Lesson 13: “Wait On the Lord”
COLLEEN TINKER |
Problems with this lesson:
- The central lesson this week focusses on “Sabbath”, misusing Psalm 92 and Hebrews 4 to make points the texts do not make.
- The author does not understand trusting God (Ps. 131) instead of struggling to achieve what we want.
- The week’s focus of “waiting on the Lord” is not addressed with the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
This week’s lesson ends the quarter with a focus on waiting on the Lord. Significantly, the central (Wednesday’s) lesson is devoted to keeping the Sabbath, using Psalm 92 as the primary biblical proof text, but the application of the psalm is utterly out of context. The day’s lesson concludes with a reminder that people need their “Sabbath rest” because if “empowers them to wait upon the Lord”. The lesson, embedded at the heart of the week, twists Scripture to make points the texts do not make.
Because this lesson is the heart of the lesson and addresses the heart of Seventh-day Adventism, we will mostly focus on this particular study. We will lead, though, with a mention of the lesson’s use of Psalm 131 which describes quieting one’s heart like a weaned child.
Like a Weaned Child
Psalm 131 is short, contrasting pursuit of proud, arrogant demands to achieve and know the unattainable with resting in the Lord. Let’s read the psalm:
A Song of Ascents. Of David.
O Yahweh, my heart is not exalted, and my eyes are not raised high; and I do not involve myself in great matters, Or in matters too marvelous for me.
Surely I have soothed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, wait for Yahweh from now until forever.—(Psalm 131:1-3 LSB)
Here David is comparing his trust and belief in the Lord to a “weaned child” who no longer spends its energy clamoring for milk. A nursing infant can only demand food immediately at the moment it is hungry; it cries and grasps its mother with only one thing in mind: instant and full relief.
Yet David says He has quieted his heart like a weaned child who can sit on his mother’s lap without demanding milk, comfort, or immediate gratification. A weaned child is still a child needing the safety and comfort of his mother’s lap, but it has learned that his mother will supply food and comfort without his grasping, screaming, and demanding insistence. He can enjoy his mother’s presence and his own dependence on her without needing the focus to be instant gratification of his own needs.
Like Abraham who believed God—who did fulfill His covenant promises even though they took decades to complete—and his belief was counted for righteousness (Gen. 5:16), the psalmist has learned not to create chaos and arrogant demands but to quietly trust God because He is faithful.
The lesson, however, says this at the end:
The psalmist’s attention at the end rests on the well-being of God’s people. Ultimately, we are called to use our experience with God to strengthen His church. That is, from what we have learned, personally, of God’s faithfulness and goodness, we can share with others who, for whatever reason, still struggle with their faith.
As is typical, the lesson ultimately makes even this psalm a moral lesson moving the reader’s attention away from knowing and trusting God to motivating members to pep-talk each other into deeper loyalty to their religion.
Sabbath Rest?
Wednesday’s lesson appropriates Psalm 92 to teach Adventism’s worldview of flourishing because one “keeps” the seventh day. These ideas are not in the psalm. Historically, this psalm was post-exilic and was sung at the time of the morning sacrifice on Sabbath. Importantly, it was not sung by Israelites gathered at the temple but was a song of praise sung by the priests honoring God for His blessings on His people.
Also significantly, there was a psalm for the morning sacrifice for every day of the week; Psalm 24 was for the first day; Psalm 48 for day two, Psalm 82 for the third day, Psalm 94 for the fourth day, Psalm 81 for day five, and Psalm 93 for day six. Thus Psalm 92 was not a special hymn designed to teach Adventism’s views of the Sabbath to Israel; it was simply a hymn of praise similar to the others designated for the other days of the week. The point of this psalm was not the SABBATH; it was the sovereign faithfulness of God and His mercy and grace.
The lesson opens with the question: “What two aspects of the Sabbath day are highlighted in this song for the Sabbath day?”, and the opening paragraph asserts:
The praise of God for the great works of His hands (Ps. 92:4, 5) and the Eden-like portrayal of the righteous (Ps. 92:12−14) clearly point to Creation, the first aspect that the Sabbath commemorates. The psalm also magnifies the Lord for His victory over enemies as the God of justice (Ps. 92:7−15) and so reinforces the second Sabbath theme— redemption from evil (Deut. 5:12−15). Thus, Psalm 92 extols God for His past Creation and present sustaining of the world, and it points to the end-time hope in eternal divine peace and order.
In order to understand how badly the lesson’s author misuses this psalm, I will quote it below:
A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath day.
It is good to give thanks to Yahweh and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness by night,
With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre.
For You, O Yahweh, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.
How great are Your works, O Yahweh! Your thoughts are very deep.
A senseless man does not know, and a fool does not understand this:
That when the wicked flourished like grass And all [the] workers of iniquity blossomed, It [was only] that they might be destroyed forevermore.
But You are on high forever, O Yahweh.
For, behold, Your enemies, O Yahweh, For, behold, Your enemies will perish; All [the] workers of iniquity will be scattered.
But You have raised up my horn like [that of] the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil.
And my eye has looked [exultantly] upon my foes, My ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me.
The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Planted in the house of Yahweh, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be rich and fresh,
To declare that Yahweh is upright; [He is] my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. (Psa 92:1-15 LSB)
Adventism insists that the fourth commandment is based on creation week. They teach that God created the seventh-day Sabbath at the end of creation week, thus establishing the day as a “creation ordinance”. In this lesson they take this psalm of praise to Yahweh and tell the readers that Psalm 92 “clearly point[s] to Creation, the first aspect that the Sabbath commemorates.”
Yet this Psalm is not primarily about creation but about praising God for His lovingkindness, His sustenance of His people, and His certain judgment against His enemies—and the enemies of those who love Him. It is quite literally a psalm of praise to the sovereign God who cares for Israel. The fact that it was designated to be sung on Sabbath is not because it described Sabbath or reminded Israel to keep the day. It was all about honoring God Himself, not any special reference to the seventh day or any supposed blessings from resting on the seventh day.
Furthermore, the lesson suggests that the psalm directs people’s thoughts back to creation by “the Eden-like portrayal of the righteous” in verses 12–14. This is not what the psalm says!
Rather, verses 12–14 say that the righteous will flourish “in the house of Yahweh” and in “the courts of our God” (with reference to the temple, not to Eden) in that even when they are old they will “still yield fruit”; “they shall be rich and fresh to declare that Yahweh is upright.”
In other words, the righteous will be fruitful and flourish into their old age as they continue to sing the praises—not of the Sabbath—but of Yahweh Himself! This was not remotely an edenic suggestion calculated to turn Israel’s attention to Sabbath as a “creation ordinance”!
The lesson further states:
“Fresh oil” conveys the psalmist’s renewed devotion to serve God as His reconsecrated servant (Ps. 92:10). The anointing with oil was done for consecration of chosen people such as priests and kings…
It is not surprising to find thoughts about consecration in a psalm that is dedicated to the Sabbath because the Sabbath is the sign that the Lord sanctifies His people (Exod. 31:13). The images of palm trees and cedars of Lebanon portray God’s people growing in faith and true appreciation of God’s wonderful purposes and love. The Sabbath is the sign of the Lord’s eternal covenant with His people (Ezek. 20:20). Thus, the Sabbath rest is essential to God’s people because it empowers them to trustingly wait upon the Lord to fulfill all His covenantal promises (Heb. 4:1–10).
This is unconscionable. As we can see in the psalm quoted above, the reference to being anointed by oil has nothing to do with “consecration” as a priest or king, and it doesn’t even hint at consecration being connected with being sanctified by keeping the Sabbath! In context, the psalmist’s mention of being “anointed with fresh oil” is praising God for exalting him, increasing his strength, and giving him victory over his enemies! He is honoring God, knowing that his victories over his enemies is for God’s glory because he himself has trusted God and lives for His glory.
Inserting any moral lesson about the Sabbath into this psalm is an egregious misuse of Scripture!
Finally, this lesson ends by appealing to Hebrews 4:1–10 to endorse the author’s claim that “Sabbath rest is essential” because it “empowers” people to “trustingly wait ups the Lord to fulfill all His covenantal promises.”
First, Adventism has no covenantal promises with God. Adventism is a false religion and cannot claim biblical promises for itself—except those that say God will punish those who lie and deceive. Second, the “Sabbath rest” the author mentions is a clear implication of keeping the physical seventh day.
Hebrews 4:1–10, however, destroys keeping a day holy. It states that Israel never experienced God’s rest even though they entered the Promised Land and even though they had the command to keep the seventh day holy. Instead, Hebrews 4:7 announces that God determined a “certain day”, a completely new day, “TODAY,” and then it quotes Psalm 95:7, ironically: “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
The Hebrews passage ends with these words: “For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”
The Greek word underlying “Sabbath rest” is unique in all of Scripture: sabbatismos. It is not sabbaton, or the keeping of a day. Rather it means a “Sabbath-like rest”, or “sabbathing”. Both linguistically and contextually there is no hint whatsoever that God’s people are to keep a day in the new covenant! Our Sabbath rest is in Christ. When we know Him, we cease from our work of trying to please God for salvation, and we live in a Sabbath-like rest because the Lord Jesus has done all the work necessary for our salvation!
Waiting on the Lord is not what Adventism paints it to be. It is not believing in the Sabbath and working to make proselytes, hoping to please God while waiting indefinitely for a future return or death.
Rather, the only way to have rest as we wait for the Lord is to believe what Scripture tells us about the Lord Jesus. He took our sins and paid for them with His blood on the cross; He was buried, and He rose on the third day according to Scripture. When we believe Him, we pass at that moment from death to life.
In Jesus we have true rest, and we wait for the Lord with true hope—not the “I hope so” hope of Adventism but with the security of knowing we are saved and accepted eternally by our sovereign Lord! †
This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
- April 27–May 3, 2024 - April 25, 2024
- We Got Mail - April 25, 2024
- April 20–26, 2024 - April 18, 2024
Colleen, as usual your analysis is on point and quotable. I read the whole Lesson 13. The topic always inspires me to meditate on the great salvation we have in Jesus Christ. I didn’t know that Psalm 131 was used by Sabbatarians to promote their business, but the “quieting” of oneself is related to the quiet or cessation in rest. For example, Ps 37:37 “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him” uses the same Hebrew word “damam” which is in Ps. 131. This is not to say that Ps 131 is explicitly about the Sabbath. It may hint at the creation-rest but this is not the main thrust of the Psalm. The image of a child resting in the arms of its mother, having put off all other concerns and yearnings, is able to put full confidence in the maternal drive to care for and protect her young. The mother is to be likened to our divine parent, while the psalmist patterns himself after the weaned child. This could be analogous to the ideal of prelapsarian Adam and Eve who could have been content with the care of Elohim and not yearning and craving for the opportunity to define their own godhood. Restlessness follows the fall of Adam and Eve and “yearning and craving” takes on more sinister overtones.
Rest is a ubiquitous theme in the OT and represents both an environmental and relational concept of peace, quiescence, harmony, and unity. The Sabbath is based on the creation week, or at least related to it. The Lord established the connection when he gave the commandment to Israel (Ex 20:8), but as you say, this does establish a “creation ordinance,” as if the Sabbath command was instituted at creation. The Sabbath ritual was for the Jews alone; there was no other calendar law like it among the nations. Because God instituted it, the Sabbath has meaning in connection with the themes that he has transmitted in the OT. His creation-rest is the thematic rest that humanity seeks after, not the temporal rest of the Sabbath. The Sabbath ritual for the Jews was but a re-enactment of that seventh-day solace of harmonious rest. We often think of “rest” in relation to our experience of ceasing, our attainment of peace and tranquility far from the assault of enemies, and even our momentary victory over the agitated emotions of our own flesh. The Sabbath ritual could not provide true rest, any more than a temple, a city, or a land. But from God’s perspective, that rest is an interpersonal rest between the creator-God and his redeemed people. We must be reconciled to God to experience the favor of his forgiveness and the beatitude of his presence. We do not DO the Sabbath to experience God’s favor or to build up his church. What the Sabbath represents is what we have in Jesus now. Those who have believed in Jesus Christ as their sole provider of redemptive rest are those he has brought into his rest (Heb 4:3). It is the redemptive reality for those who understand that all their strivings to please God for salvation are no better than the works of evil men (Isa 64:6; Titus 3:5; Rom 3:28; 4:5). Put those works to rest, quiet your soul, and trust in the redeemer for your imputed righteousness (2 Cor 5:21).