Lord of the Heart: Jeremiah 16, 17 (6)

Pray Psalm 92.1-4.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,
And Your faithfulness every night,
On an instrument of ten strings,
On the lute,
And on the harp,
With harmonious sound.
For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work;
I will triumph in the works of Your hands.

Sing Psalm 92.1-4.
(Sweet Hour: Sweet Hour of Prayer)
How good it is to thank the Lord and praise to God Most High accord;
by day to let His kindness ring, His faithfulness by night to sing.
With ten-stringed lute, resounding lyre, and sweetest harp we’ll lift You higher.
For You have made our souls rejoice; we sing Your praise with blended voice!

Read and meditate on Jeremiah 17.19-27.

Prepare.
1. What was Jeremiah’s message to the people? Where did he preach it?

2. What did God promise for obedience? What did He threaten for disobedience?

Meditate.
Jeremiah took up his post in a new location – at the gates by which people entered the city of Jerusalem. We can assume that he moved around to each gate and preached the message repeatedly. A good many people would have heard him.

God called His people to “hallow the Sabbath day” by not doing any work on it or burdening themselves in any way (vv. 19-22). God had set the Sabbath aside as a day of rest, for the people of God to meditate on His work of redemption and salvation, and to be renewed in Him.

Keeping the Sabbath was important to God, and He promised abundant blessings to His people if only they would obey His voice (vv. 23-26). Their fathers had not kept the Sabbath, but “made their neck stiff” and would neither “hear nor receive instruction” (v. 23). The judgment that was about to fall on the people of Judah and Jerusalem was in no small part tied to their fathers’ refusal to honor the Lord on His day.

So God through the prophet was still holding out hope for His people. All they had to do to know blessings and longevity in the land was hear His Word and obey. If they would not, however, then God would destroy the city and its palaces – including the temple – until all was destroyed (v. 27).

The sins of forsaking God and turning to idols and false gods was made easier by the people refusing to keep the Sabbath as God intended. Leave off the sanctity of the Sabbath, and worse ills will follow. This was true for Judah and Jerusalem; it’s true for us as well.

Reflect.
1. The Lord’s Day is the Sabbath for Christians. How should we keep it?

2. What are some fruitful and obedient ways to keep the Lord’s Day?

3. Why does failing to keep the Lord’s Day open the door for other sins?

Hence the profanation of the Sabbath was a proof of their shamelessness, as they thereby shewed that they cared nothing either for God or for his law. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Jeremiah 17.19-22

Lord, help me today to prepare to keep the Lord’s Day, so that I…

Pray Psalm 92.5-15.
Praise God for His mighty and faithful works, and pray that He might cause you to flourish in His Kingdom today.

Sing Psalm 92.5-15.
Psalm 92.5-15 (Sweet Hour: Sweet Hour of Prayer)
How sweet Your works, Your thoughts how deep: The fool cannot such knowledge keep.
Like grass the wicked rise each day; in judgment they are swept away.
But You, O Lord, abide on high; Your enemies shall fall and die.
All those who sin shall scattered be, but, Lord, You have exalted me!

My eye my vanquished foe shall see; my ears hear those who threaten me.
Yet in God’s house, where he belongs, the righteous like a tree grows strong.
Then let us green and fruitful be and flourish like a mighty tree,
to tell God’s righteousness abroad: He is our Rock, our sovereign God!

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).