. And so just think about all the things like that that happen.

The sun always comes up in the morning. The earth always rotates on its axis. That's God's faithfulness. That's God's faithfulness. He's faithful as well in His promises to save us, to deliver us from bondage to sin, and to bring us into a state of glory.

He is faithful in the same way to do those things as he is in all of his works in creation, in providence. That's God's faithfulness. God's works are another reason that we are given for praising Him. For you Lord have made me glad through your work. I will triumph in the work of your hands.

O Lord how great are your works and your thoughts are very deep." the foundation of all God's works might be described in his work of creation and providence and his work of redemption. You see, God rested from His work of creation on the seventh day. And In recognition of that work, the Old Testament Church gathered on that day to praise and thank the Lord. But Christ finished his work of redemption on the first day when he rose again from the dead. And we now celebrate that work of redemption by meeting today on the first day of the week to give praise and thanks to him for his work of creation and redemption, which is his work of recreation, His work of restoring us to the estate in which we were originally created.

Psalm 46 calls to us to come and to behold the works of the Lord. Come behold the works of the Lord. That's calling on us to personally come, To personally reflect on God's work in our life to come behold the works of the Lord To remember his deeds in our life what he's done in our past To us personally. His work of redemption and his other works of providence. Some men have written, kept journals.

I think that's a good thing. I haven't done it. But I have been privileged to read some of these autobiographies that men have kept where they have recorded day by day the works of God, the wonderful works of God in their lives so that their descendants, so that their children and their children's children could read them and give thanks for them as well. That's what we have in many passages in the Old Testament is recounting of God's wonderful works, His providential dealings, His deliverances of His people for us to read and to give thanks over. So that's the basis then of our gratitude.

It's a vast basis When we think about all of his work of creation, all of his providential work in upholding that creation and his work of redemption. When we go out like yesterday or other days and we see the beauty of the day, that's something that God has created. What does it naturally cause us to do when we see a beautiful sunset? I just saw a picture of one here this week taken from the cockpit of an airplane. It's way up there.

It's indescribable. The light is bouncing off the various cloud formations So it's just on It's exquisite That should cause us to give thanks to the Lord to recognize. This is his handiwork he is put up there for his own glory and for our for us to see and to praise him for it his name his ordinances his attributes and his works these are the these are the this is the basis for our thanks and our praise. Now how do we give thanks? How do we give praise?

What is the manner that we see described in this psalm for giving thanks. Why, it's singing. It's singing. It's good to give thanks and to sing praise. These two things are put together.

I counted 20 times in the Bible where giving thanks and singing praise are joined together as one thing. And there may be many more. I just came up with 20. That's a lot. If the Bible says it once, that's enough for us.

Twenty times at least. That's just where these two are joined together, giving thanks and singing praise. You see, singing is the language of nature. Psalm 65 tells us that the valleys sing. In 1 Chronicles 16, which is coming from Psalm 105, we're told that the trees of the forest sing.

The valleys sing. Isaiah calls for the heavens and the mountains to sing in gratitude for God's work of redemption in Isaiah 44. And in Job 38 we read that the morning stars of the heaven sang together when the foundation of the earth was laid. The stars are praising God in his work of creation the the heavenly hosts the angels the angels sang when the foundation of the word earth was laid They were praising God with song for his work of creation And it and singing should be our language as well Should be our language and it should be a language that we seek to learn. The Puritans were very strong and put a high priority on learning to read so that we might be able to read the words of God, read the Scriptures.

And we ought to put a similar priority on singing as well. That we might be able to praise the Lord in the manner that He has ordained for us in the scriptures, that of singing. Now maybe he hasn't given some of us great singing ability. Well we can still make a joyful noise to the Lord. We can praise him in song.

But this is also a solemn sound. It's a solemn sound. Says in verse 3, upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the sultry with a harp with a solemn sound. There is a reverence in our praise. This isn't the unrestrained, unfettered types of displays that we would see the prophets of Baal or other pagan people engaging in.

This is a solemn or a harmonious sound. There's order to it. Harmony is a sound that matches with the melody. It complements it. There's an organization to it that brings that extends and expands the beauty And so what is being described here is a solemn celebration where we sing praises, we reflect on His great works with gladness, we give thanks for His works of creation and providence and redemption.

We declare this in the midst of his people and the corporate body. See, it's a celebration that's being described here. That's what we should be doing in worship. But it's also with understanding and preparation. Notice it says that a senseless man doesn't know.

A fool doesn't understand this. This is something that God's people ought to understand. This is giving thanks, giving praise and singing with understanding. And that always takes some degree of preparation. We have to prepare to come into God's presence if we are to sing and to praise and give thanks with understanding and not as a senseless man who doesn't know or a fool who doesn't understand, who is in a sense doing it without any Connection to the heart or the mind without thinking right sometimes you ever read a passage of scripture And then you was what did I just read I was reading the words, but I wasn't my mind wasn't engaged And then I want to go back and read it again.

To read it with understanding. To sing and to give thanks with understanding because we don't want to be as the brutish or the senseless in our giving thanks. It's solemn, but it's also with gladness. It's with gladness that we come to give thanks and praise. We're glad because God has made us glad Are you glad To come into this assembly Are you glad to give thanks and praise to the Lord?

Does it thrill your heart to pray to see his work of redemption to reflect? Experientially on His work of redemption in your life. Does that thrill you like the beauty of a glorious sunset? It ought to. It ought to thrill us as we think, as we reflect personally, as we reflect experientially, so that we are glad, so that we are made glad through His works, so that we triumph in the work of his hands.

When we contemplate his redeeming work, when we think about it experientially And personally, that's when we are overcome with emotion, with gladness, with joy. And we can't help but praise God Because he's taken us and Redeemed us from destruction. He's bought us back those who were sold The bondage He's given us a new name His name He's given to us a right to come as His children. The privilege of coming into His presence. The privilege of asking for all of our needs.

That ought to make us glad. It ought to make us very glad. As the hymn writer said, lost in love, in wonder, love and awe. Lost in wonder, love and awe. See when that happens, then we will tell each other, we will Want to declare his praise his thanks His loving kindness in the in the assembly of the Saints and tell of his faithfulness We also worship in faith We also praise him in faith because we see the wicked flourishing.

When the wicked spring up like grass, when all the workers of iniquity flourish. We see that. But we also, by faith, see that they, what their latter end is, that they will be destroyed. They will be scattered that God's enemies will perish And we can so we can worship him now Even though there are enemies out there that haven't been vanquished, that still seem to be flourishing and prospering, we can praise God now in faith, knowing what their end is. And so we worship then in anticipation of his victory of his final victory he's already conquered death he's already won the victory And so we celebrate his work of creation we celebrate his work of redemption in our worship, but we also anticipate By faith we anticipate his final triumph over all his foes Now there are blessings that are ascribed to giving thanks.

It's said it's a good thing. It's a good thing to give thanks. In one sense you could say it's even better than prayers of petition, giving thanks. Because in giving thanks we are ascribing to the Lord the glory and the praise that's due to Him. The goal of giving thanks is to exalt the Lord.

When we ask for something, we are asking to receive something. And Jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive. Prayers of praise and thanksgiving are giving. Prayers of petition and intercession, we're asking to receive. Now we need to pray all those prayers Doesn't say it's wrong to receive but Jesus did say it's more blessed It's more blessed Still blessed to receive but it's more blessed to give That has application in our prayers.

It's more blessed to us to praise the Lord to give thanks to the Lord And so we try in our worship to have a prayer that is set aside to open our time together that is devoted and focused on simply praising and thanking the Lord and adoring Him. Does that occupy your prayer? Is your prayer filled with praise and thanks to the Lord? It's good. It's good to thank the Lord.

It can be the cure. Sometimes when our prayer life becomes dull and dry, because we've been focusing on simply asking for this and asking for that. To begin to meditate upon God's works, upon His ordinances, His attributes, His faithfulness, His loving kindness, His work of redemption, His work of creation. To fill us again with the joy and the wonder of these things, and to cause our heart to well up with gratitude, to make our prayers alive. But giving thanks actually can change our heart as well.

When we're asking for things, we can become focused on our problems. We can become focused on the difficulties that are in front of us, the challenges that we're facing, the needs that we have. We can become discouraged. But it's good. It's good, this Psalm says, to thank the Lord.

Because then we can begin to reflect on what God has done for us, all that He has given for us. And that changes. That changes your heart. It changes the emotions of your heart. And it takes the focus off of our needs and puts them back on Christ who can supply all our needs, who is worthy of all of our focus, of all of our thoughts, of our praise and our adoration.

And so that's why Paul, we see Paul and Silas, you see, lay in that Philippian jail, their feet in stocks, their backs opened with the whip. At midnight they are singing. They are singing and praising God. The fruits of thankfulness, of praising God is to calm our fears is to excite our hope but it and it's also brings pity For those who do not have such confidence My horn you have anointed you have exalted like a wild ox. I have been anointed with fresh oil My eye has also seen my desire on my enemies my ears hear my desire on the wicked The righteous will flourish like a palm tree He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Those who are planted in the house of the Lord. We're planted in the congregation, in the middle of God's house with His saints, which is what we celebrate here in corporate worship, being gathered together as God's people in His name. So those who give thanks are planted in the house of God. But then there's that growth in grace that comes As we praise and thank and bless the Lord. They are said to flourish.

Flourishing means that there's growth. When you see a tree or a plant and you say it's flourishing, what does it look like? Well, it has rich, deep green leaves and it has an abundance of leaves you know you don't look at a plant that has one leaf and say oh it's flourishing you look at a plant that is always putting out new shoots and new leaves and you say wow that's that plant is flourishing And that's a description of those people who have been having been regenerated or planted in the house of God and then grow in grace and knowledge. They flourish. And then they bear fruit.

It's not just leaves that grow and more leaves that grow and more leaves that grow. No, the fruit appears. They flourish in the courts of our God and they still bear fruit. They shall be fresh and flourishing they bear fruit Do you want to be fruitful? Learn to praise and to thank the Lord.

Learn to reflect upon His name, His works, His attributes, His unchangeable-ness, His faithfulness, His loving kindness, His tender mercy. Meditate on these things thank the Lord for them praise him for them You will flourish and you will bear fruit but but it but these people will also persevere They will bear fruit in old age. It's a sign of persevering, of bearing fruit over many years. Persevering. They shall still bear fruit in old age.

They shall be fresh and flourishing. And what are they doing after many years? Has God's attributes, has His name, have His works become mundane, trivial, ho-hum? Have you already seen that? No, they are still declaring that the Lord is upright.

They are still declaring that He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him. That is the blessing that comes to those who cultivate a sense of gratitude, who reflect personally and experientially on God, on God, His names, His ordinances, His works, His work of redemption especially. May God give to us such grateful hearts that every day, morning and evening, We can praise and thank his name for his tender mercy and loving kindness Almighty Heavenly Father We ask that you would encourage us this morning Which that you would teach us gratitude in each and every circumstance where we find ourselves. Circumstances that you have ordained and to which you have brought us, That we may show forth your praise and your glory that we may declare your faithfulness in the assembly of Saints into those who are without among the nations Father help us to come and to behold Your works. Magnify, Lord, Your name.

Magnify and enlarge our heart. Magnify and enlarge our heart and make it warm and tender towards your works, towards and toward your attributes of faithfulness and loving kindness. We thank you for the examples that you have given us and for the instruction you have given us out of your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.