1 Sweet is the work, my God, my King,
to praise thy name, give thanks and sing,
to show thy love by morning light,
and talk of all thy truth at night.
2 Sweet is the day of sacred rest,
no mortal cares disturb my breast;
O may my heart in tune be found,
like David’s harp of solemn sound!
3 My heart shall triumph in the Lord,
and bless his works, and bless his word;
thy works of grace, how bright they shine,
how deep thy counsels, how divine!
4 Lord, I shall share a glorious part,
when grace has well refined my heart,
and fresh supplies of joy are shed,
like holy oil, to cheer my head.
5 Then shall I see and hear and know
all I desired or wished below;
and every power find sweet employ
in that eternal world of joy.
Once again, we come to a song of praise by Isaac Watts. This hymn in some hymnals actually has eight different verses—but our book has only these five. This hymn, as you see is paired with Psalm 92, which reads:
1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,
3 to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
4 For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
5 How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!
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, O LORD, are on high forever.
9 For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.
10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me fresh oil.
11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,
15 to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (Psa 92:1-15 ESV)
One of the struggles, I think we have in our day and time is to properly praise the Lord. I know, I struggle with it! We have been taught by many of our worship songs to say simple phases over and over and as long as we are sincere that’s good enough. And, to some degree it is—God looks at our heart—but we need to grow.
I look at these too songs and I see men that have found a way to articulate their praise in a way that few replicate. As a side note, I look at the extra three verse added to this hymn and think how they had even more to saw that what was published!
Let’s look at the first verse of Wat’s hymn:
1 Sweet is the work, my God, my King,
to praise thy name, give thanks and sing,
to show thy love by morning light,
and talk of all thy truth at night.
“Sweet is the work…to praise thy name.”
Praising God is not easy—it’s hard work. But, we see in Psalm 92:
1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,
3 to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. (Ps 92:1-3, ESV)
We need to be more diligent in the good work of praising the Lord. We need to better by spending the time searching for the words to say, rather than being satisfied by “good enough praise”.
Ps 92:3-4 says:
4 For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
5 How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep! (Ps 92:3-4, ESV)
He made each of us—by his very hand…using a different definition of work— “at the works of your hands I sing for joy.”
This is so hard to understand for the outside world.
We have so many theories trying to take God out of the creation of the world—out of the many miracles that occur in our lives—looking for any way to think our way out of believing in God.
The Bible says in Psalm 92:6-8:
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, O LORD, are on high forever.
And many will ridicule you for your faith. You may not understand it all yourself—I know I don’t. but, we must be patient and wait on the Lord. We must seek him to show us what he wants to know and follow him.
And we can all look forward to that one day, when in Isaac Watts’ old hymn says in verse 5 says:
5 Then shall I see and hear and know
all I desired or wished below;
and every power find sweet employ
in that eternal world of joy.
That is my encouragement to you today—to praise the Lord! You may not understand his works; you may not understand the circumstances; but one day you will know. Look forward to that day and praise the works of his hands!
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Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash