Spiritual Disciplines for the Soul: Sabbath
William Gaultiere © 2006
At the beginning of creation, even before Adam and Eve sinned, God gave to them the gift of Sabbath rest by showing them that Sabbath is creative work that it is part of his own nature. He blessed this day and set it apart as a holy a day for them to focus on enjoying his presence with them (Genesis 2:3). Later, God put the Sabbath at the heart of his moral law, the Ten Commandments, teaching his people to “observe the Sabbath day” to “remember” that he is their Creator (Exodus 20:8-11; the first giving of the Law) and their Redeemer from slavery (Deuteronomy 5:12-15; the second giving of the Law). But as time went on the Lord’s people strayed from keeping the Sabbath and so again and again the prophets reminded them that the Lord gave the Sabbath to them as a blessing and as a sign of his precious loving presence with them (Isaiah 56:2, 6-7, 58:13-14, Ezekiel 20:20).
When Jesus’ came on the scene most of the Lord’s people, following the teaching of the Pharisees, observed the Sabbath, but they did so in a legalistic way that missed the whole point of resting and rejoicing in their relationship with the Lord. They followed an extensive list of rules designed to prevent anyone from doing any work. But people were so burdened with the work of trying not to do any work that Sabbath-keeping was obscuring the grace and healing of God that it was intended to offer! (Mark 7:8-13). Jesus shook things up when he pronounced: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28, NIV). Then he backed up his words by healing people on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:9-14, Luke 13:10-16, John 5:1-15) and teaching them how to come to him to find real rest (Matthew 11:28-30).
But none of what Jesus did or said was meant to do away with Sabbath-keeping! God has created us such that we need one day in seven to do no work and to rest in God’s grace. Jesus himself followed the custom of honoring the Sabbath (Luke 4:16, Mark 6:1-2). And Jesus’ followers kept the Sabbath (Luke 23:56, Acts 16:13, 17:2). Even Gentile Christians observed the Sabbath (Acts 13:42-44). The fact is that God has intended that people should observe the Sabbath rest in God throughout eternity! (Isaiah 66:22-23).
Eugene Peterson offers a delightful and helpful understanding of what the Sabbath is all about:
The two biblical reasons for sabbath-keeping develop into parallel sabbath activities of praying and playing. The Exodus reason directs us to the contemplation of God, which becomes prayer. The Deuteronomy reason directs us to social leisure, which becomes play. Praying and playing are deeply congruent with each other and have essential inner connections… What is it like to pray? To play? Puritan Sabbaths that eliminated play were a disaster. Secular Sabbaths that eliminate prayer are worse. Sabbath-keeping involves both playing and praying. The activities are alike enough to share the same day and different enough to require each other for a complementary wholeness (Working the Angles, p. 74-75).
To explain Sabbath praying and playing Peterson draws on Psalm 92, the one Psalm in the Bible that is specifically assigned for use in Sabbath services (it’s prefaced with the words, “a psalm to be sung on the Lord’s Day,” NLT). This little known Psalm presents the Sabbath as a day to “give thanks to Yahweh” and to “play in honour of [the] Most High” (Psalm 92:1, Jerusalem Bible). The Psalmist then provides us with three metaphors showing that the parallel Sabbath actions of praying and playing are like music, animals, and palm trees. Music? Animals? Palm trees? Yes! Praying and playing need the musician’s combination of discipline and delight, the wild ox’s unrestrained and exuberant prancing, and the palm tree’s vibrant growth in the desert. And because prayerful play and playful prayer are not meant to be detached from real-world-living the middle of the Sabbath psalm addresses the problem of evil (Psalm 92:5-9).
