Psalm 92: Ever Full

Do you ever worry about running out? I don’t mean leaving a situation, but discovering that you lack what you need, that you have lost what you once had or even worse, that you might never get what you desire. I believe that on some level and in some area of our lives most of us struggle with this. Those who fear the loss of things tend to hoard. Those who fear the loss of love tend to cling. Those who fear the loss of security tend to worry. Those who fear the loss of joy tend to complain. And those who fear that they may never receive what they are waiting for tend to pray for and talk about what they lack far more than they give thanks for what they hold. Whether it is waiting for the other shoe to drop, worrying how the bills will get paid or fretting that our time will never come, every fear of lack is birthed in a lie about God’s heart. 

Psalm 92 is described in the heading as “A Song For The Sabbath”, which means that it is a song to be sung together, not just sung to or about God, but sung with and to each other. The song begins, “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High”.  The Hebrew word that is translated “give thanks” is “yadah”, it means “to throw”. Again, remember, because this is “A Song For The Sabbath”, it would be most often sung together, corporately, publicly in worship. This means that we are not just “throwing” our thanks to God, but we are throwing it to one another. Public thanks reminds one another to be thankful, but it also reminds us of all that we have to be thankful for. If we are going to “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), then we must also give thanks with the thankful. Here is the beauty in that, thanksgiving becomes contagious! 

But our songs of thanksgiving are not for what we have or what we hope for but for who God is. How do we give thanks? The psalmist tells us to “declare your steadfast love in the morning, your faithfulness by night”. Sing about God’s character. If God’s steadfast love never ceases, then there is no other shoe to drop. If His faithfulness reaches to the heavens, we will never be overlooked or left out. If God withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly then we will not lack anything that we need. Can you begin to see how all of our fears are lies against God’s character? How the worries of this world set themselves up against the goodness of God? There is a remedy, give thanks together, allow our songs to remind us of what we have forgotten, concentrate on who God is not just what we want or need from God. 

There is power in our corporate singing. It is one of the ways that we encourage one another. Encouragement is not about feeling better, it is about preparing for battle, it is combatting fear by instilling courage. In II Chronicles 20, armies from multiple nations combined to attack Judah and King Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat gathered the people of Judah in the house of the LORD. He declared God’s sovereignty, God’s power, and God’s faithfulness. He then famously prayed, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” It says that all of Judah were present, the men with their wives and their children. In this corporate gathering, as the people all turned their attention to God, the Spirit of God came upon a man named Jahaziel and he said, “Thus says the LORD to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.’” Why do we so often allow our concern to get in the way of our confidence in God’s character and control? 

Notice clearly what happened. There was an unsolvable problem, God’s people gathered and prayed together, putting their full attention on God and God encouraged them by reminding them that their trouble was real, but His care had not wavered. He didn’t tell them there would be no battle, that it would all work out, but instead God told them to go to battle but they would not have to fight, to prepare themselves for war but then to stand still, to hold firm and “see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf”. They would have to face their fears, they would be affected, but God would fight their battle. 

Sometimes the thing we fear is not the enemy that needs to be defeated. Sometimes we are the mountain that needs to be moved and the circumstance that needs to change. Sometimes the problem is not what we do not have or what has come against us but what we have forgotten to believe. And so, we sing! This is why our songs matter so much. We sing to remember. We sing to believe. We sing to declare. We sing to God and we sing who God is because who God is determines everything that happens. 

Back in II Chronicles 20, the next day, Jehoshaphat led Judah out to battle just as the LORD had commanded. As they went out the king gave the people one command, “Believe”. “Believe in the LORD your God and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” And then he gave them a tool of belief, he appointed a group of singers to put on their holy attire and then he sent them out in front of the army and sang, “Give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures forever.” When Judah got to the battle their enemies were already dead. As they sang about God’s character God defeated their enemies. 

We sing together to remember what we often forget when we are apart, that God is good, that His love endures, that His faithfulness can be relied upon. We sing together to lift each other up but also to push each other forward. The end of the psalm speaks about the righteous saying, “They still bear fruit in old age;” but then it makes the statement I want to close with, “they are ever full”. “Ever full” is not a future promise it is a continual truth. That means that while waiting we are not lacking and when the promise is fulfilled, we are not somehow then complete, we are ever full. If God is good, then I am full. If God is faithful, then I am full. If His love endures forever, then I am ever full. If God is who He says He is then I have all I need. That is the song we need to sing today, the one that reminds us of who God is so that it can tell us what we have. I say this with gentleness and grace today, but if you are in Christ then you are ever full. The thing you are waiting for will be good, but it will not somehow make you or your life better. And so, let us sing, but not for the promise that is coming, but of the God who is good, not for the thing we hope for but the One we have put our hope in. Let us give thanks for who He is and let us remember that in Him we are ever full.