Blessing the Day and Blessing the Night Psalm 92

Grace, mercy and peace be with you, from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who blesses us through the day, and through the night.

Our message is from our opening sentences, from Psalm 92, especially verses 1 and 2: It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your steadfast love in the morning, and Your faithfulness by night.

Another translation says, It is good to bless the Lord. Psalm 103:1 says, Bless the Lord, O my soul.

Scripture often talks about God blessing us. It also talks about us blessing God, which means to praise and thank Him, to give Him glory and bring Him honor. 

God blesses us with His mercy, and in return, we bless and honor Him with our service and praise, with our lives.

Today we’re going to talk about blessing the day and blessing the night, how God blesses both, and how we bless and honor God in both the day and the night.

Have you ever had one of those days when you’re glad it’s over? One of those days when nothing seemed to go right. You were glad to just go to bed, and wake up to a new, and hopefully better day.

Or maybe one of those days when you received some of the worst news of your life. It didn’t even seem real. You went to sleep that night hoping to wake up the next morning and find that it was all a dream. But it wasn’t.

Or have had one of those nights when you went to sleep and everything was fine, but then during the night the phone rang. Those phone calls in the middle of the night are almost never good news; you were notified of something sad or tragic in your family, and just like that, your life changed.

When we go to sleep, we put ourselves and our souls in the hands of God. We pray: Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep; and if I die before I wake; I pray the Lord my soul to take; and this ask for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Or in the words of Luther’s evening prayer: I thank You, my Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray that You would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night; for into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul and all things, let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen. 

Martin Luther gives us this advice: Then go to sleep at once and in good cheer. In other words, sleep well, for God is near.

We fall asleep blessing God, thanking and praising Him for His mercy, knowing that He will bless and keep us as we sleep.

And He will bless us as we wake, and so we pray: I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.

Then go joyfully to your work, Luther says, singing a hymn. Start the day with a song of praise in your heart.

What a blessed way to approach the day and the night, praising God and having no fear of what the day or the night might bring. 

Whatever difficulty this fallen world might bring into my day or my night, what God brings is better, and greater, and more impacting, and more lasting.

Have you ever had one of those days when everything goes so well, that you don’t want the day to end? Children are like that when they’re having a fun play day, they don’t want it to end.

By God’s grace, in fellowship with Him, we have some of those wonderful days in this world, during this life with Christ. 

In Paradise, in Heaven, every day will be one of those blessed and perfect days that we don’t want to end. When it does end, we’ll thank and bless God, and then He will bless us with another perfect, glorious day.

Keeping that final, joyful outcome in mind, makes today a better day; even when things are going well -- to know it can be better and will be better forever, in eternity, makes today’s God-given joys more meaningful and fulfilling. 

And keeping our perfect eternity in mind makes today’s challenges less daunting; and today’s griefs, less sad; and today’s burdens much lighter. 

With God blessing your day and your night, each day is brighter, and more meaningful, and each night, less dark, and more restful.

Speaking of rest, our Epistle is about entering God’s rest. We need rest for our bodies, and rest for our souls.  

Our souls could never be at rest, had Jesus not, by His death on the cross, and His rest in the tomb, won the salvation of our souls. Nor could our souls be at rest unless the Holy Spirit, enter our spirits, our souls, bringing faith, and into our hearts bringing love, and into our minds bringing peace.

God gives rest for our bodies at night, and rest for our bodies and souls by night and by day. God blesses us in body and soul 24/7.

Day and night, God has you covered, having kept you and cared for you in every way. And day and night, He has you surrounded, with His holy angels, to guard and keep you at His command.

It kind of makes one want to just go to sleep, at peace, without a care or worry in the world, to wake new and refreshed.

Living under the care of God, day and night, gives us the rest we need, but it also does the opposite, it wakes us up. God puts us to sleep in peace, and wake us up in joy. 

That’s true of the night and the morning, and it’s true of the twilight of this life, the end of our earthly life in Christ, and the start of a new and eternal morning, our waking and rising in heavenly joy!

No matter what kind of day or night you’re having, you know what your days and nights will be like in eternity, perfect and glorious in every way. Knowing that is strength for today, and peace for tonight, and as we sang, bright hope for tomorrow.

What better way is there to start the day than blessing and praising God for His goodness and love? None I’ve ever seen.

What better way is there to end the day and start the night, than blessing and thanking God for the day that passed, and the night to come?

What better way is there to spend the day, than trusting God, and striving to honor Him in all that we do? That’s how we bless God and bring Him glory through the day, we believe, and we love, and we serve.

When in weakness, we fall and slip into sin, with God’s help, we make a correction, we repent, and our repentance brings God glory. Then in His mercy, He lifts us back up, and we bless Him with a grateful heart, and serve Him with a joyful heart.

With hearts of faith and love, we bless God at night, and bless Him in the morning; and we bless and serve Him all the daylight hours and night-time hours in between. As we said in our Introit, I will bless the Lord at all times. 

We serve Him even in our sleep, because our nights like our days, are dedicated to Him.  

Every moment of every day, God has us covered with His blessings. Every moment of every day, may our lives bless and glorify Him. 

And that’s how we make most of the day, and the most of the night, by living it with and for Christ.

So, as we’re encouraged in Colossians 3, Whatever we do in word or deed, let us do all in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

I can’t think of a better way to approach the day and the night, than by the grace of God and to the glory of Christ. It’s a life-changing way to see and live the day, and the night, and the month, and the year, and all your life.

By day and by night, may your heart and your life bless and serve the Lord; and by day and by night, may the Lord bless and keep you, and give to you, His peace which passes understanding, to guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus your Lord, who richly blesses you every day, and every night. Amen.