Calling the Sabbath a Delight

It is good for us constantly to recall the truths with which we are familiar – both to promote self-examination as to how these truths are being implemented in our lives, and to stir us up to seek more grace, to be more conformed to them. Paul himself said: ‘To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe’ (Phil. 3:1).

The words of our title are taken from Isaiah 58:13 and come in a context in which the Lord is calling his professing people to repentance – and encouraging them to repent with promises of blessing. There was a form of godliness, and the Lord was not calling them to abandon the true form but to seek the reality which should find expression in the form. For example, they had their fast days, but even on these days they were not abstaining from the sin which came between them and God – although abstaining from sin and devoting oneself to God and holiness was the real essence and significance of fasting. Similarly they professed to keep the Sabbath and, like the Pharisees of later days, they were proud of their Sabbath keeping, but they were using the Sabbath for their own purposes and had no pleasure in it as a day devoted to the purposes for which God had set it apart. We certainly bemoan the disregard for the Sabbath which characterises society in general today, but what is particularly grievous is the lack of delight in the Sabbath as God has ordained it which is to be found, as in Isaiah’s day, among those who profess to be the Lord’s people.

Another point to be made with regard to the context in which the words of our title are found is that its promises find their fullest accomplishment in the days of the gospel, the Messianic age. Though the truths are put in the language of Old Testament times, understandable by Jews in the eighth century before Christ, the truths themselves are of universal and permanent relevance. ‘And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath’ (Mark 2:27, 28) – not Lord of something done away but of something that continues to exist. That principle was established by the Lord when he was defending the truth that the dead live on in another world: ‘But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living’ (Matt. 22:31, 32).

Professor John Murray, in an address given in Golspie in 1953,¹ said that

what the Lord is affirming [in Mark 2:27, 28] is that the Sabbath has its place within the sphere of his messianic lordship and that he exercises lordship over the Sabbath because the Sabbath was made for man. Since he is Lord of the Sabbath, it is his to guard it against those distortions and perversions with which Pharisaism had surrounded it and by which its truly beneficent purpose had been defeated. But he is also its Lord to guard and vindicate its permanent place within that messianic lordship which he exercises over all things – he is Lord of the Sabbath too. And he is Lord of it, not for the purpose of depriving men of that inestimable benefit which the Sabbath bestows, but for the purpose of bringing to the fullest realisation on behalf of men that beneficent design for which the Sabbath was instituted.

Taking ‘call the Sabbath a delight’² as our keynote we shall try to consider: (1.) How we should view the Sabbath; (2.) How we should keep the Sabbath; (3.) What we should expect from Sabbath keeping.

1. How We Should View the Sabbath

There were various sabbaths, or holy days, under the ceremonial law, and these were certainly done away, with the ceremonial law to which they belonged. This is referred to in Colossians 2: 16, 17: ‘Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come: but the body is of Christ’. But the Sabbath refers to that one day in every seven which was set apart by God from the creation to remind mankind to take God as their pattern and to help them in their endeavour to do so by giving them time to devote to cultivating fellowship with him.

It was known by the people of God between Adam and Moses. This is illustrated by the words of Moses in the wilderness when exhorting the people to gather and prepare as much manna and quails on the sixth day as would do them for two days: ‘This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord’ (Exod. 16:23).

It was incorporated in that summary of the moral law known as the Ten Commandments:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the Sabbath day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it (Exod. 20:9-11).

It was frequently urged upon the people by the most evangelical of the prophets and by other godly leaders such as Nehemiah.

As we have already noted, it was acknowledged by the Lord Jesus as made for man and as having a place under his Lordship as the Messiah.

It was perpetuated in New Testament times and observed on the first day of the week as the Lord’s Day. No doubt the terms ‘Lord’s Day’ or ‘the first day of the week’ are commonly used in the New Testament to distinguish it from the seventh-day Sabbath which, in that period of transition, was still being observed by the Jews. The term ‘Lord’s Day’ does not distinguish the religious observance of the first day of the week from the Sabbath of Creation and the Moral Law, but identifies it with that Sabbath. The Lord himself, even in the verse from which our title is taken, claims the Sabbath as ‘My holy day’ (Isa. 58:13). The Sabbath always was the day which the Lord reserved in a special way for himself. The other six days are given to us to attend to our earthly concerns, though we are not our own, and on these days, even in the most temporal of activities, we are to do all things for God’s glory and with regard to his authority over us. But he has reserved this day to himself so that in it divine and spiritual things will have the priority and we will devote ourselves as far as possible to seeking to worship him and have communion with him. The Sabbath always was the Lord’s day, and the Lord’s Day is the Christian Sabbath.

The ceremonial law has been done away and with it any particularly-ceremonial aspects of the Sabbath, but the essential, original, spiritual and moral aspects of the day remain. Undoubtedly the change of day is to reflect the fact that, in addition, it now commemorates something more wonderful even than the creation of all things out of nothing by the word of God’s power, and something more wonderful than the redemption of Israel from Egypt. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from among the dead, having accomplished his decease, his exodus, his leading of his people out of their state of sin and misery, on Calvary. The Sabbath existed before the Ten Commandments were given to Israel. The Ten Commandments are of perpetual obligation. The principle of the Fourth Commandment finds expression in the observance of the Lord’s Day.

It was on this day that the Lord appeared to his disciples after he rose from the dead. It was on this day that the Spirit was poured out on their assemblies. It was on this day they met for worship.

When the Bible speaks of how we should view the Sabbath it is speaking of the Sabbath as God has ordained it and means it to be kept. This means that it is not to be regarded just as a different day or even a special day for reasons of our own but as ‘the holy of the Lord, honourable’. We are to view the Sabbath as holy, set apart by God for himself, fenced off for himself and for his worship. ‘The Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it’ (Exod. 20:11). Or as we have it in Genesis 1:3: ‘And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it’. To quote again from Professor Murray’s address: ‘It needs to be underlined that Sabbath observance soon becomes obsolete if it does not spring from the sense of sanctity generated and nourished in us by the recognition that God has set apart one day in seven’.³

We are to view it as honourable. The word literally means ‘heavy’ and can be used in a bad or a good sense: burdensome, severe or dull; or rich and honourable. Viewed in its spiritual aspect, it is regarded by many as burdensome and dull, but we are to view it as the best day of the week, ‘the Queen of days’, to be valued and highly esteemed and given priority over all other days. It was honoured to be the day on which the Lord rose from the grave in testimony of the fact that he had finished the work which the Father gave him to do and had secured eternal redemption for his people. It is honoured with being the day which the Lord has made a special means of bringing us nearer to himself – giving us opportunity to seek and worship him. On other days we have to fit in the things that matter most along with our daily responsibilities and routine, but on this day these temporal things have to be fitted in as far as necessary with the things that matter most.

The extent to which we give this day its proper place will largely determine how much place the things of God will have in our lives on the other days. The idea that every day should be the Lord’s day, when used to justify treating the Lord’s Day like any other day, is a delusion and very detrimental to religion and morals. Even in the state of innocence, when Adam and Eve were living as those should who were made in the image and after the likeness of God, the Lord was pleased sovereignly to require and graciously to provide that one day of the seven should be devoted in a unique way to himself.

2. How We Should Keep the Sabbath

As is common in the directions given to us in the Word of God, we are told how we are not to keep the Sabbath, as well as how we are to keep it. As long as those who have been brought by grace to love the Lord and his law have another law in their members warring against the law of their mind (Rom. 7:23) they need to be exhorted not to be conformed to this world (Rom. 12:2) and to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts (Titus 2:12). The Fourth Commandment is positive in its form but, when it comes into contact with human sinfulness, it opposes characteristically-sinful human behaviour.

We are to turn away our foot from the Sabbath. In these words we are warned against trampling the Sabbath Day under our feet. We can do this, not just literally by running marathons for charity, as some do, but by making it a day for doing what we want to do ourselves – rather than what the Lord requires of us, as good for ourselves and glorifying for him. What we desire to do on this day should be in keeping with what the Lord desires us to do: not ‘doing thy pleasure . . . not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words’.

Certainly, unnecessary travel and the innocent activities and pleasures which might be legitimate on other days are, when introduced to the Sabbath Day, means of trampling the Sabbath under our feet. But so also are the unspiritual and worldly thoughts and words and activities which are too much with us. This does not mean that we are to be inhuman or inhumane and ignore the common necessities and courtesies of life but we are to beware of the things of the everyday week intruding into the Sabbath in such a way as makes us unmindful of its holy nature and purpose and draws us away from God and from the holy exercises and pleasures for which it has been set apart.

The Westminster Larger Catechism (Ans. 119) sums up the negative aspects of the passage from which our title is taken when it asserts that

the sins forbidden in the Fourth Commandment are, all omissions of the duties required, all careless, negligent and unprofitable performing of them, and being weary of them; all profaning the day by idleness, and doing that which is in itself sinful; and by all needless works, words and thoughts about our worldly employments and recreations’.

On the positive side, the Westminster Larger Catechism (Ans. 117) asserts that

the Sabbath, or Lord’s Day, is to be sanctified by an holy resting all the day, not only from such works as are at all times sinful, but even from such worldly employments and recreations as are on other days lawful; and making it our delight to spend the whole time (except so much of it as is to be taken up in works of necessity and mercy) in the public and private exercises of God’s worship: and, to that end, we are to prepare our hearts, and with such foresight, diligence and moderation, to dispose and seasonably dispatch our worldly business, that we may be the more free and fit for the duties of the day’.

It is a day to be occupied with work which is of deep spiritual and eternal significance – to be taken up with contemplation of the revealed glory of God, doing spiritual good and preparing for heaven.

Patrick Fairbairn says that the Sabbath was designed to carry the heart up in holy affection to its Creator and outwards in acts of goodwill and kindness to men on earth. It gives us time and conducive circumstances to attend to our spiritual concerns, to consider our relation to God and to engage in those activities which would promote our communion and fellowship with him.

What desecrates the Sabbath is primarily the unspiritual and worldly mind. What makes the Sabbath tolerable or pleasant to such as are under the power of the carnal mind is the admission as much as possible, at least in one’s mind, of the things which at best belong to other days.

We are to call the Sabbath a delight – a luxury, a pleasant thing. Calling it that does not mean just giving it that name, but really finding it and treating it as such. We are to find pleasure in the Sabbath Day when it is kept in accordance with its chief purpose, saying of this day what the Psalmist says of the day of the gospel, or the day of grace in general: ‘This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it’ (Psa. 118:24). Robert M’Cheyne spoke of the Christian Sabbath with all its blessings as one of those pleasant fruits of Christ and his sacrifice, which are sweet to the taste of those who sit down under his shadow (Song of Sol. 2:3). How different this is from the attitude of those who long for the Sabbath to be gone so that they can get on with the worldly business which lies nearest to their hearts (Amos 8:5).

The heart is to be in the observance of the Lord’s Day. ‘This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous’ (1 John 5:3). The law of God is ‘the perfect law of liberty’ (James 1:25) to those who love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength (Mark 12:30), who ‘delight in the law of God after the inward man’ (Rom. 7:22). His yoke is easy and his burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30). Those who conform to the Sabbath requirement bemoan their poor Sabbath keeping, but the Sabbath is their delight, the activities of the Sabbath give them pleasure, and the idea of an eternal Sabbath, perfectly kept and enjoyed, fits in with their idea of heaven. As one commentator (Delitzsch) puts it, the Sabbath is to be a pleasure to us because it leads us to God, and not a burden because it leads us away from our everyday life.

At the heart of gospel Sabbath-keeping is the concern to honour the Lord, whose holy and honourable day it is: honour him by recognising his authority to set this day apart, by endeavouring to keep it as he requires and, as the Westminster Larger Catechism (Ans. 117) puts it, by ‘making it our delight to spend the whole time (except so much of it as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy) in the public and private exercises of God’s worship’. We are recognising, as James Fisher puts it, that

God is the sovereign Lord of our time, and has the sole power and authority to direct how it should be improved . . . because the observing of one day in seven for a Sabbath flows from the sovereign will of God appointing it, and could never have been observed more than any other part of time merely by the force of nature’s light.⁴

The Fourth Commandment is probably the one that is most readily and thoughtlessly and fearlessly broken, and one of the reasons is that more than the others it seems to rest on the absolute authority of God. People may see a measure of self-interest in having a day of rest, as they see in having laws against killing or stealing, but why should it be the Sabbath and why should they keep it as the Bible requires? One recent commentator (Motyer) has said that the Sabbath is not for the mere indulgence of personal pleasures or preferences but is conducive to sweet delight in the Lord and his ordinances. It is loved as the day which by God’s appointment commemorates creation, testifies to the accomplishment of redemption and points us forward to glory. Are we endeavouring to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy out of regard for what God has declared to be his will?

Writing in 1872, when the situation had not degenerated to the extent to which it has subsequently done, James Walker, in challenging the common contempt for what has been called ‘the Scottish Sabbath’, says:

I do not comprehend how any person with religious feelings and sympathies should not be ready to admit that at least there is something very grand about the Scottish Sabbath, in its idea of a day of communion with the Unseen and Eternal; of adoration of our Maker and our Saviour; of self-examination and moral excellence; of acquisition of religious knowledge; and all this in order to the spiritual elevation of the soul, the replenishing of our moral energies, and a closer hold of the verities which have a place in our creed.⁵

As James Fisher says: ‘If Adam in innocence needed a Sabbath for the more immediate service and solemn worship of God, much more do we, who are sinful creatures, and so immersed in worldly cares, need such a day.⁶

3. What We Should Expect From Sabbath-Keeping

‘Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it’ (Isa. 58:14).

The Sabbath is for the glory of God. It is also for the good of mankind. There are temporal blessings attached to the right keeping of the Sabbath. As the old rhyme puts it: ‘A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content and strength for the toils of the morrow; but a Sabbath profaned, whate’er may be gained, is a certain forerunner of sorrow’. But it is also a divinely-appointed means to spiritual blessing. As Patrick Fairbairn puts it, the Sabbath is designed to carry the heart up in holy affection to its Creator, and outwards in acts of goodwill and kindness to men on earth. Without it the Lord and eternal things would be even less in our minds. It gives us time and means to cultivate acquaintance with the Lord. As M’Cheyne says, it is a day for exalting Christ, meeting God, praising God. If there were no Sabbath, spiritual and eternal things would be swallowed up even more than they are by the things of time and sense. When the Sabbath is loosely kept by those who have some regard for it, there can be no doubt that the effect can be seen in a low level of spirituality personally and communally, and in a lack of enjoyment of God and of the blessings of his Covenant and the means of his grace.

The Lord will cause those who honour him in this way to triumph over all that would deprive them of the blessing. The Sabbath brings us back to the sources of our strength. It confirms principles and habits of devotion to God which are so threatened by our engagement with the world on other days. It makes for strong, triumphant Christians, enabled to overcome the temptations that are in the world. And it strengthens the Lord’s people for their witness to the Lord in the world.

We have the Lord’s own word for it that he will fully satisfy those who honour him with the rich provisions of his covenant. The blessing of Abraham, which was the heritage of Jacob, comes on sinners through Jesus Christ, who has redeemed them from the curse; they receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Gal. 3:13, 14). The Sabbath is a sign of that covenant and a means of conveying covenant blessings to his people. ‘I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them’ (Ezek. 20:12).

A well-kept Sabbath would lead to a strengthening of the habits of devotion and a greater enjoyment of the blessings of grace. It would lead to clearer views of God and closer communion with him. Each Sabbath would be seen as another step on the ladder to heaven above, in the sense of increased preparation for, and enjoyment of, what the Lord’s people will experience in the heavenly Sabbath. Sabbath observance is by no means the whole of what it means to be a Christian, but it does contribute substantially to nourishing Christian life through the opportunities which it gives for worship and for attention to spiritual matters.

It is not that Sabbath-keeping merits these blessings. It is not the basis on which these blessings are bestowed. Here as elsewhere the truth prevails: ‘not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us’ (Titus 3:5). Legalists may use the Fourth Commandment, as they use other commandments, in a vain endeavour to secure their salvation by their own works. We are as dependent upon the Lord for ability to keep the Sabbath to any degree as we are for any other Christian grace or work. But Sabbath keeping is a means of blessing in the Lord’s hand. He has said that it shall be so.

David Dickson counsels us:

Aim at the blessing as well as the duty, hang on Himself for life and strength to discharge the duty, and for the blessing, since He is the author and bestower of both, and do the duty delightsomely and with joy, through the faith of the blessing.

The Sabbath is presented in Isaiah 58 as the test of a person’s religion. What a person thinks of the Sabbath, viewed as God means it to be viewed, is an indication of what that person thinks of God himself. The Sabbath is a barometer which indicates the spiritual atmosphere of the Church and of society. It is a thermometer which indicates the spiritual temperature and health of an individual. When a person is acquainted with the biblical doctrine of the Lord’s Day and its significance, delight in the Sabbath as God means it to be kept is a good indication of what a person thinks of God himself. The absence of Sabbath observance in the churches today is indicative of the low state of religion and of delight in the God of holiness and grace. The Sabbath has always come into its own in times of true spiritual revival and will do so again.

There are those who say this may be all very well for Christians but we should not seek to impose Sabbath keeping on society. But the Sabbath is a creation ordinance; it belongs to the moral law; and it was made for man.

When the Sabbath goes from the community, religion and morals also eventually go. It is common today to divorce morality from religion and many indignantly protest that they can be perfectly moral without subscribing to any belief in God or accepting biblical doctrines and precepts. Such persons repudiate claims that there is a correlation between the attitude to the Fourth Commandment and morality. However, rejection of divine authority at this point reveals an attitude to God which cannot but permeate the whole moral outlook and undermine the foundations upon which conformity to absolute moral standards depends. The rapid decline in morality undoubtedly reflects resentment at that interference with personal sovereignty over one’s own life and arrangements which is seen to be embodied in the Fourth Commandment.

Daniel Wilson describes the Sabbath as ‘the institution which sustains Christianity’. We may well say that, if it were not for the Sabbath, it would be very difficult for any public testimony to God, and the preaching of the gospel and corporate worship to be maintained, for the glory of God and the conversion and edification of sinners. Wilson also claims that the Sabbath

sustains those duties and habits, those virtues of the heart, that mildness and humanity, that regard to truth and the sanctity of an oath, that sense of conscience and prospect of the tribunal of Christ, which strengthens human authority, preserves the peace of communities and nations, and is the bond of human society.⁷

There is so much involved even in the outward observance of the Lord’s Day which makes its recognition beneficial to body, mind, morality, family life, social relations, business efficiency and national life, not to speak of its contribution to the spiritual well-being of individuals and communities.

There are many complaints today regarding the breakdown of family life, law and order, respect for people and institutions. Many are suffering from high levels of stress. One of the significant factors which contributed to the stability of family life and the social cohesion of communities in the past was the shared freedom on the Sabbath from the routine of other days. The observance of a day when all except those engaged in works of necessity or mercy are free at the same time from the lawful activities of other days would be highly beneficial economically, socially and morally as well as spiritually. It would also, directly and indirectly, reduce the strain on the services of those whose work is necessary, such as doctors, nurses and the police.

The regular return of a day when the monotonous routine and often-hectic frenzy of other days ceases would not only be beneficial to physical and emotional health and family togetherness, but it would also help to restore a sense of order and help people to evaluate the real priorities of life. Such a general ban on everyday working may be regarded by some as an interference with personal liberty. It would rather be a corrective to the selfishness which makes so many people pursue their own agendas, no matter what stress and inconvenience that imposes on others required to work as a consequence.

To quote James Walker once more:

We may come to find our strict Sabbath doctrine something more vital, having deeper reaches than we had ever dreamed; in so far as it is not a mere human superstition, like the rites of the Church of Rome, but that by which the Scottish conscience has been kept in loving connection with a Lawgiver and an objective law, as our religion has thereby been endowed with a faith and reality which may be greatly helpful in a trial-day. I think there is everything to make us cling in this matter to the old paths, instead of being ashamed of them. Suppose you took it in no other way, who shall say what Scottish intellect owes to the Sabbath? It had a thinking day as well as a worshipping day in that.⁸

Apart from the specific ways in which a neglected Sabbath is detrimental to the overall well-being of individuals, families, businesses and social and national life, there is the consideration that it deprives the guilty nation which has abandoned the once-acknowledged Sabbath of the blessing of the Lord.

Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath (Neh. 13:17, 18).

Professor Douglas F Kelly, in a chapter on the Sabbath in his book Creation and Change, makes the point that

the Creator made us to exist as creatures who need to rest one day out of seven. To go against our creaturely limits tends to cause disintegration in both personality and body (and relationships). To transgress this basic rhythm which is built both into the universe and into the human soul and body is to transgress a kindly-bestowed blessing of God, and is to ask for increasing personal stress and disturbance, if not breakdown.⁹

But he goes on to say:

Without denying the far-reaching benefits of ‘remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy’ on mankind’s physical and emotional life, the creation account seems to reach a great crescendo on the seventh day, showing that the entire creation is directed towards the Sabbath, so that something far greater than physical or even societal well-being is intended here.¹⁰

The title of Dr Kelly’s chapter on the Sabbath is: ‘The Sabbath Day and the Orientation of the Whole Created Order Towards Worship of God’.

Let us rejoice in the Lord’s Day as a day devoted to God – a day which is good for the soul, for the mind, for the body, for the family and personal relationships, for the Church and for society; a day which honours God; a day which acknowledges that Jesus Christ is Lord and that our lives are only what they ought to be when lived in dependence upon the grace of the crucified and risen Saviour and in accordance with his revealed will.

In his article, ‘I love the Lord’s Day’¹¹, Robert Murray M’Cheyne gave three reasons for his love of the Lord’s Day: (1.) Because it is the Lord’s Day, and we love everything that is Christ’s; (2.) Because it is a relic of paradise and a type of heaven: ‘A well-spent Sabbath we feel to be a day of heaven upon earth’; (3.) Because it is a day of blessings. After exhorting his readers to prize the Lord’s Day and to defend it, M’Cheyne asked several ‘serious questions’, one of which was: ‘Did you ever meet with a lively believer in any country under heaven – one who loved Christ, and lived a holy life – who did not delight in keeping holy to God the entire Lord’s Day?’ Such a question would be heard with astonishment by multitudes in the Reformed and Evangelical churches today because the concept of the Christian Sabbath has been so generally lost. May grace be given to those of us who profess still to value the Lord’s Day to find and to demonstrate in our own lives that there is nothing more delightful than a Sabbath kept in any measure ‘according to the commandment’.