5. “Slowing, Savoring, and Becoming” (Psalm 92)

When we lived in Delaware, we had a great primary care doctor for our kids, Dr. Walker.  He was kind of the perfect doctor, especially for new parents.  He was super relaxed.  If there was something you should be doing with your new baby that you weren’t doing, he had a way of telling you that didn’t make you freak out, like you’ve just ruined your child.  Like with Liam, he asked us at one visit, how’s his tummy time going?  Tummy time, oh no, what’s that, are we doing that?  Are we doing it right? Baby Liam had a large head, so tummy time and getting those neck muscles strong so he could hold up his head was important.  Thankfully Dr. Walker’s relaxed bedside manner made us not feel stressed that perhaps we weren’t doing that as often as we should have.   As time when on and then Abby came into the family there were all sorts of things we were made aware of, in addition to the importance of tummy time. All sorts of things to watch out for, all sorts of healthy habits and things to do, like trying to introduce new foods and healthy foods (that one was particularly challenging for us).  As a parent it’s easy to get stressed about this because we want our kids to grow, to grow up well, to be healthy and flourish.  And while it probably doesn’t stress us out like a child, whenever we go to the doctors as adults we’re reminded us of things that are good for us. Everything from what we eat to what are we putting in our bodies, how much and how frequently we drink, whether or not we’re exercising. How we’re doing in terms of mental health and connecting with others.  There are things that are just good for us if we will do them.  There are things that, if we will do them, lead to a life of real flourishing. 

That’s how Psalm 92 begins.  Psalm 92, like a spiritual doctor, begins in Hebrew with the word Tov, meaning “good.”   This is good.  What I’m about to tell you and call you to is good.  It’s really good.  It’s good not just in the sense of it’s right, though it is right, but it is good in that it is “good for you.” What is good? Ps. 92:1, “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;” Psalm 92 is the only Psalm that has a superscript mentioning the sabbath. (The tiny, italicized text in your English Bible.)  It reads, “a song for the Sabbath.”  If you remember when we looked at Genesis 1 & 2 we saw that the whole goal of creation, the goal of creation and the goal of our lives was oriented toward that 7^th day, the Day when God rested.  God’s resting on the 7^th day was a celebration of his enthronement.  So, to say that the goal of creation and our lives is rest is to say the goal is worship.  The goal is to celebrate God, to savor God, to enjoy God as king. 

This Psalm, a “song for the Sabbath”, is meant to help us see how good it is for us to savor God.  It’s meant to help us see why it’s so essential for us to learn to live a way of life that isn’t constantly distracted, and busy, and stressed moving from one exhausting task to the next, anxious, tired, worn out, but rather why we must slow and so that we can savor and enjoy God.  This Psalm shows us that as we savor God, God strengths, refreshes, and transforms us.  

This is the last sermon this fall in the series “Habits for Love” where we have really tried to consider our need not just to know right ideas and beliefs about God, but to practice and make space in our lives to practice “Habits for Love,“ habits that will shape us in the direction of love.  And this fall we’ve considered rest.  How do we practice the very thing we were made for?  This morning let’s look at Psalm 92 and consider 4 questions: How we savor? Why we savor? What if we don’t? How savoring changes us?

How we savor?

We’ve already said, this Psalm is about savoring God. But how do you do that?  How do you take pleasure in and enjoy God, a being that is incomprehensible?  The only possibility of savoring God is if God reveals himself, we can’t reach up to him, but he can reach down to us… That’s what we see in the opening verses. Verse 1 points us to God’s character: “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;” When we see the word LORD all in capital letters – that’s Hebrew for Yahweh – God’s personal name.  In the ancient world your name had to do with your character, who you are.  When the Israelites thought of the name Yhwh, this is the God who bound himself in covenant to us.  This is the God who made promises.  This is the God who delivered us out of Egypt through the Red Sea. This is the God who has freely chosen to make himself known, revealing himself in history through Creation and acts of salvation.  This is the God who has revealed himself in the Scriptures, interpreting and helping us to know and understand who he is and what he has done. 

We read in v. 4 and 5 where 3 times the writer mentions God’s “works”. “For you, Yhwh, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy. How great are your works, Yhwh!” When the Psalms celebrate God’s works, the two categories we can think of are God’s work of creation and God’s work of redemption or salvation.  You see what this Psalm invites and call us to do is consider this: consider creation and what God has made.  Consider, for example, the gift of life.  Consider the beauty of the mountains and a summer sunset. Take pleasure in fall colors and warm fires.  Savor the gift of a body that can be hugged and can take in food and drink that brings joy and satisfaction.  Slow down and Savor God’s work. 

Consider also and enjoy what he has done in redemption, in acts of salvation throughout history. Verse 2 invites us to recount, to declare, to tell the story and re-tell the story.

“to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,” Re-tell the story of God’s steadfast love, in Hebrew “hesed,” a beautiful and rich word that speaks of the kind of love God shows. God’s love that is unflinching toward his people, his love that is stubborn and won’t let go, his committed faithful love.  Verse 2 calls us to tell the story of his love and his faithfulness, to do this morning and night, which is a poetic way of saying do this all the time. 

This is what we do every Sunday morning when we gather together.  We sing, verse 1 and 3 of Psalm 92.  We confess our faith, recounting, declaring who God is and what he has done.  We look at the Bible and unpack a text that in some particular way shows us the greatness of our God, who he is, what he has done. 

Like this past semester as we’ve been in the book of Judges.  If you’ve been with us, Judges is dark.  It’s messed up.  It’s a lot like things that happen in our world.  And yet as we read it and think about it together there can be hope, because even there God was at work, saving his people, showing mercy and grace in the midst of their foolishness.  This is how we savor. We give thanks, we praise, we recount the story of who God is and what he has done.

Why we Savor?  

We savor because it is good.  It is good because it is right.  God has done these things.  God has made beautiful and good things, and it is right for us to respond with thanks.  It is appropriate and fitting for us to acknowledge the one who made us, who gives us good gifts. It is also good for us because God made us to know him and love him.  And all of these things in creation and all of God’s saving acts are meant draw us near to God, that we might be restored to him;  that we might enjoy him, love him, rejoice and hope in him. 

If your family is like mine, you like to tell stories and retell stories.  You remember and retell stories about each other; Like the really hilarious thing mom did ten Christmases ago, and even though everyone knows the story, it’s wonderful to tell it again and laugh about it all over again together.  Our kids never get tired of hearing stories about when they were really little guys, or looking at pictures or videos and remembering our family’s story. The stories we tell, and retell shape us. 

I want you to you imagine a husband and wife who have become so busy with kids and life that for a period of weeks or perhaps even months they kind of exist relationally at the level of “let’s just get stuff done.” There’s not much warmth or tenderness toward each other as the marriage has become more or less about the division of labor to survive… And then one night at dinner, one of the kids asks, “Mom, dad, can you tell the story of how you met?”  And then their brother or sister says, “yeah, tell us the story.”  Immediately, you know this is going somewhere good.   Because as mom and dad start telling the story, as they recount the details, what each of them were thinking when they met and when they started dating, things begin to warm between them.  Mom recounts what she was thinking when she first saw dad and how she thought dad was really cute.  Dad tells about how he was trying to figure a way to ask mom out and finally got the courage to do so.   And that’s not all, one of the kids says, “tell us about the first date!” And as the story is told and the funny details are remembered and recounted And then there is the first date and all the funny details of what happened, and where they went, and what they were thinking… and as they tell the story all of the sudden the relationship feels more alive again. Oh yes, we don’t just get stuff done together, We have a relationship; we have a story. 

It is very similar with God.  We are to savor the story because it is true.  But we also savor the story because it is good for us, because we need it.  You and I need to come here each week to recount and retell together the story of Yahweh our God, who made all things and from whom in all sorts of ways we have turned from him, and we’ve sinned.  But his steadfast love pursued us – he pursued us with his promise of a savior in Genesis 3, right when humanity sinned.  He pursued us by calling Abraham that God might bless the nations through Abraham.  He pursued us with his faithful love by making and keeping promises.  He was faithful when again and again people weren’t faithful. In the midst of idolatry, sin, evil, rebellion, God was faithful. 

In love he sent his Son to take flesh, to live everything a human being was meant to be, to fully love God and fully love other people.  Because he loves us, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, pursued us with his faithful love even to the cross.  He died in our place; he took your sins and my sins upon himself. He did this that through him and through faith in him you and I can be children of God.  You don’t have to wonder whether or not God loves you or whether or not your sins will win out in the end or whether or not you’ll be with God forever because Jesus died and rose again for us and for our salvation.

You see as we recount God’s steadfast love and faithfulness so many things happen. 

We are overwhelmed by God’s goodness and wisdom, “How great are your works, Yhwh! Your thoughts are very deep!” We are given a new perspective.  In verse. 9ff we read, “For behold, your enemies, Yhwh, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.”

You see, we can look at the world, we can look at evil things happening in the world, and we feel tired, sapped of energy, deeply sad.  There can be a despair as we look at things happening in the world.  But there can also be a despair as we look at ourselves.  With all the repeated struggles, the hard engrained, well-worn paths of behavior, thinking, relating, and choosing… who are we to think that we can ever change. We’re stuck, the world won’t ever change; we won’t ever change.  But then we remember the story.  We remember who God is and what God has done and take it in and savor that reality. The God of creation who reigns supreme, the God of redemption whose unflinching love and faithfulness is for me and for you. This brings strength (that’s the image of the horn in v. 10).  It brings refreshment (the image of fresh oil).  It brings hope, because as you recount and tell the story of God’s faithful love and his works, there is just no way he’s not going to come through on everything he’s promised.  Slowing and savoring gives way to confident hope. From this vantage point, you can say v. 11, “My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies”.  Evil and suffering, sadness and violence can’t win, it is doomed to destruction. 

What if We Don’t?

This is how we savor and why we savor… BUT what if we don’t?  What if we don’t savor God?

^“6 The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: ⁷ that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever; ⁸ but you, Yhwh, are on high forever.” Now, I realize this is very strong language “stupid man”, “fool”, “wicked”, “evildoer”.  It sounds extreme.  But as the Bible often does, it uses categories like this to set out very clear “either, Or”.   And I think one reason it does this is to wake us up.  To have us ask the question, in this “either, or” where am I?  And what is the current direction of my life, to which of these ends is it moving?

You see, if you don’t savor God and the story, you won’t have the perspective you need to live.  You’re living out of accord with reality.  You’re living in a way that doesn’t account for, doesn’t factor in the most basic and fundamental part of the world in which you live and the story in which you live.  You are blind to God. This isn’t just a danger for those who don’t believe.  In Psalm 73, the writer goes through a period of deep doubt and struggle as he looks at people who don’t love God and don’t care what God says, and their lives are awesome!  The writer of Psalm 73 says about himself. I became like a beast to you, God.  I was stupid.  It’s not a problem of someone’s intellect.  It’s how that faculty is used. It’s whether or not what God has revealed about himself is received and taken in and enjoyed, allowing this to shape how you see life. 

If we’re not awake to the reality of who God is and what he has done, if we’re not taking that in and enjoying it, we won’t be able to make sense of life. Because look at verse 7. The wicked flourish too.  Evil doers flourish.  There is a kind of flourishing and growth that looks impressive in the short term.  But it’s like grass.  Here today, gone tomorrow. One of the dangers we’ve highlighted again and again throughout this series is the speed of modern life and the cultural value of being busy all the time. Can you see the danger of that in these verses?  What if busyness keeps you from being able to recount and savor who God is and what he has done?    What if so many incredibly good things in your life, gifts from God who is revealing to you his love and faithfulness and goodness are completely missed, or taken for granted, not enjoyed, not received as what they truly are?  A gift from Yhwh! What if you don’t slow and savor, you just keep moving faster and faster and God and his faithful love become less real in your life?  Maybe you believe in God intellectually or maybe you don’t, but either way he’s not relevant and he’s not real to you. 

What if you begin to experience challenges to your faith, like some of the costly parts of following Jesus, and you look around and it seems like others who don’t believe or listen to God are thriving at life?  Can you see where that could take you?  Do you see the danger of being in this sort of place? What’s the current direction of your life? God doesn’t want us to be dull and blind to him.  He wants real flourishing for us and that’s how the Psalm ends.  It ends by showing us how savoring God changes us.

How Savoring Changes Us

Psalm 92:12, “The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” As one writer puts it, these trees “combine fruitfulness and size.  The date-palm…. is a …. source of sweetness, while the cedar is a major source of timber… known for it’s height and stature. ”[1]

“¹³ They are planted in the house of the Yhwh; they flourish in the courts of our God.” Just like those described in Psalm, 1 who meditate and delight in God’s instruction day and night. Those who are “planted by streams of water” that keep them fruitful, same verb in Hebrew, those who savor God are “planted in the house of Yhwh”. They are in God’s presence, near God, dwelling with God.  And so, they flourish. ^“14 They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,” There is a growth here that doesn’t fade away like the grass.  It’s the long enduring kind of growth, a rootedness, a maturity of ongoing wisdom and fruitfulness. 

“¹⁵ to declare that the Yhwh is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.” The last verse brings it all together.  If you look at the beginning, Psalm 92  v. 2 the writer calling us to “declare Yhwh’s steadfast love and faithfulness”.  The Psalm ends v. 15 with the righteous, pictured as full of life, fruitful trees, declaring that Yhwh is upright. What was savored and enjoyed in the beginning of the Psalm, has become embodied in a life.

Declaring and retelling of Yahweh’s faithful love leads to becoming a person whose life embodies these qualities. You begin by recounting, singing, telling the story, taking it in, being amazed by it, enjoying it. Savoring the God who is so great, and kind, and loving, and merciful, and over time more and more your life becomes something different. You become a person whose life declares the goodness of God, a life that testifies and points others to see God is real and true. Thinking about this text, I’m reminded a few weeks ago there was a little gathering of people from Trinity to send off Skip and Debby Heidler. If you’ve only been around Trinity the last few years, you may or may not know the Heidlers very well as they’ve been in the process the last few years of moving up north.  But for those who have been around Trinity for some time, you know they are people who have been incredibly important to this congregation. 

 As we prayed for them, I was struck by the specific and concrete details that so many prayed, giving thanks to God for Skip and Debbie. They were things that pointed to the love and faithfulness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the characteristics of God, embodied in a life.  Details of loving and caring for kids, details of faithfulness, remembrances of self-giving love, of wisdom and practical help, of being present and active in people’s lives. Here were people who had given themselves to recounting and declaring and savoring who God is and God’s love for them in Jesus.  They had taken in the story and by God’s grace and power declaring and savoring led becoming. 

That’s the promise of this text – If you will slow down and savor God, your life over time will become, you will change. You will more and more become an embodiment of all the ways you’re meant to reflect and be like God.  And this is why I invite you to continue to move along with us in our shared project of “Habits for love.”  This is the last sermon, but we will continue to have teaching and discussion in adult Sunday school and emails going out as we together seek this way of life where there is space for us to savor and enjoy God so that we can rest in him and become more like him. 

[1] Goldingay, Psalms, 3.60.