«It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High» (Psalm 92:1).
That’s a typical Sabbath day like at your house? For many, it entails the aroma of a special meal, the pleasant feel of a clean house or a different activity that’s done during those sacred hours. Sadly to others, the Sabbath has become a day in which they run out of ideas of things to do; a day they hope will go by quickly.
Richard Davidson is the author of the book A Song for the Sabbath in which he mentions some of the things that make the Sabbath a day of delight for his family. He includes wonderful traditions used by Jewish people to celebrate it in a special way. He talks in great detail about Psalm 92 that was written for the day of rest and also mentions one very interesting thing: people always sought Jesus so He would perform miracles for them, but the healing miracles Jesus performed on the Sabbath were all done out of His own initiative.
Jesus wanted to highlight the redemptive aspect of the Sabbath day to a people who had buried it under a long list of restrictions. Healing those people’s diseases implied not only a physical improvement, but also salvation, deliverance, and action; the opposite of many people’s indifference on that day (something we still see today). Those people’s illnesses were chronic and, by healing them, Jesus also wanted to highlight the redemptive aspect linked to His actions.
I invite you to take the time today to read Psalm 92 thoroughly and with gratitude. I also invite you to study the stories of miracles performed on the Sabbath in greater depth and enrich your experience by reading from The Desire of Ages.
The man with a withered hand (Matthew 12:9—14; Mark 3:1—6; Luke 6:6—11), the crippled woman (Luke 13:10—17), the man with dropsy (Luke 14:1—6), the lame man at Bethesda (John 5:1—18) and the man who had been born blind (John 9) were all the beneficiaries of Jesus’s miracles on the Sabbath day, thousands of years ago.
Today, you may also be a beneficiary. The healing essence of the Sabbath applies to us today and, when we lift up our voices in praise today, we can do so not only out of gratitude for a theological truth in which we believe, but also from our first-hand experience of being healed.